Kumon Hyodo/Refreshing ☆ Summer Fruit

Fun Watermelon Splitting at the Beach

Backstage Stories

Part 1Part 2

Kumon	Woah, the courtyard’s a beach!
	What the? What’s going on?
Manager	So you see, Tetsuro-san came over early this morning and made a beach in our courtyard again this year~!
Kumon	Really!?
Manager	It seems he heard you and Taichi-kun talking about beaches and pools yesterday, so he made it for you.
Kumon	Oh yeah, Taichi-san and I did mention we wanna go to a beach or pool in the hallway yesterday.
	But to think that’s why he came so early in the morning…!
	I gotta thank Tetsuro-san whenever I see him next time!
Manager	You do that~!
Kumon	Taichi-san!
	Did you see the courtyard beach!?
Taichi	Yep, I did! Tetsuro-san heard us chatting and made it for us, right!
Sakuya	Eh, he made that beach for the two of you?
Kumon	Yep! Apparently, yesterday, Tetsuro-san overheard us talking about how we’re dying to go to a beach or pool!
Sakuya	I see. That’s great!
Kumon	Ooh, I’m itching to jump in already~!
Taichi	Sakkun, you got any plans after this?
Sakuya	No. I’m off work today, so I have nothing going on.
Kumon	Ah. In that case, let’s play together, Sakuya-san!
Sakuya	Me?
	Okay, I guess I’ll join you then.
Taichi	Aw yeah!
	I’m sure it’ll more fun if all of us play together!
Kumon	Alriiight, let’s hit it up at the freshly made MANKAI beach after we’re done breakfast!
Sakuya	By the way, what are we going to play at the beach?
Kumon	We haven’t decided yet!
	Since we have the chance, I wanna do something like you would at a real beach.
Taichi	In that case, I wanna split a watermelon!
	That’s super beachy, isn’t it!?
Kumon	Good idea! That’s got beach vibes to me!
Sakuya	Also, if we eat the cracked watermelon in the courtyard right after, then it might feel even more like a beach!
Kumon	True!
	Do we have a watermelon?
Sakuya	I don’t recall there being one in the fridge.
Taichi	Alright, we gotta go buy one!
	*door opens*
Homare	Did you just say you were going to go purchase a watermelon?
Kumon	Yep. We’re gonna split a watermelon in the courtyard!
Homare	Oh my, what timing!
	If so, you may use my watermelon.
Taichi	What do you mean…?
Homare	As fate would have it, I just received a watermelon from my editorial department.
Sakuya	Eh, what an amazing coincidence…!
Taichi	Is it really okay if we use it for watermelon splitting though?
Homare	Indeed. It is sitting by the front door, so please take it as you wish.
Taichi	Woohoo. Now we can do the watermelon splitting right away!
Kumon	Thanks, Homare-san!
Sakuya	Thank you very much!

Taichi	I’ll start us off!
Kumon	Close your eyes and spin around…
	Okay, and start!
Taichi	Do I go straight ahead!?
Sakuya	Maybe a little more to the right.
	It’s about 3 steps away!
Taichi	3 steps to the right…
Kumon	Ah, half a step back!
	*swings*
	So close!
Taichi	Aww, I didn’t break it~!
Sakuya	You did graze it though.
Taichi	Alright, you’re up next, Sakkun!
Sakuya	Sure. I’m depending on you for support!
Kumon	You’re doing great, Sakuya-san!
	You’re in the perfect position!
Taichi	Just swing down there…!
Sakuya	Eii!
	*swings*
Taichi	Ahh, just a little more to the left~!
Sakuya	Hmm. This is harder than it looks, huh?
	Okay, please go ahead, Kumon-kun!
Kumon	Alriiight, I’ll take a stab at it!
	Is it around here…?
Taichi	Right! Ah, a smidge to the left!
Sakuya	Take one more step!
	Yeah, yeah…!
Kumon	HERE GOES!
	*hits*
Sakuya	He nailed it!
Taichi	WOOHOO!
	Err, huh…?
Kumon	It’s not split at all!
	My hands are tingling, but maybe I didn’t use enough power.
Sakuya	Kumon-kun’s used to swinging a bat, so I assumed he was pretty strong… Hmm.
Taichi	Well, now that we’ve all had our fill for the watermelon splitting, all we gotta do is eat it like we’re at the beach!
Kumon	Right. I wanna hurry up and dig in, so let’s smash it open together!
Sakuya	I-it’s not cracking…
Taichi	Urgh, my hand hurts~…
Kumon	How are we supposed to break this open?
Chikage	What’s the matter?
Sakuya	Ah, Chikage-san!
Taichi	We were watermelon splitting, but we’re in a bind since it won’t open at all.
Kumon	We’ve hit it over and over, but it’s rock solid!
	Maybe it’s not ripe yet.
Sakuya	If possible, we wanted to open it and eat it here…
Chikage	I see.
	Could you lend me that stick for a moment?
Kumon	Wait, are you going to try watermelon splitting too, Chikage-san!?
Chikage	Eh?
Taichi	I can’t wait to see Chikage-san’s watermelon splitting!
Sakuya	Please give your best shot!
Chikage	…
	…I was going to hit it and break it normally. But I suppose I have no choice if all of you have such high expectations.
	Should I close my eyes and spin around?
Kumon	Yep!
	Round and round and round… okay, stop!
Chikage	…
Kumon	Holy crap! He went straight to the watermelon…!
	*hits*
Sakuya	Wow, it broke…!
Kumon	In one strike without hesitation…!
Taichi	What’s more, it’s a clean break!
Chikage	Here you go. Now you can eat it, right?
Kumon	You’re so cool, Chikage-san!
Taichi	It wouldn’t open even though we bashed it so much…!
Chikage	It just happened to break when I struck it since all of you had hit it so many times already.
Kumon	I wonder about that.
Chikage	It looks like this watermelon had a thick rind. But it’s ripe, so I’m sure it will be delicious to eat.
Taichi	You think so!?
	I can’t wait to dig in!
Chikage	Well then, I’ll be taking my leave.
Sakuya	Ah, sure!
	Thank you very much, Chikage-san!
Kumon	Thanks!
Taichi	Thanks~!
Kumon	…Chikage-san sure was amazing breaking it in one shot.
	I’ll train my arms even more so I can break a watermelon in one swing too!

Anna