Four tickets. Who gets the last two spots?

Morning. Yekase jolted awake in her blankets like a fish yanked from ice, sirens wailing in her skull—and by the time the answer finally surfaced, it was already too late.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Ling Yi’s rhythmic knocking sounded more than ever like a death bell tolling through fog.

“Wait a sec! I just woke up!”

Her shout bought a few minutes; she popped upright like a spring-loaded toy.

If a gun shows up in a story, it must fire; if Ling Yi had four tickets, she would call exactly three people.

She sprinted barefoot to brush her teeth, splashed her face, stripped the sleep T-shirt, and tried to yank on a camisole; the more she rushed, the more it snagged, the fabric fighting like seaweed—fine, swimsuit then—except she didn’t own one.

Wait—wrong problem.

Water park means swimsuits. A girl’s swimsuit. Of course.

She dropped to her knees with a dull thud, like a puppet whose strings got cut.

How did she not think of this when she tried to decline yesterday? No way she’d have agreed, no matter how Ling Yi begged.

Twenty-seven and ostensibly a grown man—never that manly to begin with… lately skirts don’t feel so foreign… still…

“Ha. Forget it.”

Let the heart go numb like a stone in a stream; the camisole slid on smooth.

She opened the door. Ling Yi stood there flanked by Ling Ya and Pulu, a general with two lieutenants.

Figures.

“You go. I’m not going.”

“Eh—?”

She tried to shut the door; Ling Yi reached in; the door bit her finger.

“Ow, ow… didn’t we agree yesterday? Why the sudden no?”

“I can’t swim.”

“Floatie! I brought a floatie!”

“There are… other reasons—”

“Doc, you don’t have a swimsuit, do you?”

“Uh.”

Ling Ya twigged; she stepped up with a small paper bag like an altar offering.

“Sis Yezi, for you.”

Yezi? Since when?!

Yekase looked to the last supposed normal one, Pulu.

Pulu folded her arms like a closed gate, impatience stamped all over her face. “Yiyi had us detour to bang on your door, she knows you’re a shut-in with no stamina, she even brought a float. What kingdom’s princess are you? Move.”

Right. She’d forgotten this one backs Ling Yi unconditionally.

Outnumbered, Yekase took the bag, clutching it to her chest. The thing inside was soft as guilt; no need to guess.

“I’ll just check the size…”

“Make it quick.”

Door shut; the room regained its stale calm.

She opened the paper bag like defusing a bomb, and drew out that thing.

Deep navy. Fabric smooth and stout like a quiet lake.

A white rectangle was stitched dead center on the chest like a nameplate.

The old letters had been scrubbed to a gray haze; neat marker strokes now spelled: Yekase.

“I… you…”

She breathed deep, like filling a lifeboat.

Then she hurled Ling Yi’s carefully prepared swimsuit to the floor.

“Ling Yi, you little—ah!”

Laughter burst outside the rental like fireworks, loud and shameless.

They’d planned this. All three.

Being made to wear this felt like an insult—she wanted to shout that—but Ling Yi’s lonely little face from yesterday stabbed straight through a heart that years in the Inner World had iced to stone.

As the only one who knew Flashblade Red’s true face, she had to give Ling Yi absolute understanding and support.

With a strange resolve cradling her like armor, Yekase put the swimsuit on.

It fit like it was cut for her.

She didn’t dare face the mirror; she cracked the door and asked, nerves tight as a bowstring, “...Well?”

Ling Yi’s eyes went glassy like stars.

Ling Ya lifted a thumbs-up like a flag.

“So? How is it?”

“Perfect!” Ling Yi gave a full score without blinking.

Ling Ya chimed, voice sugary, “Yezi’s just-right curves, paired with a youth-boosting school swimsuit, are truly—”

“Hold it, Miss Ling, did your character sheet just flip?”

Pulu stayed the most consistent, like bedrock.

That steadiness brought a tiny, inexplicable relief.

Door shut; swimsuit off; into the bag; clothes back on.

Only then did the four finally set out.

Yekase expected Ling Yi’s dad or mom to pull up; nope.

They hoofed it to the water park, lucky it wasn’t far.

Each grabbed a milk tea, sweet ballast as they marched the pavement.

Paper bag crooking her arm, milk tea cooling her palm, earbuds plugged like corks, Yekase trailed behind, watching their laughing profiles like a sunlit triptych.

She’d never pictured herself walking as a friend beside three seventeen-ish girls.

Happy? Not especially.

A rare second youth—maybe park the business with organizations and heroes, and just enjoy the breeze.

“Sis Yezi, are you taking another leave next term?”

“Huh? Uh… we’ll see…”

Why that topic out of the blue?

