Chapter 202 – Together

We decided to meet up at Umi's place before going to Amami-san's.

It had only been a week since I last went to Amami-san's house, but I felt really nervous about going there. The cause was Rocky. I knew that he wouldn't bite me, but lately whenever I visited, Rocky's way of welcoming me was rougher than usual.

I was the only one who got tackled and licked by him. He should be more used to Nitta-san or Umi, but why was I the only one receiving this kind of treatment?

"Do I smell like something that a dog would love?"

I sniffed the collar of my shirt. But all I could smell was a mixture of fabric softener and sweat.

"What are you doing? You forgot to wash that shirt or something?"

"I washed it, thank you for asking. I even ironed it properly. I'm just curious why Rocky is so attached to me."

"Ah, I see. Well, who knows? I've known him since he was a puppy, but he only acts like that around you. Maybe dogs find your scent attractive? I don't know, I'm not a dog."

She leaned closer and sniffed me. As expected, she didn't find anything wrong with my smell.

Putting that aside, I took Umi's advice and wore a cologne that wasn't too strong. But for some reason, Umi told me to not do that today, so I applied some antiperspirant instead.

In any case, I wouldn't be going to Amami-san's house often, so I could just leave the dog alone for now. I mean, it wasn't like he hated me or anything.

"I guess I'll just have to prepare myself mentally… By the way, are we all good to go?"

"Yeah. Brother finished changing when I peeked into his room a moment ago, he should be coming down soon… Brother, we're waiting for you, hurry up!"

Along with the sound of hurried footsteps, Riku-san appeared in his casual clothes.

"Hello, Riku-san. It's been a while."

"Yo, it's been a while. Well, it's only been two weeks…"

It hadn't been long since the trip, but Riku-san had a neater appearance than before. His hair was now shorter and the dark circles around his eyes had faded away.

He looked like an ordinary young man. It was hard to imagine his previous unruly appearance when seeing him like this.

By the way, he will be accompanying us to Amami-san's place today. Of course, Amami-san had given us her permission.

"You've changed a lot, Riku-san… I'm surprised."

"I'm surprised at myself too. Also, it's been decided that I'll be working at Shimizu Inn starting next week. Shi-chan had been calling to nag at me about a lot of things for the past few weeks."

I heard everything from Umi already. Riku-san would be moving out of the house and back to Mizore-san's house next week. He couldn't take his large collection of games and manga with him, so he let us do whatever we wanted with them after he left.

Before he left though, he wanted to clear up any misunderstandings between him and Amami-san.

"Umu… You did a good job, Brother, I'm proud of you. But, can you talk to Yuu properly? Promise me that you won't act like a creep in front of her, or else I'll beat you to a pulp."

"Of course I won't! I'm a changed man… I think…"

There should be no problem with him, but I should keep a close eye on him just to be safe.

It wasn't like I didn't trust him or anything, it was just that Amami-san's birthday party was bigger than expected. Since most of the people there would be girls, it would be easier for me to be with Riku-san instead of mingling with the girls.

And so, the three of us went to Amami-san's place with the plushy in tow.

Their houses were only ten minutes apart. On the way, I asked Riku-san the question that had been bugging me for a while now.

"By the way, Riku-san. Are you confident about getting along with Reiji-kun? You went there a few times after the trip, right?"

"Yeah, I did. Shi-chan's father had to teach me some stuff first, so I had to go there to meet with him… As for Reiji-kun's matter… Ugh…"

"It's hard, huh?"

"Yeah. I mean, what can I do? Even if I introduce myself as Shi-chan's childhood friend, I'm still a stranger to him… All I can do is try my best… At least for now."

It seemed like Riku-san would be wearing that wry smile for quite some time. Well, they had a common interest in games, so they only needed to get to know each other better, it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Reiji-kun warmed up to me quickly, so he shouldn't have trouble with Riku-san since we were similar in many ways.

"Ah, welcome, everyone! The venue is this way~"

Just like last week, Amami-san greeted us in front of her house. Since she was the star of the show today, she seemed to put in a lot more effort to dress herself up. She looked prettier than usual.

Her dress was a blue pastel colored one piece, a perfect match for her golden hair.

"Bark!"

Rocky, who was standing next to her, noticed me and barked at me. But probably because he was wary of Riku-san, he didn't pounce on me. Instead, he just wagged his tail happily.

The way he acted toward Riku-san was really similar to his owner… 

"Riku-san, can you just stay closer to me for the whole day?"

"What? Why should I?"

"Never mind, forget about it."

I felt sorry for Rocky, so I decided to leave Riku-san's side and walked up to Rocky's rough welcome.

As I was putting up with his vigorous licking, a big hand suddenly touched my shoulder.

I turned around to see my only male friend standing there.

"Yo, Maki, what are you doing? Why is he licking you like that? Did you cover your face with butter or something?"

"Ugh… Of course not. I've washed my face thoroughly, you know? Also, yo Nozomu. It's a shame about the tournament, huh?"

"Yeah… I did my best, but the opponent was too strong."

We went to cheer on him the other day, but our efforts were in vain because our baseball team lost. It was a close one though. The 9th inning was rough for our team's ace. He managed to pitch perfectly, but the rest of the team couldn't handle the opponent's relentless attacks.

I heard that they formed a new team already for the next tournament, but since the exam was coming up, they took a break from practice. That was why he was able to attend the party in the first place.

"By the way, Maki… Thank you so much for inviting me… This feels like a dream… Ah, Amami-san's house…"

"I have no choice. I don't want to be the only boy here."

Aside from Riku-san, who would be leaving earlier than the rest of us because he had to prepare his luggage, the rest of the people other than Nozomu and I were girls.

As far as I knew, other than the usual group with Umi and Nitta-san, Nitori-san and Houjou-san would also be there. Nakamura-san and the other girls from class 11 were also invited and they would come a little later.

"Ah, of course you would be here too… Jeez."

"Arae-san…"

"Look, it isn't like I want to be here or anything. Amami invited me, so I had to come. Besides, I need to see the Tachibana– Uh, Houjou and Nitori because I haven't settled things with them yet. So, yeah, I'm not here because I want to be here, okay?"

I haven't said anything though.

In any case, there would be a lot of people here, so the party would definitely be lively. I hoped that things wouldn't get out of hand.