Meanwhile, on the other side, at the water park's Ocean Ferris Wheel.
Standing atop the massive steel structure erected over the sea, looking down from a high vantage point, the night melded with the deep seawater, providing an extreme sense of tranquil security.
However, the teenage boy and girl sitting opposite each other at the ends of the cabin, submerged in an ambiguous atmosphere, had long since lost the mind to appreciate the scenery.
Or, to make a bold claim: as long as a man and a woman board a Ferris wheel together, regardless of their relationship, once they sit in the same cabin, their purpose is definitely not just to appreciate the beautiful scenery!
"Um, hey, Aina..."
With his gaze locked firmly on a certain screw of the Ferris wheel, Imamura Kohei looked as if his STEM genes had hijacked his brain!
Right now, every fold of his brain was contemplating how long the screw was. How deep was the rust? Or, if he shoved it into Iori's skull, could the tetanus take him out directly...
Wait, no!
His unfocused pupils refocused as he took a deep breath. He suddenly looked up at Aina, attempting to leverage a lifetime of Galgame experience to say something romantic!
However, it wouldn't work! The language of Galgames was too flippant. Why didn't he read more books in his daily life?!
"The moon... is beautiful tonight!"
"Indeed!"
With her head lowered and her eyes completely lacking focus, Yoshiwara Aina gave a soft nod in affirmation, seemingly transforming from a "romance-brain" into a "certainty-type" personality.
The kind that would agree like an NPC no matter what anyone said.
I blew it! I actually said it!
Aina's response was super cold. Imamura Kohei instantly panicked, clutching his head as cold sweat poured down his arms in buckets!
His pupils vibrated with terror through his fingertips. "The moon is beautiful"—a cliché confession tactic like that would have felt old even in the Edo period. As expected, it lacked sincerity!
What should he do? This was the first prospective girlfriend he'd made since graduating from his childhood; he absolutely couldn't let Aina think he was a boring man!
What did Kohei just say? The moon is indeed beautiful, but I really want to confess...
As for Aina, her lightless eyes were a gateway to her mind, where three chibi versions of Aina were currently holding a high-intensity meeting!
The smallest among them, the Rationalist Normal Aina, slammed the table and stood up. She threw a report labeled [The Moon is Beautiful] in front of her two colleagues and said deeply, "There is no memory of this in the brain's storage. I'm sorry, we are powerless!"
"I see, we understand!"
Cakey Aina, wearing heavy makeup, nodded and waved for Normal Aina to leave. Then, she grabbed the stool from under her and roared at the Heart-Eyed Romance-Brain Aina.
"You heard her! This kid Kohei is still discussing the weather! We have to be the ones to confess first!"
"We can't! We haven't decided how many centimeters the tongue should extend when we kiss later!"
With a sliding tackle, Romance-Brain Aina clung tightly to Cakey Aina's leg. She raised her pink pupils, filled with struggle, and said in terror, "And what if Kohei gets impatient and wants to do the 'real deed' right now! Should I agree? I still want to be traditional..."
"There's no more time to consider!"
Dragging Romance-Brain Aina along, Cakey Aina moved her body with difficulty, finally stopping before a lever labeled [Confession]. Ignoring the other's cries, she slammed it down!
"Kohei! I like—ah!"
"Aina! I like you, please be my girlfriend!"
Under the moonlight, the restored Aina and the Kohei who refused to accept defeat both stood up quickly. The narrow Ferris wheel cabin couldn't handle the sudden movement and began to shake slightly.
Her foot slipped. Yoshiwara Aina's stiff muscles couldn't automatically adjust to the cabin's swaying, and she fell forward uncontrollably.
While Imamura Kohei had steadied himself, he only had time to open his arms for the falling Aina. The next second, he was taken down with her, landing flat on his butt.
The classic position of the man on the bottom and the woman on top was re-enacted six months later. However, unlike their state of mind at the start of the school year, these two strangers who met by chance now had their hearts filled with each other...
"Pfft! Hahaha! Hahahaha~"
After being stunned for two seconds, sitting on Kohei's chest, Yoshiwara Aina suddenly burst into laughter for no reason, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop.
She couldn't help it; Kohei's current expression was just too funny. That look of anxiety mixed with bashfulness made him look exactly like a virtuous woman being teased!
Plus, with the Cakey look, he was identical to her own self from half a year ago!
"Aina? What are you laughing at? Did you break your head? Even if you did, I'll take responsibility!"
