Volume 7, Chapter 2: Notice of Parting and Reunion Part 8

Late at night on Saturday, news that falling snow has been observed in this region for the first time circulated. It appears the snow that had only fallen slightly melted away in the morning but remnants of it remained behind as a puddle of water on the concrete.

Furthermore, despite the fact that it had snowed on the previous day, the highest temperature for the day was only 24 degrees Celsius, roughly the temperature of a summer day.

This sort of weather would allow you to go out with short sleeves without it being a problem.

"The second semester's finally over next week, huh? I really don't have much time awareness".

On Sunday, I went to check on Akito in the morning while he's in the middle of his club activities. And on the way back, I invited Akito and together with the Ayanokouji Group, we hung out at Keyaki Mall until evening.

We went shopping randomly, talked idly at the cafe. Then we had lunch and had fun at the karaoke.

It was a day where I had fun doing what ordinary students usually do.

"By the way...ahem. Ahh---my throat hurts".

"Five consecutive songs is overkill, Yukimu~. But you were surprisingly good though".

"...the reason my throat's hurting is because of the punishment game though".

Pointing out the reason for his sore throat, Keisei glared at Haruka bitterly. The karaoke menu offers a variety of foods but some of them were always meant to be eaten in a punishment game.

It's easy to spot them when out of six takoyaki variations, only one of them is spicy. It's a game where the one who draws it has to eat the entire spicy takoyaki and then sing immediately afterwards.

But the rule is that you aren't allowed to drink water until after you've sung. I don't know the meaning behind it but since we had fun, I suppose it's fulfilled its purpose as a game.

But I do suppose it's far too harsh to be called a game. Calling it a 'punishment game' would be more appropriate. Since Keisei continued to draw the spicy takoyaki, we found it interesting and tried to see just how many he'd continue to draw consecutively. The result was five times.

That number sounds like nothing out of the ordinary but the probability of that happening is actually 1 out of 7776.

"Such misfortune...".

"On the contrary, aren't you in luck? You managed to spend all your misfortunes for the year in one go. Surely you've got plenty of good things waiting for you this year".

"No such thing, this year's ending in roughly two weeks.....you said it on purpose, Haruka".

Haruka laughs herself silly but she still apologized to the unhappy Keisei.

"Sorry, sorry. Was it that bad?".

"I thought I was breathing fire for a moment there.....even spicy's got to have a limit".

Keisei stuck out his tongue, perhaps he's still feeling the spice.

"By the way, I also had it real bad since I tried protect him by drawing the last one".

The one who prevented Keisei from getting six consecutive draws was Akito.

"Then let's do it again next time we go to the karaoke".

At this proposal, the three of them including Airi looked appalled.

"I'm fine with that, but you'll have to eat it properly too if you get it".

"Ok, ok. There's no way the one proposing it is going to chicken out".

She's clearly not afraid to draw the spicy one. Of course, I'm sure she also doesn't think there's no way she'd end up drawing it either.

"Looks like you've got a fair bit of confidence in handling difficult things".

I tried getting to the root of the confidence Haruka kept displaying.

"Ahh, cat's out of the bag?".

"You weren't even trying to hide it though.....".

"I can even handle super spicy ramen easily. On the contrary, that's how I like it, I guess?".

I feel like the punishment game doesn't even apply to her anymore though......

"I wonder if I can eat it all...".

Airi said so, having felt anxious ever since before the game started.

"It's fine, it's fine. If it's ever too much, you can just spit it out. The boys probably don't want to force Airi through something unreasonable either".

That's exactly right. Neither Akito or Keisei will insist on that unreasonable request either.

"This also applies for Yukimu~ but Airi's a great singer. Is this really your first time at the karaoke?".

"Y-Yeah. It was really embarrassing though......".

"If you had a little more power behind your voice it would've been perfect".

Despite her bashfulness, Airi gave it her all.

"Then shall we head back?".