"Ah~ today was super fun!"

As we walked to the konbini, I threw my arms up and stretched lightly. Takayuki-chan was beside me, nodding in agreement. He had a small smile on, which I liked seeing.

"D-definitely. I'm glad we came out today..."

"Me too. It was really fun swimming with you."

I never really noticed until Alice-chan did that makeover on him, but Takayuki-chan's totally my type. I love cute and shy boys the best since they're so easy to dominate~ I love seeing Takayuki-chan squirm as I tease him. He makes super adorable expressions...

"I hope I didn't hold you back... I'm not very good at swimming."

"Not at all. The slow pace was nice. You shouldn't have pushed yourself so hard during the races, though."

Each time Takayuki-chan came out of the pool breathless, his tired expression was adorable. He relied on me to regain his breath, and even held onto me for support. I loved taking care of him like that, especially when I fed him water. It was too cute! I thought my heart was going to burst.

"S-sorry... I wanted to try and win... even though I'm not very good at sports..."

"Don't apologise. Jeez. I would admire that you put in tons of effort over if you won or something."

That unconfident personality of his too is also endearing. Ugh, it should be a crime to be this lovable. I want him to be my boyfriend so badly already.

"R-really?"

"Yeah! Who cares about ranking? You had fun, right?"

"Well... not really... p-pushing myself that hard really hurt..."

It was painful seeing his expression drop like that. Physically, Takayuki-chan was much weaker than everyone else, so he had a hard time keeping up.

"Then next time, like, don't push yourself, or sit out when it becomes too much."

"W-well... yeah, that's the sensible thing..."

"Though, I guess it's embarrassing if you were the odd one out. So, I'll also sit out with you. Mayuri-chan too, right?"

Mayuri-chan was walking a little behind us, looking at her phone. She looked up and gave a small thumbs up.

"Y-you don't... have to do that..."

"Or, maybe next time, we should do something that isn't physical. Do you like to go to the arcade?"

I loved going to arcades. My older brother used to take me there a lot as a kid. It's the only happy memories I have with him. Claw games are my favourite, since you can win cute prizes.

"A-arcade? I-I've never been to one..."

"Eh?! Impossible, you've never been to an arcade before?!"

"No... m-my parents didn't really let me go outside much... and I didn't..."

Takayuki-chan looked away, mumbling the last part.

"Hmm? You didn't what?"

"...n-nothing."

"Hey, tell me!"

I lightly pushed him. Takayuki-chan swayed lightly, making a cute noise, looking surprised.

"It's embarrassing..."

He's so adorable when he says that line... Takayuki-chan doesn't open up easily, so I have to prod him for answers. He often says "it's embarrassing" when I try to get more details, and it melts my heart.

"I see, but you've told me an embarrassing thing before. What's one more going to hurt?"

"Um... it's like... you'll think of me less... when you hear it..."

"No way. I'll still see you as you."

Takayuki-chan finally looked at me, with his upturned, glossy eyes. His gentle expression... really, I'm going to die from his cuteness. My heart's going doki doki too fast...

"R-really...?"

"Really."

"Well... um... back then... I h-had... n-no friends..."

It came out like a whisper, but I caught it. I raised my eyebrows, but could see why. When I first met him, he was really quiet and forgettable. Now, with his new makeover, I was in love.

"Then, I'll be the first one to bring you to an arcade. How does that sound, hmm?"

"That... sounds fun. But... are you really okay playing with me? I mean... I'm... not popular... or... um..."

Yeah, he really isn't popular at all. Even Yamaguchi-kun questioned me on why I was playing with a "trap" like him. I told him to shut up and deal with it.

I really hate these sort of people. People who judge me based on who I hang out with, and never giving me a chance because of it, really pisses me off. Personally, I didn't care what anyone thought, because I liked Takayuki-chan more than anyone else.

"You overthink things too much. I don't really care who I go out with. I just want to have a fun time."

"Y-Yeah... sorry..."

He was seriously inexperienced when it came to the real world. Before I asked him to play with me and Mayuri-chan, he'd never been to Cafe Yuzu or the cinemas! I couldn't believe it when he told me, which is why I'm glad I could show him the real world like this, since he's like, the shut-in type.

I love that he's also an extremely innocent shota type, because one day I wanna become a popular onee-san type. Being able to guide Takayuki-chan and give him this experience fulfilled that dream, just a little.

