Shinozaki is fast on land but as a swimmer, he’s a disappointment. He was left by Wakamiya-san several times before finally hanging on to Wakamiya-san’a floating ring like what I’m doing.
「Maa, I can swim at least. My parents told me that I should be able to swim so I took swimming lessons while I was in elementary school. I haven’t swum for a long time so I’m slow.」
「Is that so? I thought you were drowning. When I was walking in the pool earlier, I felt like I'd almost drowned but before I knew it, Souta swam and put inside a floating ring to keep me safe and sound. You’re so cool. 」
Mei suddenly turned to me and said so.
Hey, don’t do that. We might lose our balance. Also, you’re too close.
Mei doesn’t seem to hide her goodwill from the hallucinatory declaration because of summer heat the other day. She’s straightforward and unquestionably favors me. She doesn’t have to do that though. It’s not like I’m doubting her seriousness when she told me that.
「By the way, when did you guys start dating?」
「Eh?」
「I mean, you’re almost cuddling while you’re holding onto the floating ring while talking like everything’s normal.」
「My apologies if Kazuya-kun said something strange but, well, looking at you like that, everyone will think that you’re a couple.」
When I tried to move my hand away from the floating ring, Mei grabbed my wrist tightly. She seemed to have noticed that I’ll let go.
「You said you didn’t want to swim that’s why you took the floating ring, now hold onto it.」
「Yes.」
Why do I feel like I’m being dominated? And I don’t feel bad about it. Perhaps I was a cushion or something in my previous life.
「Aren’t you getting bored?」
「Not really. I feel like I’m free from gravity. Very comfortable.」
「How about doing something else? Like that one.」
The tip of Shinozaki’s finger is pointing at the waterslide, which is one of the highlights of this pool. The pamphlet said there were different kinds of slides from slides for children to one that can be used by four adults at the same time.
「Are you serious? You mean now? The line is pretty long.」
「It’s not that long. I’ve heard that if you come here during the bon festival or something, it is normal to wait in line for several hours.」
Is that a joke? That’s amazing though. Guests lining up under the hottest time of the year for several hours with nothing to protect them from the sun? And that’s just to use the slide once, right? I’d rather spend all my time in the flowing pool.
「Besides, there’s no way you’ll go to the slide after lunch.」
「You know me well.」
「Let’s go.」
「Let’s fall in line.」
Everyone’s excited to go to the slide aside from me. Their eyes are shining brighter than usual.
「Which one do we line up for?」
When we came to the bottom of the slide, we saw that it seemed to be divided into several courses and there were several lanes to line up. From the right, there’s a solo course, two-person short course, two-person long course, and four-person course.
「Why don’t we go for the four-person course for now? After that, let’s go with our individual choices.」
Are you telling me that you are planning to do it multiple times? Certainly, there are few people now so we can probably slide in around 10 minutes.
Looking at the girls, they seem to be in favor of that plan and are already lining up for the four-person line.
Since this world is being ruled by the bad decision-making rule which is called majority rule, I have no choice but to fall in line. I wonder if there will be a time where the world will be kind to us. How about the minority? I mean, it’s not decided by everyone after all.
As I stood in line for the slide, I realized how high it is compared to how it looks from a distance. We’re going to slide from where we climb, right? Isn’t this already similar to a roller coaster? This is bad, I’m not good with roller coasters….
「Oh, this is so high!」
「This is the slide for four? This is already a roller coaster.」
「In the solo and two-person courses, they only use floating rings or slide as they are.」
As I was saying “right”, the group in front of us started to slide. We were told to go there and get into the round boat-like thing. To my right was Mei, to my left was Shinozaki, and in front of me was Wakamiya-san.
「Here it goes!」
An employee pushes the boat like thing we are riding and it starts to slide away. At first, we couldn’t see the outside because we’re in a tunnel but we could feel like we were going at a moderate speed.
「Ohhh!」
We were still high after the tunnel and could see the entire pool area. The three shouted in surprise. As if responding, the slider seemed to stop for a moment but the next moment, it turned around and reached a slope that’s completely different from before.
Is this safe? This slope looks too steep to be a slide in a park.
「That was fun. How about doing it again?」
After everyone got off, there was someone who said something stupid like that. I don’t want to. When we went to curve at that speed, I was already prepared to die and you’re asking if I want to do it again? What kind of brain do you have?
「Are you insane?」
「I don’t think it’s that bad.」
Mei said so and Wakamiya-san seemed to be no better than me given her reply.
Why did you go happily if you’re weak to things like that?
「Why don’t you two go? Amane-kun and I need a little break.」
「Maa, fine, it looks like you two really need it. You should have told me earlier that you’re not good with it.」
「We will be back in a bit.」
Mei and Shinozaki went to get in line once again while Wakamiya-san and I moved to the shade.