Echoes of Solitude

Getaway

Summer vacation has arrived, and the entirety of the first-year students are to attend a school-funded two-week vacation on a cruise ship.

The Advanced Nurturing High School must have a lot of funds to afford a trip like this.

We boarded the cruise ship earlier today, and are set for our first destination tomorrow morning. We were unsure of our destination, but despite that, the overall population appeared joyous to have a luxurious trip such as this.

"Fire in the hole!" Komiya jumped off the diving board and did a double flip into the pool.

Currently, I am in the swimming pool, accompanied by two of my friends, Kondou and Komiya. Alongside those two was Kinoshita, who cheered on Komiya as he dived into the pool.

"Yeah, you get it, Komiya-kun!" She yelled.

Komiya swam over and resurfaced. He slicked his hair back as if showing off to the world.

"Dude, that was fucking sick bro!" Kondou exclaimed.

"Nah, it was nothing, I bet you could do that too if ya wanted to." Komiya replied.

"Komiya-kun, that was super amazing!" Kinoshita told Komiya.

"I know right? I'm pretty talented, aren't I?" Komiya responded, in a manner that juxtaposed his modest response with Kondou.

Komiya likely spoke that way so that he could show off. After all, Kinoshita is his girlfriend.

"..." I stood in the pool in silence, not wanting to boost Komiya's ego any further.

Kondou and Komiya invited me to the pool on this sunny afternoon. Seeing as I had nothing better to do, I decided to join them.

Lately, Kondou and Komiya have joined my roster of friends, leaving Shiina to not be alone on the list of friends that I could count on one hand.

Kondou for the better part of two months, has invited me to his dorm to hang out occasionally, as the talk I had with him drove him to be a better person in life. It seems that he treats me sort of as a friend that he can personally talk to, which I do not particularly mind.

"Ayanokouji, you good bro?" Kondou asked me, noticing that I wasn't engaged in the conversation.

"Hm? I wasn't paying attention, did I miss something?" I asked.

"Jeez bro, you do that often, something going on in your head or somethin'?" Komiya asked me.

I was busy monologuing. Whoops.

"Who knows?" I replied.

"Ayanokouji-kun, that was a for real hella weird response! Sounded like you have a brain tumour in your skull or something!" Kinoshita exclaimed.

"I would hope not, brain tumours are a very serious matter with a high mortality rate. Although, if I did have one, the symptoms would be clear to me." I explained.

"... I was just kidding, Ayanokouji-kun." Kinoshita said with a deadpan expression.

"Oh. I see." I replied.

"..." There was a silence that seemed to be aimed at me.

"My bad." I said.

"Hah... Ayanokouji, you're a funny guy, you know?" Kondou stated.

I am? That's a first. All this time, my jokes haven't worked on either Kushida, Ryuuen or Horikita-senpai.

Maybe it's because I tried using jokes to lighten the mood while in serious scenarios such as being threatened to be accused of rape.