"Boss, wanna go swimming with us?" Ishizaki Daichi, who shared the same room, once again invited Kitagawa Ryo. It had been two days since the end of the deserted island special exam. Initially, the first-year students were still on edge, wary that the school might announce a second exam. After all, at the end of the last exam, A-Class's homeroom teacher did say, "Please enjoy your summer break." But these same students had been tricked once before—thrown onto a deserted island on the very first day of summer vacation.
This vacation was set to last two weeks: one week for the deserted island exam and the remaining week aboard the cruise ship. Some speculated that the second test might be held on the ship itself. But after two tense days, with no word from the school, peace finally settled in, and the students began enjoying the luxurious facilities the cruise ship offered.
"Seems like the exam really is over." "One week of testing and one week of relaxation—makes sense."
With that in mind, the first-years began to fully embrace their summer youth. Word even had it that several new couples had formed.
"Still holed up in the dorm playing games, Boss?" Ishizaki, already in swim trunks, raised a brow. With the pool right on board, students in swimwear became a common sight in the corridors.
"Nah, don't worry about me. You guys go have fun." Kitagawa waved his controller dismissively, eyes still glued to the screen. It was a console he'd brought from school, and now that they were no longer on the island, he finally had time to enjoy it.
Yamada Albert and Ishizaki had both gone swimming. Ryuuen Kakeru was off somewhere gathering intel. Unlike the rest who had relaxed, he was still convinced another exam would come before the week ended.
"You're back?" Controlling his in-game character, Kitagawa heard the door open and assumed it was Ryuuen.
"Mmm? It's me~"
But the voice didn't belong to Ryuuen. To his surprise, it was someone entirely unexpected.
"Oh, Kei..."
"---?"
Kitagawa snapped his head up, not even realizing his character had just been one-shot by a boss combo. Pulling off his headset, he looked incredulously at Karuizawa Kei standing at the door.
"Kei? What brings you here?"
Slipping on his slippers and stretching his sore neck, he approached her.
"I haven't seen you around the ship for two days, that's why."
Kei, dressed in a sleeveless white summer dress and sandals, stepped inside and casually shut the door.
"Have you really been in here gaming all this time?"
Noticing the large screen and controller on the table, her jaw dropped in disbelief.
This was a luxury cruise most people would never experience in their lifetime—and he chose to spend it gaming?
"No way, I went to the theater at night to perfo—cough I mean, to watch plays."
Kitagawa quickly corrected himself, trying to prove he wasn't some antisocial shut-in.
"The theater, huh."
Kei sighed and flopped onto Kitagawa's bed.
"No wonder I couldn't find you at the pool or spa or anything. I guess not many people would choose the theater."
Her gaze sharpened.
"I remember someone in your class, Shiina-san, loves going there."
"It's not just her, Ayanokouji from your class goes there too. I heard he even watched 'Icarus' with your teacher Chabashira the other day."
"Eh? Icarus? Isn't that the girl from Sora no Otoshimono?"
Apparently, that went over Kei's head. She looked puzzled.
"It's a Greek myth. Icarus and his father made wings from feathers and wax to escape imprisonment. But Icarus flew too close to the sun, the wax melted, and he fell into the sea and died."
"Oh... didn't expect Ayanokouji to watch something like that."
Kei nodded vaguely, swinging her bare legs. One sandal was off, the other dangling from her toes, tapping the floor with every swing.
"Are plays fun to watch?"
"Depends on taste. But I don't think it's something you'd be into, Kei."
Kitagawa offered his honest opinion.
"Are you saying I'm uncultured and we have no common interests, so you don't want to hang out with me?"
"Why do you talk like a machine gun?"
Kitagawa rubbed his temples as he looked at her.
That dress... it looked oddly familiar.
"Well? Cute, right?"
Catching his gaze, Kei lifted the hem with a proud grin. If she wasn't barefoot, she would've probably twirled.
