Beach Troubles

(Takes place in my Chase The Truth canon, post-epilogue)

Begin!

~Normal POV

With Yu back in town for the summer, the first thing on the agenda was planning their first big outing as a group in months. It didn't take long to decide. Naturally, it should be a beach trip. They had one last year, but that was before having a full team. But this choice wasn't run by everyone first... That was why Rise, Chie, and Yukiko were currently standing outside the Shirogane estate wondering how to go through with this.

"...She's gonna say no," Yukiko said, simply.

"I know that-" Rise replied, "But it'll be awful if we don't try to ask."

"True, and you never know, you might be wrong, Yukiko." Chie added, optimistically.

The day that the rest of them made the decision, Naoto had been in a meeting at the police department about a minor case, so she'd been kept out of the loop. Unless Kanji told her already, which he said he hadn't yet. So the other girls chose to let her know in person. Rise rang the doorbell. Several moments later, the door was opened by a familiar man in a suit and tinted glasses.

"Ah, good afternoon, ladies. Please, come in." Yakushiji greeted, formally. "Naoto-sama is up in her room."

"Thank you, Yakushiji-san!"

~...

Upon getting up to Naoto's room, they found their friend cleaning her bookshelves. Despite this, she was happy to see them and let them come in.

"Sorry to bother you at home like this," Yukiko said.

"No, it's alright, I can talk. Did you need something?" Naoto asked, focusing partly on her task.

Her friends shared a knowing look. "Well, yesterday we were talking with the guys about it and... we kinda made plans to go on a beach trip," Rise started. "Ya know, to do something together with senpai, now that he's back."

Naoto looked over at them curiously. "I see. And?"

"And we wanted to ask you to come," Chie said.

"...I'm sorry, but no."

"Told you," Yukiko mumbled.

"Ok, we get it." Chie said, frowning. "But Kanji will be there too. You don't even wanna go for him?"

Rise snickered. "Yeah, I mean- you'd probably miss out on a lot..."

"If I want to see my boyfriend in a swimsuit, I can just ask." Naoto answered, calmly.

They stared at her in shock. "Ok, good point." Rise said, quietly.

"And please, don't let me stop you either. Just because I don't want to doesn't mean you can't still go without me," Naoto continued as she put books back on her shelf.

"Can you at least tell us why?" Yukiko asked. "Do you not know how to swim?"

"I learned when I was young- though I haven't done it in a long time."

"Yukiko's right though." Rise said, "We don't want to force you or anything, but the last time we went to the beach, you hadn't joined the team yet. So we thought it'd be nicer to all go together! We'd just hate it if you felt left out..."

Naoto finished putting away her books and sighed as she hopped off of her stepladder. "I appreciate the thought, really." She took a breath before adding. "The thing is... I'm simply not comfortable wearing a swimsuit. It's far too revealing, and to dress that way in public... I just can't."