Chapter 46 Part 3: Raincoat

The next morning.

When we entered the restaurant with Amy, we were able to meet Rain.

She was sitting at a large table, eating.

“Ah!”

The moment our eyes met for the first time, she jumped up from her seat and greeted me.

“Hello!”

The rice cakes stuck to Rain’s lips sparkled.

She smiled as if she didn’t remember running away crying yesterday.

I didn’t bother to bring up yesterday.

When I waved my hand slightly, her smile grew even brighter.

“Come this way!”

At Rain’s gesture, Amy led us to the table where she was sitting.

She was sitting alone.

The men who seemed to be her teammates when we met yesterday were nowhere to be seen.

“Your teammates?”

“Everyone is on vacation except me.”

Shine and I sat across from Rain.

“Today too, pork cutlet?”

“Yes.”

Shine and I nodded.

Amy immediately walked over to order food.

Rain, me, and Shine’s eyes crossed.

At that moment, Shine opened her mouth.

“Rain.”

“Huh?”

“Who is this guy named Hughes?”

At Shine’s question, Rain’s face instantly turned red.

Her gaze quickly shook as she scattered in all directions.

She was extremely flustered, as if she remembered what happened yesterday.

“My… My teammate?”

“Teammate?”

“Yeah…”

“If you cry, do you go find your teammate?”

At Shine’s innocent question, tears welled up in Rain’s eyes.

Her face was bright red like a tomato.

“Ah… I didn’t cry.”

“I see.”

Shine’s interest seemed to have disappeared with that, and she shut her mouth.

Rain lowered her head and watched our expressions.

The strange silence continued until Amy returned.

Shine and I stuffed our mouths with the pork cutlet set that Amy had brought.

A happy smile formed on our faces as we felt the crispy texture spread through our mouths.

After finishing our meal, we headed straight to the gym.

Rain also seemed to have some business at the gym, and followed us.

“Rain.”

“Yeah.”

“Did you do gymnastics?”

“Oh… I didn’t…”

“You said you wanted to grow taller.”

“That… Yeah…”

Shine spoke while looking at Rain.

For some reason, a picture of Rain being scolded by Shine appeared.

Rain lowered her head as if she had done something wrong.

Shine nodded and spoke.

“We didn’t do it either, so let’s do it together later.”

Shine grabbed my hand and spoke.

He motioned for me to nod quickly.

I nodded with a clumsy smile.

“Did you drink the milk?”

“Yeah.”

“Good.”

Shine praised Rain.

Was drinking some milk really something to deserve praise?

I felt a bit disappointed.

I quickly moved and dug between Shine and Rain.

Their gazes turned to me.

“Jeff?”

I reached out with both hands and grabbed their arms and started running to the gym.

The two were dragged along obediently.

Amy’s laughter slowly dissipated behind me.

The three of us ran down the hallway and arrived in front of the gym.

As always, Victor was waiting inside the gym.

He looked at us with a tired face and said.

“There are three of us today?”

“Hi Victor!”

“Hello, Rain. Looks like you’ve made a friend.”

Rain turned to us at Victor’s words.

Her expression became subtle.

Amy, who arrived late, led us in front of Victor.

Shine seemed to want to play ball, but she didn’t refuse Amy’s words.

“What are you going to do today?”

“What you did yesterday?”

“Yesterday?”

“Yes, always keep that flow.”

Victor finished his words and opened the small book.

I immediately raised my hand.

A blue electric field spread across my hand.

I know the trick.

The electric current that danced here and there at my fingertips began to repeat a certain movement just like yesterday.

“Like this?”

“Stop and then again.”

I stopped the manifestation of my ability as Victor said.

The blue electric current disappeared immediately.

The moment I confirmed that the electric current disappeared from my hand, I raised my ability once again.

Crack-!

The blue light immediately shot up.

I concentrated my mind and tried to reproduce the same flow as before.

The electric current that had been flying around in all directions began to show the same steady movement as before after a while.

“It’s too slow.”

I frowned at Victor’s words.

He spoke without even looking up from his book.

Was he even watching?

When I looked up at him with a question, he closed the book and raised his hand.

“This is what I want you to do.”

Pazik-!

Blue electricity immediately rose in Victor’s hands.

Unlike me, the blue electricity showed a steady movement from the beginning.

“If you apply it, you can do this too.”

Victor said and changed the movement of the electricity.

As if lightning had struck, the current that had been flowing in a zigzag shape began to spread out in a straight line.

I nodded absentmindedly.

I understood what Victor was saying, but it seemed that applying the ability like that would require a long time of practice.

I began to practice with a sad face.

“It’s too hard…”

A grumbling voice kept flowing out of my mouth.

I turned my gaze and looked at Shine.

She sat on her chair and shook her legs as if she was doing nothing.

“Is it hard?”

“Yeah…”

I nodded at Shine’s question.

