While preparing for camping, the only food I got was some meat and a few vegetables to eat with it.
Looking back, we all went to the mart and bought what we wanted. Eating only meat is a bit greasy, so I got some salad and wrap ingredients too, and I bought pork belly, other cuts of meat, bacon, sausages, onions, and potatoes.
And we also bought some carbonated drinks to enjoy together. I thought that was enough.
But it seemed like the others didn’t think so.
Since we were grilling over charcoal, we couldn’t stir-fry rice, but at some point, a huge pot of soup appeared on the grill.
At first, I thought they were going to boil some ramen, but for some reason, what was bubbling inside was bulgogi.
“Uh… I thought this would be easier to eat than something spicy…”
When I looked at Alice with a slightly bewildered expression, she said that while avoiding my gaze.
Moreover, it wasn’t just the pot that appeared on top.
Next to it, for some reason, a sturdier and larger pot was on the grill, bubbling with what was unmistakably braised short ribs.
…I should have realized it when I soaked the ribs in water earlier.
By the way, we bought a lot more ribs than that and had already grilled some.
“Um, isn’t it better to have more variety in food?”
When I stared at her, Charlotte defended herself by saying that.
Last time, when I treated everyone to braised short ribs, I guess it left quite an impression.
But did the dishes that required pots really have to be on the grill? Couldn’t they just use a gas burner next to it to cook separately?
It was meaningless to argue about it now that it was already up there.
“I can still eat more, but I think if I eat just a little more, I’ll feel completely full. Can you guys handle it?”
“Of course!”
Claire said with sparkling eyes.
“I can eat more too,”
Mia said with a determined expression.
No, Claire can eat more, but where the heck is Mia putting it? Does she have a few more stomachs hidden away?
After today, I wonder if they’ll grow a few centimeters taller due to excessive nutrition. Well, it’s probably more about gaining weight first, though.
Seeing Claire whip out instant rice, I was at a loss for words.
*
Among us, my food intake was the least, and while it seemed like I ate much more than the other girls, I had my limits. Eventually, the four of them also ended up leaving some food behind.
But that didn’t mean they were going to throw the food away.
For now, they just covered it with a lid and pushed it aside, planning to eat it again when they felt like it.
Around the time the sun set, Alice opened the car and pulled out what looked like scrolls.
Setting up supports in the remaining space, she hung the scrolls up, transforming it into a magnificent screen.
“Did you prepare something like this?”
“Yeah… Well, I had planned to try making something like this during the trip.”
It seemed like she had brought all sorts of sentimental camping supplies for a touchy-feely feel.
Well, I had a bit of a romantic notion too.
I once saw someone’s post on an internet blog about watching movies with friends on a screen set up on a rooftop. I thought it was super cool, but I had never owned a building, lived in an attic, and most importantly, I had never even considered buying a projector.
Now, I had a car, money, and above all, friends to do that with.
I thought time had slipped away, but somehow it had turned back.
“Oh, it’s fine. I’ll prepare it since it’s something I wanted to do.”
“It’s a camping trip for everyone, right? It’s not like I’m going to watch a movie by myself.”
Alice tried to hold me back while unfurling the screen, but I got up and unfolded the small table Alice had pulled out.
“Will this work?”
“Uh, yeah, thanks. I’m sorry for being a bother.”
…?
What was that supposed to mean?
When I slightly frowned and looked up, Alice was glancing around, seemingly trying to explain herself.
“Um, well, it was fun when we first came here, but thinking about it, this costs money, right? Claire did the driving too.”
“Driving was something Claire insisted on doing.”
“No, still. It feels like I’m just receiving all the time.”
“Isn’t Claire the one who has had the most fun running around here?”
I said it genuinely, bewildered.
“And even though I didn’t run around as much as Claire, we all ate a ton! It’s not like we forced it down either; it was delicious! If you really didn’t want to come here, you would have opposed it from the start.”
“Uh… is that so?”
“You’re saying something strange.”
Before I knew it, Charlotte chimed in from the side.
“We’re not just here for Alice. We’re here to have fun together, not just to entertain you.”
Alice’s face turned bright red.
“Why are you suddenly apologizing by yourself?”
Claire’s expression was similar to mine.
“No, that’s not it… Uh, wait! Claire, what’s in your hand…!”
“Oh, sorry, your expression was just too good that I couldn’t help it.”
Claire said while holding a mirror.
Alice stretched out a hand to block the camera lens, but Claire moved the camera around to avoid her grasp.
“This is a video! Blocking it is already useless!”
“Get that away from me!? I’ll delete everything!”
“I just got a wonderful scene! Oh, I could edit this into a vlog.”
…True. It would make a brilliant emotional scene. People would think it was staged for how fitting it looked.
Claire ran towards the beach, and Alice chased after her.
They created a scene where they were shouting at each other while running around.
“Oh.”
Mia watched the scene from afar and exclaimed with fascination while filming it on her phone.
“Let’s keep preparing.”
“Shall we?”
Charlotte nodded at my words.
In the end, we completed the setup for watching the movie while Alice and Claire were running around.
*
Alice meticulously had even picked out a movie beforehand. Perhaps we might end up posting this video on a global streaming site; they had a VOD service selling movies that had been released before, and Alice had bought one.
The movie was a Japanese one.
In terms of years, it had been released a few years ago. To my personal sense of time, it was already over ten years old, but since only about a year had passed in this world after I crossed over, I could say, “it’s not that old of a movie.”
We connected Alice’s smartphone to the portable projector, started the movie, and all of us arranged our chairs facing the screen to enjoy it.
Our poses were unique to each of us. Alice and Charlotte used the chairs literally as “chairs.” Claire leaned back a bit more, lying slightly, while I completely reclined, propping a cushion behind my head, only lifting my head to watch the screen. Mia laid down next to an unfolded chair, tucked in a blanket.
The movie was a great one to watch at a camping site. There wasn’t anything too violent or erotic.
But the content was tear-jerking.
I didn’t know if Alice had searched for a great movie to watch while camping, but the story was about a man and a cat traveling together.
The man had circumstances that made him unable to keep the cat, so he was trying to find it a new home, and the monologues attached to the cat’s lines were impressive.
But as is usually the case with these kinds of movies, who knows why?
Sob.
I heard Claire sniffle.
Mia was peeking out from under the blanket, and while Alice and Charlotte weren’t outright crying, their eyes were a bit moist.
“…I don’t think I can have a pet.”
“Right? If it left me first, I think that would be truly shocking.”
…Though it seems the movie had the opposite content, I think that’s a fair enough sentiment. At least cats can’t live as long as humans.
“Oh, by the way, you also have a pet, don’t you?”
“…Me?”
“Yeah, from that time when we fought.”
“…”
Are they talking about the Gryphon?
“The fact that you can treat the Gryphon like a pet says a lot about the bizarre distribution of power. But no matter how I think about it, can I really call that ‘pet’ just because it jumped in and saved me?”
“Really? It seemed like it liked you.”
“No, no matter what, the Gryphon wouldn’t treat me like its master.”
“I don’t think so either.”
Charlotte, who was listening to the conversation, chimed in.
“After you disappeared, it seemed really anxious, wandering around everywhere. I told it you might be able to find it, and it seemed a bit relieved.”
Did that all happen in just those five minutes?
“That’s right. I’m sure your feelings got through.”
Mia said that.
…What feelings are they even talking about?
I was truly curious.
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