According to my childhood friend, “No matter where you’re going, a trip somewhere with a large group is fun one way or another,” apparently.

This time was our first group outing since becoming high school students, an off-campus field trip.

The purpose of this field trip was activities at a nature park up in the mountains, which sounded like something that wouldn’t really excite modern kids like us, but… when all was said and done, it wasn’t bad, and I think it turned into a pretty decent day.

Now then, even though it annoys me a little to admit it, one of the reasons—if not the cause—that this day ended up being fun for me was my childhood friend, Sakura Ayuri.

““~♪””

Right now, we’re on the bus heading home after the off-campus field trip.

Ayu, having been half-forcibly invited by Hina, who was sitting with her, was performing a duet together with Hina in front of the whole class.

Ayu herself had been extremely reluctant, but

On the bus ride there, students from other classes plus Hina had been singing happily.

Hina had persistently persuaded and begged her, making the duet a condition.

And during that persuasion, she said, “There are lots of people from the same middle school in this class, so everyone’s basically like family~”

Those three things apparently broke her resistance, and the two of them ended up singing together.

Now, Ayu doesn’t like singing in front of a large crowd of people she doesn’t know, but she does like singing itself.

Which means that even from elementary school through middle school, she went to karaoke plenty of times with groups that included people besides me and Hina, and as a result, quite a few kids have fallen victim to Ayu’s singing.

So what happened as a result…

“““WOOOO!!”””

“Th-that’s amazing, everyone…”

“…Yeah.”

This happened.

‘Is this an idol concert or something?’

I’ve mentioned it before, but there’s something about Ayu’s singing where her own mood at the time seems to spread to the listeners, and ever since we were kids, the more she got into it, the more outrageous the excitement around her tended to become.

This time, it’s probably also because kids from the same middle school are hearing Ayu sing again after a long while, which has them weirdly hyped up.

“Hina! Ayu-chaan! You’re so cool!”

“…”

Seriously, even Saeki-san, who was happily announcing just the other day that she got a boyfriend, is suddenly so hyped that her boyfriend next to her is looking a bit put off.

Doesn’t Ayu’s singing have some kind of weird radio waves mixed into it or something?

“Oh, it’s over.”

““WAAAH!!””

So loud…

What is with this excitement?

Starting with Sumire-san sitting next to me, the gap between those from the same middle school and those who aren’t is huge.

We’re in the same class, and yet the difference in this kind of in-group energy is that extreme.

“Phew… okay, who’s next, starting now I’ll pass the mic—”

“Ah, Ayu-chan, keep holding it for now, okay, next you’ll sing with Nonomiya-san~”

“…Huh?”

“It’s been so long since karaoke with Ayu-chan!”

“I’m next after that!”

“And then after that—”

“…What?”

Good for you, Ayu.

As a former guy, being popular with current high school girls should be nothing but a win.

Though in reality, she’s probably feeling as complicated as ever.

“Has Ayuri-san always been like this?”

“Yeah, pretty much, she’s just good at singing.”

While we’re talking like that, the next song starts playing.

From how songs Ayu would like keep getting queued up, it seems Hina and the classmates were scheming behind the scenes.

Ayu herself starts singing again, going “Ahh, geez!” while doing so.

“Ayuri-san is interes— I mean, kind of a mysterious person, isn’t she?”

“You don’t have to correct yourself, I’ve been telling her she’s weird to her face for years.”

“You actually say that…”

She really is weird, though.

Even aside from singing, she does whatever she wants, yet hates standing out in strange ways, and sometimes she’s considerate of others and sometimes she’s not, making it hard to tell.

Well, the whole ‘I have memories of a past life’ declaration was still shocking, though.

“For example… I think it was third grade. It was the last swimming class of that year, and we were told ahead of time, ‘At the end, we’ll have free time for everyone to swim.’”

“Mhm mhm.”

“And that idiot brought water guns and float rings and got properly scolded. They told her, ‘We said you could swim freely, not that you could bring toys.’”

“Wow…”

I remember Ayu being made to sit in seiza position by the poolside.

The way she kept glancing over at me while being lectured still makes me chuckle a little even now.

“And then… maybe it was the fifth-grade overnight trip…”

* * *

“…And back then, Ayu was innocently looking at me with sparkling eyes and saying things like ‘Gin-chan, you’re amazing!’”

“Even though with a score difference of three times, she should’ve realized I was cheating—”

“…Hey, Gin-chan! What are you talking about!?”

“Geh. Oh, Ayuri-san.”

While we were chatting and reminiscing, it seems Ayu had finished singing at some point and was peeking over from the seat in front of us.

She must’ve heard a bit of what we were saying, because her face clearly said ‘I’m mad.’

“Are you done singing already?”

“If I keep going nonstop, I’ll get tired! I’ve done a full round, so I passed it to other people!”

“Good work, Ayuri-san.”

“Thanks… so, Gin-chan, what were you talking about, you weren’t telling embarrassing stories about me, were you!?”

If I honestly said, ‘I was sharing stories about Ayu being an idiot when she was younger,’ it’s obvious she’d get noisy again.

But even if I vaguely said we were talking about the past, it’d still obviously be about her.

Which means—

“Sorry, Sumire-san, could I ask you to keep an eye on this idiot… I mean, Ayu for me?”

“You just called me an idiot, didn’t you!?”

“I don’t mind…”

“I’m going to sleep.”

“Ayu, I’ll be wearing earplugs, but if you get noisy or do anything weird, I’ll get mad.”

“Y-yes.”

“Good. Then, Sumire-san, keep her company… and also watch to make sure she doesn’t do anything weird to me.”

“Okay.”

Ignoring the “I won’t!” retort, I put in my earplugs, cover my face with a towel, and get into a sleeping position.

Once I do, I realize I was more tired from today’s field trip than I thought, and I can feel the sensation of being able to fall asleep right away slowly welling up from inside.

Well, I’ll leave the rest to myself after I wake up.

Beside me, Ayu and Sumire-san are probably talking.

Feeling just a little bad about leaving Sumire-san to handle it, I drift off into sleep.