It was the second day of the girls' beach trip. Yui and Nanako were settled under the umbrella while Konata, Kagami, Tsukasa and Miyuki were enjoying the ocean. Yui wanted nothing more than to let her inner child out and join them in the crashing waves, but she knew somebody had to watch the kids. Nanako was right next to her, but she was knocking back beers and Yui knew that she wouldn't have the energy to supervise in a few minutes.

As Yui looked across the sand and watched the girls splashing about and soaking up the sun, she couldn't help but feel jealous. It had been so long since she could live carefree like her cousin Konata and her friends. She had joined the police academy right out of college and they'd started running her ragged since her first day on the job. Aside from holidays, the only time she'd ever really been able to take a day off was for her wedding.

Her wedding. Now that she was thinking about her wedding, she realized that her marriage was a complete disaster. Yui and her husband had put so much of their savings into the wedding that they weren't able to afford a house that could accommodate the family they wanted to make. They decided to stay in their separate homes for a while and maintain a commuter marriage until they had the money to buy a house of the perfect size, but that day still had yet to arrive.

Nanako broke the silence with a tipsy rambling, pulling Yui out of her thoughts.

"Man, it's so sad. Here we are at the beach and we have to babysit. We're a couple of lonely single ladies."

Yui quickly shut her eyes as she tried to correct Nanako but opened her eyes to find that her husband was sitting right where her cousin's teacher was just a second ago.

"Baby?! What are you doing here, you didn't tell me you were –"

Yui was cut off by her husband to discover that he still had Nanako's voice.

"Yep, we're a couple of lonely… single… ladies."

Every pause made her husband's voice deeper, but it wasn't becoming the voice she knew and loved. It was more akin to that of a demon, taunting her.

Yui looked down in confusion and frustration, only to find that suddenly she was somehow buried in a mound of sand. She attempted to wriggle free to no avail and saw her husband to her left packing more sand on top of the pile with a rusty shovel.

"Lonely… lonely…"

The voice became deeper and more menacing as the tide began to rise around Yui, still unable to free herself. A shallow wave enveloped Yui's head, causing her to take in a mouthful of saltwater. After spitting it out, she looked up to see that the next wave was much larger, preparing to crash down on her at full force. She looked to her left hoping to find her husband digging her out of the sand, only to see him walking off with a blonde, bustier woman in his arms. With tears in her eyes, her final sight was her husband's head spinning around a complete 180 degrees before yelling out "LONELY!" The sky became blood red. Yui braced for impact, knowing that this was the end…

And then she woke up.

The first thing Yui noticed was that she was drenched in sweat. Her forehead felt as though she was running a high fever, and her pajamas and sleeping bag were completely saturated. She looked around the room and saw the four schoolgirls fast asleep, all on the floor in their own sleeping bags just like her.

"It was all a dream?"

Although it hadn't been a dream, it had been a nightmare.

Tears began to well up in Yui's eyes as she knew all too well what the real-world causes of this nightmare were. Ever since the day she and her husband decided to live apart, she began to feel depressed. She loved her husband dearly, but she could not escape the sheer loneliness that she felt bottled up inside. Her only option was to wait, but the day they could afford their own place was still years away. Realizing this made the tears fall from Yui's eyes. She couldn't allow herself to live in denial anymore: her life was an utter mess. She quickly slid out of her sleeping bag with tears clouding her eyes, quietly speed-walking out the bedroom door so she would not wake anyone. She made a beeline for the bathroom so she could lock herself inside and let her emotions out after masking them for so many years.

However, Yui poked her head into the bathroom to find Nanako with her head in the toilet, violently vomiting into the bowl. It was then Yui remembered just how many beers Nanako had slammed earlier that day, to the point where she had to carry her back to the hotel.

"I'll be done in a minute," a hungover Nanako said without allowing her head to leave the bowl.

"O-okay…" the distraught Yui replied. As she turned around to wait outside, Nanako lifted her head, detecting the cracking of her fellow babysitter's voice.

"Yui? What's wrong?"

"I-it's nothing," Yui lied. "I'll let you finish up in here."

"Okay, but when I'm done I'm going to –", Nanako replied before retching into the bowl once more. Yui wanted to turn around and leave Nanako in peace, but she was frozen like a deer in headlights. "I'm going to *burp*… brush my teeth, and then we're gonna have a girl talk. I can tell you're upset about something and I *gulp*–"

"Okay, I'll be outside," Yui said as Nanako began heaving for the last time.