Junpei paused from splashing Fuuka and Yukari long enough to ask Akihiko something that had been bugging him. "Why do you wear a shirt to the beach, anyway?"
"Why the hell shouldn't I?" Akihiko held up a hand to deflect the salt-water from his eyes when the girls' counter-attack came.
"Well…it just seems stupid, that's all. I mean, I've seen you…you're ripped. You shy or something?" Junpei grinned.
Akihiko sighed. "If you must know, I burn easily."
"Oh…I guess that makes sense. All you need is red eyes instead of gray and you'd be an albino."
Akihiko cut short Junpei's snickering with a face full of sea water. Then he faded unobtrusively back to the shore, where Mitsuru was already curled up under a beach umbrella.
He stood a little distance away, to all appearances watching the younger students as they continued to splash each other and fling innocent insults. In reality his protective glance was bent on the girl to his right. "…how are you today?"
Mitsuru, also, didn't seem to be speaking or looking at him. Facing towards the ocean, she answered "I'm just fine." A little soreness remained, but it was nothing she couldn't handle. It was even rather nice to have such a concrete reminder of what had happened before. "I should be asking you. I know I was a little…"
Akihiko shook his head and straightened his back unconsciously. Beneath the white S.O.S. shirt he wore the scratches she had given him last night. Like Mitsuru, he had no wish to part with the mild pain they gave him.