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Mondstadt Dormitory (SUMMER TRIP!) Group Chat | No Grumpy Diluc and No Overworker Jean
Kaeya: YOOO, are you guys there already? Sorry for the late notice, but I might not be able to make it. My car broke down in the middle of the road... Sorry, guys. Continue without us!
Barbara: Yes... I’m already here... but I hope you all get home safely!
Albedo: What are you saying, Kaeya? We’re in the same car as you, the car’s doing okay.
Sucrose: Albedo-senpai, Kaeya-senpai told us to keep quiet.
Kaeya kicked Albedo out of the group chat.
Barbara: Um... why was Albedo-senpai kicked out?
Lisa: That’s sad to hear, do you want me to come pick you guys up?
Kaeya: Nah, it’s okay, I have to get this fixed before going home or else Diluc’s gonna kill me LOL.
Barbara: Hello?
Kaeya: @Lisa, check your PMs.
Lisa: OMG! I’m so sorry... I don’t think we’ll be able to make it either. I got a call from the school library and an emergency came up. They said they needed me.
Noelle: Huh? But Lisa-senpai, we’re in the same car and I didn’t hear anyone call?
Lisa kicked Noelle out of the group chat.
Sucrose: Um...?
Kaeya: @Barbara, anyways, sorry about that. Please continue without us!
Lisa: Yes, enjoy~! I mean, terribly sorry we can’t come...
Barbara: Then shouldn’t I just go home, too?
Lisa reacted to “Then shouldn’t I just go home, too?” with a thumbs down.
Kaeya reacted to “Then shouldn’t I just go home, too?” with a thumbs down.
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Barbara sighed as she put down her phone. Maybe she really should just go home. After having bothered Jean to drop her off at the resort, it was heart-wrenching to know that everyone couldn’t come. She’s been waiting here for thirty minutes already and true to her dormmates' words, they might just not arrive after all.
Well... there was one more person that didn’t reply in the group chat, but she doubted he’d even come.
She stood up from her seat in the sand and brushed her shorts off. She picked up her bag and was about to call Jean when...
“Sorry, I’m late! It was traffic. Are all of you starting yet- huh? It’s just you?”
It was a miracle. Venti-senpai showed up despite never showing up for any of his school project meetings or any trip in general.
Moreover, during the time of this trip, Venti was in another city and had to take the train a few hours early to be able to make it in time. It would be no wonder if he wouldn’t come as it would have been a hassle, but here he was... Whereas Barbara and Jean were currently staying in their Mother’s house for the weekend, while the others stayed in the dorm, which explains why they were all traveling together.
“Yes...” She replied, still a bit shocked by his unexpected appearance. She felt a little bit sad for him though as everyone else couldn’t make it during the only time he did show up to a trip. “Have you not read the group chat yet? They said they couldn’t come...”
“I see.” He looked a bit disappointed. “Where are you going?” asked Venti when he saw the girl looking like she was fully prepared to leave.
“Home. This trip might as well be canceled, haha.”
“Aw, but I brought so much fun stuff to play with...” he then looked at the bags Barbara was slinging on her shoulder. “And I suppose those are food? You were in charge of the potluck along with Noelle and Sucrose after all.”
“Yes, but ah it’s okay... I’ll just eat them all.”
“Hmm... How about we continue the beach trip anyways?” responded Venti with a big grin.
“Huh? With just the two of us?” Barbara was once again, in a bit of a shock.
Venti and Barbara were band clubmates at their University. She joined the club when she was recruited by the boy during her freshman year because she had developed a small crush on him when she first heard him sing while playing the guitar. She felt a bit guilty that the main reason she joined the club was for him.
But over time, she found herself really enjoying the club’s activities. They often performed together and would always exchange looks from across the stage. Even after she was scouted by an idol agency, she didn’t leave the club and would still come to meetings whenever she could.
Lately, though, she’s been very busy. Rarely ever attending classes because of practice and concerts, she hasn’t been in touch with her friends and dormmates.
That’s why she was glad to hear about the summer trip... only to find out that everyone wouldn’t be able to come.
But now that her crush of two years was asking her to continue the trip anyway how could she ever refuse?!
