FSE

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Normally dessert would come after a meal, but in our case we had ours early care of the watermelon-splitting contest. For our lunch, Torahiko took change and got out everything that he brought: ready-to-cook yakitori in a plastic container, portable grill and charcoal, pot full of rice, and the utensils we were going to use. Tatsu-nii thought it to be a good idea to have alcohol with yakitori and went to buy some, but to our relief the dragon came back with none as the shacks were out of stock.

Our revelry continued as soon as we finished lunch. Tora and Tatsu-nii had a swimming competition with the winner treating the other with shaved ice. When the two got into the water, Tatsu-nii's fundoshi came off without him noticing. I tried to get his attention but he was so focused on winning he didn't dare turn back. I decided to just grab the thing, folded it, and left it on the shore near their starting point. Moving on, I saw Kouya floating face-up on the water and took it as my opportunity for revenge. Borrowing a pair of spare goggles from Juuichi-san, I crawled towards his direction without him noticing and when I got close, pulled on his tail. How the unaware husky flubbered as he tried to gain ground was a sight best left to be seen up close and personal.

Then on another side of the water, Shun-kun and Kounosuke were floating on the waves with their swim rings. I got envious and decided to join the fun, grabbing a free one from our spot. At first we tried splashing water at each other, but when things got a little intense it turned into something like a bumper car competition. And then Kounosuke had this idea of inviting Shin-kun in the water, completely forgetting the fact that the cat had a phobia. The two were almost in the water when I got back on shore to stop them. Had I arrived late, we would've had a catastrophe on our hands.

"Honestly, that Kounosuke," Shin-kun said as we went back.

"You know how he is," I said. "Just forgive him this one time. You could've told him about that phobia though."

He sat under the shade of the umbrellas. "I tried, but I had no time to and he kept pulling me."

"Jeez..."

The cat sighed. "Well, he did have a point. The air's getting too hot anyway," he said, pulling a bottle out of his bag. "But I'm only dipping my feet in. On the shallow parts. And you're staying with me."

"But-"

"You get half of Kounosuke's share of the cookies. It's my payback at least for what he did."

I hung my head in resignation. "Fine. But, what's that you're putting on your hands?"

Shin-kun rubbed a white cream-like substance on his arms. "UV Cream. Amaki kept saying that UV rays were bad for fur and insisted I put it on."

"Is that so?"

He nodded. "But I don't like this cream though. The scent burns my nose and I can't put it on my back."

Then, I had an idea. "How about I put it on your back for you?"

He froze. "Eh?"

"H-Hey! Don't get the wrong idea! I just want to help that's all."

After a short bit, he answered. "It's alright. But one wrong move and yelling out 'Rape!', got it?"

"That's cold! You don't trust me, your precious childhood friend?"

The cat smiled at me with one eye closed. "If that's cold, then you don't have to worry much about getting hot now, do you?"

Jokes aside, Shin-kun got on his back and I put a generous amount of the cream on my hands. Starting from the center, I spread the cream onto his back. His fur felt surprisingly soft and fluffy. Must be the expensive shampoos he could be using. I ran my fingers through the hairs as if combing them, coiling around with each stroke. Nope, nothing with malicious intent here. Just a friend putting sunscreen on a friend's back. It's all innocent.

"Don't rub on the top so hard," Shin-kun said. "Can you rub it more closely to the roots? You have to do it closer to the skin."

I started rubbing a little deeper. "Like this?"

"Do it as if you were putting shampoo on me."

I did what was said. "Now?"

"Perfect."

When I was getting closer to the lower back, Shin-kun was fidgeting as he got tickled. Before I could go on further, Kouya popped into the scene and started teasing us, shielding Shun-kun's eyes and saying it was "too stimulating". Apparently, a certain husky never learned his lesson after getting his tail pulled. The two canines left afterwards to play volleyball, leaving me and Shin-kun in an awkward situation.

I coughed. "So, uh, that's all right?"

"Yeah. I can do my tail myself," Shin-kun said.

