Summer Dreams

I Feel Fine

Wednesday, 8/9/12, Junes Shopping Center, Mid-afternoon...

Kanji sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets, doing his best to just tune out the ludicrous verbiage coming from one of his companions.

"...So I said 'Why don't you come hang out with us!?' and she was like 'That sounds stupid, but okay!' We are so alike...oh, I can't wait 'til she gets here! I wonder if she knows what swimsuits are...I guess it'll be up to us to show her, right guys!? But we must be gentle-bears about it! She's a delicate flower...and thorny like one, too! Thorns hurt..."

Teddie had been babbling incessantly ever since Kanji had arrived. Yosuke had phoned Kanji and told him to meet them at Junes so they could shop for new bathing suits. It had been so long since Kanji had heard from him that he almost didn't believe it, but he also knew that if he was going to face the beach, he wasn't going to do it in the skimpy, easy-to-have-a-wardrobe-malfunction speedo he had worn last year. Since he arrived however, both he and Yosuke had been forced to wait in the lobby of the store while Teddie waited for his "special friend," whom he had invited to join them.

"Ted," Kanji started, trying his best to not sound like he wanted to strangle the bear, no matter how bad he did, "Y'know just cuz this.. person is yer pal, don't gotta mean me and Senpai should wait! We're gonna be here all day at this rate!"

The big teen was glad to hear Yosuke concur. "Yeah man, this is looking prretttty grim. It's already been like a half hour! Plus, there's no way you found a girl to hang out with you, I just don't believe it!" Yosuke was harsh, but Kanji couldn't disagree; Teddie was cute and cuddly in or out of the bear suit, but he had a hard time imagining any girl who didn't already know how he was to really be all that into him, at least enough to come swimsuit shopping with him.

The bear pouted, his human form still clothed in the only outfit he ever seemed to wear. "Oh you two of little faith! When have I ever lied about something?"

A resounding " Uh... " came out of both Kanji and Yosuke, causing them to chuckle slightly. Kanji had dressed lightly for the occasion, wearing his yellow ribcage t-shirt and an old pair of jeans. By contrast, Yosuke looked like he had a hot date: designer red skinny jeans and a short-sleeve white collared shirt, not too unlike their summer school uniform.

As Teddie continued to babble, Yosuke leaned toward the wall, motioning for Kanji to join him. Kanji folded his hands behind his head and obliged.

"Sorry man," Yosuke sighed, taking his phone out of his back pocket and fiddling with it for a moment, "I didn't know Teddie had this up his sleeve. He's usually so bad at keeping secrets that he actually fooled me! God I hope that doesn't mean he's getting smart on us..."

Kanji shrugged his shoulders. "'S'alright dude. Ain't like Junes is goin' anywhere soon. Gah, I haven't been back here since...well, its been a while," he rambled, sort of glad just to be talking to someone other than his Ma.

"Heh, I was just here last night ," Yosuke complained, giving Teddie the stink eye, "Fuzzbrain over there was on his first closing shift. Let's just say that we'll be more than happy to keep him on mornings and mascot duty..."

This got a chuckle out of Kanji before a silence sprang up. Even almost six months later, it felt weird to be hanging out with 'just the guys' when that didn't include Yu. Still, after all the girl drama that had been going on with him lately, it felt nice to just chill with the guys. Took his mind off the upcoming beach trip anyways.

Aside from his bad wardrobe malfunction, Kanji actually really enjoyed the trip last year. Sandcastles were awesome to make, and he liked swimming even in the salty, crappy ocean. Of course his anxiety about seeing Naoto there was sky-high, but he had to give a lot of props to Yukiko, who had slowly been talking him through the worst parts via text recently. Her experience with Rise and Yu turned out to be pretty darn applicable to his situation.