Chapter 4: To the Beach
Wheee!
Ayako blew her whistle. "All right, practice time is over! Gather around here!"
"Good job, Kogure." said Mitsui, as he tossed the basketball at his friend.
"Arigato," said Kogure, catching the ball and smiling.
"All right, we are in pretty good shape today. Keep this up and we will able to beat Kirameki High School from Hokkaido and head straight to battle Apollo Collage from Tokyo!" said Ayako excitedly.
"Kirameki High?" said Mitsui and smiled in confidence. "They are one weak team, we sure could beat them."
"Now, basketball matters aside. Since the game against Kirameki won't be taking place until 2 weeks later and we have done well in our last game, why don't we take a break this weekend?" asked Ayako, winking. "My uncle owns a bungalow near the beach."
"Will you be going?" asked Miyagi.
"Of course." said Ayako.
Miyagi grinned. "I want to go!"
"I don't want to, too boring." said Rukawa coolly.
The boys decided to ignore him.
"What about Haruko?" asked Sakuragi, looking at his crush hopefully.
"Well, there're too much boys over there…" said Haruko slowly.
Sakuragi panicked. He would bore to death if Haruko didn't want to go to beach! Then he thought of something.
"No problem!" said Sakuragi and slapped Kogure's back. "Oi, Megane-kun, why don't you ask that girlfriend of yours to come along? Then there will be three girls instead of two."
Kogure blushed furiously.
"Eh? Kogure, I didn't know you have a girlfriend." said Ayako, slightly interested.
"She isn't my girlfriend!" said Kogure, embarrassed.
"What's her name?" asked Haruko.
"Hiroko." said Mitsui, Sakuragi and Miyagi before Kogure could speak.
"She's very pretty." added Mitsui.
"Good, I would love to meet a new friend." said Haruko.
"Very well, ask Hiroko-san to come along." said Ayako.
"I don't think she can go…" started Kogure, afraid to think what the hot weather could do to Hiroko, especially at the beach.
"Ask her." said the boys (minus Rukawa, who was clearly not interested), all with a threatening look on their faces.
Kogure swallowed nervously.
He was about to say no when he remembered Hiroko's comment about her parents about them not letting her to take part in anything that excite her.
"A-all right… I will ask her." said Kogure.
The boys smiled in satisfaction.
"Ne, Hiroko…" started Kogure the next day at the library.
"Hm?" asked Hiroko as she did her homework.
"What will you be doing during your summer vacation?" asked Kogure.
"Same as always, stay indoors." said Hiroko, smiling. "I will probably paint over a dozen of paintings by the time the vacation is over. My parents won't allow me to go out during summer vacation."
"Have they ever made an exception?"
"Most of time they let me to go out with my cousin, but he lives too far away, so he seldom asks me out." said Hiroko. "Why?"
"Eh… it's my friends, they, um, want to know whether you want to join us for a beach outing…" said Kogure slowly.
Hiroko's eyes widened. Then she said in delight, "I would love to go!"
"You would?" asked Kogure happily. Then he frowned. "But your parents…"
Hiroko's smile faded. "Oh yeah…"
Silence.
Then Kogure thought of something. "Chotto matte, I think I have a plan…"
The first weekend of summer vacation came and Hiroko stayed at home. She had told her parents about the beach outing and she was not surprised that they forbade her to go.
Regardless, Hiroko packed the things that she needed for the outing and waited in her bedroom. She looked at the clock, 1pm.
Ding Dong.
Hiroko jumped up from her bed and went to the bedroom door. She opened her door slightly and looked out.
"Hai!" called Mrs Gouhara. She went to the door and opened it.
Mrs Gouhara was startled to see so many youngsters standing outside her door. All of them were wearing their casual clothes and with travelling bags in their hands. One of them even had a beach umbrella. All of the boys were very tall and they were carrying a basketball and volleyball.
"Konnichiwa, Obasan," said Ayako politely. "Is Hiroko home?"
"Hai. You are…."
