Summer arrived bringing light rain that fell gently over the neighborhood, making Sumire sigh in annoyance. She had forgotten her umbrella again.

School was just over for the day, and she wanted to go home as soon as possible so that she could rest before she could start her patrol in the evening. However, she had to put that plan away, it seemed.

“Sumire! Over here!” a familiar voice called out to her. It was Momo. “Forgot your umbrella?”

“Mm”, Sumire hummed. Momo offered her blue umbrella to Sumire to hold, since she was taller.

The two of them walked out of the school building and toward the gate. Some of the students without umbrellas were waiting for the rain to stop, while the rest of them, mostly the boys, ran through the rain, impatient to go home.

“Yeesh. I knew it, it’s the Ame Onna’s doing again”, Momo grumbled.

‘Ame Onna’ was not actually a yokai, but a fellow student of Ajisai Highschool named Asagiri Aoi. 

Aoi was a tall girl with twin-braided dark hair and perpetual coldness around her. She carried with her a cute green frog-patterned umbrella that didn’t match her scary appearance. Sumire knew her as the judo team captain and the 2-B class rep, but most students knew her as ‘Ame Onna’, since it would often rain when she was around, especially in summer and fall.

Most students avoided her because of her reputation, and Sumire usually found her walking alone in the rain after school hours.

“I hope it won’t rain too much this summer. I want to start exercising!” Momo claimed.

She said that every year, Sumire wanted to say, but held herself back. With little to no success too, she remembered fondly. Momo would often take Sumire with her to run a lap or two around the block, but would give up in less than five minutes when she was already running out of breath. It was the thought that counted, at the very least.

“Are you going to do your evening patrol again?” Momo asked.

“Mm”, Sumire nodded. “It’s summer already.”

Summer meant there would be more spiritual disturbances, as the boundaries between the world of the living and the dead became thinner. Yokai and yurei, or human spirits, were more active in summer, so it was the busiest time of the year for the yokai hunters.

Sumire had proven her worth within the yokai hunter community by sealing Yuki Onna, but she didn’t feel any different. It wasn’t her own accomplishment, after all, but she was unsure if it was wise to mention Natsuno’s contribution. If the Yokai Hunter Association caught wind of Natsuno’s heritage… well, she didn’t want to think about what would happen.

Still, it made her feel like she was an impostor.

“Anyway, do you want to come over? My sisters are out with Granny today, so we’ll have the house to ourselves”, Momo offered, breaking Sumire out of her thought. “You can rest while we chill and have ice cream!”

“Sure”, Sumire replied. That did sound like a good idea. At least she could still rest before it was time for her to go out for a patrol.

—

Momo’s house was located just behind their family’s grocery store. Her grandmother, Nodoka Sayuri, was the one who managed it after Momo’s parents died — although Momo and her sisters helped from time to time.

Momo was the first child out of three. Her sisters, Nodoka Sakurako and Nodoka Himawari, were elementary school students. Their parents died from a yokai-related incident five years ago, so Momo had been taking care of her sisters and their old grandmother since.

“Feel free to take anything!” Momo claimed, while she took snacks from the shelves. She always said that, but Sumire knew that it would give her trouble with her grandmother. That was why Sumire left money in the cashier after taking cherry blossom milk pudding and strawberry tea from the cooler without Momo knowing.

Momo’s room was located on the second floor, with a window facing to the west. Sumire and Momo lounged around on the tatami floor, while they enjoyed the day away. The rain had stopped at some point, but the weather continued to be pleasantly chill.

They were talking about their plans for the summer. Aside from her plan to exercise, apparently Momo was also planning to change her skincare routine. She’d been having troubles with pimples lately, a problem that Sumire couldn’t really relate.

“Do you think he’ll care about my pimples? I mean, he doesn’t seem like the type to care about things like that, does he?” Momo asked as she observed her reflection in the mirror.

“Who?” Sumire asked distractedly from behind the fashion magazine she was currently reading.

Momo let out an exaggerated sigh, before answering, “Natsuno, duh.”

Sumire took time to actually process the whole thing, before slowly lowering the magazine in her hands. Her mind recalled to the time when they worked together with Suzuki family, the way he looked comfortable with Mr. Suzuki’s son despite claiming that it was only an act.

“Momo”, Sumire said seriously. “I’m saying this for your own good, so please don’t misinterpret it. But if you’re thinking to date Natsuno — don’t.”

“Eeh? Why?!” Momo cried out in surprise, turning her attention back to Sumire. “Wait, he’s not gay, is he? Sumire, you probably worked with him at least once, right? Tell me all the details!”

Sumire bit her lips — she wasn’t feeling comfortable outing Natsuno like this, But Momo reached the conclusion anyway from her lack of answer. Momo’s eyes widened.

“He is!” Momo concluded, looking extremely disappointed as she threw her back to the pile of pillows by the wall. “Man, why are all the good guys gay?”

Momo continued to ramble about her surefire plan to find a date that summer, still not ruling out Natsuno out of her list somehow. Sumire tried to be sympathetic, she really did. However, Momo’s problems were so different from her that it was hard for her to offer any input.

Before she knew it, evening arrived, and Sumire excused herself from the Nodoka’s household.