'Oh, fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu….'

Hajime's thoughts are cut short as he grimaces, his hand reaching up to wipe several dozens of droplets of sweat off his forehead.

And then not even a second after that, it feels like several dozens more have arrived to take their place.

Scrunching his eyes close, he groans. 'Goddamn it, WHY.'

He's going to be honest to himself here; he never had the huge urge to just tear his shirt off then and there up until this moment, and only if so that maybe, just MAYBE, this might help him cool down even just a little bit during this stupidly hot weather.

And he'd gladly do that right now, if his arms didn't feel like they've already melted from the sheer stupid summer heat right now. Just, everything feels too damned hot and if he were to try moving around even just a bit, then he'd only make it even more unbearably hotter than it already is.

"Hajimeeeeeeee, Ibuki feels like she's melting right now..."

He squints, turning his head to the side. "Wait, how long have you been here?"

"Ibuki's been here the whole time!" She energetically replies, with a huge cheeky grin on her face too.

At least, until reality hits her in the face again, in which Ibuki starts opening her mouth in a silent scream, as if she's starting to melt onto the ground because of how scorching hot this summer day has become.

Hajime can't muster any kind of response to that. Not like he can even if he wanted to, not when he's feeling almost exactly the same as she does right now.

'Someone, anyone, please do something about this. I…I don't think I can take this any longer…'

"Hajime? Ibuki? Why are you two on the floor?"

'That voice…'

"Chiakiiiiiiiii…" That's all Ibuki is able to whine before her face flops down onto the floor again.

Despite all his muscles being nonexistent thanks to this stupidly hot summer heat, Hajime forces himself to move a bit, to try and look toward Chiaki's direction. It did take quite some effort, but he finally sees her at last. And…

Hajime might've blinked a couple of times, maybe faster than he usually does. Unlike the current situation with him and Ibuki, Chiaki's still standing fine on both feet. Actually, it looks like not even the stupidly hot weather has gotten to her at all, and she's still wearing her favorite hoodie too! And not only that...

"...Are you seriously having coffee right now?" Hajime blurts out.

Chiaki tilts his head in confusion. She then looks down at her mug. "Actually, I'm having hot chocolate right now."

Hajime blinks at the correction. 'Okay, that's fair, but that's just distinction without a difference.' He breathes in, and then breathes out. "Why hot chocolate?"

Chiaki pauses, like she's racking something in her brain, and then shrugs. "I just felt like it, I think."

He stares at her, never feeling more dumbfounded than he ever did at this moment. "But don't you feel the weather right now?"

"What do you mean by that?" Chiaki tilts her head.

And then suddenly, it hits him. Now that it did, Hajime has never felt so dim in his life until this moment.

'Oh, right, of course. I can't believe I forgot about this. Of course even the hottest summer days in Japan would be nothing compared to your average day in the Philippines. Chiaki's used to worse summer heat by now.'

That realization must've struck Chiaki too, as her cheeks start to get flushed all over about it. "Oh...right, sorry about that. I really didn't notice it."

Ibuki's face looks like something she'd make if she saw a literal bear licking its lips at her. Not that anyone can blame her for that; anyone else might react similarly if they saw just how nonchalant Chiaki was about this stupidly hot weather despite everything, and didn't realize just how unbearably hot the weather was until she finally saw them both melting hard on the floor. And then, after a couple of seconds or so of shaking in place while still making that very shocked face, she screams,

"So those memes ARE true!"

After that, Chiaki treated them both with a couple of whole tubs of ice cream. Not only that, she insisted on feeding him herself too. It was made very clear that there's no way to avoid that, very early on.

And so, here lies Hajime; his shirt yanked off of him, a cool wet towel upon his forehead, and Chiaki lovingly feeding him a spoonful of ice cream. All the while, he's laying down on her lap too.

Meanwhile, from across this room, he can hear Ibuki melting. Though this time, instead of melting in a screaming agony of summer heat, now she's melting in bliss of the pure ice cream goodness. Which, yep, no one can blame her for that at all. This is a welcome change of pace.

"Hajime, how are you feeling now?"

Hajime glances up, and then, he chuckles. "I'm doing okay now. You don't have to worry about me."

"I'm glad." Chiaki smiles back at him, and then gives him another spoonful of ice cream.

Which he eagerly accepts.

Though, it might be jut him, but he wonders if Chiaki got very flustered about the whole thing now that she realized how bafflingly different her heat tolerance is compared to them, and maybe that includes almost everyone in their friend circle too.

Then again, she was the only one in their whole class who can stand wearing a hoodie 24/7, even during that time they all took their summer vacation at a literal tropical island years ago. So, Hajime supposes the signs have been in their faces this whole time.

Still, he can't deny it does feel nice being fussed over like this. This doesn't happen too often, and he is going to savor in this great and wholesome feeling.

Not even Ibuki's endless teasing of him after this whole thing cools down is gonna get to him.

A/N: I totally did not write this to lowkey to gripe about this March's tropical summer heat, which may or may not be reaching new records. Definitely not.

That said, happy birthday to Chiaki!