“Did you not wear a swimsuit after coming back from the sea?”
“First, I’m going to block this person temporarily.”
It’s impressive to hear someone say they got blocked even after sending a donation.
“Paid ban, haha!”
“That person’s got no lines, haha!”
Taking a peek at the chat, it was reassuring to see those reactions.
“Even if we wore swimsuits, I can’t guarantee whether we would show that photo. Unless we all agree, I’m not thinking of showing it.”
“In the game, you wore one.”
“Then satisfy yourself with something like a figure. Do you want to get banned?”
As I said that, the chat was filled with emojis of falling over. I didn’t know there were such emojis. Are they exclusive to broadcast chats?
“I don’t know if I’ll edit the video and upload it or not, but for now, I’ll show you at least a photo I took.”
As I said that, I brought up a photo on the screen.
The first one was a photo of the rest area.
I started with a photo taken during the trip to avoid people figuring out where we lived. I began by showing photos from the journey.
In fact, we had a style that was bound to stand out. If someone living nearby was watching our broadcast, they could probably guess where we live. But at least until now, no one had come to find us, and within the scope of my searches, I hadn’t seen any discussions about our neighborhood.
Fortunately, we lived in an apartment, so even if someone found our address, it wouldn’t be easy to knock on our door. Of course, that would be different if the stalker was a local.
Well, there’s really no need to worry about things that haven’t even happened yet.
In any case, it wouldn’t hurt to be careful, so I selected the photos accordingly.
“LOL!”
“Looks like you had a lot of fun, haha!”
“Did you not eat enough there?”
“It was only about an hour’s drive back, so it was no big deal.”
“And besides, we played some more after that.”
Claire, seated next to me, added with a smile.
The photo showed us with a table full of rest area food. Thanks to our appearance, it almost looked like a scene out of a cable reality show: ‘Foreigners Going Crazy Over Korean Rest Area Food.’
If a post popped up on a famous site, I could use it as material for the broadcast.
And then there would be another comment saying ‘Koreans are really discriminatory,’ and maybe I could catch onto another broadcasting gig. It’s truly an infinite loop of content.
“Did you like the rest area food?”
“We’re Korean, so it suited our tastes.”
My statement brought light laughter through the room.
“Wait, are we foreigners now?”
“Ugh, you trash!”
“I’m sorry!”
Ding! A donation came in with an apology. It was a thousand yen.
“Well, since we came from another world, strictly speaking, we are foreigners.”
My answer made the chat room buzz once again. Of course, most of it was playful banter. This time, there were a lot of comments about how I had forsaken my nationality for money, but most of them were just jokes, so I left it at that.
“After eating here, we set off again…”
As I pressed the keyboard arrow key, the next photo appeared on the screen.
“Oh!”
“Pretty!”
It was a beautiful place even to the naked eye, but the photo taken by the camera made the colors even more vibrant. Although the autumn’s unique melancholy was somewhat muted, the blue sea and sky turned out really gorgeous.
“We could stay at a fantastic camping site. We could take a lot of things because we had a car.”
And then the next photo—
Oh?
I thought the next photo would be of our dinner, but it wasn’t.
It was a photo of Claire throwing a ball that hit my head right on the mark.
Since it was taken during the bright daylight, the image was accurately captured without a blur.
As I turned my head, all the kids in the room simultaneously turned their heads too. Even Mia did so.
… Yeah, well. That’s on me for not checking thoroughly at the end.
“We had a lot of fun too.”
I shrugged and said that.
I had a scene of playing with a beach ball recorded, but since that was a video, I skipped it for now.
The next photo was of Mia and me sprawled on camping chairs, then one where we were preparing for a barbecue party, another of us eating together, a photo of Mia hugging her dish of galbi stew, and Alice shedding tears while watching a movie…
It was a plethora of photos, almost unbelievable how many we had taken.
I couldn’t express how grateful I was that everyone had smartphones. Otherwise, those moments would have slipped away without us realizing it.
“… And that wraps up what we did at the camping site.”