“Yeah! Or... are you perhaps uncomfortable with the idea? Sorry, I mean, it’s okay if you don’t want to.” Venti said as he rubbed the back of his neck.
“No, I-” Barbara fiddled with her fingers thinking about how she was looking forward to this beach trip and it’s not like they weren't friends to not be able to hang out like this. “Alright... if it’s alright with you as well.”
Venti smiled and offered to carry her heavy bag for her. “Nice! Let’s set up our beach blanket.” The two then walked along the beach to find themselves a good spot.
“For our first beach activity, I have...” Venti brought out something from his beach bag. “a beach ball!” Holding the inflatable ball in his hand, he looked to Barbara. “Want to play beach volleyball?”
But the girl was a bit hesitant. “I’m not very good at-”
“Hey, it’s okay, it’s okay! It’s just for fun!” He cut her off to assure her. It was no competition, he planned this with only having fun in mind. “Alright, I’ll serve first. Here goes!”
Venti hit the beach ball upwards with his right closed fist, doing an underhand serve. Barbara successfully received it, making the ball go back to Venti’s side of the net.
It was hard playing volleyball with only a single player on each side of the net, but Barbara couldn’t help but think that it was fun. Having to run around the small court, diving face-first into the sand just to receive the ball, and... accidentally spiking the ball into Venti’s face.
The blonde immediately rushed to his side to check on the laying boy in the sand.
“I’m so sorry! Are you okay?!” She asked as she put away the ball that hit him in the face.
“No... not really.”
“Where does it hurt? I’ll go get help-”
“Ah, there’s no need for that. A simple kiss on here would do the trick, hehe!” He said as he pointed to his forehead. “It hurts... can you maybe-?”
Barbara now looking flushed, buried the ball into his face again making him let out a gasp.
The boy was the same as always. He was the typical senpai who would often tease his underclassmen.
Given such a situation like this with your crush, you’d surely enjoy it, but Barbara knew all too well that he does this to almost everyone. She was no one special. Even this trip... with no one but just them... wasn’t all that special to him.
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It was then time for lunch. Barbara brought out her bag and took out the food she brought with her. She brought sandwiches, biscuits, cold drinks, and some fruits. Venti on the other hand brought with him a whole watermelon.
She wondered why he chose not to slice it into pieces before going here.
Once everything was set, she and Venti placed the food on top of their beach blanket and started munching down.
It was so hot and they only had one beach umbrella over the blanket as the umbrellas were supposed to be brought by Kaeya. They had to share it and stick close to each other to avoid the sizzling heat of the sun.
“Your sandwiches taste great! There’s no... cheese in this, right?” asked Venti as he ate the ham sandwich.
Barbara shook her head. She knew he disliked it. Despite not sure whether the boy would come today or not, she prepared the sandwiches without putting cheese in them.
She suddenly felt like she was simping too much.
Was she?
Oh well.
“Want to play Watermelon Splitting next?”
“What’s that?”
“It’s a summer trend in Inazuma where you’ll smash the watermelon with a wooden stick while blindfolded! I figured everyone from the dorm would love to do that, but it’s just us two. I still think it’d be fun though! What do you say, what do you say?!”
“Uhm... okay?”
Fast forward to the game, Venti tied a blindfold around the girl’s head and he spun Barbara thrice before letting her walk with the wooden stick he brought with him, to locate the watermelon and smash it.
“Alright. I placed the watermelon nearby. I’M ROOTING FOR YOU! GO, BARBARA, GO!”
“Give me directions!!!”
“Okay... go right! No wait, go left! No, a bit to the right!”
Barbara instead decided to go towards the direction of his voice, preparing to smack his head with the wooden stick. She was so annoyed by him that she’d rather make him the watermelon.
“HELP. I WAS JOKIIINGGG-”
The previous game ended with Venti being able to smash the watermelon during his third turn. They ate the watermelon while they laughed at a video taken by Barbara which showed Venti hitting nothing, but the sand.
The two’s next agenda was swimming as it was the sun was finally no longer painful to the skin.
Barbara changed into her white and blue colored frilly one piece in a changing room. When she came out, Venti was already wearing a white opened shirt and green swim trunks.