"We're here, we're here!"

"A-ah!"

I cheered, grabbing Takayuki-chan's hand and going inside the konbini, rushing over to the ice cream corner. As Yukimura opened the freezer, it was like an ice cold wonderland! There were so many colours and varieties to choose from, my head felt dizzy trying to decide which to have.

"S-so many..."

Takayuki-chan peered into the freezer, also overwhelmed by it.

"Right?! Aww, there's so many good flavours here! I want a soft serve though, definitely!"

I didn't really like hard ice cream like popsicles or ice candy. I preferred the soft types, like soft serves or cones. While I was looking through the soft serve section, Takayuki-chan was picking up ice creams and reading them.

Kya! This curious expression definitely struck through my heart the hardest today! Even though I got to see so many different and cute expressions from him at the pool, the face he had while trying to decide which ice cream to buy was even more adorable... once again, his child-like innocence was bubbling up, and it was too overwhelming for me... I wanted to squeal over how cute he was! This wasn't fair!

"This one is good. Have it."

While I was distracted, Mayuri-chan handed Takayuki-chan cola flavoured ice candy.

"U-um... o-okay..."

Ack! Mayuri-chan knows I like him! What's she doing?!

"Hey, Mayuri-chan, don't force anything on Takayuki-chan! Let him choose what he wants."

I shuffled over, grabbing Takayuki-chan's arm and pulling him to my side.

"S-Shouko-san, i-it's okay..."

"Fuu. Don't feel pressured."

I pouted at him. Takayuki-chan panicked, putting back the ice candy into the freezer. Mayuri-chan stared at me blankly, grabbing her own cola ice candy. I let go of his arm, and Takayuki-chan began to fiddle with his fingers.

"I-I know, it's just... um... it's my first time... buying ice cream... too..."

"Ehhh?! Your parents didn't even let you have that?"

"U-um... no... they said eating sweets will get me fat..."

Takayuki-chan was the furthest thing from fat. God, I know my parents suck, but his ones are on a whole other level. I actually felt bad this was the first time he was going to eat ice cream.

"Then, take your time. Your first ice cream is like, super important, you know."

"I-it is? Umm... ah... o-okay...."

"I suggest the soft serves. They taste really good!"

Takayuki-chan continued to look over ice cream, appearing more lost and confused than ever before. I think I didn't help him much... seeing as he looked panicked and stressed about it, I went to help him out after I chose my ice cream. I decided to get a reliable chocolate soft serve.

"I-I'm sorry..."

Before I could, Takayuki-chan went back to his habit of apologising too much. It was endearing to hear those words from him, but matching those words was a sad, reserved expression. I wanted him to learn that not everything he does is a mistake or problem, but it was baked into his personality to apologise when he couldn't do something correctly.

"If you want, we can share. Would that be better?"

I wouldn't mind sharing a soft serve with him. In fact, it'd be way more romantic. I'd get to see a blushing Takayuki-chan too. Ah, my heart goes fast when I think about that... it'd be adorable. However, he shook his head slightly.

"N-no... I wouldn't want to trouble you like that... so... um..."

Takayuki-chan reached in and got both a chocolate soft serve and cola flavoured ice candy.

"I'll... just have the same... as you two..."

"Ooh, nice idea. Two ice creams on a day like this sounds so good."

He didn't look very confident, so I tried to assure him.

"This is... okay, right...?"

"Well, obviously yeah. You can spend your points however you like. I would buy two too, but like... I'm saving up my points."

After spending two months nearly broke, I think I learnt my lesson on not to spend my money so easily at this school. I should be grateful that we even got private points this month, so I decided that I would stop spending my points unless it's like, super necessary.

"Oh... um... anything in particular?"

It was cute that Takayuki-chan was trying to make conversation with me. We walked over to the self-checkout and scanned our items.

"Not really~ there were some summer dresses I found, but like, they're too expensive. I don't want to go back to when I was broke."

"M-makes sense..."

"What about you? How many private points do you have anyways?"

Takayuki-chan had his phone out when he paid for his ice cream. I looked over his shoulder, since he was shorter than me, taking a peek at his balance. He had 910,740 Pr.

"Woah! You barely touched yours!"

"U-um... not really... I spent a lot when I bought that house with Kou-san... thanks to this month though, I managed to recover quite a bit of what I spent."

"Regardless, that's a lot you know. You can definitely afford to buy two ice creams."

