He ran through a potential situation in his head:
“Nakamura, I wish to go shopping for clothes. Could I trouble you to come along?”
“Yeah, uh, I don’t really care. How ’bout you go alone?”
“Oh...I see. It saddens me to hear, but if you say so...I shall.”
Wow, that Nakamura dude’s a real piece of work.
Wait wait wait, no, stop. That’s a bad habit of mine.
Kai frantically snapped himself out of it once he realized he was about to send himself into a depression spiral. He needed to follow the advice that his friend of just a few days gave him: when in Rome, do as the Romans do. This was a date, so he should be optimistic and try to enjoy it as much as he could. Exactly, that’s part of what this trial period is for.
Kai became determined. He would push himself to obtain an interest in fashion. As his first step on this journey, he walked to the toddler’s clothing department and stared intently at a pink blazer on display, thinking about how similar it looked to what Ai wore in volume 10 of Ryuo.
“Oh Kai, it is you! What are you doing...um, here?”
The voice that Kai found himself suddenly flanked by was one he had heard almost every day.
“Wha, Jun?!”
Kai swiveled around in surprise to face his equally surprised best friend.
Jun Miyakawa, the student hailed as the most beautiful girl in school, coincidentally had a passion for fashion. Her current outfit started with an off the shoulder top that was too bold to be worn by anyone with less than absolute confidence in their looks. The upward-facing frills along the top edge of her blouse came off as a cute wrapping for her impressive bust. Below it was a miniskirt paired with thigh-high socks; Jun, ever the sucker for the “Absolute Territory” of 2D character costumes, had coordinated an outfit that brought this design to life. Even someone as uninterested in fashion as Kai had to admit that she looked pretty darn nice.
Anyway, Miyakawa was the fashionista here, so the hottest spot for women’s clothing in the prefecture was like her home turf. Kai, however, was undeniably on the away team, so Jun didn’t expect to run into him here either. She was probably still mentally sorting through her surprise.
“I...had no idea...” began Jun with a quivering voice as she covered her mouth. “You’re...into children’s clothes?”
“I’m not!” argued Kai, desperate to defend himself. “Don’t make me sound like some irredeemable degenerate!”
“But then...why were you staring at them so googly-eyed?”
“I was just thinking that these clothes looked like what Ai was wearing.”
“But...you know that Ai only exists in the world of The Ryuo’s Work is Never Done, right? Not in reality, right?”
“I’m well aware! I know what fiction is!”
“Oh, phew. Don’t scare me like that, it’s bad for my heart.”
“The fact that you’d doubt me on this hurts my own heart more...”
Jun placed a hand to her chest and heaved a sigh of relief, at which Kai had to squint and glare. She continued nonchalantly.
“In that case, what’re you doing here?”
“I’m hanging out with a friend from work.”
“A girl?”
“Yeah. She’s a year younger too.”
“Oooooh, Kai’s on a date with a younger woman. How naughty. Kai and his coworker, sittin’ in a tree...”
“Glad to see you’re taking it the way a ten-year-old would.”
Kai knew Jun was just joking around, so he played along. At least, until Jun pursed her perfect lips and took it a step further:
“Awww, I think I might be a wil’ jealous of your widdle coworker...”
“Uhhhhhhhh,” said Kai, unsure of how to respond to this one. He’d known Jun for a while. He knew her tones. And this was her “honest feelings veiled by a joke” tone.
Jun may have been a girl, but she was still just a friend. Sure, there was nobody else Kai was closer to. Sure, she came over to his house five days a week, sometimes until the evening, and sometimes even stayed late enough to join his family for dinner. Sure, they had the exact same hobbies and thought on the same wavelength. Jun was an irreplaceable presence in his life. And yes, this caused the people around them to mistake them for lovers quite often, leading to all sorts of trouble—especially with Jun’s brother, Royalteach, who was pretty hard to win over.
But she was not his girlfriend. And he was fine with that. Honestly, he felt that it was better this way. He even gave a big speech about it. But...