They then headed to the beach and started their swim.
They splashed water onto each other and played beach volleyball while in the water.
On the beach, they also played tag with mostly Venti always catching Barbara and the girl getting outran by him.
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After feeling tired from all the swimming, Venti and Barbara decided to hang by the seashore.
Venti was building a cute wind sprite sand sculpture and Barbara helped him by placing a variety of seashells she picked up along the shore to his sand sprite.
“Oh, now it looks so cute!” said Venti as he observed the sand sprite sculpture now decorated with seashells.
“It does, doesn’t it?!” Barbara exclaimed in joy.
“Yeah.” The boy picked up a seashell from her hands and placed it on top of her head, making it look like a somewhat hat. “You look cute, too!”
She didn’t know if he was mocking her or what, so she just punched him in the shoulder out of annoyance but was squealing deep inside as he called her cute.
She hoped he was being sincere.
Venti went away for a while to get them both ice cream from a nearby shop. Barbara was alone as she waited for him to come back.
A man suddenly approached her. “Hello miss. You look so pretty. You also look like that one rookie idol... I’d like to invite you for some coffee sometime. Say, can I have your name?”
Barbara was clearly uncomfortable, but the man looked like he couldn’t even care less.
He grabbed her arm.
"Please let me go..." said Barbara as she tried getting free from his grip.
"I will if you tell me your name."
Someone then grabbed the man’s arm tightly.
"I'm Venti. A Gemini born on June 16th. Blood type O." He tightened his grip even harder as he looked into the man’s eyes with a smile. "Anything else you want to know?"
Surprised by Venti's sudden appearance and sudden intimidating aura, the man replied, "N-No. I'm good..." and then immediately retreated.
“Are you alright, Barbara? Was his grip too hard?” Venti asked as he held both ice cream cones in his left hand while the other one assessed the girl’s arm.
Barbara was surprised but thankful to the boy. She offered to take the other ice cream cone from him.
“Thank you for helping me, Venti. And no, I’m not too hurt.”
“That creep... Would you like to go someplace else?”
“Sure.” said she, as her heart pounded as loud as the ocean waves. While he was a calm sea...
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They had hidden themselves in a nearby cave away from the part of the beach that had many people around. It was quiet there and no one would bother them.
From there, they sat on the sand, next to each other, and watched the beautiful sunset. Later on, Barbara falls asleep on Venti’s shoulder.
He never told anyone this, but he liked the girl. It was love at first sight. From when he first met her kind eyes and sweet smile when he recruited her to join the club... up until now, as he’s seeing her sleeping face.
And for the last two years, he’d been teasing her and had been giving hints, but she never noticed. He never planned on giving up though.
During her second year, she’s rarely ever at school, and he feared it would be long before he sees her again. This was why he attended today’s trip, hearing that she would be included. He never attended their other trips as Barbara would always be absent because of her training and performances. As for his school project meetings, well... he had no excuse.
Looking at her peaceful sleeping face for the last time, and after holding himself back from taking a picture, he shook her a bit, to wake her up.
She does indeed wake up and although still drowsy, he gave her a piggyback ride back to their beach blanket. It was getting dark, and they had to get going.
"Thanks for today, Venti!" Barbara was now fully awake as she and Venti waited by the parking lot. The idol really enjoyed the trip as she hasn’t had a break since forever. This was her only free schedule, but everyone else wasn’t able to make it. But she’s glad he insisted though, they would just have to have another trip scheduled soon.
"Barbara... I have to ask you something..." Venti said as he took her hands in his.
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"OMG, OMG. HE'S FINALLY ASKING HER OMGOMG! MISSION SUCCESS. Great job, everyone! We finally made those two confess! The school's oblivious of each other's feelings couple!!!" Celebrated Lisa, hiding behind a car nearby.
Kaeya was peeking with her and was also observing the two.
Noelle, Sucrose, and Albedo just finished changing as well and were all ready to go home.
They had also continued their own beach trip... just hiding from Venti and Barbara.
You see, it was because EVERYONE but them knew of their feelings for each other that Lisa and Kaeya, the main perpetrators, planned this.
