บท 16: Power of friendship

Ch 16

POV Akari Nakano

Where am I? Wait. Why am I being carried by Makoto. I remembered the horrifying face and almost fainted again. Seems like I passed out and Makoto carried me out. Ah… How am I going to look him in the eyes after this? For now I should act as if I am still sleeping.

He put me down on a bench and sprinkled some water on my face. Alright, now seems like a good time to wake up.

"hmm… What happened to me?"

"Don't you remember how you fainted in the haunted house?"

Aaah don't remind me you idiot.

"Oh yeah", I can't even respond properly now, did he notice?

"What happened are you still not feeling well?" he asked in a concerned voice.

"Ah-, no I am just confused."

"You don't have memory loss or anything right? I have heard some people automatically forget scary memories to prevent trauma."

"N-No, I remember. It was the baby right?"

"Yeah, yeah, it's good you remember. Still, it's my first time I saw someone faint from being frightened. You'd expect something like this to happen in a light novel or something." After a pause he continued "Here drink this, you will feel better." He said passing me a bottle of sports drink.

"Thanks"

"Should we meet up with those two now?"

"Yeah, wait. I'll contact her." I took out my phone to contact Shizuo. Why are there so many notifications? Ah, it seems like they tried to contact us multiple times when we were in the haunted house, but my phone was on silent.

"Nishikawa already called me multiple times, but we were in the haunted house." Makoto said looking at his phone.

"Yeah, Shizuo did the same."

"I sent a message right now telling him to meet up at the ferris wheel. Let us also go there."

"Alright"

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POV Nishikawa

Man, today has been so much fun. This was the first time I went on a trip with my friend during a holiday. Not only that, I feel as if the distance between me and Hiwari san has decreased considerably.

"bzzzzz bzzzzz"

Just then the phone in my pocket vibrated.

"Ah, Hiwari san looks like they are heading towards the ferris wheel." I said showing her my phone screen.

"Then let us also go there."

"Yeah."

When we reached the massive ferris wheel I could see Makoto kun and Nakano san waiting near the entrance. It seems they also saw us approaching and Makoto san called out.

"Nishikawa, Hiwari san here."

We quickly went to where they were standing.

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POV Shinji Makoto

"Sorry you had to wait for us."

"Ah-, it's okay. We didn't have to wait for long." Hiwari responded, waving her hands hurriedly.

"Then should we go on the ferris wheel?" Nakano asked.

"Yeah, it's getting pretty late, let's ride on the ferris wheel and go home."

My plan was to make Nishikawa and Hiwari ride on the same carriage, and me and Nakano in the next one. So I was going to let Nishikawa and Hiwari get in and close the door, however just when I was going to execute my epic plan, I got pushed in from behind by Nakano. As a result, all of us went into same carriage.

It took me some time to process why I was sitting beside Nakano and why Nishikawa and Hiwari were in front of me. Why did she do this? She herself said she didn't want to be a third-wheel in their relationship in the afternoon.

I glared at Nakano but she didn't even look at me and was chatting with the others. Hmph, you just spoiled my perfect plan, just see what I will do to you later. I let go of the incident and joined their conversation.

"So, what did you guys do after we separated?" Not gonna lie, I was very curious to know what happened. They seemed to be closer than before, seeing how they were acting around each other with more openness. But what I wanted to know was if there were any romantic developments.

"Oh, we just went on as many rides as possible. Even that big roller coaster that we saw in the morning from outside." Hiwari answered.

Wow, sounds like torture to me alright. It's good that I tapped out. But that can't be it. There must be more spicy things that happened, after all a single boy and girl with positive feelings towards each other were together for almost the whole day. Well, I won't dig around if they don't want to say it, some things are better if private.

"What about you guys? Why were you not responding to our calls?"

"Oh, our phones were switched off as we went to a haunted house." Nakano answered.

My chance for revenge has arrived. The reason I asked about what Nishikawa and Hiwari did afterwards was not because I wanted to know about their activities, it was to make them ask about the haunted house.

