CH 15

We found ourselves inside the aquarium after purchasing admission tickets.

I started walking with Suzuka through the dimly lit aquarium.

“Small fish are nice…….”

Suzuka looks at small fish swimming in a relatively small aquarium.

She tends to focus on the larger fish, but these smaller fish are not bad either.

“Ah.”

“Ehhh, when we were in elementary school, you couldn’t pack small fishes. Let’s go see sharks! You said that.”

“I’m surprised you remember. At the time, I certainly did, but now I understand the appeal of small fish better.”

“What’s the point?”

“Easy to keep.”

“I think you’re being too rational. I was hoping for a more romantic answer, you know? Yes, once more!”

She wants me to talk about the appeal of small fish in a romantic way.

Well, I’m no fool. I can give you a variety of answers, though it’s a fine line if you want to call it romantic.

“Small and protective. As a result, they look cute.”

“I see. Then how about me, being smaller than the average person?”

“I’m surprised you’re urging me to protect you. I thought you didn’t like being rescued by me much.”

Suzuka is not strong-willed, but she doesn’t appreciate being helped by me.

She had been telling me, repeatedly, that she was taking that stance because she did not want to owe me anything as an equal, as a childhood friend.

“When it comes to boyfriends, it’s a different story, okay?”

“I see.”

“How are you feeling about that, Yuki? When I was your childhood friend, you teased me that it was okay for me to be weird and spoiled. If it were me, your girlfriend, what would you do?”

“You stepped in where it’s hard to say…….”

“Teh? I felt like I was the only one who said something embarrassing, so I rolled with it.”

She looks at me with a little bit of a bad look.

I was rather embarrassed that I told her that I wanted to protect her.

Hence, I guess you’ve arrived at my hardest part to say…….

“Can I be honest? Before I started going out with you, I thought it was a shame for a man to take advantage of you or something. Now I’m afraid that there’s a part of me that wants to be spoiled normally.”

“I knew it. I guess a lot can change just by having a different relationship with a childhood friend and a lover.”

“That’s right. Hey, do you still want to see the little fish zone?”

“…I feel that Yuki has grown up, which is hard to believe since he went ahead of me without asking me such a question when he visited …… last time. But you don’t have to adjust to me all the time, so keep that in mind!”

I care about pleasing Suzuka.

That may give an impression that I am sorry for making Suzuka pay attention to me.

“Then, I personally care about that tropical fish corner. Why don’t you go see it?”

“Yes, I’m happy to be blunt, but you have to drag me along like that, okay? Otherwise, it would look like I’m the only one enjoying myself.”

Together with Suzuka, we headed for the tropical fish section.

We spent an hour looking around at the various fish.

I remembered that it was almost time for the dolphin show.

“Suzuka. Let’s move to see the dolphin show.”

“Okay.”

We headed for the pool where the dolphin show was to take place, where there was seating for spectators.

“Oops, maybe we should have come a little earlier.”

The seats were full.

Yes, it is spring break now.

The aquarium is large and tends to be sparsely populated, but this is the main big event.

And all the scattered visitors are coming together.

It was more crowded than I had imagined.

I thought there was no place to sit, but there was still some space in the front.

“Yuki, there is an empty space there. If you sit down there, you will get soaked. You see, there is a sign on the seat that says, ‘Please be careful if you use this seat because of the water splashing around’.”

“You’re going to take that place? But it must have been hard to set up your hair and all that, right?”

“I’m going to see the show, so I’d like to have good seats. Besides, Yuki would be okay with me messing up my hair, you know? You see, every morning you see my hair all messed up.”

“I see that too. Well, let’s go sit over there.”

“I want to enjoy the dolphin show!”

We both sit in the front seats.

The reason we were prepared to get wet was because we were former “childhood friends”.

I mean, who is that person who says that dating a childhood friend is scary when you break up with them, or that childhood friends are less likely to spark a flame when you fall in love with them, and all sorts of negative things?

There are many good things like this.

It was only a short time before I was inwardly preaching the wonders of being childhood friends and lovers.

“Hey, everyone. Hello~!”

The dolphin trainer lady came out of the back of the pool in high spirits.

She’s got style. That lady.

She is wearing a tight-fitting wetsuit that clearly shows the lines of her body.

That’s when my eyes were drawn to her.

“Yuki’s nose gets all puffed up when he thinks of something a little unusual.”

“Sorry.”

“No, I’m not mad at you. I’m not mad at you for that, either.”

“I’m surprised. Don’t you ever get jealous of her or something?”

“I’m jealous, okay? But I don’t want to be the kind of girl who gets all uptight and tiresome over the slightest thing.”

Suzuka is very understanding.

This is all well and good, but personally, I don’t mind having people be jealous of it.

Well, it’s unnecessary.　

Let’s not mention it.

“Well, I guess the greetings are over. Let’s focus on the show, shall we?”

“Yes, I suppose so.”

A dolphin jumps and dives under the paddle held by the lady.

Dexterously holding the ball by the tip of its nose, the dolphin tries not to drop it.

The dolphin pushes the lady in the pool up out of the water and makes her float in the water.

And many other tricks were performed.

The fun time flew by.

The dolphin show was over.

“Yuki, that was fun!”

“Yeah, that was fun.”

It is good that we were both so satisfied.

We were prepared to get a little wet, but what can I say, we got very wet.

“Heck. I sneezed funny.”

“Need a tissue?”

“Yeah, I’ll take it…….”

Suzuka wipes her nose with a tissue.

Her hair is quite wet and her clothes are also wet enough.

“I want a towel. Do you have any?”

“I prepared a slightly larger towel for such an eventuality. Here you go.”

I took out a large towel for wiping sweat from my bag and tossed it to Suzuka.

She took it and wiped her wet hair.

When she finished wiping herself, she turned the towel toward me and asked me.

“Do you want me to wipe your hair for you?”

“Oh, you don’t have to do that here. Look, we’re in public.”

I’m not a fan of explicit flirting in public, say holding hands in a friendly manner.

I’m not averse to being wiped, but I’ll say no on this occasion.

And the person who asked me seemed to agree.

“Maybe so.”

“Right?”

Then I wipe my hair and we walk off to go to the next place.

I took out my cell phone to check what time it was, and found that I had received a notification.

“Date!”

It’s from Tanaka.

Incidentally, there is even a bonus photo of him with Kaneda-san.

I guess he wanted to show off his happiness to someone.

However, thanks to Tanaka, I remembered something important.

“Hey, Suzuka.”

“What?”

“How about a picture of the two of us together later?”

“Yes! It would be a shame if we didn’t take pictures!”

First date.

I want to leave something tangible.

Then, it is only natural to take a photo of the two of us.

So I asked someone nearby to take a picture.

When I checked the photo taken of us together, I couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

“Pfft. What is this?”

“Oh, crap. What the hell.”

This was the first two-shot photo taken after I became lovers with Suzuka.

It was a picture of Suzuka and me, who were slightly hunched over, perhaps still embarrassed to get close to each other, or perhaps in a strange faltering manner.

Moreover, it is also interesting that her expression is blatantly tense.

I reached for the delete button to delete the photo, but Suzuka blocked me from doing so.

“It’s so funny, do you want to keep it?”

“I guess so. It’s a typical picture of us. No need to erase it.”

This is also a good memory.

With this in mind, I locked the image to prevent it from being erased.