The two ate an ice cream next to each other without talking, enjoying the sweet artificial taste of the ice cream. Neither of them planned to go to their club first. It might already be part of their habit to do this, and before Yukinoshita or Yui came, they decided to spend their time enjoying their ice cream to the last moment.
"Senpai, how was your summer?" He decided to ask since if he didn't ask, they would stay quiet all the time without asking each other. Even if Hikigaya had become slightly better, at the core, this guy was still the same as ever.
"Nothing special." His eyes were dead. "I just slept, ate, took a bath, played with my cat, and did my homework."
"Oh." Shishio knew he had walked on the landmine, but he didn't care. "It's a lonely summer."
"...how about you?" Hikigaya stopped his urge to smack this bastard up. It wasn't because he was scared and didn't think he would be his opponent. Instead, he was a pacifist and didn't think that violence was correct.
"Hmm... I did a lot of things." He fell into silence and realized that his summer was out of the ordinary.
"Tell me." Hikigaya became curious.
He looked at Hikigaya for a moment and said, "I met three perverts."
"Per-Perverts...?!" Hikigaya was dumbfounded.
"I caught the two of them. One was a flasher who showed his dick in public, and the other was a panties stealer."
"Did you send them to the police?"
"No, I sent them to become a miner."
"...miner? Can you do that?"
"I can." He nodded, then looked at Hikigaya. "So if you don't have a job in the future, you can ask me. I can send you to become a miner or potato farmer. I am sure that before 30, you will die."
'Scary! Scary! Scary!' Hikigaya's face became pale as if blood was drained from it. "No, it's okay. I have decided to become a civil servant and to let the country support my life."
"That's a good choice. By the way, if you want, you can also catch a crab or tuna on the north side. You might die before 30, but the money is great."
"...it's okay. I will just accept your kindness."
"Don't worry. The vacancy is always open for you."
"...." Hikigaya took a deep breath, forcing themselves to calm down, then asked, "What about the last pervert?"
"The last pervert is okay. He is harmless."
"...harmless?"
"Yes. Do you want to see him? He might be happy if you insult him. He is a masochist, by the way."
"Just how did you spend your summer...?" Compared to him, his summer was nothing at all, but Hikigaya was glad that he didn't need to meet such a weird thing during the summer. "By the way, is that all?"
"Hmm... Hina-senpai is my woman now."
"Oh."
Hikigaya nodded, but then he was dumbfounded. "Eh?"
"Hina-senpai is my woman."
"I heard that." His lips twitched, and he thought that this guy was scumbag as ever, which made him sigh. "Only Ebina-san?" He didn't expect that BL girl, who was part of Yui's clique, would become Shishio's harem, but he had to say that she was cute.
"Misaki-senpai."
"You mean.. Kamiigusa-senpai? The genius animator?"
"Yes."
"..." Hikigaya rubbed his temple for a moment, trying to calm himself. "Is that all?"
"Oh, I got a fiancee."
"Fiancee, huh?" Hikigaya nodded, but then his eyes bulged out. "What? Fiancee?!"
"You don't need to worry. The engagement has been canceled."
"Why?"
"Because if I do, it won't be fair to my other women."
"...I see..." Hikigaya sighed. "I thought that you were scum that would stick his dick to any beautiful girl."
"You're not wrong."
"...can you deny it?"
"No, that's the truth after all." He was scum, and he didn't deny that fact. He even targeted the mother of his upperclassman until now, considering they often texted each other when they had nothing to do.
Hikigaya stared at Shishio, and while it was hard to admit, he had to say this guy was handsome.
"That's all?"
"Oh, I just got back from Kyoto." Shishio rummaged through his bag and took out a matcha mochi. "I bought this one from Kyoto. There is only one left, but for you."
"Thanks." Hikigaya smiled, took the mochi, tore the plastic package, and ate it. He could feel the softness of mochi spread in all directions before the bitterness of the matcha and sweetness of the red bean created some kind of harmony that made it impossible for him to stop chewing.
"Is it good?"
"Un."
"There is only one day before it expires, but I guess it is okay."
"....." Hikigaya stared at Shishio with dead eyes, but he gulped the mochi down his throat before he coughed.
"Oi, oi, Senpai. Be careful. It won't be funny if you die because of mochi."
"Then, don't tease me, bastard! Cough! Cough!" Hikigaya had a hard time breathing because of the mochi stuck at the end of his throat!
"Wait for me here. I will get you a drink."
"Ah, um..." Hikigaya wanted to say something, but Shishio had returned.
"Here."