And when he was done putting the cream on we went into the water, only on the shallow part just as agreed. The cat soaked his feet in the water and he shivered as the hairs of his fur stood up. Seeing the smile of relief on his face as he took a deep breath made me chuckle. Never thought that even he could enjoy simple things like these.

He turned to my direction. "What's funny?"

"Ah! It's nothing. Really."

Shin-kun kept staring at me and said nothing.

I scratched the tip of my nose. "A-Are you alright? I mean, it's not like it's deep enough for you to drown in right?"

"Yeah, I am. Do remember that I take baths everyday."

"But the bath and the sea are totally different things."

"I know that. But I'll try to enjoy as much as I can. Just don't get too pushy like what Kounosuke did."

I smiled. "Noted. Anyway, can I have my cookies now?"

He sighed. "Impatient as always. But that's one good and bad thing about you."

Ignoring the ambiguous comment, I followed him as he went back and got the bags of assorted cookies out. The cat opened up Kounosuke's share and put half of it in mine like he promised earlier. I did feel bad about it, but considering that the tanuki almost did something unbelievably stupid, this form of retribution was somewhat proportionate to a degree. He told me to keep it a secret as we went to give away the rest of the bags. Shin-kun gave the ones for Shun-kun, Kouya, Kounosuke, Soutarou-kun, and Kyouji-san.

On the other hand, I was to give the ones for Tatsu-nii, Juuichi-san, Kenji, and Torahiko. I saw the dragon and the tiger resting on the wet sand and gave their shares first, the two finding it a good snack to recharge for another round of their swimming competition. After that, I went to the Mikazuki twins and gave their shares, Kenji running off with delight as he carried his. With the memory of what happened at the changing room still fresh, I felt a little awkward being alone with Juuichi-san. I could only hope that he wouldn't bring the matter up, but Fate was cruel.

"Hey, Nishimura," Juuichi-san said. "About what happened in the changing room..."

I gulped my own saliva. "Y-Yes? W-What about it?"

He bowed his upper body down at an angle. "I'm sorry."

"Eh?! For what?"

The bear straightened himself back up. "For exposing myself so casually. I forgot that we've only met again after a long while."

I raised my hands up to my chest in protest. "No! It's alright! I only ran away that time because of-"

No. I shouldn't tell him about that. It would make things worse than it already was.

"Because of what?" he asked.

I had to go with the oldest excuse in the book. "I saw a cockroach in there. That's why I panicked and ran."

Juuichi-san paused for a second. "Is that so? Then you could've told me about it."

"Sorry. But I swear, it wasn't awkward at all when we were changing back there."

The bear then patted my head. "It's alright. Let's leave it at that."

I smiled. "Thanks. "

And with that done, I excused myself from Juuichi-san and went back to our spot to enjoy my cookies. While seated there, I saw the various things everyone did: Tora and Tatsu-nii having another swimming competition, Shun-kun and Kouya building sandcastles, Kounosuke arguing with Shin-kun - over the cookies I assumed, Kyouji-san and Soutarou-kun practicing with a soccer ball on the sand, and Juuichi-san sitting at a shallow part of the water in a meditative position. Kenji though, I couldn't seem to find anywhere in the scene. Then the guy suddenly appeared next to me.

"Where were you?" I asked.

"I bought myself Ramune," Kenji said, sitting down. "Shin-kun's cookies were great, but I needed something to wash it down with, you know."

"Oh. By the way, mind if I ask, do you wear a fundoshi like Juuichi-san?"

He burst into laughter. "You saw Bro's, didn't you? Is that what happened in the changing room? Bro told me all about it."

I nodded sheepishly.

"Nah I don't," he said. "Fundoshi looks sexy and all, but I prefer briefs. Less hassle to wear for me."

"Heh. Like opposing poles of a magnet."

Kenji grunted, looking annoyed.

"Hey, something's been on my mind for a while since that day at the park."

"What?"

"How did you feel? Finding out that you were gay and all?"

The bear took a deep breath. "First time I learned about that part of me was during middle school. Back then, we had this gruff-looking PE teacher. He had a trimmed beard, and muscles so big he looked like he could carry a boulder without breaking a sweat."

I felt my cheeks heat up. "Go on."

