The day before, Hayner had refused to stay at the beach because he'd seen Seifer there. Olette couldn't help but wonder if maybe he was taking his rivalry with the other boy too far; his presence was no reason to deny the three of them a fun time.
The day before, Seifer had refused to stay at the beach because he'd seen Hayner there. Fuu secretly thought that it was ridiculous, but didn't deny that the other boy's presence would definitely have lessened the amount of fun the three of them would have.
The day before, Olette had tried to talk him into staying. "Hayner, c'mon, just ignore him. You've been wanting to do this for ages." But the protest had fallen on deaf ears and Hayner had led the way back to the Usual Spot.
The day before, Fuu had tried to urge him to not turn around and leave. "Ignore. ...Not worth it." But there had been too much Hayner too soon and Seifer had led the way back to the Sandlot.
Pence understood what Hayner was saying and what Olette was saying. Rai did, too. But neither of them said anything - Pence because he was happy to be with his friends whether they were at the beach or not, Rai because he knew by now that pushing the issue would make Seifer annoyed. Olette knew that they could have fun elsewhere, so she gave up. Fuu knew that if Seifer wasn't going to stick around after the gentle protest, he didn't really want to, so she gave up too.
The six of them had found themselves on the same train back. How awkward.
The six of them had spent the rest of their daylight hours doing the same things they always did. How boring.
Chattering, wandering around, ending their day with ice cream while sitting on the clock tower's ledge. Sparring, patrolling the town, ending their day with ice cream outside the train station's doors.
It was funny how even though they'd tried to avoid each other, they'd ended up bathed in the same light as the sun went down.
