"Today was pretty fun, huh?" said Chie as she lay in her futon in the girls' room at the Amagi Inn.
"Aside from the swimsuit contest, sure," Yukiko grumbled dejectedly.
"Sure, it was embarrassing, but I think it's awesome that Naoto-kun won," Rise giggled.
"Yeah," Chie agreed. "That's a big win for your femininity, huh, Naoto-kun? Naoto-kun?"
"Huh? What?"
"Geez, we're talking about how you swept us all away at the beauty pageant and you're not even listening," Rise pouted indignantly.
"I'm sorry. I was just thinking about earlier."
"So were we!"
"Shhh! Other guests are trying to sleep!"
"S-Sorry, Yukiko-senpai..."
"No, I wasn't talking about that. I was thinking about the hot spring. You know, when we kicked the boys out?"
The other girls were silent for a while at the mention of this.
"You're feeling guilty about that too, huh?" Chie said finally.
"Yes. We were in the wrong. We may have only realised it after the boys left, but we should have apologised."
"They probably went straight to bed after that," Yukiko muttered. "We should apologise to them first thing in the morning."
"Yeah, good idea," said Rise.
Again, the room was silent.
"We kinda have a habit of doing this, huh?" Chie said, breaking the silence once again. "Like, on the camping trip, when we pushed Yu-kun and Kanji-kun into the river when really only Yosuke was being an ass."
"Or at the shrine festival, when we walked around with just Teddie and left the others out..." Rise added.
"And we signed Yu-kun and Kanji-kun up for the crossdressing pageant along with Yosuke."
"And I guilted Kanji-kun into being in the pageant," Yukiko added.
"And cross-dressing is a step above just a beauty pageant, even if we did end up in swimsuits because of Teddie."
"And I... I booked them into the room Ms. Yamano was staying in when she was m- when she passed away," Yukiko said reluctantly, making sure to stop herself from using such blunt language around Nanako.
"Wait, seriously!?" Rise said a little too loudly, clamping a hand over her mouth again.
"Y-Yeah. The staff put talismans up around the room to ward off evil spirits and word got around fast, so no one's booked that room since. It seemed like a good way to make use of the room, but now that I really think about it, it's probably going to cause them trouble if they realise what room they're in."
"And when we consider that the latter three were on the same day..." Naoto observed, once more bringing silence to the room.
"Did Big Bro not have fun today?" Nanako asked, sounding to be on the verge of tears.
"Hey, Nanako-chan, it's okay," Chie said frantically, but softly. "We'll make it up to them tomorrow, okay? We'll all go do something fun and we'll apologise for everything."
"Not that you have anything to apologise for," Rise added. "We're the ones who kicked the guys out and signed them up for the pageant."
"Right," Yukiko agreed. "This is on us four and we're going to make it up to your big bro."
"You promise?"
"Of course we do," Chie said with a confident nod. "But we'd appreciate the help making Yu-kun and the others feel better. Think you can show us what to do?"
"Uh-huh!" Nanako seemed happier, which was the only reason the girls were able to sleep that night.
The girls awoke the next morning, not fully rested but ready to go and apologise nonetheless. Having booked the rooms herself, Yukiko led the girls to the room that the boys (and the late Ms. Yamano) had stayed in. They knocked on the door and heard a mass of grumbling and groaning from inside. After a moment, the door was opened by Yosuke, who looked a mess. His hair was frazzled, his eyes were wet and had dark bags under them, and his kimono had slipped from one of his shoulders. It seemed to take him a moment to recognise the girls in his sleepy haze.
"Hmm? What're you guys doin' here?" he ask weakly.
"Did... Did you, um... sleep well?" Yukiko managed to struggle out.
Rather than replying, Yosuke simply turned and went back to his futon.
Naoto stepped past Yukiko to take charge of the conversation. "May we come in? We have something we would like to discuss with you four."
"Whatever," Yosuke grumbled into his pillow.
Naoto took a step forward, but stopped abruptly. "Actually, before we do... are you four... decent?"
Yosuke groaned.
"We are," Yu confirmed, sounding (as usual) more composed than his partner.
The five girls entered the room as the boys got into somewhat comfortable positions. Kanji and Teddie looked even more haggard than Yosuke, while Yu looked mostly fine once he saw Nanako enter the room. Led by Naoto, the girls all bowed in unison.
"We would like to apologise for the incident in the bath last night," said Naoto.
"I realised right after you left that we were in the wrong," Yukiko explained.
"But we- I decided we should just stay in the bath and pretend we didn't realise," Rise elaborated, seeming to be on the verge of tears.
"And we realised not long after we went back to our room that what we did wasn't fair to you guys," Chie added.
