My Childhood Friend And Good Night

According to my childhood friend, “Can’t sleep with a different pillow? Then let me sing you a lullaby!” …or so she says.

…No, I mean, with Ayu’s singing there’s no funny business; I really would drift right off. It’s just plain embarrassing, though, so I’d rather she didn’t.

Anyway, as for said childhood friend, Sakura Ayuri…

“Fresh out of the ba— …what are you two doing?”
“Cleaning Hina’s ears.”
“Getting mine cleaned~”

Having soaked in a bath far roomier than the one I’m used to, I came back to the living room and was greeted by the sight of Ayu giving Hina a lap pillow while Hina got her ears cleaned right there on it… a bit of déjà vu.

“In that case, I’ll go take the next bath, then.”
“Off you go, Sumire.”
“Off you go~”
“Off you go.”

Normally Sumire would seem a lot more worked up about this sort of thing, but she headed to the bath as if nothing were the matter. After all of us had spent so many hours together today, maybe she’d just gotten used to it; or maybe, unbeknownst to me, cleaning a friend’s ears really is a pretty ordinary thing to do.

“Well now, customer, this ear’s got a good bit built up too, hasn’t it.”
“I let it build up ’cause I wanted you to be the one to do it, Ayu~”

Gross. The word nearly slipped out for a second, but I swallowed it. If it were Ayu I’d have just said it, but the other party here is Hina.

“…Hina, the person next to you isn’t giving you a comeback.”
“At this rate I’m gonna turn into some deep-in-it little weirdo~ boohoo~…”
“Oh, so you WERE fishing for the comeback.”

Honestly, I’d figured she just might genuinely be that type, so…

“When I did it to Sumire earlier she got all curious and grilled me about a bunch of stuff, so… maybe it’s a standard thing after all.”
“Maybe it’s a weak setup to riff on~”
“No, with Sumire it’s more… eh, never mind.”

Ah, so the reason she’d gone off so unbothered was that she’d already gotten all her questions in earlier.

There was no point standing around forever, so I decided to flop onto the sofa and fiddle with my phone. With the left-on TV as background music, the two of them kept right on with the ear-cleaning as ever.

“This kind of feels like a school trip, doesn’t it~”
“Right~? There’s this laid-back, cozy vibe to it.”
“Hina, you’re in your own house, though.”
“Ehh~? But everyone lazing around together at night really is different, y’know? Usually at this hour I’m holed up in my own room~”
“And right now you’ve got me cleaning your ears, too.”
“Riiight~”
“Hmmm…”

It’s true that at this hour I’m usually gaming in my room, so it does feel kind of fresh. Even the show on now is something I don’t normally watch, so there’s stuff playing I’ve never heard of.

“Alright~ the ear-pick’s done, now we move on to the cotton swab.”
“Okaay~”
“Huh, you’re doing this more properly than I expected.”
“Heh heh heh, Ayu’s really good at ear-cleaning, you know~?”
“Every time we have a viewing party at Hina’s place she begs me for it, so I’ve gotten used to it.”
“So the cause of it is you, Hina.”
“I do it back for her too, so it’s saaafe~”

Incidentally, a “viewing party,” as the name suggests, is a get-together at Hina’s place to watch streaming movies and whatnot; I turn down the invites more often than not, so apparently it’s usually just the two of them.

“Heh heh~ Gin, jeeealous~?”
“Not really, no.”
“Nuh-uh~ Right now Ayu’s lap is reserved for me and me alone~”
“I honestly don’t mind, though?”
“Fwooo…”
“Hyah…!”
“No no, Hina, don’t go teasing Gin like that.”
“I’m sorry…”
“What am I even being made to watch here?”

No, seriously, what?

“I’ll do yours later too, Gin~”
“No thanks, really — I make it a rule not to do it right after a bath.”
“Ehh~ come on, let her, Gin~ I wanna seee the face you make when you get your ear blown~”
“Right — that just killed off any last shred of interest.”

Not that I had much to begin with. The thought of Ayu drawing a sound like the one Hina just made out of me was enough to make me want to die.

“Saying that~ even though right this second you’re eyeing me all enviously, Gin~”
“Eh?! Really?! Gin’s behind me right now so I can’t see…! I really wanna see…!”
“The way you’re lying there, Hina, all you can see is Ayu’s stomach — quit making things up, would you?”

Is she seriously claiming that this face, the one gaming with a phone in one hand, looks the least bit envious?

“…Anyway, we’ve only got my ear-pick and Hina’s, don’t we?”
“…Ah, right~… passing them around would be a bit iffy… sorry, Gin~”

Somehow I’d been cast as jealous without my say, then apologized to without my say… Am I allowed to actually get mad now?

◆◆◆

“Alright, let’s start getting ready for bed!”
“Sounds good~”

Around the time the night was starting to feel late, Ayu stood up and declared it… and when I checked the clock, the hands were pointing at eleven.

