Now that we had finally arrived at the resort pool, there were plenty of enticing things to do—sliders and all sorts of other attractions. I had intended to tackle them one by one... or so I thought.
"Kazunari-san, your right hand hasn't fully healed yet, so anything dangerous is strictly forbidden."
It was true that I hadn't made a full recovery, but that was a bit heartless.
"Ah—, Sara, we finally made it here, so I think something simple would be okay, wouldn't it?"
Perhaps taking pity on me, Natsumi-senpai tried to back me up.
"No. It has finally improved this much. What will we do if he gets careless now and it gets worse again?"
The serious Sara-senpai was truly worried about my right wrist.
How stupid I was; I had gotten carried away in the heat of the moment. Even though I was making Sara-senpai worry this much, I had been taking my condition too lightly.
"By the way, if you happen to make it worse, I will not make any more compromises."
I wondered what she meant by the words "won't make any compromises"...
"I'm sorry, Sara-senpai. Even though you've been taking care of me this whole time, I got ahead of myself."
Feeling truly apologetic, I decided to offer a sincere apology. It wasn't as if Sara-senpai was actually angry.
"Kazunari-san, I understand how you feel, but if we let our guard down here, all our patience until now will have been in vain. I will stay with you, so let us do our best together."
She encouraged me with a smile like a Goddess.
That was right. As long as Sara-senpai was near me, whether it was a resort pool or a public pool, that place was Heaven.
"Sara-senpai... thank you."
"Kazunari-san..."
"Yeah, yeah. Well then, we're going to hit the sliders. Tachibana-kun, let's go!"
"R-Roger that."
With an exasperated expression, Natsumi-senpai grabbed Yuji and dragged him away.
"...That's unusual. For Natsumi to take such a relaxed attitude toward a man."
Sara-senpai muttered this with a look of surprise.
Now that she mentioned it, Natsumi-senpai had been acting quite casual with Yuji since the initial self-introduction. Considering the way they had parted when they first met, I wondered if even someone as sociable as Natsumi-senpai could act that way so suddenly...
"Now then, I wonder where we should attack first."
As she spoke, Yuzuki-san pulled on my arm and led the way forward.
I knew this already, but this person was incredibly free-spirited. Even though this was technically our first real meeting, being treated like this so suddenly was...
"Yuzuki-san! At this rate, those two are going to notice—"
"It's fine. Those two are so absorbed in flirting that they aren't paying any attention to us."
Well, given the atmosphere between them, she was probably right. Actually...
"Um... Yuzuki-san. I just thought of this, but did we really need to hide our connection this much in the first place?"
I figured as long as we kept the fact that we had followed them that day a secret, we could have just made up some other excuse.
"Of course we did. Those two have been leading us around by the nose so much, so we're going to league together in the shadows and laugh at them someday."
She laughed quite happily. Still, she might have been the first woman I'd ever thought was genuinely fun to spend time with. Being alone with such a beauty at the pool was a definite benefit, so I decided to just enjoy myself.
By the time we met up for lunch, Yuji was already looking exhausted.
"Yuji, you okay?"
It seemed he had been dragged all over the place by Natsumi-senpai, but the woman in question was perfectly calm. I suppose that was the difference a PE-style club made.
"A-Ah... I'm fine."
"Ehh~? I'm a girl and I've still got plenty of energy... you're not done yet, are you?"
The tireless Natsumi-senpai teased Yuji with a smirk. They really did seem to get along well.
The restaurant was self-service, so we each picked out our food and placed it on our trays. Sara-senpai insisted on carrying my portion first. I told her I could handle that much myself, but...
"Absolutely not," she scolded me with a firm smile.
After finishing the checkout and taking our seats, everyone began to eat. Come to think of it, it had been a while since we'd gone for a meal out together.
"Kazunari-san, how is your right wrist? Is there any pain or discomfort? If anything at all concerns you, as always, I will—"
"Hold on a second. What do you plan on doing 'as always'?"
Natsumi-senpai interjected. But it was no use; upon hearing that, Sara-senpai simply tilted her head.
"Is something wrong? There is nothing particularly strange about it. Like this... Kazunari-san, here, ahn."
Chomp.
Munch munch... Crap! I did it out of habit.
"......Heh, 'as always', huh?"
Natsumi-senpai’s scornful look pierced right through me. A complicated gaze flew my way from Yuji as well.
"Kazunari-san, shall I continue to assist you like this?"
"N-No, I’m fine. My wrist isn’t giving me any trouble."
As expected, if I let her do things "as always" here, it would be a bother to Natsumi-senpai and Yuji—not to mention the stares from the people around us were already becoming intense.