Chapter 95: A Concrete Connection

In the middle of filling their stomachs while moving around food stalls, Fuyuka suddenly stopped in her tracks.

“Why don’t we do that together?”

She was pointing at a goldfish scooping stall.

As they approached, they were greeted cheerfully by the man who was manning the stall.

As they paid, received their scoop, and lowered their posture, a cool air drifted all over.

A large number of goldfish were cramped in a children’s pool, among the red fishes, the gold and black fishes were swimming about as if they were lost.

“Hey, Chi-kun! Didn’t yours get torn up so fast?”

“Hmm, weird. I heard that goldfish scooping was all about momentum.”

“No, no, no. Let me demonst…”

“Ah, It got torn.”

“Arghhhhh! Uncle! Give me another one!”

Chiaki and Hinami seemed to have already started playing, and were eager to scoop one up somehow.

“They seem very into it.”

 

“They’re like that for everything.”

 

Fuyuka crouched next to Asahi, and replied with a gesture of agreement.

“Have you ever done this before, Fuyuka?”

“A few times when I was little. I couldn’t scoop one, but they gave me one.”

“Ah, you mean when they just gave it to you for free?”

“I kept looking at the little goldfish swimming in a clear plastic bag.”

Looking back nostalgically, Fuyuka elegantly rolled up the sleeves of her yukata.

Gently approaching the surface of the water, a shadow covered a small goldfish that had strayed from the school.

With a snap, the tail fin splashed the water, causing ripples to spread.

However, there was no goldfish there.

“I got one.”

 

Fuyuka smiled, looking half surprised and half happy.

“Isn’t that great? It’s the first one you’ve ever got.”

 

“But a second one will be difficult. It’s almost torn.”

Then, Fuyuka looked down at the goldfish swimming in the bowl.

Maybe it was looking for its group, it kept circling the same spot over and over again.

Asahi heard a whisper, “Catch and release.”

“You’re letting it go?”

 

“I’m sure it’s lonely by itself.”

The goldfish returned to its original location and swam towards the school at a glance.

“So, how good are you, Asahi-kun?”

“You beat my best record just now.”

 

“So, you’ve never succeeded before?”

 

Following Fuyuka’s example, he slowly and shallowly inserted the scoop into the water.

The goldfish sensed the danger and started to run away, but he lifted it up to prevent it from doing so, and a weight was added onto his arm. At the same time, he felt a sudden loss of strength.

With a splash of water, only the plastic framework of the scoop remained.

“I guess It’s my win.”

“Since when did this become a competition?”

“You said if I win, you’d listen to my demands.”

 

“I never said anything like that.”

When Asahi hurriedly shook his head, Fuyuka smiled in an amused way.

He could see that she was enjoying the summer festival and was upbeat.

“What’s this, what’s this, you couldn’t scoop anything, Asahi?”

“We caught three, you know!”

 

“That’s good to know. So, how many times did you guys try?”

“…Who knows?”

“…Tw- no, three times…?”

 

When Asahi asked the two, they told him that they had tried five times in total. They said they only managed to scoop up one of them, and the other two were just for show.

It seemed that Hinami was responsible for raising the goldfish, and she was already trying to name it.

“And so! We’re going home for a bit!”

 

“Yeah, yeah… What?”

“Y-you’re leaving?!”

 

They were still in the middle of the summer festival, and the fireworks display was yet to come.

Both Chiaki and Hinami must have been looking forward to it, but what was the meaning of the sudden announcement to go home?

“I thought I’d drop off the goldfish at my place near here. It’s hard to move around like this.”

“I can’t leave her alone, so I’ll accompany her.”

 

“Then you shouldn’t have brought them in the first place.”

“I mean, they’re just so cute!”

“Besides,” Hinami continued.

“We’ve had enough fun with the four of us!”

Asahi sensed her hidden intentions and sighed.

The fireworks display was only thirty minutes away.

It would take some time to meet up in this crowd, but they just went on their way without making any promises to meet up.

“Those two are really carefree.”

“Isn’t that what’s great about them?”

“Well, maybe so.”

 

Asahi reluctantly accepted their help.

“Since we’re already here, let’s just have some fun together.”

“Then I’d like to try the shooting gallery.”

 

“Sounds good, I won’t lose this time.”

 

“A competition then?”

On the way to their destination, laughing with each other, they almost bumped into people left and right, in front and behind them.

Each time, the distance between him and Fuyuka became closer and farther, and eventually he almost lost sight of her, so Asahi reached out his hand.

Not grabbing a sleeve, not grasping a fingertip, but touching that tiny palm and wishing for a connection.

“…..!”

 

There was a moment of silence as they moved forward.

Fuyuka turned her head, fiddled with her bangs, and accepted it while her ears turned red.

“That surprised me, grabbing it so suddenly.”

 

“My bad, we almost got seperated.”

 

Thinking about it, maybe he really just wanted to hold her hands like this.

Perhaps his feelings were already being conveyed, because a gentle force was added onto Asahi’s hand.

“…Please don’t let go.”

 

“You got it.”

 

The festival came alive and people were bustling.

This heat was a unique atmosphere, different from that of summer.