Yoshino furrowed her eyebrows, probably thinking that I was being brazen. “Is that really what you’re gonna ask after that message you gave me?”
“That was me being kind in my own way, more or less.”
“So you’re implying that there was more to your motives, right? What do you want from me? I didn’t take you as the blackmailing type.”
“That’s not what I’m trying to do. You’re the only one who’s thinking that,” I said, shrugging. “Besides, the fact that your cell phone is broken isn’t exactly blackmail material.” Yoshino frowned. I wryly smiled and continued. “By the way, I don’t have any hard evidence of that—it’s all just my own hypothesis. But after seeing your reaction, I’m sure I’m right. The flip phone you had broke after you fell in the water, right?”
“How...do you know that?”
“There are three reasons, but do you really wanna know?”
“As if I’ll be able to accept this situation without any explanation!”
Okay, suit yourself. “First, on the morning of the second day, Yume called you, but you didn’t pick up.”
I’d gone with her to investigate the missing guidebooks, and thinking that it’d be rude to suddenly visit their room, Yume had tried calling ahead, but Yoshino hadn’t picked up. It would make sense if the phone had been broken by then.
“Second, for some reason, after that, your group was unusually close to ours. Even in the American Village, you were weirdly sticking by Yume. That’s because you were hoping that if any kind of emergency information was shared, Yume would share it with you, right?”
After all, that very morning, Yume had offered her help if they were in any trouble, so it would make sense that Yoshino would hang around just in case she did need help.
“Third, the clothes that you were drying in the window on the morning of the second day.”
“My clothes...?”
“They were the exact same clothes you were wearing on the night of the first day.”
Yoshino’s expression slightly became more grim. For something that she didn’t want others to find out about, she was pretty careless. Maybe she shouldn’t have so easily let a guy into her room.
“Of course, the same goes for us, but we were told the entire schedule for the school trip ahead of time, so we all brought four days’ worth of clothes. There was no reason to do laundry. If there was, then it’d have to be because some unexpected accident happened. Something like, say...becoming absolutely drenched.” And how would that happen? There was an event the night before that perfectly explained that. “Yoshino, Asuhain pushed you into the pool, right?”
Yoshino did her best not to show anything in her expression at all. But it was too late. The moment you were so scared of me already proved my theory.
“I heard about that via Yume,” I continued. “At around eight thirty on the first night, Asuhain saw someone ask someone else out by the pool. She didn’t reveal who those two people were, but taking into account the three reasons I listed earlier, I was thinking that one of them was definitely you, and specifically, you were the one asking the other person out.”
“Why...?”
“Hypothesizing from what Asuhain said, there are only about three other people that the other person could be. And out of those three, none of them were people I could imagine asking you out. No offense.”
“Wait... I’m not seeing where you’re going with this.”
I wasn’t sure if Yoshino had calmed down, but she was still trying to keep a straight face. “Asking someone out by the pool? And you’re saying I was pushed in? How the heck are you getting me from that? Just because I washed my clothes doesn’t mean that they were wet. What if a drink had exploded on me or something?”
“Now that I think about it, you’re wearing the same clothes from the first day, aren’t you? They look familiar.”
“Yeah, they’re dry now.”
“They smell like chlorine.”
“Huh?”
Yoshino frantically went to sniff her shoulder strap of her camisole and then froze.
I smirked slightly. “You’re so honest.”
Yoshino’s face went red with embarrassment. I hadn’t expected her to fall for that so easily.
“Argh, fine! What do you want from me?! Are you just bullying me?!”
“Not at all. I couldn’t care less about your love life. You might think differently of me, but there’s something more important that I want to ask.” I then pointed at Yoshino’s left wrist, or more importantly, the watch she had on. “You got out of the pool with Asuhain at eight thirty, right?”
“Huh? What’s the point of that question, even?”
“With that, I’ll know exactly who you asked out.”
“Why don’t you just ask me?”
“You don’t want to say, right? Besides, I bet it’d make them happier too, this way.”
Yoshino’s eyes turned to slits as she glared at me. I wasn’t sure what emotions were going through her head, but for a bit, she stayed silent, accepting the truth that’d been thrown in front of her.
“Fine. You win,” she sighed before staring at me, the fight gone from her face. “In exchange, would you mind hearing me out? After all, everything you said—your hypothesis, or whatever—is spot on.”
“Sure. It’s a small price to pay.”
“You’re treating someone’s love life as a ‘price’?” Then Yoshino looked at her watch. “What did you want again? The time we got out of the pool?”
“Yeah. If possible, I’d like the precise time.”
This was information that we couldn’t get out of Asuhain. She simply couldn’t have known, since she’d lacked any way of telling the time.
“Just a second... I know I saw...” she muttered. “Oh, right. It was around eight fifty.”
“Eight fifty, huh?” That’s exactly ten minutes before I went in there. That confirms it. “Thanks. Everything’s clear now.”
“Uh-huh. Then let me give you a quiz: who did I ask out?”
Then, I said a single name, which made Yoshino’s face loosen. “You really are the worst, you know that?” she said in a voice of submission.
Then I listened to her love story and how it had both started and ended without anyone knowing.