According to my childhood friend, “Sleepovers with everyone are fun,” apparently.

Well, she said that back when we were in fourth grade of elementary school and after that, maybe because she has memories of being a man in her past life, she stopped saying things like that and stopped planning them too.

When I asked about it recently, she said, “No, I’m a girl now and back then Hina-chan wanted to do it too but like… you know?”

She seems to take pride in the idea that both her mind and body are female, but that’s that, she says. She’s a troublesome childhood friend.

So then, speaking of that childhood friend, Sakura Ayuri…

“Ayu-chan, that part is wrong, okay? Here it’s like…”

“O-okay, thanks… aren’t you kind of close?”

“I’m not close~”

We were invited to Hina’s house and the four of us were working on summer vacation homework in the living room.

Starting today, Hina’s parents were going on a two nights three days trip and Hina chose to stay home so for that period she invited us over and planned a sleepover with the usual four.

“Hina-san is the same as always, huh?”

“It’s been quite a while since that fireworks festival, though.”

Because Ayu turned off her phone that night and cut off all contact, it seems she can’t really push back against Hina too strongly. She’s been letting it happen the whole time.

Or rather, Hina also looks like she intends to keep going like this, using the fireworks festival as an excuse. Even with the air conditioning on, doesn’t she feel hot and bothered (guilty)?

“Alright, you two. Ayu, focus, your pace is the slowest. And Hina, if you’re going to teach, do it after Ayu gets to a good stopping point.”

“Ehh~”

“If you teach her everything from one to ten, Ayu won’t be able to do anything and you won’t be able to move up a grade together.”

“That would be bad~ sorry, Ayu-chan.”

“I’m not that stupid!?”

While Ayu puffed up in anger, Hina shuffled away.

Like this, even after that night, there wasn’t any lingering resentment or awkwardness and we’ve been spending our days like usual.

* * *

“Phew! Including tomorrow’s portion, I’m done for today! Since everyone’s watching, I got super far!”

“Good work~”

Ayu declared loudly and Hina handed her what smelled like some kind of nice black tea.

“Meanwhile we finished that stuff ages ago and we’ve been lying around like this.”

“Ahaha…”

“Gin-chan, you’re so loud! It’s not that I’m stupid, it’s just that you three are smart!”

Well, sure, Ayu’s rank is a bit above the middle and Hina and Sumire-san are near the top and I’m a bit below them.

“Ayu-chan, are you actually self-studying~ Reviewing~”

“…Not really.”

“Ayu-chan, you used to say things like ‘Even if it won’t be useful in the future, it still becomes nourishment!’ and tell everyone to study, right~”

“Yes… I did…”

“Then let’s do more homework~ Even after you finish summer vacation homework, I’ll give you private lessons for the rest of the break~”

“N-no… If I finish early, I want to play for the rest of the break!”

Hmm, love gone off the rails.

Sumire-san and I were watching them with smiles, but Ayu turned to look at me, asking for help.

…Not helping would be funnier, but she’ll be noisy later.

“Okay, that’s enough. You finished up to tomorrow’s portion, so you’re going to play now, right?”

“Gin-chan…”

“If you start homework again right in front of us, we can’t play either and we’ll be bored, so do your private lessons after we go home.”

“Gin-chan!!”

Why is she so loud? We escaped the crisis here, that should be enough and the crisis of us being bored too.

“So, what are we doing first? Games? That movie you told us to decide what we wanted to watch beforehand?”

“First, I think we’re going to do a snack party~”

“A snack party…”

Starting with something that sounds high in girl-power. Well, she told us ahead of time so I did prepare something.

“…Then first, I, Sakura Ayuri!”

“Yeah?”

“First up, this! Stem wakame (crunchy seaweed)!”

“Don’t start with something that has zero girl-power.”

“Huh, is cheese kamaboko (steamed fish paste and cheese) not okay either!?”

“You’re doing it on purpose, aren’t you?”

This isn’t an old guy drinking party.

