“Kawashima Ami-saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan, the model! Ka-wa-shi-ma-Ami-saaaaaaaaaaaaan! Don’t abandon your friends when they’re about to freeze to deeeeeaaaaaath! Look, Ryuuji’s freezing, too!”
“Nice! Excellent, Taiga! Kawashima Anna’s daughter Ahhh! Miiiiiii! Saaaaaaaaaaaaan! Are you just gonna leave us here?!”
“No no no, wait wait wait wait wait! Seriously, stop that! I said stop!”
This wasn’t funny. Ami planned to keep using her name in the entertainment industry for the next sixty years, and she wasn’t going to let them turn that name into a weird city legend. “Don’t mess with me! What are you saying?! Why are you just yelling people’s names out there like that?! Are you an idioooooot?! Actually, why don’t you just say ‘help me’ like a normal person?!”
“So you really did hear us?! Eek, help!”
“Help us!”
Half-sliding in the snow, Ami ran down the slope of the riverside. As she got closer, the two of them looked even more terrifying. They were wet up to their heads, and the color of their faces was shading from blue to green. Even their lips were turning dark purple. She lost the will to snap at them.
“Actually…how did you end up like that…?”
“A lot happened… It’s a long story. Ah, ahhh! My boots are slipping off…”
“W-wait a second Kawashima, please, give us a hand! The river bottom is so soft that we can barely walk!”
“Fine!” Ami stood on a concrete block that just barely touched the river water. “Oh dear, too bad, looks like I can’t reach.” She just waved around her hand up to her elbow, putting no real effort into it.
“Why youuuuuuu!” the Palmtop Tiger shouted grudgingly.
Ami just snorted. “I’m joking, of course,” she said. “Eek! That’s! So! Cold~!”
She grabbed Takasu Ryuuji’s hand first, using all her strength to pull him up, and then took Tiger’s small hand. Their hands were so cold that she just about shrieked.
“Yuusaku, and she… Kushieda Minori said they’re coming right away. Actually, aren’t you both really in trouble? Your faces don’t look a normal color.”
“I-I-I-I-I feel like I’m in trouble. I’m r-r-r-r-really s-s-s-s-seriously feeling it.”
“W-w-w-we’re both feeling it. W-w-we’re idiots-s-s-s-s.”
“You’re lucky to be alive. So, you’re fine?”
They didn’t seem composed enough for her to ask what had happened, so for the time being, she took off the coat she was wearing and put it on their heads. The chill that permeated her knit turtleneck made her whole body break out in goose bumps. She should have been doing better than the two who were soaking wet and frozen, but…
“I feel like I’m the one most likely to catch a cold.”
I’m the one who’s alone here, she almost said as she looked at them, huddling in the coat and shivering, but swallowed her words and took a breath instead. Ahh. In the end, wasn’t she actually the most pitiful one here?
At just a single phone call from her childhood friend, she’d gone running, found them, and on top of all that, even lent them her coat. And the truth was, she wanted others to do the same for her.
The truth was, she wanted someone to treat her the same way.
That’s so silly. Rather than biting her lip, Ami put her finger to her cheek. She then pouted her lips like a duck, and instead of swallowing her words, made her voice sound sweeter. “When heaven gave me the most beautiful face there ever was, they must have given me the greatest hardships to match… Eeeeeeeeeeek!”
“Ahh, Dimhuahua, you’re so warm…”
Her deep pain, which no one could comprehend, blew off into the unseen beyond as the sopping wet Palmtop Tiger firmly latched on to Ami with all four of her limbs. She thrust her hand into the back of Ami’s knit shirt. The chill of that hand paralyzed Ami’s whole body.
“You’re really so warm, Dimhuahua. You’re a lifesaver…”
“YAAAAAAARRRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
In the moment she was struck immobile, those cold-as-ice hands made their way under the extra undershirt she was wearing, stealing more of her body heat. Ami screeched like a pirate’s war cry.
As though summoned by that scream, her childhood friend ran toward them, waving his hand. “Oh, there you are! Hey!” He skillfully slid down the snow-covered slope in his sneakers. “Were you just yelling like a pirate?!”
Another person arrived moments after him. “Found you! You guys! Wait, ahh!”
It was Kushieda Minori. But when she tried to slide down the slope in the same way as Kitamura, she slipped, landed on her butt, and then just skidded the rest of the way down until she arrived at the bottom of the river. When she stood, she said (of all things), “Ahmin, were you just talking about pirates?!”
“That’s not what she said!” they all cried at once.
“Sorry, I misheard!” Minori stuck out her tongue. “Actually, what’s going on here?!”
She pointed with both hands at the sopping wet duo. They looked at each other, and neither Ryuuji nor Taiga could find anything to say. They simply shook uncontrollably and intermittently breathed out white breaths.
“Actually, what happened to you, too?!” Minori suddenly pointed a finger at Ami.
“Huh?” Ami let her true face peek out as she looked back.
“The way you’re dressed! What’re you doing wearing barely anything!”
“M-M-M-Minorin, th-th-th-th-this is Dimhuahua’s coat. Sh-sh-sh-she lent it to me. Right, D-D-D-D-D-Dimhuahua?”
Minori replied before Ami could nod. “Ahhhhhhhhh! Seriously, just looking at all of you makes me feel cold! Are you okay?!”
She reached out to Ami without hesitation and rubbed roughly at her arms. “Get off!” Ami said without thinking, but Minori didn’t pull back her hands.
“First off, you two take off your wet coats. Here, hand them over to me.”
“Takasu-kun, you actually put on Ahmin’s coat. And then Taiga, you put on mine. And then, Ahmin, you take this! You’re sniffling, hurry up, hurry up!”
A wide checked scarf like a stole came to rest on Ami’s shoulders, which were only covered in a knit shirt. Without thinking, she ducked her head at the sudden warmth.
“I’ll take that.” Her childhood friend reached out his hands and stole the scarf. In its place, Kitamura pulled off the duffle coat he was wearing and offered it to Ami and Minori. “Here, you two both wear this, you’ll get cold.”
Kushieda Minori took it and grabbed Ami’s elbow. “Come with me! Hey, come here! Come closer!” She jerked Ami into the wool of the duffle, which wasn’t very warm.
“…” Ami coughed to pretend her voice hadn’t caught. Pretending like nothing happened, she continued, “A bath. You guys will probably die if you don’t get in a bath. For now, at least.”