"We're sorry, Big Bro!" Nanako concluded, definitely crying.
Yu stood and crossed the room to embrace his cousin and stroke her hair. "It's okay, Nanako. We forgive you."
"It's not your fault, Nanako-chan," Rise offered, feeling the most guilty as the one who had suggested saying nothing. "It's ours. A lot of stuff's our fault..."
"A lotta stuff?" Kanji repeated questioningly.
"Chie and I pushed you and Yu-kun into the river on the camping trip when you'd done nothing wrong," Yukiko explained. "And we signed you both up for the crossdressing pageant when all you did was encourage us to take part in the girls' pageant."
"That was especially cruel toward you, Kanji-kun," Naoto added, "in light of your own struggles."
"I mean, I don't really mind," Kanji shrugged a little uneasily. "Sure, it was embarrassing, but... a real man's comfortable with who he is, and I think I'm a little closer to figuring things out thanks to that."
"Oh. That is... good."
"But even then, it wasn't fair of me to guilt you into taking part," Yukiko replied. "And then there's the festival when we left you guys out while we went around with just Teddie."
"Sounds like you guys haven't done anything bad to me yet," Teddie noted. "I feel left out."
"Teddie? Not now," Yosuke moaned. "I'm noticing that this apology is mostly aimed at Yu and Kanji."
"W-Well-" Chie had to stop herself from saying the reason was that Yosuke deserved most of what they'd done to him."
Yosuke sighed deeply. "I guess it just highlights that I've not been a great friend either. I'm the one who should be apologising."
"W-Why?"
"I guilted you two into wearing those swimsuits during the camping trip. I signed all four of you up for the beauty pageant and guilted you into that, which was really unfair on Naoto especially. And I keep bringing up the Mystery Food X thing... Add on that Yu and Kanji keep getting dragged into it when you're punishing me. I guess I'm just a dumb kid who has a lot of growing up to do, after all. So... next time I do something stupid like that, please let the other guys off the hook for what I did."
Yosuke bowed until his head touched the floor, surprising everyone.
"I think we've all still got some growing to do," Yu spoke up, taking charge of the situation.
"That's rich coming from you, Senpai," Rise chuckled sardonically. "You're, like, the perfect guy."
"Not at all. I just keep most of what I think to myself. But the fact that everyone's coming clean and trying to make amends is what matters here. I forgive you girls, and I appreciate Yosuke trying to take responsibility for his actions." When Yu smiled, it always put his friends at ease, somehow.
"Same, really," Kanji said with another shrug. "I guess anyone'd be surprised and react on instinct in a situation like that. Long as you're as sorry as I am for pressurin' Naoto into the pageant, 'sall good."
"I am," Naoto replied. "And, just as you feel you were able to find some encouragement in your pageant, I feel that our pageant helped me to find some validation as well."
"Th-That's great," Kanji replied, voice cracking and cheeks red at that stoic smile of hers.
Chie stepped past the other girls and crouched in front of Yosuke. "We're both pretty bad to each other, huh?"
Yosuke finally raised his head. "Yeah. God, we suck."
"What do you say we forgive and... well, not forget, but... you know."
Yosuke nodded and held out a hand. "Sounds good. I forgive you for the bath and pageant things."
Chie took his hand and pulled him to his feet before shaking it. "And I forgive you for being a huge perv."
"Ouch. Not that I don't deserve that, though."
Chie gave a wide grin.
She was suddenly pushed forward by Yukiko, who had snuck up behind her with a devilish look on her face, right into Yosuke's chest, forcing the boy to wrap his arms around her as he tried to steady the both of them. It did little good as Chie was unable to maintain her footing and both went tumbling to the floor, Chie landing one top of Yosuke.
Yukiko immediately let loose one of her laughing fits while the flustered duo struggled to untangle themselves without their kimonos coming loose. Yu and Rise put their hands over Nanako's eyes. Naoto turned away after trying to lower the brim of her cap and realising she'd left it in the girls' room. Kanji held Teddie by the collar of his kimono to keep him from joining in too.
With all the gripes and issues the group had accumulated over the last year all aired out and forgiven, they could finally get back to how things were supposed to be and work as a more cohesive team as they sought to put an end to the murder spree that had brought them all together.
Rather than altering the events of the scene itself, this one's highlighting another way they can try to make these sequences not be horrible, repetitive wastes of time. The issue isn't necessarily that the girls are acting out-of-character due to a sudden burst of emotion, but there is a limit to how far it can go, and having them acknowledge their fault and properly apologise is crucial. Adding an optional Thieves' Den conversation where Ren imagines Futaba considering apologising to Ryuji isn't enough, Atlus.