“More importantly, when I went to the bathroom, I noticed the door to the room next door was open, so I peeked inside, and you wouldn’t believe it! I saw the most gorgeous dress in there!”
“Aritomo, you shouldn’t go poking around like that.”
“Aw, come on. I mean, we’re at the Arrows boutique. I had to see what kind of dresses they had.”
I fixed her with a cold stare, and she gradually lowered her voice.
Just as I was about to chide her for the error of her ways, she cupped her right hand to her ear.
“Aritomo?”
“Shh! Quiet!”
“Okay!” I said reflexively, then shut my mouth. I could hear two people arguing.
Aritomo beckoned me forth with her index finger, and I followed her out of the changing room. We opened the door of the salon and peered out into the hallway, where we could hear two voices even more belligerent than before.
“...is...I said...”
“No...I...se...”
They were arguing in the room next door.
“No way! That’s the room where I saw the super-glamorous dress. Wonder what they’re saying.”
“Let’s not, Aritomo. It’s wrong to stick our noses in other people’s business.”
I pulled on her arm as she was about to peek into that neighboring room, but unfortunately my strength was no match for hers. She, in return, pulled harder. As she did, the door banged open, and we both pitched forward, toppling straight through. Now we were in trouble.
I held my breath and glanced in the direction of the voices. They must not have noticed us, as their argument only seemed to heat up.
“Shut up!”
With an ear-piercing shout, a girl drove her fist into a man’s solar plexus.
The one doing the punching was, without question, Lady Chouko. And even though we couldn’t see his face, the one sinking to the floor was definitely Mochizuki.
“Wh-Wh-What?!”
My accidental shout was what finally got Lady Chouko’s attention. She, Aritomo, and I were locked in a three-way stare-down as she froze in place, her fist still balled up.
“Wha... Urara, why are you here?”
“Chouko...?”
“Ts-Tsukuyomi? Huh? Wha?”
I hadn’t seen Lady Chouko since that first day of dance practice.
And just as on that day, seeing her in a simple shirt and pants made her look all the grander. Normally, if we unexpectedly ran into each other like this, we would run up to each other happily and start chatting, but this time was different. I was hesitant to say anything, left instead merely to stand and stare.
Mochizuki moved first, groaning from the punch Lady Chouko had given him. He writhed on the ground before pounding on it, and finally, the rest of us moved toward him.
“Are you all right?” I ran over to him, offering a handkerchief, as he let out a loud cough.
“It’s all right, Urara. Just leave that jerk alone.”
“No, no, I can’t do that.”
I ignored Lady Chouko as she looked down at Mochizuki doubled over in pain, and I checked on him.
“Hey, Tsukuyomi, you went too far,” Aritomo said, joining me to help Mochizuki.
“This is normal for us,” she spat flippantly, but clearly she had gone too far.
“Chouko...” I didn’t know why she had done it, and I knew I had no right to say anything, but such brutal, one-sided violence was unacceptable.
I didn’t know how to tell her that, but staring into her eyes caused her to look about frantically, flustered, before she finally looked up and muttered something.
Finally, she dropped her gaze to Mochizuki, sullen, and said, “I’m...sorry.”
“If you’re, cough, just gonna apologize anyway...then how about not hitting me in the first place?” Mochizuki said once he had calmed down enough to be able to talk. He started staggering to the middle of the salon to rest for a bit.
Aritomo and I were struggling to move him, so we wanted to use the salon phone to call Shimozuru, but Lady Chouko helped him instead.
“Chouko, you sure are strong,” I said, but she waved the compliment off. Come to think of it, hadn’t Aritomo said something similar before during our preparations for the cooking contest?
She set Mochizuki down rather violently, then reached for the phone to call someone herself.
“Urara, look. Look at this!”
Aritomo had lowered her voice to a whisper, as if trying to share a secret with me. When I looked over, I saw a breathtakingly beautiful white gown on display.
It was adorned with intricate roses and layers of dainty lace. Among all the dresses in this top-level boutique, this one had to be the crème de la crème.
But that wasn’t the only thing I found shocking.
“Doesn’t this remind you of something...?” Aritomo whispered.
“It does...”
A dress this long with an extensive lace train clearly wasn’t for dancing in.
This was...a...
“This is practically a wedding dress.”
A wedding dress...
Aritomo’s words dug into my heart.
She was right. The dress standing before us was, without a doubt, a wedding dress.
And the only people occupying this room were Lady Chouko and Mochizuki. That beautiful dress wordlessly told me everything I needed to know.
As I stared at the dress in disbelief, Lady Chouko’s cool voice brought me back to my senses.
“Oboro and the Bear are on their way. Once they arrive, you should go on— ...Urara? ...Are you crying?”
Upon hearing Lady Chouko’s worried voice, I realized for the first time that, yes, I was crying.
Huh? ...But why...? I blinked repeatedly in shock as the tears lingering on my lower eyelids began to overflow.
“Urara! Here, use this...” Lady Chouko quickly pulled a handkerchief from her pants pocket.
But that immaculate white piece of fabric reminded me too much of the wedding dress, and I knocked her hand away in shock.
It caught all of us off guard. Me, Lady Chouko, and Aritomo, who had been observing us. How could this be? Why...why was this happening?! I couldn’t stem the flow of feelings welling up inside me.
I...I...
“Give me a break, Chouko. We finally managed to work out a time...”
The door opened and I dashed toward it.
I pushed past Shimozuru and charged out of the room.
I could hear someone calling after me, but there was nothing anyone could say to convince me to stay. I couldn’t bear to face her feeling like this.
I quickly made my way out of the store and rushed off toward home. I ran as fast as I could, desperate to get as far away as possible. But my legs weren’t quick enough, and when I stopped for breath, someone grabbed my right hand.
“Huff, wait, c’mon...what was all that about? What happened back there?!” Aritomo shouted at me, panting. As usual, she didn’t mince words, but the look in her eyes told me she was genuinely worried about me.
Her kindness invited another wave of tears. I accepted the handkerchief she offered and diligently dabbed my eyes.
I needed to be stronger so my emotions would stop overtaking me like this.
Much stronger.