Ayu kept pulling out snacks… from her bag. Beef jerky too, stuff that’s more like bar snacks.

“This is a sleepover for the three childhood friends for the first time in a while! I trusted you guys to bring the classic stuff, so I splurged and brought stuff I like even though I don’t usually buy it!”

“There had to be better things to splurge on.”

“This beef jerky is amazing, it’s the Tengu (brand) one. Tengu, these snacks alone put me over budget.”

“You really are stupid.”

Even if you’re excited because it’s been a while, there were better ways to spend the budget.

“Well, actually, I had a little leftover from the fireworks festival…”

“Save it then, save it.”

“I can’t even argue with that.”

“Seriously… alright, next, Sumire-san, did you bring something?”

Let’s ignore this idiot and hope for better.

“Um… first, this, stem wakame.”

“You matched that…”

“Let’s high-five! Yay!”

“Yay!”

“This is a high school girls’ sleepover, right?”

So far, we haven’t escaped the old guy drinking party.

On the table: bar snacks and stem wakame x2. The room itself is a stylish room that feels like Hina’s house so it’s such a lived-in mismatch.

“Now calm down, Ginoko-san, next is normal.”

“…Is it?”

“Here, this, canned peaches.”

“Canned.”

“Next, canned pineapple.”

“Canned.”

“And lastly, canned yellow peaches.”

“Hey, are you two messing with me right now?”

Also, who brings both peaches and yellow peaches together? They’re different, sure, but if you’re buying three things, shouldn’t you spread them out more?

“Now now, Ginoko-san, calm down.”

“I heard that earlier, Sumire-san.”

“And if you open this canned pineapple… ta-da, I just swapped the label and the inside is mandarins.”

“It’s elaborate, but at least do it with peaches or yellow peaches.”

What is with these two, did they come to do a comedy routine?

And why is she bringing fruit for a snack party? This isn’t snacks, it’s dessert.

“Look, with the fireworks festival, I really got into the plan… and I heard Ayuri-san likes fruit in general, so this is also to apologize…”

“Sumire-chan… you don’t have to worry about it…”

“That’s right, Sumire-san. Ayu was pretty bad too, since she cut off all contact afterward.”

“Gin-chan, shut up!”

What the hell.

Also, you just said you used leftover money from the fireworks festival but most of the money for those final fireworks was basically me. What do you mean by leftover?

…Well, if I think calmly, I did kind of push it a little, so I won’t say it out loud.

“Alright then, next… which one of us goes?”

“Mmm, I guess I’ll go first, since it flows that way? Wait a bit, okay~ it’s in the fridge~”

“…Just from you saying ‘since it flows that way,’ I feel like something weird is coming.”

When Hina came back, she was holding a fairly big box… yeah, I can already guess.

“From me, ta-da! Cake~”

“It counts as snacks, I guess but…”

“Ehh? Is it no good~”

“It’s not bad but… wait, is this what a snack party is like?”

Ignoring the first two, since Hina’s serving black tea, it feels like a fancy tea party, beyond an ordinary snack party.

Also, what I imagined was more like chips and snack foods, a casual spread of stuff you always see at supermarkets and convenience stores. I mean, everything so far is sold at supermarkets too, but still.

“I made sure to prepare things to match everyone’s tastes~ Ayu-chan’s is a fruit tart, it overlaps with the fruit but is that okay?”

“It’s okay!”

“Thank goodness~”

Everyone has accepted it already. Is that fine? Cakes and canned fruit are fine, but are we really accepting bar snacks, too? Are we accepting Tengu (beef jerky)?

“Ah, that was close. I still hadn’t taken mine out.”

“If you’re commenting on everyone else’s stuff, yours is normal, right?”

“Says the one who brought bar snacks… wait a bit, it’s in the freezer.”

“Ice cream.”

“Shut up, there’s also the possibility it’s frozen mandarins… it’s huge vanilla ice cream, though.”

“So it is ice cream! Also, if it was frozen mandarins, that would be worse!”

In the end, we ate the canned mandarins with the ice cream. It was pretty good.