“Please!” I put my hands together and begged.
Ayaka furrowed her brow in response. Apparently, she hadn’t taken kindly to me calling her to the front gate of the university.
“You want me to pick a thank-you gift for Shinohara-san?”
“Yes, please.”
“Don’t wanna.”
“Noooo!”
“What do you mean ‘noooo’?” She heaved an exasperated sigh and continued, “I can’t believe I took the time out to come and meet you. I thought you’d buy me a meal, or something.”
“What kind of guy would drag you out of an all-girl group just to buy you food? Whoever he is, I wish I had his courage.”
I’d called Ayaka during lunch. Trust me, it’s hard to cut in on her entourage while they’re eating.
“Yeah, I bet. They did think you were trying to hit on me again.”
“Huh? Are you serious?!”
“No, that was a joke. The girls all know we’re just high school buddies.”
“Don’t scare me like that. Jeez, what a cruel joke.”
I was friends with Ayaka, and she really did stand out on our side of the university, but as for other girls, I didn’t hang out with them much. Strange women approached us pretty often when I was with Ayaka because they were acquainted with her, but she’d always find a way to get us alone again. The reason was simple: It was easier that way.
She was more openly “herself” with the core group she was having lunch with, but she always kept up a façade around people she hadn’t known as long. It seemed to me like she enjoyed doing that, but I was sure she needed a safe space to relax and be herself too.
“First off, she said that she wanted you to choose. There’s no point if you aren’t the one putting thought into it. It’s about feelings, y’know?”
“Sure, but despite that, Shinohara’s a logical woman. When she says she wants me—a guy she isn’t dating—to choose, I think that’s her way of pressuring me. That’s why I think something practical would be best.”
“Ugh. Listen, it makes no difference to me.” Ayaka didn’t seem too keen on this, but the fact that she didn’t use work as an excuse to turn me down outright meant that I had a chance, however small. That meant I’d just need something to make that final push over the goal line.
“Ayaka.”
“What?”
“It’s almost test time. Wanna know what the answers from last time were?”
“Sorry, but I doubt you have more answers than I do.” She was right. Even five of me wouldn’t be able to compete with her wide circle of friends. Far from it, she was the one always letting me mooch old answers off of her. “That reminds me. Didn’t you sell the answers I gave you to one of your friends?”
“Bwuh?!”
“That’s another meal you owe me,” she huffed. I couldn’t defend myself there. I could only vow to make up for it at a later date.
But that was a different matter.
I decided to turn to my last resort.
“…You know that limited-time buffet at the hotel in front of the station? How about that?”
“What did you just say?”
Starting this weekend, that hotel was hosting a week-long buffet on the top floor. This wasn’t just any buffet—it was extra expensive, since they were using high-end ingredients and offering rare delicacies. Ayaka’s weakness to novel specialty restaurants had worked in my favor.
“All right. If that’s your offer, then I have no choice!” she enthusiastically agreed. I breathed a sigh of relief.
This would be an unexpected expense, but I was fine as long as it went to Ayaka. She and Shinohara both helped me out a lot in my day-to-day life. If I could thank them both in one day, then I was happy to pay the price.
✦ ✦ ✦
A few days later, we went to the biggest mall in the city as planned. The big entry hall had changed from the colorful decorations of Christmas and red-and-white of New Year to banners advertising big sales.
We went to a bunch of shops to find a wallet for Shinohara, but we just couldn’t find one that Ayaka approved. This fruitless search dragged on for two hours.
I was so tired that I couldn’t help but complain, “Every wallet looks the same to me now.”
“She told you to choose,” Ayaka reminded me. “Now that I’ve taken on this job, I won’t compromise.”
“Don’t worry… I’ll cover the full price of the buffet.”
“That’s beside the point. It’ll hurt my reputation if I can’t help you find a wallet that makes her happy.”
“You’re so magnanimous,” I said as we left the fourth shop. It carried brands that most university women would probably love, but nothing had impressed Ayaka.
All four of the shops we’d visited offered brand goods for students. When you become a college student and start spending more money, the people around you start caring about designers more. I wasn’t particularly attached to brands, personally. I just wore simple clothes. But people who did like certain designers would coordinate entire outfits based on them.
Even clothes with lame patterns came with a certain prestige if they had the right brand name attached, so from my perspective, if you were giving a gift to a girl, you couldn’t really go wrong with a brand-name item.
The fact that Ayaka had shrugged at four places filled with such goods proved that she was seriously picky.
“Aha. Let’s try there next.” She pointed at a mall directory, particularly at a designer shop on the eighth floor that was famous for being expensive.
“My money…” I pleaded.
Ayaka grabbed my bag and stopped me. “It’s okay. I have a membership there, and they’re doing a secret sale for members. It’s a ‘buy two for a discount’ deal, so I’ll buy something with you.”
“Huh? Surely that’s not a good deal for you—”
“It’s okay, it’s okay! Great opportunity to trick myself into thinking I’m helping a friend. There’s a bag I’ve been wanting for a while.”
“Are you sure…?”
“Now, let’s go!” she roared as she seized my arm.
We went up the escalator and stopped in front of the store. It had a high-class aura that the others so far had lacked.
“I can’t deal with places like this.”
“Okay. Either way, we’re going in.”
“Aww…” I followed her sadly after basically being ignored. I glanced at a bag in the shop, and its price tag was an eye-popping 90,000 yen. “I’m out. Bye.”
“Hey, hold it! There are more affordable ones!”
Ayaka ran off on her own. I wouldn’t see her until ten minutes later. The bag she was planning to buy was already hanging off of her arm.
“I found a nice wallet. Get over here!” She grabbed me by the collar and guided me over to where the wallet was. As for the price, it was…doable.
“21,000 yen, huh? Sounds reasonable enough.” I wasn’t nearly well-off enough to start calling a price like that reasonable, but I guessed my sense of value was starting to dull from seeing so many expensive items in succession.
“Today’s the best day for discounts on wallets, so I think we can nab it for 15,000 yen or so. Good for you!”
“Wow, that big a discount? It’s tempting.” This justification only worked if I were buying it for myself, though. Buying it as a gift for someone else was going to take some resolve.
Now that I thought calmly about it, buying a gift over 10,000 yen for a girl I wasn’t even involved with was insane. Shinohara might have liked it, but any other girl would cringe so hard they died.
“I’ll go get an employee to open the display for us.”
“Don’t be hasty. Gimme a second to think.”
“You said you’d leave it to me, didn’t you? The price is within your budget, and frankly, I think this is your only option.”
“Still…” As I hesitated, a pair of college girls came into view. For some reason, my eyes were drawn to them.
They were dressed to draw attention, yes, but I was used to that. So why was I so focused on them? I followed them closely with my eyes.
The one that really caught my eye was the one whose hair was dyed a light brown, playing with her phone in front of a display. I couldn’t see her face, but her figure, mannerisms, and atmosphere were familiar. The girl noticed my eyes and suddenly looked up at me.
It was Aisaka Reina, my ex.