Of course, the idols were Rinse and Chiana. Ishi wasn't anticipating seeing either of them here at this shop. The latter of which especially. The two of them had come into this shop as it was a really popular location for beach goers to get some way to cool off from the heat. The fact that they had chosen to eat here as well shouldn't come as a surprise to many.
The owner of this establishment was certainly glad that a pair of idols, one of which was very popular, had entered his store. This also led to the large number of people now checking it out thanks to them.
"Wow, you really brought a lot of business here." He said them as they got up to order. "How about I give you a couple of bowls, on the house."
"Oh please, we couldn't possibly just take it for free." Rinse declined the offer. When she did so, Chiana followed suit. From the way they talked and acted, it seemed that neither of them had noticed Ishi and others were already inside. As a result, he covered his face a bit to not be seen by either of them.
"What's wrong?" Youna was the first to notice him do so. As she was sitting across from him and generally spending a little bit too much of her time looking at him.
"Just don't want those idols to see me, that's all." He replied. Unfortunately, there was someone at this table that did want the idols to spot them.
"Hey, Rinse!" Ryugi greeted them from across the room. "Who's your friend there?"
"Hmm? Ryugi?" Rinse looked over to the table, then spotted that both Ishi and Youna were hanging out with her. "Wow, can't believe we ran into each other like this."
"Yeah, what a coincidence." Ishi groaned as his cover was blown. "What about you Chiana?" He asked the other idol, which surprised everyone else to hear that he knew her name. Not only that, but he called her that so casually.
"I'm always having a wonderful day." She responded with the high energy expected of a rising idol. He wondered why she came here, especially while pretending to be Chiana rather than just sticking as Chinae. As it turned out, Youna wasn't the only person going out of their way to invite others. Rinse wanted to have some fun with her close friend outside of the studio.
"Eh? How does Hirose know who that is?" Someone else asked. It seemed that his life was now dominated by people just being shocked that he somehow had a social life.
"Is he really friends with two idols?"
"Yes!" He yelled out in frustration. "I know two idols, but I only know of Chiana because of Rinse. That's it." When these people were out of his life, then he would know peace once more. Whether that would happen ever again in his lifetime was another question. Sure fame fades, but would he ever part from the people around him? According to Ishi's mindset, yes. After all, that's what his college plan was modeled with.
"Plus, Hirose is a good guy. That's what Rinse tells me anyway." It seemed that Chinae wanted to back him up on this matter. He couldn't determine if this was because of his knowledge of her situation. Or did she have another personal reason?
Unfortunately, her kind words did little to aid in his current circumstances. If anything, his fellow classmates were now more jealous about his apparent fortune to be close to so many idols. Even though it was only just two.
"This is what I was worried about." He got up from his seat, now finished with his bowl of ice cream. "I'm sorry for this, but I'm going to leave now." Ishi thanked the store owner for the meal as he tossed the trash and began to head for the exit.
"Wait." A hand grabbed him by the arm. Since he lacked a shirt, it was the best spot that could be touched instead of a sleeve. "I don't want you to go away." It was Rinse, who looked at him with sad eyes. She barely been able to see him all day, and the girl really wanted to be able to spend some time with him. The problem was that the crowd made it hard for her to choose between her personal and professional feelings.
"Of course you shouldn't leave now." Chiana took the chance to turn this conversation around by taking his hand as well. "It would be a shame if you missed out on some of the fun we had planned." That didn't sound like it would bode well, but the boy couldn't resist asking what they wanted to do on a nice beach. Especially considering which beach they happened to choose as their destination.
The crowd had decided after they had enjoyed some ice confections, that they'd do what was considered a rite of passage for teenagers. A bit of a test of courage which involved taking a dangerous leap. They were to take a dive off a spot known as the oni's peak.
In reality, it wasn't something all that dangerous at all. It was merely only about a 10 meter drop from the peak to the waters underneath. That was barely more than what one would find at their local swimming pool, should it have a diving board.
"Rinse wants to make sure that no one gets let behind when we do it." Chiana finished her explanation. The other people in the crowd seemed to be staring at him, as if trying to bait him into doing it. Otherwise, the boy would end up being branded a coward. This irritated him, not because they would be making fun of him. But only because he had actually done this some years ago with Otoya and clearly people needed to be proven wrong.
"I guess I can join you all." He relented. "Besides, one of us needs to make sure someone doesn't do anything stupid and get themselves killed." Even if it was actually more safe than people put it out to be. That didn't mean making giant leaps into the ocean, especially after eating, had no risk associated with it.
So that's what happened as the group bought all the treats they wanted. Everyone soon began to make their way to the infamous peak, but this was also when Ishi noticed something, or rather someone, missing. "Hey, where's Otoya?"
"I don't know. I thought he was with you?" The pair had assumed that he was with the other. After all, Ishi was his best friend and Rinse had become the object of his affection lately.
"Achoo!" A sneeze surprised them a little as they walked along the boardwalk. It sounded like someone from the beach either caught a cold, or that someone had been talking about them without their presence.
"Oh don't tell me…" Ishi muttered to himself as he hopped onto the sand to find the sound of the noise. He headed towards something that was sticking out from the ground, which turned out to be the head of Otoya of all people. "What happened to you!?" The boy was trapped into the ground of the beach, and there was blood in front of him.
"Hey Ishi, mind getting me out of here?" He asked. It was near impossible for his hands to dig out this sand that was covered up to his neck. The boy had been doing some regular things on the beach with some friends when Rinse made her arrival. When she showed up, a lot of people ended forgot about him to spend time with her. It was very unlucky that they had just finished burying him in the sand when she came along.
"That must've really sucked." He responded as he got to digging out his friend.
"Not really." Otoya chuckled in a devious manner. "Down here, I got some nice views of our lovely lady's long legs and bottoms." That explained why there was so much blood here now. His friend never ceased to amaze him in mysterious ways.
After he took him from the sand, Ishi explained to the boy what was going on. "Wow, so everyone's finally going to take the plunge." He reminisced the day when he did the same thing with Ishi. "It's really not as impressive as they make it out to be."
"It was really disappointing." Ishi only did it because Otoya pushed him down first. He was so angry about it, that they ended up not talking to each other for a week. "You better not do that again to anyone."
"Relax, I only did it because it was you."
"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" After collecting the boy and adding him into the group. They joined the others who had already arrived at the peak. As expected, it was still shaped in the same manner as before when they were last here. It was a strip of land that stuck out towards the waters, not as a pointy peak. More like it was a plank that people would see old timey pirate use in the movies. There was enough room for two people to stand side-by-side if there were pairs that wanted to take the plunge together.
The waves underneath seemed rather calm. Ishi knew that it was deep at the diving spot, so there shouldn't be anyone getting injuries by shallow water with hard rocks.
Already there were people getting themselves hyped in the excitement as they licked their ice cream cones. Soon there would be screams and cheers and his classmates threw themselves from the cliff for fun.
Today was going to test the bravery of everyone here, some more than others. In Ishi's mind, it was his responsibility to prevent any possible tragedies from occurring, no matter how unlikely that was to happen. What he didn't know was how vital he was going to be for a certain person's life.