"You guys won't believe what happened at the haunted house. So there this ba…aaaagh" I cut of my sentence and muffled a scream as Nakano was pinching my sides.

Fuck, it seems like she noticed I was going to expose her and interfered. I never would have expected such a direct method of stopping a conversation. Meanwhile, Nishikawa and Hiwari were looking at me with question marks on their faces. I won't give up so easily, who do you think you are Nakano?

"There was a ba…aaaaagh". It hurts. It hurts. Fine. I give up. Who knew fingers could pinch so hard.

"There was a what?", Nishikawa asked, even more confused.

"There was a painting… a painting, and when we passed by it a hand came out of it towards me, I got so scared that I ran to the exit as fast as I could." This is fine right, Nakano? I even changed the events.

"O-okay."

Damn that didn't sound natural, did it? It's all this devil's fault. Thankfully Hiwari managed to change the topic.

"Look outside guys. The view is incredible."

Wow. I didn't notice as I was talking but we were almost at the highest point. It really looks beautiful from up here. The setting sun, the city in the distance, this could have been the perfect romantic moment. Again, I was reminded of how Nakano spoiled all my plans.

"I am really glad we could come here together and look at this view together." Nishikawa said innocently, looking at the outside view.

"Yeah, me too." Hiwari replied.

Well… Maybe being with friends is not all that bad.

Nakano was looking at me triumphantly, as if she knew my thoughts.

Fine, I lost. But I didn't lose to Nakano. No. I lost to the power of friendship. Yes, that's it. Even 10000 years old demons, who have fought for their entire lives, lose to the power of friendship, let alone a mere mortal like me.

Soon the ride was over. I jumped out of the carriage and stretched my body.

"Aaanh… It's finally time to go home huh? Did you guys have fun?" I turned around and asked.

"Yeah. We should come here again sometime." Nishikawa said.

A good thought, but I don't think a repeat event is good for a novel.

"How about you come with Hiwari san alone next time." I whispered near his ear.

Watching his face turn red was just as satisfying as always.

We finally boarded the bus to return after waiting for a bit. This time I quickly went and sat beside Nakano, forcing the other two to sit together.

Soon, because of the rhythmic movement of the bus Hiwari and Nishikawa, who were sitting in the seat behind us, dozed off leaning on each other. When I pointed the cute scene to Nakano, she smiled and took a picture with her smartphone.

"Share that with me later." I told her, "And why did you not let me tell them about how you got scared at the haunted house incident? Aren't you the one who keeps blabbering about not hiding things and whatnot?"

"It's not about the getting scared part. It's about how you had to carry me on your back. If they get to know I will die from shame and embarrassment. Ah-"

"So that's what it was. I wouldn't have told them that anyways. You worry too much."

Hmm? Wait. Wait. Wait. Pause. Wait a minute. Something doesn't add up. Rewind the conversation. What did she just say? Carrying on my back? But I never told her about that.

Aaaaaaah... So that's how it is. Now everything makes sense. She must have already woken up as I was carrying her, but she pretended to be asleep. That's why she was acting so shy when she woke up. After all I carried her in public, and her breasts were also being pressed against my back.

By looking at her face it seems she has also realized her blunder. Now I have two options. One, act as if I didn't realize. Or two, make it an awkward situation. A lot of time has already passed with neither of us speaking, it's too late for option one. This is why I hate quick time events. They don't let you consider all possibilities. If I was the protagonist right now, this monologue would have occurred in 0.00001 seconds, but sadly I am not one, and thinking takes time. Anyways I have to do something, the atmosphere is already turning awkward. How am I going to sit beside her for the rest of the way home?

Think. Think. Think. Think. Think. Think.

Just then I remembered the wise words of some anime character "Offense is the best defense."

That's right. If I can't defuse this situation, I just have to make it explode more. Yes. That's it. An evil smile formed on my face as I leaned in her ear and whispered,

"Don't worry. I won't tell anyone. This will be our little secret, okay?"