"W-well... it's not the points I was worried about..."

"What were you worried about then?"

"Eh... it's... embarrassing."

Once again he was using that line. I didn't mind though.

"Really~?"

"Y-Yeah..."

We left the konbini and sat down on a bench outside. The sun was really bright, strong enough to melt the ice cream before I could eat it. With no time to waste, I popped open the lid and scooped the ice cream into my mouth.

"Kya~ it's so cool and sweet! I love chocolate soft serve. You can't beat it!"

"Mm... yeah, it does taste good."

Takayuki-chan smiled, trying some of the soft serve for the first time. Cute... I could watch him eat all day. He takes little bites, slowly eating while keeping to himself. His face looked relieved, but also a little guilty. I couldn't understand why...

"Nee, let's feed each other."

"E-eh?"

I snapped him out of his distant expression, making him look at me with bright pink cheeks. His spoon was in his mouth when he turned as well. Cuuuuuute!

"But... w-we have the same ice cream."

"So? I wanna be fed ice cream by you."

"I-isn't that weird..."

"Not really."

I giggled a little as he mumbled that. God, he was too bashful for his own good.

"Here, I'll feed you."

I scooped some soft serve onto my spoon and raised it to Takayuki-chan's mouth. He panicked, backing off.

"A-are... um... a-are you really o-okay with this... S-Shouko-san...?"

"Yeah. Besides, you'll be feeding me in return."

"Um... b-but... it's... an indirect... kiss..."

His voice teetered off as he said "indirect kiss". I giggled, pushing the spoon closer to his blushing face. I knew that this would get a really cute reaction from him.

"What if I wanted it to be that way?"

"U-um... you... wanted... me... e-eh?"

Takayuki-chan's brain stopped working, as he froze up. I laughed, pulling back the spoon and pointing it at my lips.

"Would you prefer if I fed the soft serve through a direct kiss instead?"

"N-no! I-I mean... not like... ah... um... I-I'm sorry I... raised my voice... um..."

At this point, Takayuki-chan's face was completely red as he stumbled and stuttered through his sentence. To stop him, I gently pushed the spoon to his lips, making him eat the soft serve.

"M-Mm!"

"Surprise~"

He swallowed, his face mixing pink and red. Takayuki-chan hiccuped.

"A-ah.. ahhhhh?! S-Shouko-san, w-why did y-you..."

Aww... for some reason, it was really sweet to see him freak out over something little like this. I didn't think an indirect kiss was a big deal, especially since I liked him. But to see him go crazy over it makes me feel like he might like me too.

Though, I'd have to make the first move, wouldn't I? I mean, he's so quiet and shy, there's no way he'd willingly confess if he did have a crush on me.

"Now, it's my turn."

I opened my mouth slightly. Takayuki-chan panicked, scooping ice cream and feeding it to me with a shaky hand.

I ate the chocolate soft serve. I don't think I've felt this happy before in a really long time.

"Mm... tastes even better from your spoon."

As I smiled, he flinched. Even though it a cute expression, his face looked kind of worried or scared.

"Y-you're not mad...?"

"No, of course not. Don't think things like that. I wanted you to feed me."

"O-oh... right... sorry."

"Do you want me to feed you some more~"

"N-no! I-I'm good!"

Takayuki-chan quickly opened his ice candy and ate it. I laughed as his cheeks were puffed up by the candy.

"Hey... can I take a photo of us?"

Somehow swallowing down all the ice candy, Takayuki-chan looked surprised.

"You want... a photo?"

"I mean, it's the first time we've done something like this. I wanna have a photo for memory's sake."

"O-oh... that makes sense..."

"Come closer, I'll take a selfie."

Takayuki-chan scooted closer to me. I took out my phone and flipped the camera. Putting an arm around his shoulder, and my head on his shoulder, he awkwardly positioned his hand on my waist.

"You ready?"

"R-ready..."

"Say cheese!"

"C-cheese."

I took a photo of us eating chocolate soft serve together. He was really cute...

At the end of the day, when we all went home, I went to my apartment and took a bubble bath. Afterwards, I jumped on my bed and checked my gallery. The first image I saw was the picture of me and Takayuki-chan. I set it as my background, and buried my face into my pillow, smiling like an idiot over it.

I'll never forget this memory. It's one of my favourites. I hope one day we'll be together, as a couple.