The sly curl at Ling Ya’s lips gave her away; she hadn’t turned soft overnight, just rerouted her mischief.

“Eh? The Doc’s on leave? Why?”

“Because my health’s not great…”

“Not great?” Ling Yi echoed, the word hanging like a thread.

Damn. She knows Mechbreaker. The sickly waif act won’t work.

“Actually I have this, uh, condition… I can fall asleep anytime?”

“Why is that a question.”

“Little do you know, Sis Yezi’s also a student at our Heavenly Heart High School, same grade as you. If she comes back next term, we might end up in the same class.”

“The same class!”

Ling Yi’s eyes lit up like lanterns.

Bad, bad, bad, bad.

“Oh, so that’s why the Doc wore a uniform that day… Doc, let’s go to school together, okay? High school work might be child’s play for you, but school isn’t just studying!”

Knew she’d say that.

“I don’t want to get up early every day…”

“Please, with your grades, grabbing a nap in class is a piece of cake.”

Crap. That’s exactly my first-run high school life.

“Also, the new principal and dean are all about holistic education. More group activities.”

What kind of sales pitch is that? Do I look like someone who loves sports day?

Aren’t you second-years? Next term is senior year. Even if you want to relive high school, who willingly relives twelfth grade?

“At most, I’ll sneak into your observatory for half a day when I’m free. Real classes? Pass. A lot of things would be… inconvenient.”

Her firm refusal drew a sigh from Ling Yi. She knew the Doc had research to wrestle with, not fur to grow in a classroom.

They drifted into the water park at an easy pace.

Tickets scanned, gates clicked, lockers yawned.

The women’s changing room didn’t make her feel much of anything, beyond the press of bodies like a crowded tide; she changed without fuss.

Still, a blush of shame clung; she yanked on a big bath towel like a cloak.

Ling Yi and Ling Ya’s lockers were the next aisle over.

Wrapped in her towel, Yekase shuffled over; both had stowed their clothes already, wearing common two-piece suits—Ling Yi in red, Ling Ya in blue.

“You two saddle me with that thing, and wear something this normal?”

Ling Ya beamed. “If Sis Yezi had her own swimsuit, she wouldn’t need that thing.”

So it was your rotten idea.

“I’ll go buy one right now.”

“Use what’s at hand. Don’t waste money.”

They went hunting for Pulu, unlucky enough to be assigned a locker in a far corner.

Pulu was also in a school swimsuit.

“Huh? Who was laughing at me earlier? Why are you wearing one too?”

“I’m not like you, who moves with the tide,” Pulu said, arms crossed, legs planted like a stance. “I chose this with my own will, and I wear it with pride.”

Ling Yi chimed in. “We wear normal suits and you complain. Pulu matches you and you still complain. What do you want, really?”

“She wants you to match her,” Ling Ya tossed in.

“So that’s it…”

Pulu hmmed up, eyebrows shooting like arrows.

“No, no, I wouldn’t dare!” Yekase flailed as the two tag-teamed her buttons.

Pulu hmmed down, back to baseline.

At last, without incident, they entered the pool area.

This water park was famous province-wide for its dazzling rides.

From the locker hallway alone, they saw a riot of attractions; beyond classic slides and lazy rivers, odd beasts loomed they couldn’t name at a glance.

“Go!”

Ling Yi shoved the uninflated swim ring into Yekase’s hands and dashed off dragging Ling Ya, red and blue streaks.

Leaving Yekase and Pulu alone.

Both in school swimsuits, both seventeen—at least to the eye.

“Uh…”

Yekase sneaked a side-eye at Pulu.

Her brown hair was wound into a bun; the two distinctive hair clips still perched like twin antennae; the white patch on her chest bore letters.

[Qbely].

A word? She couldn’t sound it out.

“What are you staring at?”

“Nothing…” Yekase snapped her gaze away like a shutter.

“Yiyi’s urged me many times.”

“Huh?”

“To be friends with you. To get along.”

“You don’t have to force yourself.”

“So, next, I’ll try to learn you. To recognize you. Because that’s Yiyi’s wish.”

Pulu’s face was serious as winter.

So Yekase answered just as seriously.

“What about your wish? Do you want to be friends with me?”

“I don’t know.”

Not a blink of hesitation. She knew clearly that she did not know.

Yekase had thought it was just a girl’s possessiveness; clearly, Pulu wasn’t some soft candle.

“Why are you smiling?”

“Nothing. Just thinking how you and I are pretty alike.”

Yekase spun, took Pulu’s left hand without warning, and backed into the salt of spray and tide of people.

“Then let’s start. Let’s learn each other, and ourselves. After all, it’s Ling Yi’s wish, right?”