A few minutes later he passed through the inner courtyard and arrived at the first front door.
His cousins still weren't there so Haruto decided to wait for them.
Not like he had any other choice if he didn't want to raise suspicions against himself.
He didn't need to wait as long as he had anticipated.
Soon after Taro and Yoko arrieved, both carrying strand bags.
They had changed theier clothes thought.
Taro wore a turquoise sleeveless shirt with the picture of a surfer printed at it and short green trousers and had a black cap on his head.
Yoko instead had changed into a pink sundress adored with a small white ribbon in the middle of the upper seam of it.
Besides that she had put on a big white sunhat with a pink ribbon matching her dress.
Both of the twins had thongs on theier feet's, Taro blue ones, Yoko pink ones.
Haruto with his black sneakers seemed a bit out of place between these two.
When Taro noticed him he nodded then just passed by to lead the way.
Then he suddenly stopped, so that Haruto and Yoko also needed to stop aprubtly, put down his backpack and searched through it.
Afterwards he turned around to face Haruto.
„This is my spare one. You can use it until you get yourself one.", he said while extending his right hand in which he held a blue cap.
For a moment Haruto was puzzled.
This never happened befor, in none of his past lifes.
He just stood were, staring at Taros hand with the cap for a few seconds.
Then he snapped out of it, took the cap and thanked Taro.
His cousin turned around, saying it was no big deal, but he could see how his cheeks flushed a bit.
He truly is a nice guy, Haruto thought to himself.
Even during his past lifes his cousin had always been one to help the people around him if they needed help.
The only one he had tried avoid helping was Haruto.
It's no wonder, thought, since he has always hated me, he thought while slowly walking behind his cousins who were talking and laughing with each other.
It wasn't long till they arrieved at the part of the beach there the twins and theier friends wanted to meet up.
Haruto first noticed that they had almost arrieved from the special scent of the sea filling the air.
That scent made out of water and salt and a hint of old fish.
Of course almost everythere on the island the scent was in the air a bit but it was only faintly just how it gets weaker the further you get away from the water.
The next thing he noticed was the sound of the waves.
Splash, woosh, Splash.
They builded up while going towards the beach only to break down again then reaching it, continuing in an ifinitiv circle.
During his many lifes the sound of the waves had always calmed Haruto down, since they always stayed the same.
No matter what happend during a life they weren't affected by it.
Strong and weak, unchanging and always in constant change.
In a way they reminded him of himself.
He was still the same person he was in his first life but at the same time he had changed so much through everything he experieced.
For the blink of an eye a smile hushed over his face then he thougth about it.
Then his mind wandernd again, returning to more recent memories.
From his room he was also able to hear that sound since his uncles house was almost directly in front of the beach.
No it was infront of it.
Only the back garden and a small cliff were between the beach and his uncles house.
But then the three of them had left they had gone in the opposite direction, away from the beach, towards the middle of the village, befor taking a sharp turn to the right to get to theier meeting point.
That's there another part of the beach was, the one there most peopel went to bath and spend theier time there.
After they went around a corner the three could see the single road leading towards that part of the beach which, at the end, turned into a way made out of wood, befor ending in the sand.
At the point there the road turned into a wooden way a group of kids stood, talking, while looking out for the road.
It were two boys and a girl, all carrying strand bags.
The first boy had short curly ligth brown hair, tanned skin, a common face and brown eyes.
His statur was rather small and skinny.
He wore a yellow T-shirt, black trousers and black thongs.
The second boy had very short dark brown hair, from which only stubbles remaind, tanned skin, a round face and grey eyes.
His statur was the opposite of the first boy, being large and huge with broad shoulders.
He was a bit round as well.
He wore a sleveless dark green T-shirt, matching trousers and a dark green cap.
The thongs on his feet were black.
The girl had long straigth black hair, only a tad tanned skin, grey eyes, a stern face and glasses.
She wore a ligth blue T-shirt, short dark blue trousers and dark blue thongs.
Befor Haruto and his cousins reached the group, Yoko started waving her hands and Taro called out to the boys.
„Hey, Yoshi, Minato!"
The two boys and the girl found them and went towards them.
The two groups met halfway.
„I'm so happy to see you, Kanae. Where is Naomi?", Yoko asked the girl, after the two of them hugged.
Taro instaed had given his two friends a high five.
Haruto stood a bit behind the others, looking at them.
Of course he already knew who they were.
The girl was Kanae Agari.
She was really smart and during Harutos many lifes she had often competented with him over the first place in written exams.
Yoko had often called her a walking dictionary.
The small boy was Yoshi Koga.
He was always the class clown who made everyone laugh.
Instead his grades were only in the middle and sometimes even quite bad.
But somehow he still never needed to repeat a year, which was a mystery to Haruto.
The other boy was Minato Ebara.
