When we arrived at Amami-san’s house, the fire had already been prepared. We could smell the scent of the charcoal all the way from the front door. Though her house was in the middle of the residential area, from the pool in the garden, it was easy to tell that the place was large. Which meant, we could get away with a little bit of noise.
Sora-san—who had gone ahead of us to help prepare the food—came out and welcomed us.
“Oh my, look who’s finally here… You two sure took your time flirting behind everyone’s back, hm?”
“W-We didn’t! M-Maki, come with me. L-Let’s greet Eri-san first—Huh? What’s wrong? Why do you look so anxious?”
“Ah, nothing… It’s just… Rocky usually jumps at me…”
Rocky was none other than the Amamis’ Golden Retriever, the guard dog(?) who, for some reason, was fond of me. Normally, he’d jump at me and start licking my face, but I hadn’t heard his bark so far.
…While I preferred him not to make a mess of my clothes and face, it was a little bit of a shame that he didn’t come here. In any case, I guess this could be considered as a good thing.
We entered the place where they prepared the fire, and I found out why the dog didn’t come out.
“Eli-san!”
“Welcome, Umi-chan! Welcome, Maki-kun! Thank you for coming, even though it was so sudden.”“No, I’m the one who should be thankful, Eri-san, since I’m the one who’ll be intruding here… Also, please take care of me, Amami-san.”
“M-Mm! L-L-L-Likewise…”
A distance away from the fire, Amami-san was sitting with Rocky. It seemed like he noticed my presence, but with Amami-san holding on his leash tightly, he couldn’t jump on me like usual even if he wanted to.
He let out a sad whimper, probably disappointed that he couldn’t greet me with his usual greeting.
“Yuu, Rocky wants to say hello to Maki-kun and the others too.”
“I know, but… Whenever Maki-kun comes, Rocky always jumps on him and gets his clothes dirty, so…”
Usually, Amami-san would join in with Rocky to welcome us, but probably because of what was happening between us, she seemed to be reluctant to approach us—no, me.
The atmosphere was slightly awkward, but I’ve already decided to just act like the same old Maehara Maki.
I felt bad for Amami-san, but what else could I do?
“Don’t worry, I knew that he’ll lick me anyway, so I wore clothes that I won’t mind if it gets dirty. Besides, it isn’t like I dislike him, it’s just… It would be good if he could hold back a little—”
“Wooof!”
“Uwaa?!”
Before I could even finish my words, Rocky already leaped forward and charged at me. He took advantage of the brief moment when Amami-san let her guard down and yanked the handle of his leash from her hands.
“Woof! Woof!”
“Mmh…!”
Maybe because Amami-san held him down, his licking was rougher than usual. He started licking my face, then went down my sleeves, legs, all parts of my body that weren’t covered by my clothes.
…Yeah, it wasn’t like I disliked him, it was just… I wasn’t very good at dealing with him…
“Ah! J-Jeez, Rocky, stop that! S-Sorry Maki-kun…”
“It’s okay, I was just startled and fell on my butt like usual. I’m not hurt anywhere. My face and arms are just a little bit…sticky…”
“And that’s a problem! Anyway, hold on a second, I’ll clean you up. Ah, also, I should get you some clothes—!”
After pushing Rocky aside, Amami-san held a cold towel onto my face, trying to clean it. But then her body grew stiff, as if she suddenly noticed something.
Umi’s gaze, watching the two of us.
“What’s wrong, Yuu? Aren’t you going to clean him up, like you usually do?”
“H-Huh? A-Ah, y-yeah, b-but, I-I thought that it would be rude of me to do that c-considering that his girlfriend is here, u-um…”
“I see. Alright, I’ll clean him up. Also, can you give him some clothes to change into? Sure, he might not mind getting dirty, but it’s still better for him to be clean, no?”
“O-Okay… S-Sorry again, you two…”
Muttering her response, Amami-san quickly disappeared into her house to get some clothes for me.
This was the first time the Amamis held a dinner party that included me, the Asanagis, and Nitta-san, so it was something to look forward to. Besides, who knows when they’d be able to hold something like this ever again.
At least, that was what Umi and I felt. Neither of us would refuse spending some quality time with our friends.
“…Umi.”
“…Mm.”
As we had decided before, we were going to settle this matter today.
Sure, it would be awkward, but we had to have a proper talk with Amami-san.
We need her to open up to us, and us to tell her about our feelings on the matter. From there, we’d try to come to a solution that all of us would be satisfied with.
If we didn’t do that, it felt like we’d be stuck here forever, and I didn’t want that.
“Ah, heya, Rep, Asanagi~ Sorry, it took a while to get away from Yuna-nee, but hey, I’m here now! …Hm? Did something happen?”
“Ah, no, it’s just, Rocky… You know, the usual… But anyway, Nitta-san.”
“…H-Huh? W-What is it?”
“Sorry to ask you this all of a sudden, Nina, but we want you to join us. I won’t take ‘no’ as an answer.”
“…C-Can you not say it like that? I-It’s scary… But fine, I get it. We’re all here, and it isn’t like I don’t want to settle the matter quickly anyway…”
“Alright.”
After that, we told Sora-san and Eri-san to hold on for around half an hour, and waited for Amami-san to return.
The fun time could wait for later.
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A/N: Next releases, TBA.
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