As I was going on and about my day, an evil clone of mine appeared.
An evil clone that wanted to end humanity altogether.
So I thought why not write another chapter?
______
"What is evil, if not good?"
—Instinct Warrior 2022
Honami's peculiar actions aside, nothing else was amiss. I let myself get dragged by the two, soon meeting up with classmates of ours in a designated location.
The sun was raging above, meaning my desire to go to the pool only increased by tenfold at that point.
Unsurprisingly, there were a ton more guys than there were girls if you counted other classes. I already knew my classmates invited other classes, hence I expected either Class C or Class D to be with us, maybe both. What I didn't expect was them to be able to invite lots of Class-A students, too.
I recognized a lot of faces from other classes whilst looking for Masumi when my eyes met with the one person I least expected to be there,
I paused in such a comical manner.
"Hello there, Sadi-kun."
What's she doing here?
"Uh, yeah. Hello there, Sakayanagi."
She simply smiled as she walked past.
I guessed I was the one acting weird since anyone would wanna be in the pool with this raging heat. Had I developed something akin to wariness against Sakayanagi? Perhaps so.
I sneaked out of the group as I passed familiar and unfamiliar faces through the shade, singling out the purple hair I saw at some distance.
Ryōko was the first to notice me, waving excitedly. It gathered quite a lot of attention, some peering eyes staring at us with curiosity, some with disinterest.
"I was dragged against my will."
I joked as I got to them.
"She dragged me here." Masumi pointed an accusing finger at her friend.
This got a small laugh out of me, imagining Ryōko just dragging the unwilling Purple out of her room.
Without any verbal agreement, the three of us grouped up, walking through lots of students.
And though not as enthusiastic as Ryōko, Masumi was neither that apathetic about the whole thing. I could see she was somewhat interested.
"Excited to see girls in swimsuits?"
Ryōko teased, directly looking into my eyes. I could also feel Masumi stare at me, contenting herself to sideglances.
"Yeah, maybe if our homeroom was here," My response was somehow automatic.
Not that I'd thought my classmates or those in my year had no appeal, I decided to just avoid the question while saying half a truth.
I'd be more elated if Hoshinomiya-sensei was here.
"What a perv. Aiming for older women." It proved to be ineffective though, as Ryōko found holes in my supposed excuse. "Isn't that right, Masumi-chan?"
I didn't expect her to ask for reinforcements.
"To be fair, Hoshinomiya-sensei does look good," Masumi said in somewhat of a nonchalant manner.
She does, huh? Ryōko couldn't help but agree.
I wanted to add, and a great figure too. But stopped myself short of suicide.
We sat on the poolside, in the rightmost corner. There was a bit of heat despite the shade, so the two opted to put on some sunscreen as they got changed.
"Forgot to bring one, huh." Not like I had any sunscreen in my room either.
I waved to some friends of mine from different classes whilst playing with the water. Though there were indeed a lot of students, the pool was big enough to accommodate us all. Not to mention, there were multiple other pools right beside the one we were on.
Perhaps without meaning to, I watched as some of the girls nearby played in the pool.
Wang Mei-Yu and... Onodera? Was it?
Some girly squeals rang here and there, and instead of watching them, my eyes landed right past. I raised my head.
"There you were," Honami squatted, a bit out of breath.
Our eyes met and I couldn't help but cock my head questioningly. She already got changed into her swimming wear. Color similar to her hair, she wore a matching orange swimsuit with stripes. Due to her figure, it became a super defining outfit.
"You know running off is a bit mean, is it not?" She scolded, much like a mother.
"Yeah," Averting my gaze, I answered, finally.
"You know I don't like crowds like the one following you, especially if it's mostly composed of guys."
She seemed to mull it over, probably knowing why there was such a group in the first place. "Oh well, I ran off from them too, so..."
Honami sat down, making herself comfortable. "Let's hang out here!"