"Yeah, it looks good."
A breezy, summery outfit. Compared to swimsuits, Kitagawa preferred casual wear like this—it felt more real, more personal.
"By the way, besides going to the theater and playing games, you seriously haven't gone to the pool even once?"
"It's huge. Super lively."
She opened her arms dramatically—only to realize a sleeveless dress wasn't great for big gestures like that...
"So you go there often, Kei?"
"Sort of. I wasn't interested at first, but Matsushita and Satou dragged me along. After that, I went a couple more times."
She nodded, clearly excited to share her fun.
"By the way, Onodera from our class is super fast. Her 50-meter time is almost on par with Sudou."
"But the fastest swimmer is probably Kouenji. But he moves too wildly and keeps laughing while swimming. Nobody wants to share a lane with him anymore."
Swinging her legs, Kei added:
"If I could swim, I'd totally try it too."
"Wait, so you haven't been in the pool at all?"
After hearing her whole story, it turned out Kei was just watching from the sidelines.
"...I'm just a little embarrassed, okay."
She scratched her cheek awkwardly.
"Airi doesn't want to wear a swimsuit either. I was just keeping her company. Mhm."
Giving herself a convenient excuse, she quickly shifted topics:
"So, are you a good swimmer, Ryo?"
"No."
"Pfft."
Kei burst out laughing and collapsed onto his bed, giggling:
"So that's why you won't go to the pool?"
"Sure, let's go with that. Being a non-swimmer in a pool feels... off."
Kitagawa glanced at the now-messy bed and shrugged.
"We're both land-dwellers, so let's not laugh at each other."
"Hey! I can swim. I just don't want to."
Now she looked smug.
"Oh, same here. Totally can swim. Just don't want to."
"I'm being serious!"
Kei shot up and glared.
"Yeah yeah, me too. Very serious."
"Fine! Let's go to the pool. I'll show you I can swim!"
Fuming, she threw on her sandals and dragged Kitagawa toward the pool deck.
-------------------------------------
"I didn't expect to run into you here, Karuizawa-san, and you too, Kitagawa-san."
Standing by the poolside, Hirata Yosuke was toweling off after a swim. Droplets ran down his well-toned upper body, and a few wet strands clung to his forehead, giving him a slightly different impression from usual. With his sunny smile, the handsome boy greeted them, and Kitagawa Ryo could now understand why Hirata was so popular among the girls.
"Oh, so you're here too, Hirata."
Kitagawa nodded. He had a fairly good impression of Hirata Yosuke. As the saying goes, it's hard to dislike someone who always smiles. Hirata played a big part in keeping Class D stable. Kitagawa recalled Karuizawa telling him that on the first day of the uninhabited island exam, Hirata had taken on the most strenuous task of pitching the tents and, over the seven days, slept the least, rose the earliest, and did the most.
Objectively speaking, Hirata's psychological makeup resembled Ichinose Honami's in some ways. Both seemed to act from a sense of atonement. However, unlike Ichinose, if pushed to the edge, Hirata might prove far more dangerous.
Honami... in the end, she would only keep hurting herself.
Kitagawa suddenly recalled the ending of the second simulation and looked at Karuizawa with a complicated expression.
He had a strong feeling that those two should not meet.
"Were you two here to swim? Your outfits are... um, pretty unusual."
Naturally, Hirata wasn't aware of Kitagawa's inner thoughts and simply commented on their appearance.
Most students at the pool were dressed in swimsuits—guys in swim trunks, girls in various swimwear. But Kitagawa and Karuizawa were both overdressed for the occasion. If Karuizawa's sleeveless dress could still be passed off as summer attire, Kitagawa wearing a jacket over his shirt seemed a bit much, even in an air-conditioned cruise ship.
Hirata had seen students like Sotomura, who avoided the public pool due to being self-conscious about their weight, but Kitagawa clearly didn't have that problem.
