☆ Shota Komori ☆

“By the way, Shota-san.”

“Ah, yes. What is it, Izumi-san?”

“It’s nice to get compliments, but… Why isn’t Shota-san wearing anything? I’m having a hard time keeping my eyes open.”

“I HAVE CLOTHES ON, THOUGH!?”

HMM!? …Izumi-san!? What are you talking abou!?

You’re talking hypothetically, right? Right!?

If we were characters in a novel, readers from outside of this world would be surprised by your comments, you know!? It sounds like I’m a pervert who enjoys exposing myself with a high school girl who’s not my girlfriend!

It’s a statement that can’t be overlooked under any circumstances!

“I’m sorry. It appears my eyes may be tired.”

No, Izumi-san. If I appear to come to an outlet mall wearing nothing, then you’re not tired, you’re delirious.

“You can borrow my eye drops if you–“

“–At least you have socks on.”

“I’ve become more perverted! I’ve been upgraded from a pervert to a deviant!”

“Upgraded? What are you talking about? Isn’t it a downgrade?”

“It doesn’t matter which one!”

“Hah~. No way is Shota-san saying he wears clothes that make him look like an idiot.”

“I didn’t say that!? Besides, what’s with clothes that make me look like an idiot!? I think you’re mistaken about the fabric being invisible to the eyes of an idiot!”

“That would make me sound like an idiot.”

“That’s what I mean in a roundabout way!”

“The idiot is saying I’m the idiot…?”

“Izumi-san has become childish!?”

“Oh well… Enough about Shota-san’s unique habit–“

“No, wait! Can you mention that I am properly clothed!? What if there are readers who are snooping on our conversation!?”

“Readers? What are you talking about, Shota-san? Are you crazy?”

“Damn… I don’t even have the words to say back when you say that…”

“You there! Why aren’t you wearing anything!? I’m taking you to the station!”

“!?”

“–Stop it! Please don’t! What if they really think I’m wearing nothing!?” (*Yamete! Yamete kudasaii~!)

By the way, that was just Izumi-san changing her voice and pretending to be the police, so don’t worry.

I’m not ballsy enough to expose myself in front of a large number of people.

“Fufu… You’re really in the groove, aren’t you, Shota-san? It makes me want to play with you more and more just for fun.”

“Please don’t do that, please…”

Sigh.

“I’ve teased you a bit, so I’ll admit that you’re wearing clothes. But to be honest, it’s lame… Even elementary school kids don’t dress like that nowadays.”

“Gugh… This is lame, after all.”

I see. So this is the true purpose of Izumi-san’s play on my casual clothes.

“Yes. That’s enough to make me not want to walk alongside you anymore.”

“IT’S THAT BAD!?”

I already have tears in my eyes. I know I’m not fashionable, but when a girl tells me she doesn’t want me to walk next to me, it stings.

As my shoulders slumped, Izumi-san said,

“So let’s go shopping for clothes, Shota-san. Why don’t you get a haircut while we’re at it? I’ll tell the hairdresser directly what kind of haircut would suit you best. There seem to be a lot of beauty salons here.”

“Yes?”

I tilted my head at the unexpected invitation.

B-Beauty salon… Is it one of those places where you get nervous just by stepping inside?

“That would leave no time for Izumi-san to visit the places she wants to see…”

To be honest, I have no intention at all to let Mayu-nee and Izumi-san meet. Of course, it’s out of the question to let her meet with Natsukawa-san.

So my schedule for today is as follows,

Shopping at the Mitsubishi Outlet Mall with Izumi-san in the morning.

Basically, I plan to go with her wherever she wants to go. I hope that I can help her feel refreshed, even if it’s only in a small way.

However, I have an appointment with Mayu-nee in the afternoon, so I’m supposed to split with Izumi-san in the morning.

As you might expect, I couldn’t say “I have a date with my (fake) girlfriend, so I won’t be with Izumi-san until the afternoon.” (Ah, it’s nothing that I can’t say because I have nothing to be guilty of, but it’s hard to explain things, right?), so I asked for her consent by saying that I had plans in the afternoon.

At noon, I will have lunch here with Mayu-nee.

Because of no travel time, Izumi-san can spend more time in the morning to refresh her mind.

Worst case scenario, even if Izumi-san stays at the outlet mall for the rest of the afternoon and we run into each other, Mayu-nee will be next to me. I have nothing to feel guilty about. I’m sure Izumi-san would be confused, but it would only be a matter of explaining the situation to her.

The most nerve-wracking part of the day is the evening. I will be with Natsukawa-san.

Apparently, Natsukawa-san had planned to spend the entire day shopping with me, but I had suddenly asked her to move the shopping session to the evening.

By the way, the content of the e-mail I sent to her is as follows,

[I’m sorry to ask you this, but can we do our shopping in the evening? In return, I will stay with you until Sunday.]

Ah, right. As a side note, the store that Natsukawa-san suggested is a large shopping center located directly opposite of the Mitsubishi Outlet Mall.

I couldn’t let Natsukawa-san and Izumi-san meet at all costs. Just because I was going to meet them at different times did not mean that they would be in the same place.

The reason I suggested Izumi-san to go to the Mitsubishi Outlet Mall was because it was only Mayu-san who invited me here.

So I was planning to do what Izumi-san wanted to do in the morning…

But if we have to go to the beauty salon, it’ll be afternoon before we know it. Besides, it sounds like we’re going to look around for clothes for me.

“Please don’t worry about it. Rather, today I am thanking Shota-san.”

“Thank you?”

What did I do to deserve a thank-you?

“I’m thanking you just because. Well, don’t worry about it. This is what I want to do.”

“Well, I have no objection if that’s what you want, Izumi-san…”