Jun says she’s jealous of Kotobuki...but why?! Why?! Th-Th-There’s no way she l-l-likes me, r-r-right?! Did she want the two of us to go on a date?! But maybe she couldn’t come forward about her hidden feelings because I shouted about how much better it is to be friends?!
Kai’s brain was overwhelmed with surprise and panic. Of course, he couldn’t outwardly react to Jun’s jab; he just froze and anxiously waited for her to follow up.
“You turned me down all those times when I asked you to come shopping with me,” Jun eventually continued. “But this coworker gets the okay, huh? I see how it is.”
“Wait, that’s what you’re jealous of?!” Kai felt like he was about to collapse.
“What’re you getting mad at me for? You went sandal shopping with me once and then looked like you’d rather die than set foot in a mall ever again! And when I offered to pick out shoes for you, you just said you didn’t need ’em and cut me off!”
“Okay, okay, my bad,” apologized Kai while he secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully, he was just jumping to conclusions and it was all just a misunderstanding. If Jun suddenly came to him asking to be lovers, that’d be the end of their current relationship.
“I mean, we go shopping together all the time, right?”
“Yeah, shopping for manga or games or merch, but not anything else. I mean, that’s fun too, but still.”
“And isn’t fun what friendship is all about?”
It was because they were friends that Kai didn’t want to lose it. He felt like a weight was lifted from his shoulders now that he knew he was just overthinking it. But at that very moment...
“...Nakamura? Whoever...might this person be?”
A voice suddenly called to him from behind. Its halted rhythm wasn’t quite a sign of suspicion toward the newly appeared Jun; it bore the nervousness of a shy person meeting someone for the first time.
“Kotobuki?!” Kai swung around in a hurry and silently cursed her timing. He found himself face-to-face with the Guild Girl, as portrayed by Kotobuki.
“Um...yes.”
Kai found himself holding his breath and clenching his fists as he forgot himself and basked in her glory. Of course, it was by no means a serious cosplay. It was just a knockoff version made by gathering a few vaguely reminiscent garments from around the store. If you analyzed every detail, you’d find no shortage of differences between her and the real thing. Her long hair was knotted into a thick braid that hung over her right shoulder; Kai could almost give her a round of applause to commend how quickly she was able to style it and how close it looked to the character’s, but her hair was still the wrong color. And of course, the Guild Girl didn’t have black eyes, either. A real cosplayer would probably pick a fight with her over this offense to their craft.
But lacking polish or not, Kai was moved. Enthralled, even. His half-hearted assumption that seeing this cosplay would be “nice” was blown away by the reality standing before him. It didn’t matter how fake the cosplay was, his feelings were true!
Whoa, thought Kai. Kotobuki, you’re amazing!
Kai was so overcome with emotion that he wanted to run up and praise her. But he couldn’t...because someone else beat him to the punch.
“Omigosh! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!”
Jun’s squeals echoed across the department. Before Kai knew it, she had charged right at Kotobuki and given her a big hug without sparing a moment to ask for permission.
“What is this? Who is this?! She’s so cute cute cute cute cutecutecutecutecutekyutkyutkyutkyutkytkytkytkyoooooooot!”
She rapidly rubbed her cheeks against the top of Kotobuki’s head. Kai could see how she rose to the rank of most popular girl in their grade. Jun was capable of befriending every girl in her class within seconds; she didn’t hold the physical affection back, even with total strangers.
On the flip side, Kotobuki was a wallflower to the bone and a chicken at heart. Her brain probably couldn’t process this bombastic and brazen bear hug. Her entire body was frozen up.
“She has a name,” said Kai as he walked over to them. “It’s Kotobuki Hotei.”
“Kai, I had no clue you were hiding such a cutie from me! I’m amazed!”
“I wasn’t hiding anyone. This is that coworker I was just telling you about. Now that your question’s answered, give her some space. The poor girl’s got dead fish eyes.”
Kai felt bad for Kotobuki; the light had vanished from her pupils while the other half of her face was buried in Jun’s giant boobs. He stepped in to help, but Jun only held her closer.