"Oh, I'm not here to swim. I'm just here to watch Karuizawa-san swim."
Kitagawa smiled.
"She insisted on proving something to me."
"Oh, I see now."
Hirata clapped his hands in realization. "Then I won't get in the way. Have fun, you two."
As he walked off, Hirata gave Kitagawa a secretive thumbs-up. Who knew what he was imagining.
After Hirata left, Kitagawa crossed his arms and looked at Karuizawa calmly.
"Kei?"
"Uh..."
Despite her earlier enthusiasm in the room, Karuizawa froze upon arriving at the pool. She dipped her toe into the water but made no move beyond that.
"Looks like it's still too hard for me," she said with a forced smile. "I think I'm still afraid of water. It only brings memories of cold and suffocation."
"You know what I mean, right, Ryo?"
"Yeah."
Kitagawa sat beside her and nodded.
He could easily imagine what she went through in middle school—being doused with water in the bathroom, her lunchbox tossed aside, forced to pick food off the floor with her mouth.
No wonder she feared swimming. No wonder she said she wasn't hungry on the island.
"It feels unfair."
She spoke quietly, bitterness in her voice.
"You know everything about me, Ryo. But I know nothing about you."
"Maybe because I've known you longer than you've known me," he replied.
"But you've never told me about your past. If you never do, then no matter how long we know each other, I won't really know you."
"Didn't you come to this school for a fresh start, Kei?"
He looked straight into her eyes.
"The past isn't that important."
His words were firm.
"If you only dwell on the past, you wouldn't have become who you are now."
"...Yeah."
But she still seemed a little sulky. Her toes stirred the water, creating ripples.
Maybe it was because she only just discovered Kitagawa's love for theater. That small bitterness rose again. She realized that the person she'd depended on might have just been a constructed image of Kitagawa. Now, she wanted to understand the real him.
They might seem close, but without sharing their pasts, it felt incomplete. That loss weighed on her, no matter how unreasonable it seemed.
Then, suddenly, someone sneaked up behind Kitagawa and delivered a merciless kick to his back.
Splash.
Caught completely off guard, Kitagawa plunged into the pool. He surfaced awkwardly, wiped water from his face, and glared at his attacker.
"Ryuuen, what the hell?!"
"Just thought someone needed a nice cold soak to calm down."
Ryuuen pulled back his leg, ready to say something more, when Kei suddenly jumped into the pool after Kitagawa.
"?"
As Ryuuen silently formed a question mark in the air, Kitagawa swam over with a bitter smile to help Kei, who had swallowed a couple gulps of water and looked utterly miserable.
"A non-swimmer trying to save a swimmer. Bravo," Ryuuen snorted.
Then, looking serious for once, he muttered to Kitagawa, "We need to talk. Come back to the room soon."
"Yeah, yeah. Get lost."
Annoyed, Kitagawa waved him off and patted Kei's back.
"You okay?"
"Y-yeah..."
Still coughing, she nodded. Her soaked white dress clung tightly to her body, revealing another layer beneath.
He'd seen a glimpse back in the room, but now it was far more obvious—she wore a school-issued one-piece swimsuit under the dress. An odd choice, perhaps, but understandable if she'd wanted to be ready to swim.
"You can swim..."
"I did say I could," Kitagawa nodded.
"But I asked you if you were good at it!"
"And I said no. You didn't ask if I could swim."
He borrowed a towel from a nearby staff member and naturally began drying Kei's hair.
"Playing word games now?"
She rolled her eyes at him.
"And why are you so good at this, anyway?"
"Um... I used to have a cat. Gave it baths all the time. Acceptable reason?"
"Another piece of your past I didn't know."
"Yes, yes. My bad."
Kei glanced at his chest. His soaked white shirt clung to his skin, slightly transparent. She had definitely seen something.
"You'll have to tell me everything. No skipping."
"Alright."
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To Read Advanced Chapters, and support this novel, please join me on [email protected]/geats2000