"Thanks," Hikigaya said with all of his might before he drank the mineral water, gulping it down greedily. He let out a long sigh of relief before he stared at Shishio with a complicated gaze. It was like a grudge, yet he felt relief since he was the one who saved his life.
"What are you doing here?"
They turned and saw Yukinoshita and Yui there.
"Yahallo~! It's been a while, everyone~!" Yui greeted them with a smile.
"Yahallo," Shishio answered plainly. "We're just discussing life."
"Yes, life." Hikigaya let out a long sigh.
"You can discuss that later, but for now, let's discuss the movie since our movie production is going to restart today." Yukinoshita grabbed Shishio's hand and pulled him to the clubroom.
"Don't you want to buy an ice cream?"
"Does that choco mint ice cream taste good?"
"Do you want to try it?"
"Let me try it."
However, Yui and Hikigaya were dumbfounded since they didn't expect the two of them would be so close!
---
The four of them were in the clubroom, and Yukinoshita was ready to tell them about the movie, but Yui and Hikigaya were far from ready to do that.
"Yes, Yui-san?"
"Un, are you two dating?" Yui asked nervously
'Oi!' Hikigaya felt that Yui was too blunt.
"Hm... if I have to say our relationship is quite complicated," Yukinoshita said after a moment of thought.
"Complicated?" 2x
"We were engaged to each other before."
"Engaged?!" 2x
Yui and Hikigaya were dumbfounded before they were all looking at Shishio.
"We did." Shishio nodded. "But in the end, we canceled our engagement and started to date each other."
'How?!'
There were many questions in their minds, but they wondered whether they should ask this.
"It's okay if you want to ask. It's not like we keep this matter a secret, and I have always thought of you as a close acquaintance, so I don't want to lie to the two of you."
"Acquaintance, eh?" Hikigaya felt this word perfectly described their relationship. However, Yui wanted more than that.
"Are we not friends, Yukinon?"
Yukinoshita blushed, then said, "Well... it's okay if we use to describe our relationship as a friend..."
"Yukinon!" Yui hugged Yukinoshita happily as she hugged him, but inwardly, she felt quite lonely since she didn't expect that the relationship between Shishio and Yukinoshita would suddenly progress while she didn't know anything.
Yui glanced at Shishio secretly and wondered what she should do with this feeling.
Before they talked about the movie, they talked about how they became lovers. However, Yukinoshita didn't tell everything, especially when she was being kept by her parents without being able to communicate with anyone. It was in public, and she still wanted to keep the image of her parents since this was how she was educated.
Yukinoshita might not want to lie to Yui and Hikigaya, but there was something that she could talk about and couldn't talk about.
While their talk was quite long, neither Yui nor Hikigaya complained since they didn't expect they would be exposed to the life of the upper class, which made them dumbfounded.
"Anyway, that's all. How about we start to talk about the movie?" Yukinoshita said and felt embarrassed since their conversation led to how they could be together. She had to say that she was quite embarrassed and hid behind Shishio to hide her blush.
He had to say that this girl was just an angel.
"....."
Hikigaya and Yui didn't know why, but they felt suffocated to stay in this place for some reason since the aura of love that emitted from their bodies almost overwhelmed them!
"Cough! Cough! Be serious!" Yukinoshita maintained her strict expression. "I know that you might remember what the story of our movie is about, but let me repeat the story first."
"Okay." 3x
They didn't have much of complaints while looking at the script and waiting for Yukinoshita to talk.
"The story is about a girl who is dating a boy, but the boy dies for a certain reason. When the girl visited her boyfriend's funeral, his mother told her that her boyfriend had a childhood friend who was similar to her."
"Er... was the boy in love with that childhood friend, and this girlfriend is just a substitute?"
"The boy is a scumbag."
"..."
Shishio wondered why Yui and Hikigaya were looking in his direction when they said those words.
"We can leave that open, but this story is more about how the girl faces this situation instead of the boy's feelings, but depending on the situation, we can change it." Yukinoshita looked at Yui and said, "Yui-san, you will be the heroine. Is that alright with you?"
"Ye-Yes!" Yui blushed, but she nodded nervously while glancing at Shishio secretly.
"Hikigaya-kun will be the movie crew."
"Oh."
"Shishio-kun is going to be a male actor."
"Okay."
"And I will be the director of this movie."
"Okay." 3x
"So after we have decided all of that, there is something that we need to do."
"What?"
"We have to search for a place where Shishio is going to die."
"...."
Shishio blinked his eyes, and his expression clearly told Yukinoshita, 'Are you serious?'