Girl Next Door

Chapter Forty-Four

Later into the day, the friends were still having fun at the beach. This time, Kyosuke sat under the parasol with Ichiro, who was still reading books. Meanwhile Kotaro had been dragged out by Hinako and Mori to play beach ball, much to his apprehension. Takeru was finished taking a swim and walked over to the beach. Risa, finished getting a tan, joined Kyosuke and Ichiro under the parasol to eat some snacks.

Mio and Yukie were still sitting on a mat under the sun. Mio wanted very much to get a nice tan just like Risa did, but she had no one to rub suntan lotion all over her back. She then turned to Yukie.

"Yukie-chan," she said, turning over onto her belly, "can you rub some suntan lotion on me?"

"Huh??" said Yukie, quite surprised by her request.

"Please?" begged Mio.

"B-But... it just doesn't feel right..." replied Yukie awkwardly.

"What do you mean?" asked Mio.

"I mean, my hands are too small," said Yukie. "A boy should do this."

"Oh, come on," retorted Mio. "You're just gonna rub it on my back."

"But I... It doesn't... feel right," replied Yukie nervously, rubbing her arm.

"I'll do it," Takeru said as he approached the two on their mat.

"What? I don't think so," said Mio pugnaciously.

"Okay then, I'll just go rub some on little Yukie-chan," said Takeru with a smirk.

Yukie gasped and was taken aback.

"Stop, you're scaring her!" said Mio, sitting up on the mat.

"Come on, you're the one who wants to get a tan," said Takeru with a grin.

"Well... You'll only just take advantage of me, you pervert," replied Mio, arms folded.

"If I wanted to take advantage of you, I would have done it long ago," said Takeru in a softer voice. "Now, do you wanna get a tan or not?"

Mio looked at him for a moment, then uttered a sigh.

"Ugh, fine," she said. She then turned away from him to take off her tankini top. "Don't you dare look."

"Why would I look?" replied Takeru flatly. "There's nothing to look at but flatlands."

Then Mio suddenly put him in a choke-hold.

"What did you say?!" growled Mio.

"Ack! Uncle! Uncle!" said Takeru, tapping on Mio's arm around his neck. The girl let him go.

"Let's just get this over with, okay?" she said grumpily as she turned and took off her tankini, then lay on her belly on the mat.

"Oh-kay," said Takeru casually as he squeezed a liberal amount of suntan lotion into his hand and rubbed it onto Mio's back.

"Kyaa!" squealed Mio.

"Sorry, are my hands cold?" asked Takeru.

"It's fine," replied Mio softly. Takeru continued rubbing the lotion onto her back.

Meanwhile, Kyosuke, Risa and Ichiro watched as Hinako, Mori and Kotaro played beach ball. The boy was very nervous and kept missing, but the two girls giggled and enjoyed every second of it.

"Wow," said Ichiro. "It looks as if Kotaro has gotten rid of his gymnophobia."

"He's afraid of girls?" asked Risa. "That explains why he hid behind your back when we approached you guys at school."