Episode 82 – Nagashima ①

“It’s summer! It’s the sea! It’s a festival!”
“It’s spring, it’s land, and it’s an amusement park. ……”

We are slightly out of sync with each other……but Shizuku san, the person who said that, didn’t seem to care.

“Look, there’s a swimming pool there!!”
“It’s the amusement park we’re going to today.”

Harushita san pointed this out to quiet Shizuku san, who was in such a high state of tension.
However, that didn’t reach Shizuku san.

“No~, I haven’t been to an amusement park in ages!~”

Shizuku san is dressed in shorts, sunglasses, and a red cap, but it is spring and the cherry blossom season is almost upon us.
It is not yet the season for fireworks.

“Rin, Where is this….?”

On the other hand, Mirei, who has been sticking next to me since the bus, asks me what’s scaring me.

“No, nowhere. It’s Nagashima.”
“Nagashima.”

Mirei is apparently not thinking straight.
Her body is stiff and her voice is even quieter than usual.
Incidentally, this one was also dressed like an innocent girl with sunglasses and a straw hat, but inside she was something close to a recluse.

This is because Mirei does not leave the house very often.
If she does go out, it is only to buy food or to go to the studio in her manager’s car.
It seems that she has no tolerance for places like this, where everyone is talking about

“”Kyaaa!!!!!””

As I was thinking about this, I heard another shout from the roller coaster.
Mirei, overreacting to it, jumped up and down.

“Rin….let’s go home…”
“It’s rare for you to show such weakness.”

Where was the usual haughty, uptight Tatsumi Mirei ?
Well, the sight of her clutching the hem of my clothes without hesitation is, of course, a hit with me as a boy.
I’m not the kind of guy who gets a thrill from seeing other people in a state of weakness. ……

“Well it’s okay, the roller coaster. Doesn’t it sound like fun?”

But it was Harushita san who saw her in that weakened state and was intrigued by her tastes.
She points toward the roller coaster, which is falling almost headlong at an angle of about 80 degrees, and says it looks like fun.

“Uu, I knew that thing is…”

While shielding that roller coaster from Mirei’s view, I let out my thoughts.
Falling at that angle, …… eh, aren’t you going to die?

“Nagishiro san, are you not good at that kind of thing?”
“I don’t think I’m bad at it, but as expected, I don’t think anyone would want to ride that thing. ……”
“Is that so? Well, of course I’ll let you tag along.”

Oh, that. Harushita san is such an S.
I finally realized it, Lucky. I’m not lucky. I can’t be happy to have an S so close to me.

“It’s okay, Mirei. I’m here for you.”

It would be nice for the two of us to take a relaxing ride on the Ferris wheel. Yeah, I think we’ve got an itinerary for today.

“Why in the world did this happen? ……”

As Mirei laments her visit to the amusement park, she recalls how it happened a few days ago.

＊

It was, I think, when I was meeting with Harushita san at Saize as usual to discuss a song.

“I won tickets to an amusement park on a show the other day.“

After the meeting was over and we had settled down, Harushita san said something like that to me.

“How many?”
“Two.”
“Hmm. ……”

Would it be better to go with Sawamura? But Sawamura would be more excited to go to a sacred place than an amusement park.
No, but that place is a sacred place, too. I wonder if Sawamura would be more excited to go there than to an amusement park.

“Well, then I’ll take it without reservation, but …… are you sure?”
“I don’t have anyone to go with.”

Her quick response made me sit up and take notice.
I feel like I’ve asked something I’m sorry about. She probably doesn’t think anything in particular.

Maybe it was because I talked about something like that, but the sight of Harushita san silently sipping water in front of me made me feel lonely.

“Then would you like to come with me?”

Maybe that’s why I was talking like that.
The moment I said it, I regretted it. It was as if I was asking her out on a date.

Harushita san’s eyes were dazed.
She couldn’t hide her surprise. No, I’m also very surprised, so forgive me.

So in my embarrassment I had to add the following words.

“S-See? Let’s go with Azusa and the others!”

As I hurriedly added, Harushita san seemed to have regained her composure, and she looked relieved

“Oh, so that’s what you meant ……. Well, yes, I don’t think Nagishiro san is brave enough to ask a woman out on a date.”

-No, I was relieved in a bad way.
What’s with this guy, she swears at every chance she gets. And since she says it so nonchalantly, it’s hard to make a comment.

“Well, but if you don’t want to go with me, I’m going to invite some friends!”

I was relieved to see that she didn’t seem to have misunderstood me.
In addition, the forlorn look Harushita san had shown me earlier had disappeared, so I said so as if to deceive her.

“No? I’m coming okay?”

Harushita san said so with a puzzled look on her face.
What is she talking about? She looked as if she recognized the creature in front of her as an extraterrestrial life form and said something like that.

“———Ha?”

So this time it’s me who is surprised.
I never thought Harushita san would say such a thing.

“I actually like amusement parks. I’m the type of person who does two laps on a roller coaster.”

There aren’t that many of that type in this world.
I mean, please don’t say that in a way that sounds like a housewife making two trips down the street to the supermarket. And I don’t like roller coasters.

“Then please keep gathering people together again. Oh, and I will pay for the tickets for Nagishiro san and those who are missing.”

Before I knew it, I was playing the role of organizer in gathering people for the event.

And the fact that she was so careless as to pay for the event herself was very Harushita-san-like.

“Then I’ll look forward to it!”

However, after seeing her smile at the end, I could not leave it at that.

＊

After that, when I checked the schedule, I got an appointment with Shizuku san and Mirei.

Incidentally, Azusa and Kotoha’s schedules were not available at all, so they had to give up without a fight.

“If you touch Rin senpai, you’ll never get away with it! Ugyaaa!”
“Oh my goodness, Rin kun. I’m not sure what to expect. Of course, you’ll make it up to me, right?”

I also tried to reach out to Mia san, just in case, but as expected of a very popular singer, her schedule was filled to the brim.
She has about a week left before she returns to the U.S., but apparently she doesn’t have a single day off. I heard that her manager had screwed up her schedule.

That is why we are at an amusement park.

We will take the Shinkansen to Nagoya Station and then a 40-minute bus ride from there.
The plan is to stop by the nearby “Nagashima Onsen Yuami no Shima” in the evening before returning home.

– It’s a day trip, you know? There’s nothing sleazy about it or anything like that, okay?

However, it was also true that I had a somewhat bad feeling.
I was not at all confident that I could come with this group of people and leave safely.
They are all troublemakers. ……

At the entrance, you will be given a paper band to wrap around your left wrist.
This allows you to ride any of the rides as many times as you want without paying.

“Okay, then we’re off!”

With the mighty Shizuku san leading the way, we entered the amusement park.