Chapter 49: Dog Run

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Translator: Soafp

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The brilliant sunlight befitting July poured down upon the dog run in a large park in the heart of the city.

According to the forecast, today's high was supposed to be around 36°C. The heat was intense enough to make my skin sting. Normally, I wouldn't even consider going outside unless I had somewhere to be, but today my steps were so light that I felt like skipping.

“Come on, let's go. Rooney-kun, Pii-chan!”

I threw a pink ball, and the Siberian Husky and Samoyed happily chased after it. As I watched the two dogs compete with each other, I crouched down and stroked Hulk, the German Shepherd relaxing at my feet.

“You're always so calm.”

As I enjoyed the fluffy texture of Hulk's fur while he lay there leisurely with his front paws crossed, the corners of my mouth naturally lifted.

“Hehehe…”

This is it.

I couldn't get this kind of excitement anywhere else.

I was so excited about today that I could barely sleep last night.

“Hey, Hatsukade.”

I raised my head when someone called my name and saw Shinonome looking down at me with half-lidded eyes. Her voice carried an unusually cold tone.

“What?”

“This gathering is nothing like what I imagined!”

Standing beside Shinonome, Naginaki vigorously nodded her head.

“We've already been at the dog run for an entire hour. This isn't what I signed up for!”

“I don't know what you want me to say to that…”

There was no way I could know what kind of day these two had imagined when they came here.

“I invited you two with this exact plan in mind from the beginning. I told you, didn't I? That I wanted to hang out together after so long.”

With the dogs, that is.

The two of them narrowed their eyes with dissatisfied expressions.

“Ugh, I'm nothing more than Hulk's plus-one.”

“Don't use me as an excuse to meet Pii-chan! It's supposed to be the other way around! I even picked out an outfit especially for today!”

Now that she mentioned it, Shinonome was wearing a skirt.

Her slender, beautiful bare legs extended from beneath its short hem, her fair skin…

Just as I was thinking that, Rooney-kun came running back with the ball in his mouth, wagging his tail.

“Oh, good boy. You did great, Rooney-kun! Pii-chan, you almost had him.”

““…””

“By the way, why are you dressed like that when I told you we were going to a dog run?”

“…Y-you…”

“But it suits you. I think you look cute.”

“Gah… Seriously! What is with you? This is unbelievable! You idiot, Hatsukade!”

If she got angry even when I complimented her, what was I supposed to do?

I pointed toward one corner of the dog run.

“You two say that, but look over there. She seems to be having quite a lot of fun.”

There, Sakura was enthusiastically playing with dogs she had never met before, giving them her full attention.

Naginaki, whose eyes had taken on the lifeless look of a ghost, muttered quietly.

“T-that's an exception… Sakura doesn't think about anything, so she's the type who can have fun anywhere.”

I wonder if she realized she had just casually insulted her friend.

Meanwhile, the very person who had just been subjected to that completely innocent trash talk finally seemed satisfied. She returned with a huge smile on her face, wiping the sweat from her forehead.

“Man, that was so much fun. What an awesome day off! Thanks for inviting me, Subaru!”

At those words, Naginaki and Shinonome both looked as though they had just bitten into something bitter.

“I feel like I lost somehow…”

“Me too…”

Despite the beautiful weather, the atmosphere around those two was so gloomy that I wouldn't have been surprised if mushrooms started growing from the ground around them.

“We've played enough that I'm getting thirsty. Let's all take a break.”

I suggested that, and we left the dog run.

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The shade of the trees fell across the park benches, casting scattered shadows over the ground.

Escaping the blazing sunlight, I felt a slight coolness against my skin and let out a relieved sigh.

The dogs were resting quietly too, their tongues hanging out.

I sat on the same bench as Shinonome, while Sakura and Naginaki sat on the bench beside us.

“But it's pretty unusual, you know? You're the one who wanted everyone to hang out together, Subaru. Did you eat something weird off the ground?”

“Don't lump me together with you. There were some things I needed to think about.”

I shook my head at Sakura's comment, and Naginaki, apparently wondering about it too, leaned forward and turned toward me.

“Things you needed to think about? Didn't you just want to see Hulk and the others?”

“That's… difficult to explain.”

It was true that I had wanted to spend time playing with the dogs, but that was only part of it.

I wanted to spend time with these girls and confirm something.

Before going to see Miko, I had gone on a date with Naginaki.

But somewhere in the back of my mind, thoughts of my childhood friend had been holding me back, preventing me from enjoying myself wholeheartedly. And surely, it would have been the same even if my date had been with Shinonome or Sakura instead.

…I felt guilty about that.

These girls had been straightforwardly facing me, yet I hadn't been able to return their sincerity.

But what about now?

Now that I had settled things with my past and finally turned toward the future, how would I feel?

I stood up from the bench and looked at the three girls.

They remained seated, staring back at me with puzzled expressions.

Three girls, each with a completely different personality and atmosphere.

And yet, all three of them were incredibly charming…

In other words, if I were to put what I wanted to say as simply as possible:

“I realized that I wanted to see you guys even outside of school.”

“““!?”””

Once I put it into words, it felt right.

We weren't just classmates brought together by coincidence. I wanted to form a deeper bond with them.

I still didn't know whether these feelings were love or friendship…

But my chest felt warm, and I found myself smiling softly.

Then Naginaki opened her mouth wide and pointed at me, trembling.

“H-Hatsukade-kun smiled at us!?”

Sakura and Shinonome were staring at me with wide eyes too.

“Wait, is this not a dream!?”

“Could heatstroke have made us look like dogs to him?”

They were being awfully harsh.

After that, the three of them were thrown into complete turmoil.

They bombarded me with questions about what had caused this sudden change in my feelings. I casually brushed off all their questions while taking turns petting the dogs and thinking about which pet-friendly restaurant we should go to afterward.

Then Sakura suddenly exclaimed, “Oh!”

“If that's the case, why don't we go work at your relative's place during summer vacation? We could stay there!”

“My relative's place?”

“You said you help out there every summer, remember? And you said they're always short-staffed. Hehehe. You just said you wanted to see us outside of school, so you'd be lonely if you couldn't see us during summer vacation, right?”

Come to think of it, I had told Sakura about that.

“I don't mind. I'll ask my relative.”

And just like that, our plans for summer vacation were decided.

And then…

It would become the first and last summer that the four of us would spend together as just friends.