One day after the Sister-School Goodwill Event.
"I never thought you'd be the reason I lost, Amanai."
Satoru Gojo scratched his head, raking his fingers through his hair as he shot a disgruntled look at the expressionless Ze Zenin beside him. "You actually brought Amanai, a twenty-five-year-old girl in the prime of her youth..."
Before he could finish, Riko Amanai angrily swung a fist at the endlessly chattering Satoru Gojo. "What's that supposed to mean? Are you calling me old?"
"Well, you are," Satoru Gojo persisted. "You're only two or three years younger than me, Amanai, aren't you?"
Riko Amanai fell silent and looked pleadingly at Suguru Geto.
Suguru Geto pressed a hand to his forehead in resignation and dragged Satoru Gojo away. "Gojo, Amanai is our guest, after all. We should at least..."
"Like I give a damn!"
The only people in the room were those from Satoru Gojo's school days. Even he failed to notice that he had slipped from his usual polite self-reference back into his rougher old manner of speech.
Riko Amanai chased the grumbling Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto out, as though they were back on the beach that summer.
Deep down, Riko Amanai was grateful to those two. They were the ones who had given her the right to choose.
That summer, as the kayak glided across the clear water, she had dipped her hand into the lake, feeling the beauty of the world and the coolness amid the scorching summer heat.
Holding her maid Kuroi's hand, she had admired fields of jasmine and watched the breeze stir scattered clusters of palm trees. Gojo and Geto had stayed behind them without intruding.
The seaside at sunset had been filled with boundless tenderness. In Okinawa, she had shared a steaming meal of ramen with the