5

Sunday seemed to come around faster than usual, and it was finally time for Kokoro, Elena, and me to go to the pool.

The girls had eventually settled on a pool inside an amusement park, since most hotel pools didn’t allow minors for night events, and they were too expensive anyway. I was glad, since going to a pool like this didn’t take quite as much courage as going to a hotel. The one they chose also seemed to be comfortably large, which was a nice bonus.

The pool opened at 6 p.m., and we arrived there early to buy our tickets, but by the time we got to the ticket line it was already chock full of people.

“I’m sooo excited!” Kokoro said.

“Me too!” Elena agreed.

They were both obviously already enjoying themselves, but I could feel my nervousness returning. It wasn’t as bad as a hotel, granted, but being surrounded by all these extroverted, attractive people, I felt like a fish out of water. Lining up with us were families, couples, groups of girls, and handsome boys.

When we received our tickets, my anxiety took over entirely. If anything, I was glad I’d bought a decent swimsuit. Being in ugly school swimming trunks would have been another reason to want to run away.

“I’ll text you when we’re done changing!” Kokoro told me.

“See you later, Ichigaya!” Elena smiled as she waved to me.

“S-Sure.”

Going into the men’s changing room meant that I was now truly alone, but I was somewhat relieved to see a lot of other guys who were also there by themselves.

Well, I guess they’re here with their girlfriends...

I changed into my swimsuit, left my stuff in a locker, and made for the pool. As hard as it was to believe, it was really happening. I, Kagetora Ichigaya, the introverted kissless virgin, was now at the pool at night, like the popular guys.

The sun was setting, blanketing the poolside in a beautiful orange hue. Young bikini-clad girls were dancing to the upbeat music. Again, there were families, couples, and groups of handsome guys—are they here to pick up girls?—but the guests in the highest number were, by far, groups of young girls.

Needless to say, all of the people I mentioned, unlike me, looked like the type of people who belonged at a nightly pool event. I’d thought the news of a voice actress going to an event like this would lure at least a few otaku out of their dens, but there was no one around who looked or smelled anything like an otaku.

It’s not like I wasn’t expecting it, but I’m all alone here!

Since the girls were still changing, I had to stand by myself, showing off my bony body. It couldn’t get much worse. Though I knew nobody would waste their night staring at me, I could still imagine people making fun of me.

Please finish changing already!

After around five minutes of looking at my phone, trying not to focus on the people around me, I heard Kokoro’s voice.

“Whoa! This place is neat! I’m totally feeling it!”

She and Elena had both changed into their new swimsuits, but were wearing long pieces of fabric tied at the chest over them.

That’s a, uh... a “sarong,” isn’t it? When did they even buy those? I guess they still aren’t comfortable showing their bodies in public...

Despite the fabric covering their figures, the two girls had already gathered a lot of attention. Men around the pool were staring at them, but so were other women.

Seeing them like this makes it feel even weirder that they’d go to the pool with me...

On one side was Kokoro: thin, slender, and as cute as an idol. Today she had her hair up in a bun. On the other was Elena: an exotic beauty with blonde hair, blue eyes, and curves in all the right places. She’d tied her hair up in a ponytail. There were other cute girls around, but none of them stood out half as much as these two.

I could hear the comments of the men standing next to me.

“Wow, aren’t they both amazing?”

“The one on the right is totally my type! Short and sweet!”

“Is the one on the left a foreigner or something? She must be a model. She’s gorgeous!”

“Sorry to keep you waiting!” Elena apologized as the two approached me, triggering yet more comments from the crowd.

“They’re here with a boy? Shame!”

“He looks so... meh!”

I guess someone like me showing up with two girls as good-looking as these two would weird anybody out. Nothing surprising. At least I didn’t come here with an ugly old pair of trunks, so that’s one less thing people can make fun of.

“It’s just the one guy with the two of them? What did he do to get a harem like that?!”

Would you people shut up already?!

“Look!” Kokoro said. “You can rent light-up floats over there!”

“Oh, like the ones those people are using?” Elena asked.

“You’re right! Aaaah, they’re so cute!”

There were actually two pools. In one of them, everyone was swimming with floats that had some kind of LED inside them.

“Those must make for the most awesome pictures ever!”

“We should get one too! Shall we?”

They started walking toward the place that rented out the floats, and I quickly followed them, not wanting to be left by myself.

They paid two thousand yen to borrow a large float. It wasn’t expensive per se, but it certainly wasn’t cheap either. That being said, it turned out that you couldn’t access one of the two pools without having one, so they didn’t really have a choice.

“Let’s take pictures then! We can both fit on it, Minami. Hop on! Ichigaya, you take the pictures! Take a lot of them, so I can choose the best ones for Instagram!” Kokoro said, handing me her phone, which was inside a water-resistant bag. When I took it, a fancy camera app called “SNOW” was already open.

“Fine...” I said, pointing the camera at the girls. “But aren’t you going to take those things off?”

Both of them still had their sarongs on. Since the whole point of coming here was getting used to wearing skimpy costumes in public, keeping their bodies covered while having their pictures taken defeated the purpose.

“Ah! I-I guess you’re right,” Kokoro said, looking down at herself nervously. She put a hand on the knot keeping the fabric up, but she didn’t quite have the courage to undo it.

“Yes, I guess we should. A-After all, we bought cute two-pieces just so we could come here...” Elena said, sounding just as hesitant as Kokoro.

