“How about lunch before we play?”
“That’ll let us play longer, sure.”
“Something light. We’re about to swim.”
“Yeah, no getting sick in the pool.”
We had that conversation as we walked toward the on-site restaurant. Plenty of schools were now on summer break, so Tokyo Aqualand was packed.
We put our names on the waitlist at the entrance and it took ages to get seated, so the pool was definitely going to be crowded too. Eventually we got our seats and all three of us ordered cold soba.
“By the way, Ryouya-kun, what about that open-campus report assignment?”
“Don’t remind me of unpleasant things before play time.”
“Sorry, sorry.”
This summer we had a brutal homework assignment: attend a university open-campus event and submit a report on it. Apparently it was added a few years ago because Amaki High students’ open-campus attendance was poor.
The school’s logic was probably “we want our students to actually visit universities, so we’ll force it via assignment,” but writing the actual report is genuinely tedious — I would not have minded skipping it. I’d like to send a strongly worded letter to whichever upperclassmen tanked the participation rate that resulted in this assignment existing.
“I was thinking I’d go to Okayama City University for the open campus.”
“Okayama’s a long way from Tokyo.”
“Why Okayama City University, of all places?”
“Oh — I don’t think I mentioned this — my grandmother’s house is in Okayama. So besides Tokyo, it’s the place I’m most familiar with.”
The two of them had looked puzzled at Okayama, so I explained. To be precise, my grandmother’s house is in Kurashiki, which sits just west of Okayama City, but the difference doesn’t matter for the open-campus part.
Okayama City University is a comprehensive public university with multiple faculties, apparently one of the top-tier public universities in the Chugoku-Shikoku region.
“Huh, okay.”
“That makes sense.”
“Yeah. I’ll drop in on Grandma while I’m there.”
The trip from Tokyo to Okayama is far enough that it’s not a casual day out. The last time I went was during Bon last year, about a year ago.
“Sorry — meaning, I can’t hang out with you guys during open-campus week.”
“Oh, that’s fine. Riona and I are coming with.”
“Wherever Ryouya goes — through fire or through water — me and Nee-chan are coming too.”
“No, no — it’s an overnight trip…”
I objected to their unilateral inclusion. A day trip would’ve been fine; overnight with two girls was on a different planet entirely.
“Doesn’t that make it more fun?”
“A guy and two girls overnighting is a bit—”
“One night, two nights, doesn’t really change anything.”
Neither of them was going to budge. Continuing this conversation was just going to keep both sides parallel forever, so I dropped it.
We finished lunch, bought tickets at the vending machine, checked in, and headed for the locker rooms.
“Okay — meet you at the pool entrance after I change.”
“Mm-hmm, see you in a bit, Ryouya-kun.”
“We’ll be over as soon as we’re changed.”
I split off from them at the locker room door, went into the men’s side, and dug my swim trunks out of my backpack. The locker room was crowded, and just finding an open locker took effort.
”…Everyone’s got a good build.”
The clusters of high school and college guys changing around me were all clearly built. I’m 167cm and 55kg — the thin end of the high school distribution.
“Maybe I should train properly. Bulk up a bit.”
I’m already below the Japanese male average in height. If I don’t at least put some muscle on, people are going to write me off. Height is a lost cause at this point, but muscle is doable.