“Well, about that time, I guess.”
“We haven’t even gotten the futons out yet, either.”
“Come to think of it, Ayu, you were saying ‘You don’t need to lay out a futon for me!’… so what’s the plan?”

In putting this sleepover together, the sticking point had been the number of futons. Hina’s place apparently only had guest futons for two, so we were one short, and we’d never settled what to do about it; when Ayu made her declaration, we’d just gone ahead with it.

“Of course I’ve got something ready! …Ta-daah! It’s a sleeping bag!”
“…That’s what you ‘prepared’?”

The thing Ayu pulled out of her own bag was the kind of sleeping bag you often see in camping gear… amazing that she even owns one of those.

“My uncle bought it cheap back when he was hooked on camping, and he passed it to me — ‘I’ve never used it even once and it works for both summer and winter, so you can have it.’”
“You’re going to use that?”
“Yeah! Figured I’d take the chance to try it out — it’s like a sleepover slash indoor-camping mood!”
“That’s only you, though.”

Ayu spread the sleeping bag out, thrilled. The rest of us, all three including me, wore distinctly unimpressed expressions, but she didn’t notice.

“I think you’re better off not doing it~”
“Eh, why?”
“…Well, you’ll get it once you actually try it a bit.”

◆◆◆

“…It’s HOT!”
“Figured as much.”

Three futons and one sleeping bag lay in a row across the bedroom. Ayu had climbed into that sleeping bag to sleep, but sure enough it was apparently stifling, and she’d come crawling back out.

“All-season or not, a midsummer night’s just too much, huh~”
“I thought maybe I’d be fine if I opened the zipper…”
“I really think that’s a tough sell…”

I mean, did this girl not test it out at her own house first?

“Can’t be helped… tonight I’ll sleep on top of this sleeping bag and drape tomorrow’s clothes over me instead of a blanket…”
“Hmm~ you don’t have to go that far — I’ve got a better idea~”

Hina made her proposal with a beaming face. That plainly good mood of hers gave the rest of us watching a faint but undeniable sense of foreboding.

“Eh, what, what? Like you’ve got a spare towel-blanket or something?”
“Nuh-uh, see~… you just slip into someone else’s futon~”
“Egh—”

There it was, the bad feeling, dead on. Sure enough, after freezing up, Ayu shot me her usual save-me look for a split second.

“Th-that’s not really a good idea, is it… I mean, young maidens sharing a futon with someone might not be such a great thing…”
“We’re all young maidens, so it’s totally fine~ besides, we used to do it all the time back in the day, right~?”
“We did back then, buut…”

Ayu kept darting glances at me as she said it. The reason she wouldn’t outright ask for help was probably that she was weighing the risk of ending up next to me.

“I’m totally fine with it~? We used to do it all the time back then~”
“Ah, I’m fine with it too. This kind of sleepover was something I’d always sort of longed for.”
“Even you, Sumire?!”

Oho, now that one I didn’t see coming either.

It wasn’t a full beset-on-all-sides yet, only beset on two sides, but Ayu already looked to have her hands full; she was visibly flustered, racking her brain for some clever way out… Guess there’s no help for it.

“…Then… you can share mine, I guess.”
“Gin?!”
“Oho, spoiled for choice now, aren’t you~”
“I think wherever Ayuri wants to sleep is fine.”

Truth be told, I’d figured it would sort itself out if it turned into an “after you, after you” flow, but it didn’t. Oh well; guess I’ll help a little more.

“Well, you probably worked up a bit of a sweat in that sleeping bag just now — why not get some water and then decide?”
“Y-yeah… I’ll do that…”

Now then. Once Ayu had left the room, I fired off a message on my phone…

◆◆◆

“Night.”
“Good night.”
“Night~”
“G-good night…”

The lights went out and the room fell pitch dark.

In the end, Ayu chose my futon and wound up sleeping beside me; the official reason was the pretext that “sleeping next to Gin, who’s on the end and on the hallway side, seems cooler.”

“…”
“…”

Ayu slept way over at the edge, practically braced against the wall. Because she’d bedded down as far from me as she possibly could, the towel blanket was barely covering her at all.

At this rate it’s hardly any different from Ayu’s own plan.

So, resigned, I gathered the towel blanket back up and flung it over her.

At that, maybe having given in herself, Ayu scooted a little closer to me, still lying down, in small shuffling drags, and handed a portion of the towel blanket back.

Good grief…

The message I’d sent Ayu was just this one line: “If you pick me, at least you won’t feel like you deceived anyone — right?”

Even so, Ayu tried to sleep at a subtly distant remove, and that was fine by me. If it were Hina she’d allow full-on cuddling, or rather do it herself, but I’ll pass on the stuffy heat.

Tomorrow I’ll send her home for a bit to fetch a towel blanket of her own.

There won’t be a second rescue, after all.

Thinking such things, I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.