"No, no~"
Seeing Kohei's serious face, Yoshiwara Aina quickly opened her mouth, took a deep breath, and swallowed it down, barely managing to calm the rising heaving of her chest.
Wiping away her tears, she pushed away Kohei's concerned hand with a faint smile and pushed him back down so he was lying on the floor.
"Kohei, I remember half a year ago we were like this too. But back then, you seemed to reject me very firmly and with quite a lot of disgust!"
"That's because of you, saying all that about finding a hunk boyfriend, so you were just dating whoever."
With his back against the cold iron floor, Imamura Kohei's internal organs—which were about to be cooked by self-heating—gradually cooled down, and calmness returned to his brain.
He pressed the back of one hand against his forehead while the other hand moved to Aina's back. His eyes looked toward the sea of stars outside the cabin, but his heart and soul were gradually syncing with the girl in his arms.
"I was really startled back then, you know? A Cakey suddenly crawling out of the bushes and all..."
"Stop it, it's all dark history!"
Burying her head firmly in Kohei's chest, the memory of that situation made Yoshiwara Aina curl her toes in embarrassment.
She was young and ignorant back then. Seeing that Kohei had some looks, she went for an 'all-in,' only to go through many twists and turns before finally coming together.
But...
She cutely raised her head slightly, shielding her face with her hands so only her large eyes showed. Looking at the current Cakey Kohei, who lacked even a trace of his usual handsomeness, she felt very fortunate that she hadn't succeeded back then.
"It's great~ Now, even if it's Cakey Kohei, I can still go for it!"
"Is that so? So, what is Aina's final answer?"
Laughing just as pointlessly, Imamura Kohei held Aina and confidently showed off a mouth of bright white teeth, which complemented the hideous makeup on his face perfectly!
"Of course it's 'no problem'!"
Her knees slipped several times on the smooth floor. Even after tearing her stockings, Yoshiwara Aina couldn't manage to climb up to give Kohei a surprise as planned.
Fortunately, Imamura Kohei read her intentions seamlessly. He immediately wrapped his arms around the slender waist wiggling on top of him and brought the girl's ugly face close to his.
Their eyes met. Although their pupils reflected nothing but Cakey, true lovers wouldn't give up on a rare moment of romance just because of an ugly appearance!
"Aina! Keep your eyes open!"
"Mm!"
Nodding gently, Aina's face turned red as she bravely lowered her head lower and lower! Until a moist sensation spread across her lips.
At the same time, the Romance-Brain Aina in her head went completely wild. The hearts in her eyes turned from red to purple. Overpowering the Cakey Aina who tried to stop her, she lunged at the control panel of Aina's brain—
Tongue length, kiss duration—forget all that! Crank it up to the max! Crank it all to the maaaaax!
"How is it?"
"Powerful! It's really, really powerful! This is exactly what I wanted to see!"
In the cabin diagonally above Aina and Kohei, Miyazawa Yuu and Kotegawa Nanaka were pressed cheek-to-cheek in excitement, their eyes glued to the grand scene presented through the telephoto lens.
In fact, from the moment they boarded the Ferris wheel, Kohei and Aina had sat in silence for at least five or six rotations. Just as the two observers were about to fall asleep, there was finally some movement.
Who would have thought this little couple would go from silence to a blockbuster? Jumping straight into something this big!
The sound of shutters clicking was incessant. As Miyazawa Yuu watched, he felt the temperature of his cheeks rising continuously, and then his ear was bitten—
"Nanaka-san?"
"Mm!"
...
Half an hour later, nobody knew what Kitahara Iori said to Chisa, but he actually managed to coax the girl back into a good mood!
Sitting amidst the nearly finished banquet, using Yamamoto and Nojima as footstools, they quietly watched the four latecomers return, along with the visible "battle damage" on their faces and necks.
"Aina..."
"Yes!"
Like a virtuous girl who snuck out for a date with a "blonde delinquent" and was caught by her mother upon returning home, Yoshiwara Aina was so startled by Kotegawa Chisa's voice that she snapped to attention with her eyes shut and her head high.
"I-I'm sorry..."
"Why are you apologizing? I just..."
Feeling like an unscrupulous mother-in-law, Kotegawa Chisa really wanted to say she just wanted to pull Aina aside to secretly pry for details about Kohei's confession!
But Iori was right there. Seeing Aina so alert, she could only drop the idea for the moment and discuss it later.
"It's nothing. We should head back, otherwise they'll worry at the shop."