The rain still hadn't let up.

Normally, during a free period like this, I'd let off some steam for a bit. We had a lot of freedom here, a lot more than I had really expected for a high school, and I liked being able to wander the grounds or around Towa City itself with Yuki or my new friends, or even both. Sure, sometimes I used that time to study, but even I had to admit that this was all so new and exciting, and Yuki's playfulness had rubbed off on me enough that it felt okay to perhaps give into the crazy levels of freedom we had.

But the rain had put paid to a lot of that. At a complete loss for what to do, I had decided to look through our accounts and make sure our budgets were as they should be, figuring that I may as well get a head start while I was stuck. Yuki, however, had had different ideas and had nagged me so much that I had eventually told him to go away and find some of the others to play with. He'd stuck his tongue out at me and stomped off, calling me a meanie, but at the time I'd been too annoyed to try and placate him and had just gotten on with what I was doing. Now, though, I was starting to feel bad.

"Ugh…maybe I should take a break."

I picked up my phone and fired off a text to Yuki:

Sayuri Fujimoto: Sorry about yelling-let's make up! Do you want to play something?

I waited a few seconds, but no response was forthcoming. Not so unusual, Yuki didn't always look at his phone when he was caught up in something, so I put it down again. But almost immediately, there was a knock at my door.

"Yes?" I asked. "The door's open, feel free to come in."

And then I immediately regretted it because the door swung open so fast I nearly had a heart-attack. Katsuya and Eizo came bursting in. I noticed they were all bundled up, as if they were going outside.

"Come puddle-jumping with us, Sayuyu!" Katusya said. "You've jumped in puddles before, right?"

"Jumping…in puddles?"

"Yeah!" Katsuya said. "Come on, it'll be fun! And you've got a raincoat, right?"

Katsuya started to head for my wardrobe, but Eizo yanked the hood of his raincoat to rein him in, then apologised to me, laughing:

"Like, you must have splashed around in the rain as a little kid, right? So why not do it all together? We can be like that song, dancing in the rain?"

"Isn't it 'singing in the rain'…?" I asked warily.

"They're utterly nuts, but we're getting hot chocolate and stuff afterwards, so you might as well."

This came from Sen'ya, who walked past the room carrying a huge pile of umbrellas. He barely stopped as he called that out, and I blinked at him for a moment before saying:

"Hot chocolate? Really?"

"Yeah, the guys have made an entire plan because, well, getting soggy isn't fun even if splashing around in puddles is so…anyway, we're all coming, so please come too? I promise it will be fun!" Eizo said.

"Yes, yes, please come!" Katsuya said.

"Is Yuki there?" I asked.

"Yeah, I think he's already outside…" Katsuya said. "Right?"

Eizo nodded in agreement, and I told them to give me a moment, going to the wardrobe and finding a raincoat. Eventually I found a blue one patterned with daisies around the hem and sleeve and daisy-shaped charms on the zips. I didn't have matching welly boots, sadly, but I did have plain yellow ones that were comfy enough so I put those on, and then after pocketing my phone, I followed them down and out onto the playing field. We were joined by Teiichi and Kiran, who were following Rin and Sen'ya.

"Oh, I like your dinosaur boots!" I told Kiran. "Where'd you get them?"

"My dad got them for my last birthday, so I'm not sure." Kiran replied. "I could ask?"

"Ah, it's no big deal!"

Outside, everyone was indeed running around and dancing. Well, Azami was half-doing that. She would splash in a puddle and spin around and then stop to take a picture of how her feet looked in a puddle, or the raindrops coming down from the sky or what the others were doing. She wore a polka-dotted poncho with a big hood, and matching boots. Sadie and Lilian were dancing with their umbrellas-Sadie's pink and Lilian's purple. In fact, all of us were dressed colourfully-even Eikichi, Sen'ya and Akari had raincoats and boots that were brightly coloured even though they were plain and unembellished.

"YUUUUUURRRIIIIII!"

I was almost knocked over by Yuki, who launched at me and squeezed me into a tight hug. When he let go, I saw he was wearing the unicorn raincoat we'd bought together when we'd been shopping for things to take to Hope's Peak.

"Yuri, come, let's play!" he said. "Look, I have an umbrella for you."

He opened up the umbrella, which was pink with frills around the bottom and bear ears on the top and handed it to me. His matched, but it was bright green instead. I smiled and grabbed it, and then took his hand and ran to join our friends.

It was still raining, and just for this moment, I hoped it would rain a little longer.