Kogure came forward. "We are friends of Hiroko." he started. "We are heading to the beach and we're here to fetch her."
"Oh… Gomen ne, kids, but I don't think she could come along with you." said Mrs Gouhara apologetically.
Kogure remained silent while his friends went, "Eh! Why!"
"Because…" Mrs Gouhara looked uncomfortable. "Well, she can't."
"Why?" asked Miyagi.
"Err…" began Mrs Gouhara when her husband came to the door and said, "My daughter is sick. She can't go to the beach with you."
"She looked fine when we saw her yesterday." argued Mitsui.
"It's different, she has a hole in her heart, she can't go to such places like you people. She will suffer under the heat." said Mr Gouhara.
"Not unless we take care of her. We won't let her to do anything that's too tough for her." said Sakuragi.
"Keep going, guys." encouraged Hiroko.
"No." said Mr Gouhara firmly.
Hiroko bit her lip in desperation.
Kogure took a deep breath and said calmly, "Gouhara-san, I understand why you don't want your daughter to go to the beach with us. It's hot and we play games under the sun, which is very tiring. You are afraid that she might collapse, right?"
"That's right." said Mr Gouhara.
"But we won't let her. We promise that we take good care for her, right guys?" asked Kogure and his friends nodded.
Akagi, who was the tallest among all of Kogure's friends, came forward and said, "Besides, we met up together in school and came all the way here to fetch her. You don't want us to waste our time and effort, don't you?"
Akagi was so tall and burly that the Gouharas felt rather scared under his presence. They became silent.
Akagi leaned forward to the couple. "Well?"
"Please, Obasan, Ojiisan." said Kogure's friends. Ayako and Haruko tried hard to look as if they were going to cry.
Mr Gouhara thought for a while before he said, "All right. Hiroko could go with you."
Kogure's friends cheered. So did Hiroko in her bedroom, but she did it silently so that her parents couldn't hear her.
"But!" said Mr Gouhara.
Kogure's friends quieted.
"I will be coming along too." said Mr Gouhara.
Kogure and his friends' eyes widened in shock.
"It's my daughter's first outing to the beach and I want to make sure that she's safe." said Mr Gouhara.
"But Shujin," said Mrs Gouhara to her husband. "This boy has promised that he and his friends will take care of her." she said and smiled at Kogure.
"I don't care." snapped Mr Gouhara. "Get Hiroko to pack her things. I will go and get my stuff."
He turned away from his wife and headed for upstairs.
"Why does that old man have to come with us?" complained Sakuragi as he and his friends waited outside for Hiroko and her father.
"Gomen, that is definitely not in our plan." said Kogure. "I thought if we all persuade Hiroko's parents hard enough, we might convince them to let her to go with us."
"It's not your fault, Kogure." said Akagi.
"That old man sure is going to spoil our day." said Mitsui.
"Don't say that, maybe he's fun to go out with." said Haruko hopefully.
"I doubt it." said Miyagi.
The door opened and Hiroko and her father came out. Hiroko was wearing a pretty yellow dress and a wide-brimmed hat. She was carrying her bag.
"K-kawaii…" thought Kogure as he looked at Hiroko.
Mr Gouhara took Hiroko's bag and tossed it to Mitsui. "Boy, you carry my daughter's bag. I don't want her to tire herself out."
"Otousan, I can carry the bag by myself." said Hiroko in protest.
"No, it's too heavy for you. Let that boy carry it for you." said her father.
Mitsui sulked but didn't say anything.
"Come on, we have no time to lose. Let's catch the bus before it's too late." he ordered and led the way, with Kogure's friends walking behind him unwillingly.
"Gomen ne, Kogure. I didn't expect Otousan would tag along." whispered Hiroko to Kogure.
Kogure said, "It's okay."
"But I'm glad that I'm able to get out of the house. I believe that it's going to be a fine day." said Hiroko happily.
Kogure smiled. Suddenly he didn't care whether Mr Gouhara would spoil their day. As far as he's concerned, if Hiroko was happy, he's happy too.