A bell chimes as three ladies exit a restaurant, the staff on hand calling out a goodnight to them before the door fully closes. Outside, the night sky has finally turned to its darkest hues and stars are just beginning to peek out for the night, only partially obscured by the lights of the town's nightlife. Even at this hour, the Summer heat makes the air considerably warm.
"That was a good dinner," Rika exclaims, patting her full belly as she sighs in content.
"Definitely worth the wait," [Name] comments. Pulling her phone out of her purse, she checks the time illuminated on the screen. "Well, it's starting to get late. I should head home. I'll see you ladies tomorrow at work."
"Ah, actually," Emi says, stepping in [Name]'s direction. "There's something that way I have to take care of before I get home, so I'll walk with you for a bit, [Name]."
Nodding, the two of them say a quick farewell to Rika before parting ways with her. As the two of them walk off in relative silence, only making short small talk here and there, they let the awakening nightlife of the town surround them. Some stores are just shutting off their lights for the night while others are only now opening, offering their specialized services. It takes them a few minutes of walking before they're out of the town and more in the suburban neighborhood where [Name] lives.
"So," [Name] breaks the silence between the two of them as she looks at Emi mischievously. "Who is it you're visiting so late this night? A boyfriend, perhaps?"
Flushing nearly as red as her hair, Emi shakes her head. "No way, [Name]," she objects, trying hard to fight off the blush that is still consuming her face. When [Name] continues to give her a look that says she doesn't believe the redhead, Emi continues. "I just need to check up on a trio of idiots to make sure they haven't killed each other."
"Right," [Name] reluctantly agrees, dragging out the single syllable.
Another silence consumes the two of them and Emi uses this moment to calm herself down, her cheeks returning to their normal color. It takes all but two minutes before [Name] is saying something else.
"He must be cute if you're willing to walk this late for him."
Once again, Emi finds her face engulfed in red; out of embarrassment or anger, she wasn't really sure. She snaps her gaze toward [Name], eyebrows set downward as she glares at her friend. [Name] is laughing heartily at Emi's reaction, her fingers wiping away at a few tears that threatened to spill over her eyes.
"He is the farthest thing from cute," Emi clarifies, her voice going up an octave as she tries to defend herself from her friend's impure and wrong thoughts.
"So he's handsome then? Wow Emi, didn't know you had such good standards for men!"
"Ugh," Emi grunted in annoyance as [Name] continued with her accusations. "Sadao Maou is the farthest thing from cute, handsome, good looking, or any of those things combined. He's a vile creature that needs to be executed and one day I will destroy that bastard!"
An uncomfortable silence consumed the air after Emi's outburst and, as she realized what she had just yelled out into the night, her steady blush began eating its way at the rest of her face. [Name] stared at her with worry and a hint of apology evident in her eyes. As she reached out a hand to place on Emi's shoulder, she tried to find the right words to say in that moment.
"Geez, Emi, sorry to ruffle your feathers so much. I didn't realize…"
[Name] trailed off as she thought about how she should apologize to her friend. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flicker of light before it disappeared. Another flicker joined it and soon three more as well. Turning her attention away from Emi and toward where the lights were turning on and off, a soft gasp escaped her lips.
"Emi, look," she insisted, gently turning her friend toward the lights.
"What are they?" Emi asked, not recognizing the illuminating balls floating through the air.
Another gasp escaped [Name] as she stared at Emi in disbelief. "You've never seen a firefly before?"
An image of a giant creature from Ente Isla that glowed, slashing it way through the darkest forests, setting things ablaze, and eating anything in its path flashed through Emi's mind, causing her to shudder. "Not any that look like this," she admitted. "What do they do?"
"They just sort of fly around glowing like that," [Name] explained, walking forward with her hand outstretched. If she was lucky, maybe one would land on her finger. "Something or another about the chemicals in their little buggy butts doing that; I don't know, I'm not a biologist. They're usually here when Summer arrives."
Emi watched as a few of them finally landed in [Name]'s outstretched hand. She brought them closer, cupping them in her hands and causing their light to set a soft glow upon her cheeks. From this distance, Emi could see the bugs crawling on [Name]'s hands, looking for their way to escape. When they flew away to join their comrades, her eyes couldn't help but follow their nightly dance.
"They're…" Emi paused for thought, looking at the small insects as they waltzed around the air. She could only follow them every time they glowed, so she never knew just how near or far they were. "Cute? I guess."
"Like Sadao Maou?"
Emi huffed, stalking off as [Name] trailed after her, apologizing behind her laughter.