Day four of five. Early afternoon. The president and I leaned against the wall just outside the club room. On the door was a sign: “Changing! No boys allowed!”
The president offered a pack of fruit gummies while we waited on Yanami and Shiratama-san to emerge. “Want one?”
“Oh, sure. Thanks.” I picked one out and ate it. Tasted sour. Orange. It struck me as a little strange that she of all people kept cute little snacks like this on her person.
She chuckled. “Out of character?”
“Huh? No, well, just a little surprising. I assumed someone like you would be pretty strict about your diet.”
“I don’t put on weight well. Snacks are fair game in my book.” She ate a gummy.
So it wasn’t just Shiratama-san. Yanami skewed the data yet again.
“I’m more surprised about all this, though,” I said.
“‘This’?”
“You helping us. I never expected you’d get this involved.”
“It’s as I said. We’ve all been burned by love in some way.” She looked at me. “Or is romance out of character for me as well?”
“I, er…”
She laughed at my dithering. “Do remember that I’m a woman too. Marriage. Wedding dresses. Even I dream of them. Unless you think they wouldn’t suit me.”
“No, I don’t think that at all.”
The conversation withered. We stared at the “no boys allowed” sign on the door. Which didn’t technically apply to her. I waffled over whether to point that out or not.
Just then, the door creaked open. Yanami peered through the crack. “The wait is over. You may enter.”
Finally, we went inside.
“Boom!” Yanami hollered a little too loud. “Behold, Shiratama-chan in a wedding dress!”
Honestly, the volume numbed me a little, but there she was. Pure white flowed down her figure, starting at her bare shoulders. Lace covered her chest, before blooming into a high-low, full, princess-style skirt. It was surprisingly short for what it was—all thigh in the front. The back, though, reached down to about mid-calf. The shoes had short heels that looked suited to ease of wear.
The word “fairy” sprang to mind. Nearly called her one before realizing how weird it would have sounded.
“Um, how is it?” she asked with upturned puppy dog eyes. Cute.
The president beat me to the punch while I agonized over how to not sound weird. “Beautiful,” she said. “I might just whisk you away and keep you to myself.”
See, if I’d said that, I probably would’ve been crucified. But Houkobaru Hibari had said it, so Shiratama-san smiled and blushed like it was the slickest thing she’d ever heard.
Yanami puffed her chest out with unfounded pride, as she so often did. “I did the makeup, and I think it turned out pretty good. Her skin’s so nice, everything looked good on it. I got totally in the zone. Oh, to be young.”
Poor girl didn’t know she was young too. Someone ought to have told her.
The president nodded. “That does it for preparations. Do we have a finalized plan?”
“Asagumo-san’s going to bring it at a later date,” I said. “Can you be here?”
“Of course. I’d hate to be excluded now, of all times.”
This was it. The home stretch. I’d spent nearly my whole Golden Week on this. Thankfully we had a day to spare, and I was going to spend it doing absolutely nothing but reading light novels at home. But until then, I made sure to memorialize the idol of adorableness before me while I still could.
Meanwhile, Asagumo-san entered. “Oh, you look stunning, Riko-san. Everyone, your attention, please.” With that off-handed compliment paid to the angel in the room, she spread out a map on the table. “Our original plan was to use the club room as the staging point where we would get changed, then take a taxi to the venue. But I’m afraid that’s going to make things a little too tight.” She didn’t wait for us to even find what she was looking at on the map. “We’ll want a room nearer to the venue. A hotel would work, or anything we could realistically rent, really, but I’m coming up short on options.”
“Oh, I have an idea.” Yanami tapped the map on Kirinoki High School, right next to the venue. “A friend of mine is in the drama club here. I can ask if we could use the room. Could probably borrow anything we need for disguises too.”
“That has potential,” I said, “but can we just waltz onto campus when we aren’t students?”
The president smirked confidently. “Then make it club business. I have an acquaintance in the faculty and could request access on your behalf.”
Wow. The power of networking. The things actually enjoying talking to people could do for you. They were already on their phones making things happen. Inspiring.
Shiratama-san tugged on my clothes.
“Uh, yeah?” I said.
“You haven’t answered my question.”
How was it? How was her dress? Obviously she looked fantastic, but how was I supposed to convey that without sounding like a creep? Use an analogy? Fairies came to mind. Angels. Kittens. All weird as hell to call a girl.
“The, uh, colors match, and it really brings out the best in your, uh…best features. You elicit…positive emotions such as, um, reverence. And awe. Yeah.”
There. Not weird in the slightest. Now that was an artfully crafted compliment.
Shiratama-san cocked her head at me. “Summarize in one word.”
“Er, cute.”
She giggled, took out her phone, and shot a selfie. All my efforts. For naught.
Yanami put her phone down, fixing me in a cold gaze. “We can use the club room. Changing now. Boys out.”
“Uh, right. Wait, President, you don’t have to leave,” I said.
My eyes locked with Yanami’s as I left. Her lips moved to form exaggerated, silent words that I knew by heart at this point. “That. Right. There.”