"Anyway, while most of the boys in my class would talk about girls, my attention was mostly on him. Oh boy, don't get me started on when I saw him shirtless! I could count with my hands the times that it happened, but man when it did, wow! I could cup his pecs all day and never get tired of it, if I could!"

"So, what happened next?"

"Well, by then most of us would already know about this and that, but guys liking guys was another thing. I tried looking for books at the village library about it, and found very little. But what was interesting was that in Minasato's history records, there were married couples who were either both men or both women."

"How did you feel about finding that out?"

"Relieved is one thing. At least I know something like that was normal for our village. But I still didn't know if he swung that way. So I took the chance and did the craziest thing a student could ever do. I confessed my feelings for him."

I raised my brows in surprise. "What happened next? Tell me!"

"Okay, okay. So I did that, and what he said was 'I appreciate it. But I already have a boyfriend. And you're still my student.'"

"Oh come on!" I said, throwing my arms up.

Kenji gestured. "But he did tell me to come to him if I wanted to know more about being gay and stuff. So sometimes we would meet and I would ask him stuff. I learned a lot from him, and even referred me to websites where I could learn more. Though I could only read up on that when I went to Kazenari." The bear blushed. "Then, last year of middle school came."

"What about it?"

"My curiosity got to the point where I really wanted to get hands-on, if you know what I mean. So I went and told him about this. Guess what he said?"

"He turned you down because he didn't want to go to jail?"

"No!" He coughed. "Well, I did expect that that was his reaction, but surprisingly he agreed to show me stuff. So one night, I went to his house and we got naked in his bedroom."

I felt something dripping from my nose, most likely blood.

"He let me touch every corner of his body and we did everything that could be done. I wanna continue, but I think it's better I leave that to your imagination," Kenji said, winking at me.

I groaned. "Kenji, you tease! But did his boyfriend find out."

The bear shook his head. "We only did it once, and kept it our secret. Of course, I still continued to ask him stuff up until I graduated. If I recall he moved to Kazenari with his boyfriend er, husband now."

"At least you had someone to guide you. I had to find out stuff for myself and keep it a secret. Does Juuichi-san know about it?"

Kenji smiled. "We're twins. If there was a person we would trust the most, it was each other. He knows, but he doesn't mind since... Ah! Look! Someone's naked!"

Turning to where he was pointing, I saw nothing but rocks. When I turned back, Kenji was already running towards the water. Come to think of it, he also did this back then at the park, avoiding the topic of his older brother when it came to this topic. Was there something that happened that they couldn't mention? Or maybe he just wanted me to hear it from Juuichi-san instead? Either way, it would probably be best to drop it for the time being. The sun was almost setting, which meant it was time for us to get ready to leave.

After we had showered and changed back to our regular clothes, we packed up our things and headed to the bus station. But before we got on, Torahiko asked if he could sit next to me on the ride home. I agreed, but told him my seat would be the one by the window, The tiger didn't object and when the bus arrived, we all set our things and got on our seats.

All in all, the day was physically and mentally exhausting, but in a good way. I got to have moments of bonding with childhood friends, and surprised myself with some new things. I was sure that everyone also had fun, judging by their sleeping faces. Soutarou-kun and Kyouji-san seemed to be having a shared dream based from what they were murmuring. Tatsu-nii, like before we had arrived to the beach, was calling out for "Sachiko-san" and to my surprise, switched roles out of the blue. The Mikazuki twins, sitting next to each other, had a quiet sleep, though Kenji was drooling on Juuichi-san's shoulder. For the rest, their sleep was pretty much quiet. As for Tora, despite snoring like he was the only one there, was leaning on my shoulder.

"We had a fun day right, Tora?" I asked, gently scratching the fur on his head, causing the tiger's ears to flicker.

I turned to the window and saw the whole scenery dyed a red-orange by the sunset. A thought then came to me: a week has already passed. A quarter of my summer break has already gone. But even so, it was only the beginning of it. There were still more days to come, more things to do, and most especially, more memories to be made. For the moment, I enjoyed my little time with Tora, my best friend to whom I owed so much to for bringing me back here.