"Who's confessing to who?!" But of course, a normal love story wouldn’t end without the main villain showing up. Err... Jean, the overprotective sister just caught Lisa and Kaeya suspiciously hiding behind a car.
"WAH! JEAN?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" Kaeya immediately stood up, dragging Lisa to stand up with him, to prevent further suspicion of the blonde woman.
"What do you mean?! Barbara called me to come fetch her. Why aren't you all with her-” Jean paused as she finally looked towards the direction Lisa and Kaeya were previously excitedly eyeing. “WAIT A MINUTE ISN'T THAT... WHY ARE THEY ALONE?!" The villain, ERR... Jean, the overprotective sister, shot dagger-like glares at Lisa and Kaeya before making her way towards her sister and the boy with her.
“STOP HER!” Lisa shouted and the gang, with Noelle, Sucrose, and Albedo, being forcefully made to join, grabbed Jean and hid her.
“Noelle, Sucrose, and Albedo, hold her down!” Kaeya instructed.
The three apologetically held Jean down. “Sorry, Jean-senpai.”
“KAEYA! LISA! I SWEAR-!!!” Jean shouted as she struggled to get loose from her three underclassmen.
The two paid no mind and continued with their spying of the two people they had set up. Unfortunately for them, Venti and Barbara’s talk had ended. The blonde girl waved goodbye to the boy and ran to the front of the beach resort to wait for her sister.
Venti watched her as she reached the front gate before finally walking home.
"AGH! WE DIDN'T HEAR WHAT THEY SAID!" Kaeya crossed his arms and leaned against the car in disappointment.
"Way to go Jean." Lisa joined in and crossed her arms, too.
Noelle, Sucrose, and Albedo had finally let go of her. "What?! How is that my fault?! You guys stood them up!!!" Angrily said Jean as she brushed off the sand from her pants.
"Whatever, just go fetch Barbara now." Lisa said, trying to avoid her friend’s gaze as she knew that she was furious.
“We’ll talk later.” Jean tells Lisa and Kaeya, who both felt a chill run down their spines, before making her way to finally come fetch her younger sister.
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In the car, Jean was already driving home with Barbara in the passenger seat.
"So... how was the beach trip?" asked Jean, despite her blood boiling as she already knew what had transpired.
"It was so fun!" Barbara replied. ‘I can't tell her Venti-senpai and I were the only ones that went...’ She thought as she looked out the window, her fear of being questioned further growing as they pass by the road.
"No one confessed to you or asked you or anything?"
"HUUUUH?! CONFESS?! I- I-" Barbara was taken aback. Her biggest fear had finally arrived.
“Wha- I knew it, that boy... I'm so going to-” Jean was already so prepared to pass by their dormitory to have a talk with Venti.
"None of the sort happened, haha! Ah but Venti did ask me something though..." Barbara responded even before her sister would make the impulse and embarrassing decision.
"What?" Well, at least she was telling her the truth, Jean thought.
"He asked if I wanted to join the band in a regionals contest. They'll be going up against Springvale in the next three weeks! I have time off and will be resuming my classes for quite a while, so I took the opportunity! I love the band club!" said the girl with full delight on her face.
"Ah... I see." Jean sighed with relief. ‘OKAY, WOAH. THANK GOODNESS!!!’
"You're not gonna ask what I answered?"
"Of course, you said yes."
"Ahaha, you know me so well!"
‘Hm... but why am I a little disappointed? Could it be that I also want that boy for my sister?’ Jean thought. In fact, she was part of the EVERYONE that knew of Venti and Barbara’s feelings for each other. ‘WAIT. NO. NO, NO, NO. Do I really want Venti as my brother-in-law? Ha! Of course not! NOT UNTIL SHE’S 30.’ She shrugged her thoughts off with a smile and continued driving.
‘Sorry, Jean... I have to keep some secrets to myself for now. But I'll be going to the contest in Springvale with my new boyfriend!’ thought Barbara as she happily recalled his words from earlier.
"To the lovely songbird who has caged my heart, and whose beauty exceeds that of the setting sun and the sparkling sea, I wish to be with you... I’ve liked you for a long time now, Barbara. Will you please be my girlfriend?"
- Fin.