Getting Along with Airi

Curled up on a moss-speckled boulder, Sakura Airi held her camera bag on her knees, trembling slightly. White mist drifted from her lips in the moonlight, hazy and indistinct. Her nose was red from the cold, like a ripe strawberry.

"The moon is beautiful tonight."

Following the familiar voice, Airi looked over. Sakamoto gazed up at the sky with a warm smile, and when his eyes fell on Airi, they softened further. He stood only half a meter away.

"Shunichi...!"

Sakura Airi turned and gently threw herself into Sakamoto's arms. The moonlight happened to spill over her eyelashes, gathering into two trembling pools in her eyes. She did not spare a glance for the camera bag she had knocked over or the film rolls scattered across the ground.

Airi pressed her forehead to his chest, drawing comfort through his shirt. Her knuckles were pale from gripping her camera for so long, cold and fragile.

"I knew you would come. I've been... waiting for you all this time."

Sakamoto froze for a moment before gently wrapping an arm around her waist and reaching up to rub the top of her head. Neither of them spoke for a long while.

"Can't sleep? Is it because you don't like it here?"

Sakura shook her head slightly and picked up the camera and film rolls from the ground.

"It feels like I'm all alone. It's a little... hard to get used to."

Sakamoto lowered his gaze and took Sakura Airi's icy hand in his, warming it with his own body heat.

"If your friends heard you say that, they'd be sad."

Airi actually gave it serious thought—

"Would they really? Hasebe isn't that kind of person."

Would saying that make her friends dislike her? Airi was puzzled, but Hasebe certainly would not say something like, "How dare you, Airi? We're done being friends!"

Completely focused on the question, Sakura Airi failed to notice the smile tugging at the boy's lips.

But Airi quickly realized she was being teased as though she were a younger schoolgirl. It was too embarrassing!

Her cheeks, already rosy from the cold, grew even hotter.

"Shunichi, you're doing it again."

Airi puffed out her cheeks in anger, round and red like a Fuji apple.

Sakamoto's eyes curved with amusement as he stood atop the boulder, looking at the adorable Airi.

There was a moon in the sky, and another in his eyes.

But the wind was unwilling to cooperate, howling past with a bone-deep chill.

"Ah-choo!"

Airi sneezed uncontrollably, hunching her shoulders and wrapping her arms around herself. The nighttime temperature was far lower than it had been during the day.

"Want to go back and rest?"

Sakamoto pointed toward the Class D campsite a hundred meters away.

The girls were all resting in one enormous tent.

Covering her mouth, Airi looked at Sakamoto with wide, round eyes. There was no one in them but him.

Sakamoto understood immediately.

He put on a mysterious expression and said,

"I know a place where we can be alone."

Airi looked curious.

Without another word, Sakamoto took Airi's hand and led her north.

They crossed the beach, passed through the dense woods, and approached the stream they had discovered during the day.

The temperature had already fallen into the single digits.

Though the moonlight was bright, the ground here was narrow and steep, unlike the open flatland. The dark stream in the night radiated a piercing chill.

The stream burbled between the pebbles. Sakamoto's boot brushed aside a clump of weeds by the bank, revealing a small channel in the flattened grass where the water swirled.

The moment Sakura Airi stepped onto the wet mud by the stream, she saw the boy bend down to pick up three pebbles and casually stack them over a depression in the earth by the water's edge.

So Sakamoto has such a boyish side too~~

Airi was delighted to learn more about Sakamoto. At the same time, she wondered whether she should simply jump across. Her delicate fingers swayed by her lips as she let out a dreamy little laugh.

"Ah, ah~"

Sakamoto's sudden movement of bending down made Sakura cry out. By the time she realized what had happened, she was already being carried in the boy's arms.

Moonlight poured down from an angle.

All she could see was Sakamoto Shunichi's resolute jawline.

Is he... going to carry me across the stream, Shunichi?

Airi could not help closing her eyes, eagerly anticipating what the boy she loved would do.

Yet the scene was not at all as Sakura Airi had imagined.

Sakamoto merely took one step with his left foot and one with his right, then set Airi down again.

"Huh?" The girl opened her eyes, her gaze filled with confusion.

"What's wrong?"

Sakamoto turned to look at Airi.

Airi looked at Sakamoto in confusion, while Sakamoto calmly met Sakura Airi's gaze, his eyes sincere.

That one-sided earnest gaze made Airi feel a little embarrassed instead.

"N-Nothing~"

Sakamoto nodded and looked ahead.

Several flat stones in the middle of the stream served as a "bridge."

If it had been daytime, they would have been able to see the traces of mud clinging to the stones. Before this, they had simply been honest old rocks on the mountain.

"Watch out for the moss." He supported Sakura by the elbow to help her jump over the slippery spots, his other hand held behind his back.

"Heh, heh."

Holding her breath, Sakura tensed slightly and crossed the stream with great effort, focusing on the stones beneath her feet one step at a time. At last, she reached the other bank.

"I did it!"

Sakura patted her chest to calm her heartbeat before turning back toward Sakamoto on the other side of the stream, her face blooming into a sweet smile.

"You did great!"

Sakamoto crossed the stream with leisurely ease, as if walking on level ground, and soon appeared before Sakura.

Sakura: "That was amazing!"

Coming to Sakura's side, he looked at her puzzled little head, reached out to pat it, and said in all seriousness,

"Airi is amazing too."

"Shunichi is even more amazing."

A sweet smile returned to Airi's face as she lightly hooked her arm around Sakamoto's right arm.

They passed through a small stretch of woodland filled with slender trees no more than twenty years old.

Before them lay vast waves of green, swaying in the midnight breeze.

Starlike green lights emerged among the cornfield. They were fireflies.

"So much corn~ And glowing fireflies too."

Airi marveled at the magical sight before her.

Only then did she notice a small patch of tomatoes nearby.

Sakamoto lifted the drooping vines, and dark-red fruits peeked out through the leaves, their skins beaded with dew like crystal-studded lanterns.

"These are also called tomatoes." Sakamoto's fingertips brushed over the serrated leaves, and the movement of the plant startled the fireflies resting beneath them.

His cool explanation suddenly caught in his throat. He had realized something was a little off.

Airi rose onto her tiptoes and craned her neck to get a clearer look at the tomatoes. The startled fireflies actually landed on her sleeve.

In an instant, Sakura Airi froze completely in place. Only her eyes continued to move, following the firefly's every motion.

"F-Firefly..."

Sakura's tiny voice trembled without stopping, the girl's fear plain to see.

Ordinarily, or rather, as a friend, Sakamoto Shunichi should have stepped in to help a poor little girl frightened of bugs.

But unfortunately,

Young Master Sakamoto was afraid of bugs too—