They ended up taking off their sarongs at the same time. Kokoro was wearing her pink check bikini, and Elena was wearing her light blue one. Now that they were wearing nothing but their swimsuits, even more people turned to stare at them.

“Wow! Those girls are so cute!”

“Check out the curves on the blonde one!”

The men, in particular, were making no effort to lower their voices, much to the discomfort of Kokoro and Elena. The latter was so embarrassed that she held her bag in front of her chest, as if to hide herself.

“H-Hey,” Kokoro said nervously. “I brought a picnic blanket. We should lay that somewhere so we can put our stuff on it!”

She found a good spot, took the blanket out of her bag, and laid it on the floor, putting her sarong and bag on top of it.

“I’ll put my stuff next to yours,” Elena said, placing her own belongings on the blanket.

The two then grabbed the float and headed for the closest pool, while I remained on land to take their pictures. I made it a point to take the best pictures I could, as practice for the upcoming cosplay event. I was a bit too far away to get the perfect shot, so I had to walk closer to the water. The place was already dark, but the seashell-shaped float provided enough light to see them.

“Okay. Say cheese...”

“Cheese!”

I took a lot of pictures from as many distances and angles as I could think of, adjusting the exposure several times in the hopes that there’d be at least one that pleased the subjects. The phone saved shot after shot. There I was, shooting pictures of cute girls’ bodies with their permission. Maybe coming to the pool wasn’t so bad after all. Unfortunately though, this wasn’t my phone, so all I could do was save the beautiful view onto my retinas.

“Are you finished or what, Ichigaya?” Kokoro asked, laughing.

“You told me to take a lot,” I replied.

“Thank you so much!” Elena told me with a smile, making me feel kind of bad.

Why am I even feeling bad? I wasn’t thinking any lewd thoughts or anything.

“Show us!” Kokoro said as she and Elena got out of the pool.

“What?! This is definitely too many! And there are like a dozen shots that look exactly the same!” she commented as she scrolled through her phone.

“B-But, when I was taking pictures of your cosplay, you told me that it’s better to take a bunch to be sure.”

“We aren’t cosplaying now though, are we? But still, there are some pretty good ones here! Thank you!” she said, before facing Elena. “I’ll send you them later, yeah?”

“Thanks! I’ll ask permission from my company to post them on my Instagram too.”

Oh, that’s nice to hear. I feel useful.

“Let’s take one together next. All three of us,” Kokoro said.

“Sur... Huh?!”

I was instinctively going to reply “sure,” thinking she was going to ask me to take more pictures of them. That came out of nowhere. The three of us? What? Why?

“Look, I even brought a selfie stick! The float only fits two people though, so let’s take it over there, by that other pool.”

“I-I’ll pass! My physique is hardly worth taking pictures of!”

“Grow some balls already!” Kokoro scoffed.

“It’ll be such a good way to remember our evening together!” Elena urged, staring me right in the eyes. I couldn’t say no.

Why ruin a perfectly good picture of two cute girls by shoving an eyesore like me in there? Are you two really fine with this?

I was extremely confused, but I followed them.

“Eek! It’s so cold!” Kokoro screeched as she dipped her toes in the water.

“It’s refreshing! This is the first time I’ve been to a pool this year, other than at school, of course!”

Forget “this year,” this is my first time in a pool since forever. The last time was with my family back when I was in grade school or something.

“Okay, I’m going to take the picture!” Kokoro said, standing next to me.

“Huh?”

She’s so close to me... wearing that bikini...

Despite my best attempts to stay cool, my heart was beating twice as fast as normal.

“Okay!”

Elena was just a step away from me on the other side. I looked at her for a second, but our eyes met, and we both quickly looked away.

“We don’t fit in the frame yet. Let’s get closer!” Kokoro said.

“O-Okay...” Elena obeyed.

“Huh?!”

Both of them leaned in toward me, getting so close that our bodies were almost touching. My poor heart could hardly bear it.

“Say cheese!” Kokoro said before pressing the button on her selfie stick. She then checked the photo and began to laugh. “Hahaha, Ichigaya! You were making the silliest face ev—”

A loud bang made all three of us jump. When we looked up, we saw fireworks exploding in the night sky.

“What? They even have fireworks?! That’s awesome! Look! So pretty!”

“They are! It’s a breathtaking view...”

I watched as the two of them enjoyed the fireworks, and it suddenly dawned on me just how lucky I was. I’d only been invited as an afterthought, sure, but I was at the pool with two beautiful girls, and we were all in a picture together. To top it all off, now we were watching fireworks.

Watching summer fireworks with girls? I thought only cool guys got to do that. I was so scared coming here at first, but now... I’m having fun.

“Thank you both for coming with me today,” Elena told us with a smile. “At first, the idea of showing myself in a swimsuit other than those that we wear for school made me uncomfortable, but I had so much fun that I didn’t even have time to feel embarrassed. It was all thanks to you two. You’ve helped me find the courage to cosplay in front of a crowd.”

“M-Minami...” I murmured, surprised. I didn’t think I deserved gratitude—if anything, I wanted to thank her for all the fun I’d had.

“Don’t mention it! I had tons of fun too!” Kokoro happily replied.

“M-Me too!” I quickly agreed. “So, you know, there’s no need to thank us or anything.”

“Ichigaya... Nishina...”

“Let’s do it again sometime! You, me, and Ichigaya!”

“With pleasure!”

And thus, my night at the pool with two beautiful girls came to an end.