In the blink of an eye, the promised day came. The start of the last event of the summer vacation. The promised time being 8:30. As I descended down to the lobby, most of the members have already gathered.
"You barely made it, huh".
"There's still about......10 seconds until the promised time".
"The elevator was in a state of congestion and that's why you were late, right?".
Even though I was not late, I was probed thoroughly like that by Horikita. It's probably something like a reaction to having been invited forcibly. On top of that, she probably feels that the atmosphere of this place is a troublesome one. It can't be helped because with Kushida and Sakura, Ike and Yamauchi, there's barely anyone for her to talk to.
"G-Good morning, Ayanokouji-kun".
"Good morning, Sakura".
While slightly seeming scared, Sakura peeks at me while greeting me. Towards that Sakura, Yamauchi doesn't seem to be paying any attention but it seems he's worried about her unconsciously.
Sakura too, feels somewhat uneasy somewhere.
I'll take note of this for reference, but confessions don't only lead to happy things. Troublesome things also come along with it afterwards.
"Where's Sudou?".
"Since it's him we're talking about he probably overslept" Horikita said.
Although the time for gathering had come and gone, there were no signs of Sudou showing up. Since he was working hard on his club activities up until yesterday, he must probably be exhausted. Since no one made an attempt to contact Sudou, I made the move.
"It's not working, the call's not going through".
I tried calling him, but even as the call continues to ring, I couldn't even reach the answering machine. I ended the call and informed my surroundings of that.
"What's that guy Sudou doing? It's already 8:30! If he doesn't hurry it up, we won't be the first ones!".
The irritated Ike, while fidgeting, stared at the elevator. But it showed no signs of moving.
"O-ok, I'll go wake him up".
Yamauchi, who was feeling uncomfortable from the awkward silence between him and Sakura, said that as he got onto the elevator. At that very moment, I could feel an invisible heavy atmosphere fade away.
"Did something happen with him?".
It seems Horikita has also sensed the change in Yamauchi and asked me that in a loud voice. I scrambled my head for an answer on how to reply to that.
"Various things happened".
In the end, I stopped talking. Both Yamauchi and Sakura wouldn't be happy if this story were to spread.
"Hmmm---? If isn't Horikita-san and the others, good morning---".
As we were in the lobby awaiting Sudou, Ichinose and three of her female friends came down.
Bath towels could be seen peeking out from the unfamiliar, colorful plastic bags they held in their hands.
"Could it be you guys are also heading to the pool?".
"That's the case indeed".
The last thing to eyeball at the very end of summer vacation is to go and play at the pool. Even if our intentions overlapped, it's nothing strange.
"Since we're all here, let's all play together. How about that?".
"Of course you're welcome to join!!!".
Ike, almost as if he's flying, jumped up from the sofa and welcomed her. This time around, it seems Horikita has no intentions of saying anything in particular as she didn't say a word.
"It's just, sorry. One of us overslept and we're waiting for him to come down. One of our friends is fetching him right now".
"Roooooger" Ichinose replied.
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