“Victor. Jeff is having a hard time.”

“Of course it’s hard. You can’t do it well from the beginning.”

“But if you don’t finish it all, you can’t play ball.”

“You didn’t say to finish it today.”

“Then how much more do I have to do?”

“Hmm…”

Shine asked.

At her question, Victor checked his watch and opened his mouth.

“One hour.”

“That much?”

“Okay, 30 minutes.”

The time had drastically decreased.

“Jeff, you only need to practice for 30 minutes.”

Shine shook my hand and smiled.

I blankly looked at Victor.

He scratched the back of his head and opened the book again.

I practiced my ability for 30 minutes as he said.

Little by little, just little by little, I began to feel my control over my ability increasing, just like Victor had shown me.

“Done!”

I checked the time and immediately got up from my seat and ran to the corner.

The 30 minutes I had promised Victor were over.

That meant we could play ball.

In the corner was the rubber ball that Shine and I had been playing with.

It seemed like no one had used it.

I picked up the ball and looked around.

Amy was talking to Victor as always.

I turned my head to the other side and started looking for Rain.

Rain was standing in front of a machine with many targets floating around.

“Rain!”

Rain, who was engrossed in something, looked back in surprise at my call.

The moment our eyes met, I waved my hand and said, “Let’s play together!”

Rain didn’t answer.

I watched her and then lifted the ball over my head.

“Let’s play ball!”

Rain began to think seriously.

A subtle smile appeared on her face.

The corners of her lips began to tremble.

She seemed embarrassed to answer for some reason.

I threw the ball at her.

“Take it!”

Boom-boom-

The ball hit the ground and bounced a few times before rolling towards Rain.

The rubber ball reached Rain’s feet.

She eventually picked it up.

I smiled brightly at her appearance.

“Wait… Shall we play for a bit?”

Rain approached me with a ball as if she was doing me a favor.

Shine, Rain, and I stood in a triangle formation.

It was a simple game of throwing a ball, but the three of us had a lot of fun.

The smiles on our faces did not disappear.

After playing ball and running around for a long time, we decided to take a break.

We sat side by side on the soft mat and caught our breath.

When our heavy breathing slowly subsided, Rain carefully opened her mouth.

“Hey…”

“Huh?”

“You guys are staying here, right?”

“Huh.”

“…Continue?”

“Huh. Continue.”

The tips of Rain’s ears turned red at my answer.

She smiled slightly, her lips curling.

“I see…”

“Good?”

Rain’s face turned bright red at Shine’s question of whether she liked it.

She wiggled her fingers, then slowly nodded.

“Jeff! Shine! Rain!”

At that moment, Amy, who was talking to Victor, called us.

It seemed that her conversation with Victor was over.

I immediately threw down the ball and ran to Amy.

Shine and Rain, who were sitting next to me, also followed me.

“Are you going now?”

“Yeah.”

Amy answered my question.

I immediately said goodbye to Victor and ran out of the gym.

Dadadadatta-

As I started running, Shine and Rain followed me.

When I turned my head, Amy was walking slowly.

After confirming her appearance, I ran straight to my room.

“Arrived!”

When I arrived at my room, I quickly moved and turned on the TV screen.

Immediately after that, I turned on the channel where *The Little Witch’s Great Adventure* was being rebroadcast.

I had plenty of time.

I immediately took off my clothes.

Shine also took off her clothes like me.

“Uh… guys?”

Rain, who had followed us into the room at that moment, said in confusion.

She seemed not to understand our sudden behavior.

“Rain, aren’t you going to shower?”

I said that and ran to the bathroom with Shine.

Rain covered her face with a blush without even answering.

While I was showering with Shine, Amy barged into the bathroom.

I told her that we could shower together, but she insisted on holding us back and starting over.

My plan was ruined.

Thanks to Amy, I had to spend more time showering.

After I finished showering, Amy started drying my hair with a towel.

My hair was shaking back and forth.

I kept turning my head to check the clock on the wall.

“Jeff, stay still.”

“Ugh.”

The towel, moving with Amy’s hands, blocked my view.

I shook my head and shook the water off my hair.

Pitter-patter-

Water droplets scattered everywhere.

I took advantage of that gap to escape from Amy’s touch.

It was soon time for the broadcast to start.

My skin was warm from the hot water.

I dragged my tired body and sat down in front of the television.

“Jeff!”

Amy followed me and hurriedly wrapped my head with a towel.

At Amy’s hand blocking my view, I twisted my head back and forth.

“I’m going to see this.”

“I know, so stay still.”

Amy was drying my hair.

Shine, who came out of the bathroom late, crawled onto the bed dripping with water.

She seemed to be planning to dry her hair like I had taught her.

Shine spread her head wide on the pillow and lay down on it.

“Shine!”

Amy screamed at the sight and ran towards Shine with a towel.