After sorting everything out, the last photo was a group picture in front of the car, marking the end of our photo collection.
“You’re amazing!”
“I can’t wait for the video!”
“I want to go camping too!”
“Exactly. I want to go again.”
Charlotte chimed in, agreeing with one of the comments she was reading.
“We just got back, though?”
“But it’d be great to go again. Besides, we all have plenty of time.”
Oh.
It was a bit surprising to hear that from Charlotte.
“Why are you saying that?”
As I stared at her, Charlotte looked a little flustered.
“Nothing at all.”
“No, you definitely had something to say. What was it that made you make that face?”
“My expression hasn’t changed from usual, you know?”
“It has.”
Alice said with a laugh.
Hmm.
I’ve been slowly working on my expressions lately, but the fact that even Charlotte noticed meant I wasn’t taking care of my expressions at all.
After that, Charlotte kept looking at me suspiciously, but honestly, I felt quite wronged.
I really wasn’t thinking of anything at all.
*
“Shall we put this here?”
“Sounds good. We can just fill it from here to the side.”
Claire said with a satisfied expression, causing me to accidentally look at her face.
This was the very back of the TV’s cabinet.
On the way back, we stopped by a photo studio to print out the last photo we took at the camping site. It wasn’t printed on large paper; instead, it was a palm-sized photo. We also stopped by a household goods store on the way back and bought a frame that matched the size of the photo perfectly.
Once placed on the far left of the drawer, Claire said that, seeming like she was intending to completely fill out the upper part of that drawer with photos. It seemed like it could hold way more than ten if arranged like this.
“Well, it’s not that we have to fill it completely, nor that we have to fill it with camping photos.”
Claire said to reassure me.
“We can take photos anywhere, and just pick the good ones from there, right? And when we go back, we can share them.”
“Are you not thinking of selecting by the number of people?”
“Well, that could work too.”
Claire thought for a moment before saying with a bright smile.
“More than that, don’t you think it’ll make us want to meet if we each have different photos? To revisit every memory, we have to meet again just for that reason. Otherwise, we’d just put them in an album and be sad while looking at them every hour.”
… Is that so?
“Sure, that makes sense.”
Charlotte replied.
Then I stared at Charlotte once more.
“Why do you keep making that face? Is there really something going on? Are you planning another scheme?”
“… I don’t think I’ve schemed that often.”
Upon my words, Charlotte widened her eyes as if to express disbelief.
“Is this coming from someone who’s drawn a grand scheme from childhood to drive away the Goddess?”
“That’s true! You’ve done it while overlapping time multiple times!”
Mia exclaimed from beside us.
No, back then, I was only able to draw because I could rewind time. Plus, I only understood the true nature of the world after quite a while.
“…”
But I couldn’t say anything to Mia, as I had joked around with her about the time-reversing ability.
“Well, it’d be nice to set a promise like that.”
Alice stepped in as a mediator.
“No matter how busy we are, isn’t it possible to make time if we really want to? I find it a bit strange that I’m having these thoughts, but honestly, after having experienced this life, it feels like if we don’t spend at least a day or two like this each year, life might get too boring.”
“… I also agree with that.”
Charlotte said.
“Until now, I’ve only lived thinking about my country and the throne, but yes, we do have a long life ahead of us, don’t we? We ought to have some joy in our expressions.”
Mia nodded vigorously.
“Yeah, that’s right, sis. You think so too, right?”
To Claire’s statement, I shrugged.
“Did you know? I’ve lived my life with that kind of thought from the start.”
My answer made Alice chuckle, and Charlotte facepalmed. Mia blinked innocently.
“I wouldn’t have thought that at all.”
“Is that so?”
At Mia’s comment, I unconsciously patted her head.
Then the other three immediately followed suit. Mia tried to resist somewhat, but she couldn’t completely escape the hands of the four taller women than her.
Yeah.
The reason I enjoy running around like this is for a happy ending.
What could that possibly be if not my own whimsical ‘joy of life’?
Thinking about it that way made me smile for no reason.
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