His mother liked cooking and was really good at it, thats why Minato was a bit rounder then other kids.
Still, he was quite strong so there weren't many kids who dared to go against him.
His grades were only in the middle, but a year from now he had always found his love and talent for karate, which migth have been another reason no one opposed him.
Kanae was about to answer Yokos question then a voice suddenly shouted: „I'm sorry, I'm late. My mother wanted me to go shopping with her and it took a while to explain that I'm already meeting with you."
Then the group turned around they saw a girl running towards them.
The girl had long blond hair flying behind her.
With one hand she held her straw hat wich was adored with a apricot colored ribbon.
Her summer dress had the same apricot color thougth there were pale purpel flowers on it.
Her skin was only a tad tanned, she had a small face, and she had big, round, blue eyes.
Then she reached the group she was out of breath and shored at her knees.
Then she looked up and smiled at her friends.
Yoko and Kanae exchanged a glance then bursted into laugher.
„You don't need to run all the way. We will wait for you so don't worry!", Yoko said.
Kanae nodded, to support her words.
Naomi left out a sigh of relief, smiling even brigther.
Taro stepped forward that moment and greeted her as well.
The other boys just gave a nod.
Then Naomi had gatherd her breath again she looked around the group.
Her eyes fell on Haruto who was standing a bit away, so that he woudn't interrupt the group of friends.
„Who are you?", Naomi asked him.
Only now did the other kids look at him too.
Haruto opend his mouth to answer, but Taro interrupted him.
„He is our cousin, Haruto Kohara, who will be living with us starting today.", he said.
Haruto nodded sligthly as a greeting glancing over the group again, while watching theier expressions.
They all looked rather surprised and intrested, only Naomi gave him a brigth smile.
„I'm Naomi Hashizume. You can just call me Naomi. Nico to meet you.", she said.
In almost all of Harutos memorys of her she was smiling brigthly, looking at others happily.
She was friendly and had quite good grades.
Moreover she was loved by everyone.
Thougth her name was japanese she was born in Europe from there her mother was.
Taros voice pulled Haruto out of his thougths.
„…dad said. But we had already decided to go to the beach today after all."
„I think giving him a tour around the island would also be fun.", Naomi answerd.
The others were also dicussing giving theier own arguments about what to do now.
Oh, this conversation is about me, Haruto realised.
He stopped his mind from wandering and focused on the conversation again.
The others had come to a compromise by know.
„So, we will go along the beach towards the fishermen's death. Once we find a nice spot at the beach we will stop there and go swim. On the way back we will show Kohara the village. As for the rest, we can show him tomorrow.", Kanae summarised.
The others nodded, then glanced at Haruto to ask him.
He also nodded, thinking that migth be a good idea.
Then all of them started walking, down the wooden way to the beach.
Once they reached the sand they only needed to go two more steps.
Then the dunes gave way and they could finally see the sea.
Haruto stood were in awe for a moment.
Through his countless lives he had seen the sea so often but it still was awesome in this moment again.
It's endless beautiful blue wich got darker the further away it was, was reflecting the ligth of the sun seeming as if thousands of crystals of ligth were at it.
The waves builded up and crashed down again, looking as if they were dancing, moving the sparkyling crystals around.
At the nearest part of the sea the waves clashed down turning into white foam, which then disapperd in the blue water again.
At the buoys the water seemed to be in a tourquise line, behind which they could see a few ships sailing in the sea.
Seagulls there flying over the water of the sea and the sand of the beach, letting out theier personal seagull crys.
Far away from the beach, at the horizon to be exact, the ligth blue sky met the dark blue sea.
Haruto snapped out of admiring the beauty of the sea and only then did he notice the peopel swimming in the water and the colorful beach towels lying around.
Even thougth it was quite early were already was a number of peopel at the beach.
That must be why they want to search for a good place first, Haruto thougth, following his cousins and theier friends down the beach.
Then they almost reached the line there the sand met the water, the others streaked theier shoes from theier feets, going into the water.
Only now did Haruto see, that the water here was completely clear, making it possible to see the sea ground with lots of shells lying around, thougth that wasn't possible further away from the beach.
Haruto stopped for a moment, looking at his sneakers, then he shruged his shoulders and took of his shoes and socks.
The others had already gone ahead a bit, walking parallel to the sea.
He walked faster until he was right behind Minato, who was walking in the back, again.
Then he matched his pace with the others.
While walking he viewed the sea.
The others were talking, laughing, but Haruto focused on the sound of the waves.
The group kept walking further away from the peopel who already were at the beach, looking out for a quite spot.
Then Haruto noticed that someone was looking at him.
He turned his head in the direction and found, that Naomi had switched places with Minato, walking in front of him now.
He put his head to the side, wondering, why she wasn't walking next to Yoko anymore.
Naomi looked at him, then she opens her mouth to ask him something.