A young boy covers his eyes with an eye mask and walks toward a watermelon with a stick slightly longer than a rolling pin. How many challengers are there?
「Can that break a watermelon?」
「I don’t know but given the situation, I think the best equipment is something that a child can wield.」
「Watermelon can break easily.」
Mei turns the screen of mobile phone to us. In the video playing on the mobile phone, a child is breaking a watermelon with just rolled newspaper wrapped with vinyl tape.
「Is that superboy or something?」
「I think it’s where you hit the watermelon. The rind is thicker at base so it is easier to break it if you put the rind down. Look, it’s cracking from the side as I said.」
The boy swung the stick and hit the watermelon. The watermelon easily split in two. The shopkeeper collected the split watermelon and cut it into pieces.
I’ll never forget the look on the boy’s face when the watermelon was taken away before he had the chance to enjoy this accomplishment. Live strong, boy.
The watermelon serving was finished and the line of people waiting for watermelons was getting longer. One more watermelon and we’ll be able to get ours too.
「Looking at them makes me want to do it too.」
「With a hand sword?」
「Nana-chan, even though Shinozaki-kun is like that, he wouldn’t do that.」
「Maybe if it’s a smaller one.」
「No, who wants to eat Shinozaki’s hand break watermelon aside from him?」
「Right.」
It seems like a watermelon was broke again and a serving of watermelon is handed to us.
「The watermelon is carefully cut into bite size pieces like this. Not gnawing it is very not watermelon like.」
「What do you mean not watermelon like?」
「I mean, we’re eating it elegantly which is not the way of eating watermelon.」
What do you mean too elegant? Why can’t watermelon be eaten elegantly? I guess it’s more watermelon like if you’re holding a slice of watermelon and bite into it even if elegance is a little compromised.
「But it still has seeds so it is still a watermelon.」
「Eating it bite size made me swallow more seeds.」
「Speaking of swallowing seeds, there was a story about watermelon sprouting from the navel after swallowing seeds.」
「Yeah, there is. Akari and Takuya were really deceived by it. They froze when they were eating watermelon that time.」
「There’s nothing really wrong with swallowing them. It will be digested anyway.」
There were too many theories about the story of buds coming out of your navel if you swallow watermelon seed. I wonder why it’s so popular and why it is passed down from generation to generation.
「Eh, it’s not true?」
「If you eat too much, it will put a little strain on your digestive organs so it’s basically a warning for kids. Don’t tell me you didn’t notice it?」
「Yeah, I didn’t notice it at all or rather, I actually believe it.」
Where on earth did you grow, Shinozaki? In elementary school, there should be at least one of those, right? When watermelon is served at school lunch, he’ll eat it on purpose while saying he’ll raise watermelon on his navel. In the end, he’ll tell the whole class that it didn’t bud out.
「Seriously?」
「Seriously.」
Wakamiya-san laughed at Shinozaki who said he seriously believed it with a serious expression.
「Ah, god, stop, my stomach hurts.」
「Nanaka-san, do you have to laugh so much?」
「I feel bad for Shinozaki-kun but it’s really funny.」
I feel like the girls were laughing too much that they looked at me for help but I tried not to meet their eyes.
「What are we going to do after this?」
「We changed into our swimsuit so we should at least swim…though only Amane can swim.」
We put away the watermelon container and went into the sea. The shallow area was perfect for playing but there were too many people. However, we can go to a place where there are only a few people since they can’t swim.
「Hey, what should we do in the sea?」
「Yeah, what should we do?」
Mei’s eyes turned to Shinozaki, who made a suggestion.
「In manga, they splash water at each other.」
「I wonder why. I don’t feel any fun in that suggestion. 」
「Hey, a wave is coming. 」
Wakamiya-san pointed at our backs and said so. The moment I turned around to check, we were all swept by a big wave.
Come to think of it, the waves should be higher around this time of the day. I managed to get my face out of the water and as soon as I looked for my three companions, they all looked like they suffered a bit.
「Are you okay? 」
They all cough and answer one by one.
「Yeah, we got hit pretty hard. 」
「But it looked like we were playing in the sea. 」
「I had no idea that playing in the sea would be this bad. I mean, my mouth is too salty. 」
「It’s seawater so it can’t be helped. 」
When a big wave came again and I was about to be swallowed, I felt something on my arm.
「I mean, I can’t swi…」
Mei wasn’t able to complete what she’s trying to say and was caught in the wave.