My new Neighbor's an Idol!?

Ishi Gets Grilled

The walk to his family's friend's house wasn't long from the beach. Given the pace, Ishi and Otoya would reach there in less than ten minutes, but the weight of the grill would certainly take longer than that for the return trip.

"Hello, may we borrow your grill?" Ishi said when they arrived at the house.

"Ah, it's Ishi." The man was more than happy to see him. In fact, the entire family had come out to greet him and chat while the grill was being taken out of storage.

"How have you been, I hope exams haven't been killing you this year." The wife asked.

"I'm doing fine." He responded, sounding a lot more nicer than usual. It was more than just because they were getting something from these people. His family had known them for a couple of years now because of his father's work. They were always nice to him, so he was kind enough to respond in the same manner.

"Can I come, can I come?" The little boy ran up to him as the item was being transferred into his temporary possession.

"Sorry, but this one's only for the big kids." He replied, kneeling down to the child's height. "Don't worry, I'm sure my parents will want to do something special for the festival coming up."

"Will you go too?" The dad asked. "I know it hasn't been your sort of thing."

"I'm sure someone's going to drag me to it."

"Oh yeah, he's got a ton of girls into him now." Otoya nudged him in the arm in a teasing manner. This prompted Ishi to pinch and grab the boy's ear in retaliation.

"Anyway, we need to get going. There's a lot of people waiting on us." He bid the family farewell. Now it was time for him and Otoya to make the arduous journey to deliver the important package.

"You didn't mention how big this was going to be." It was assumed that this would be a regular small circular grill that was common for people to use. This was a behemoth of a beast that was twice as wide with tanks of propane underneath. "Why couldn't you have asked for more help?" In an overexaggerated manner, he hung his head down in disappointment for the task ahead of them.

"Relax, two people can totally handle this." The word 'totally' wasn't something that was common in his vocabulary, nor was the tone he said it in. Perhaps he had been hanging around Ryugi a bit too much these days. "Plus it's got wheels, so all we gotta worry about is carrying it in the sand." With that, the pair rolled the grill behind them to return to the beach. On this return trip, Otoya had something he wanted to talk to Ishi about.

"So..." He started as the time seemed right to bring it up. "Got any girls you're interested in?"

"I can only imagine what's bringing this on." Ishi rolled his eyes. "I've told you a million times. I'm going to find me a nice and quiet girl after I get to college."

"Yeah, but that's boring." Those words were familiar to him as well. Rinse seemed to have the same complaint about matters, as if what the boy's tastes were anyone's business. "Come on, why don't you just live it up a little with the rest of our time?"

"Because when high school ends, I don't expect most relationships to continue beyond that." He wanted to be real about it. High school relationships, both romantic and platonic, don't continue past it. People move on to different schools, have separate goals for their careers. "What's the point? I already got a plan for the future, let me work for that."

"But what if you're wrong? Maybe the girl you're looking for is actually here at this school right now. Maybe she's even someone you already know."

"Please, everyone I know is just my friend." He could tell where this conversation was heading towards.

"Really though, you got a girl like Ryugi talking to you. Plus, I saw you chatting up that other idol. She's Kamagata's older sister, right? Isn't she already in college?" It was telling on the girl's he didn't mention what he thought about Ishi's romantic potential with them. "Or maybe even Chinae would be all right. The two of you are both kind of standoffish."