"Sora-kun, the kitchen is all cleaned up, I'm heading back."
Right after lunch, Mahiru proposed taking her leave in a gentle voice.
"Thank you for your hard work, Mahiru-sama." Sora looked up. "Why don't you have a cup of tea before you go?"
"No thanks." Mahiru gently shook her head. "I'm going back to change my clothes first... I heard the UV rays at the beach are very strong, so I need to go back and apply sunscreen first."
No wonder you always drink tea to aid digestion, but today you're skipping it. Turns out you're impatient to set off.
"Then Mahiru-san go back first." Sora nodded slightly. "Send me a message when you're ready."
"Okay."
Mahiru left gracefully with light steps.
Ten minutes later.
His phone vibrated, and a message from Angel-sama popped up on the screen:
"Sora-kun, I'm ready."
Sora was shocked. "That fast?"
What happened to the rule that it takes at least half an hour for girls to do their makeup before going out?
You actually finished in ten minutes, that speed is exaggeratedly fast!
Mahiru seemed to possess telepathy: "I only applied sunscreen and didn't put on makeup, so it wouldn't take a lot of time."
Sora: "...Can Mahiru-san hear people's inner thoughts?"
"I'm sorry, I don't have that kind of ability."
"..."
Putting away his phone, Sora let Sagiri know he was leaving, then got up, changed his shoes, and went out.
As he came out, he saw Mahiru standing prettily at the door, her eyes fixed unblinkingly on his doorway, clearly waiting expectantly.
"Sorry to keep you waiting." Sora pushed his bicycle out, his gaze falling on Angel-sama. "You're not wearing jeans today?"
The past few nights practicing cycling in the park, Mahiru basically wore a sporty outfit of jeans and a shirt. Today, although she still had her beautiful hair tied up in a refreshing high ponytail, her clothes had changed into a regular high school uniform. The absence of the jeans was inevitably a bit disappointing.
Mahiru held down her skirt with her right hand, responding softly:
"I searched online. Girls can ride bicycles in skirts too. You just need to prepare a small clip to clip the skirt up, and then you don't have to worry about the skirt getting caught in the wheels."
Clearly, having passed the rookie beginner phase and successfully unlocking the cycling skill, Angel-sama's courage had rapidly grown.
Sora's gaze shifted downwards, landing on Angel-sama's pink skirt hem. His face was a picture of righteous integrity: "Although the skirt is very cute, jeans look better after all."
Mahiru raised her hand to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, her bright eyes glaring affectionately:
"Hurry up, let's head to the beach."
"Yes, yes."
"..."
There are many rules for riding a bicycle in Japan, such as a ban on riding after drinking, a ban on carrying passengers, a ban on riding with earphones, a ban on riding side-by-side, no talking on the phone while riding, no one-handed riding... Although it's fine as long as you don't get caught, Mahiru was clearly a super rule-follower and earnestly abided by every single regulation.
Therefore, the journey was silent.
Sora rode his bike in front to lead the way, and Mahiru followed behind. During this time, there was absolutely no opportunity to converse and chat.
Over half an hour later.
As the two rounded a coastal mountain road, a boundless blue ocean instantly burst into view.
"It's the ocean!"
Mahiru's eyes suddenly lit up. The girl's beautiful caramel-colored eyes sparkled in the sunlight, staring unblinkingly at the azure ocean in the distance, as if afraid that if she blinked, the ocean would disappear.
"This open area is a popular spot for people to take photos and check in. Let's stop and rest for a bit." Sora stopped his bike and looked at Angel-sama, who was radiating joy. "Mahiru-san has never seen the ocean?"
"No, I haven't." Mahiru continued to gaze at the ocean surface, seeming to recall memories she didn't want to revisit, the light in her eyes dimming slightly. "...This is my first time seeing the real ocean."
Her parents had absolutely no affection for each other, basically never came home, and no one ever cared about her, let alone took her to play at the beach.
Mahiru remembered clearly that when she was very little, she had once carefully asked her mother if she could take her to an amusement park. Unfortunately, the only response she got was her mother's impatient, icy refusal. From then on, Mahiru never again brought up any requests to go out and play to her parents.
Seeing the girl's despondent expression, Sora didn't press for details, merely saying softly:
"Besides riding to the beach, within the area accessible by bicycle, there's also a zoo."
"Eh?"
Mahiru's eyes quietly brightened.
"There's also an amusement park..."
"An art museum..."
"An aquarium..."
With every place Sora mentioned, Angel-sama's eyes brightened a bit more, until finally, her whole person was sparkling.
Although she didn't ask out loud, the expression on the girl's pretty face was super easy to read:
I want to play!
I want to go play at all of them!
"If Mahiru-san is interested, you can prepare an itinerary and ride your bike to travel around when you have free time." Sora gripped the railing with both hands, looking down at the azure ocean below. "I watched a movie before called 'Inside Out'. The setting inside is very interesting. A person creates a super large amount of memories every day. Most useless memories are discarded, and only precious golden core memories can be preserved until the end of life."
"The meaning of travel isn't just the scenery along the way, but more importantly, creating precious golden core memories. This way, when you have insomnia at night, you can replay those precious, beautiful memories in your mind, instead of only having loneliness and solitude."
"...The meaning of travel?"
Mahiru involuntarily turned her pretty face to look at the boy beside her.
The afternoon sunlight was exceptionally bright and beautiful.
Looking at the boy's clean, refreshing face and his bright, gentle eyes, Mahiru's heart suddenly skipped a beat.
At this very moment.
An epiphany involuntarily surfaced in the girl's mind.
The bright afternoon sunlight, the azure ocean in the distance, the seagulls circling in the sky, the profile of the boy in front of her, and this peaceful, gentle conversation. The images and sounds of this moment would be deeply branded into the depths of her soul, becoming an indelible, precious golden core memory until the end of time.
"What's wrong?"
Sora looked over in confusion.
"N-Nothing..."
Mahiru snapped back to reality and hurriedly averted her pretty face. She quickly raised a hand to fiddle with the hair by her ear to hide her flushed cheeks.
As they were talking, a few more young people rode up on their bikes from a distance. They parked their bikes at the observation deck and then laughingly took photos and checked in. Their laughter flew freely in the sunlight. On the other hand, the solo travelers mostly stood quietly alone, gazing out at the ocean.
Her gaze sweeping over the surrounding travelers, Mahiru gently pursed her beautiful lips:
"So traveling alone and traveling with someone by your side are two completely different states of mind."
Mahiru made a fist with her right hand, secretly pressing it against her chest, clearly knowing her true thoughts at this moment.
(As I thought, I don't want to travel alone... I want to create travel memories together with Sora-kun...)
Taking a deep breath, Angel-sama took out her phone. Then she looked up at Sora, her pretty face slightly flushed:
"Sora-kun, let's take a few photos together, okay?"
"Hmm?"
Mahiru parted her pink lips, her voice gentle and sweet: "Since we came out to play together, it feels incomplete not to take photos."
Wait a minute, isn't that the exact same line Anna used yesterday?
Don't just take it and use it directly!
"Then let's take a few."
Sora didn't think much of it. He stepped over to Angel-sama's side, maintaining a half-arm's distance from the girl.
Mahiru held her phone up high, and the two quickly appeared in the frame.
Looking at the gap separating them, Mahiru slightly pursed her delicate lips and unobtrusively shifted half a step closer to Sora.
Click.
The image was captured.