Chapter 21: CH 21

How's it? It's pretty good, right?

Translated by Dawn

How’s it? It’s pretty good, right?

“Oh, that’s not so bad.”

When I left the store after getting my hair cut, Satomi, who was waiting outside, said to me in admiration.

But you know, Satomi.

I could see the half smile on your face.

“You are definitely making fun of me.”

“N-not at all. I think it’s really cool. It’s just that it’s not…like you, Aizawa.”

Perhaps unable to hold back, Satomi burst out laughing. There it is.

When a shady guy changed his look, people would laugh at him and say, “What’s with that guy?”

Wasn’t this exactly like that, this scene?

“I’m going home.”

“Sorry, sorry, no, yeah, I think it’s really cool!”

Forcing down a laugh, Satomi follows up.

She forced herself to suppress a laugh and Satomi followed up with a smile.

She held out a hand mirror to me, and when I checked it, I saw the reflection of a high school boy who looked cleaner than before. I was a bit of a patronizer because it was me, but it didn’t seem so dull either.

“You see, just a different haircut gives a totally different impression, right?”

“…You might be right.”

At least after seeing this face in front of me, I had to nod.

Of course, I was not handsome by any means.

But it was strange because it gave me a mysterious confidence that I could do something with this face.

I even had a feeling that men and women in the world might be concerned about their appearance in order to gain this mysterious confidence…

Just—

“It’s pretty expensive, huh? This place.”

After all, I had sold one Higuchi-san (5,000 yen) out of my wallet with just one haircut.

That was about five times the price of a haircut at my usual haircut shop or the equivalent of five Noguchi-san (1,000 yen).

It was a huge burden for a high school student.

“Well. That’s why I’m working part-time.”

“…Satomi, you’re working part-time?”

“That’s right. I want to buy a lot of clothes, and my allowance is not enough.”

“I see…”

I wonder why.

It was strange because just by hearing that she had a part-time job, she looked all at once like an adult.

Maybe I should start working part-time too. I didn’t have any particular use for the money, though.

If I did, it would be to pay for shadow games or buy books.

While I was seriously considering a part-time job, Satomi clapped her hands in front of me.

“Well, let’s leave it at that…should we go to the next one?”

“Next? Is there more?”

“Of course. We also need to look at clothes. Let’s go to the station.”

“What are we going to do, look at clothes?”

Satomi looked at me with a stunned look on her face.

“It’s obvious. I’m going to pick out your clothes.”

“But…we wear uniforms at school, so doesn’t that pointless?”

“It has a point. You will at least have a date with that thieving cat, right? If you don’t have the right clothes on then, the other guys will look down on you. Of course, even Tsuyoshi.”

“…that’s kind of scary.”

I had never thought of this society that way before.

However, Satomi might not be wrong.

When I walked next to Mizutani, I felt the “why that guy” look on my face more than once.

Satomi shrugged her shoulders.

“I don’t know if it’s scary or not, but that’s just the way it is. So, do you have the right clothes for a date?”

“…I’m going to ask you back, do I look like I have?”

When I asked her back, Satomi smiled and shook her head.

“No, not at all.”

*****

A few minutes on the train.

We got off the train at Tamai station, which was two stations away from Ozawa station.

This station was next to Nagayama Station, the nearest station to my home.

This was also the station where I met up with Shuji and the others when we went to the zoo.

“Hey, Satomi. Can I ask you something?”

“…What.”

When I asked this, Satomi, walking in front of me, turned around.

“If we were going to come to Tamai, why didn’t we just meet at Tamai from the beginning? There are other hair salons here, too.”

“I can’t introduce someone to a hair salon I’ve never been to.”

As if it were a matter of course, Satomi said plainly.

I’d have to say I’ve been reevaluating her a lot since this time.

Some of the original evaluations were low.

“Besides…there’s a campaign going on right now where if you refer someone, you can get a coupon for you.”

“…Oh, I see.”

I knew I was missing something after I reviewed it.

Should I rather learn from her boldness?

We passed through the ticket gate and entered the building a short walk away.

Using the escalator, I arrived at the fashion floor on the fifth floor.

Just as we entered a store that caught our eye, Satomi said.

“Aizawa, how much money do you have left today?”

“…10,000 yen and a little more.”

I brought this from my allowance that I have been saving up.

I didn’t have a part-time job, so this amount of money was pretty big for me.

“I see. …Well, if you have that much, you can just barely buy one set of clothes.”

“…What do you mean?”

I had a bad feeling about what she said.

Satomi did not answer my question but walked around the store.

She scrutinized various clothes, sometimes putting them on my body, sometimes making me change in the fitting room.

And it wasn’t just one store that she looked around.

“Oh, how about this? It’s pretty good.”

“How about this one? This one is good, too. I can’t decide.”

She must have gotten excited while looking around at clothes.

She walked around to various stores, repeating the same thing over and over again, and to top it all off, she went back to the store she had once entered to check it out again.

I wondered if the shopkeepers already remembered our faces…?

Satomi seemed to be completely unconcerned about it.

After extensive use of the fitting rooms and careful examination, the “set of clothes chosen by Satomi” was completed.

“How’s it? It’s pretty good, right?”

“Y-yeah…”

I looked at my reflection in the fitting room mirror.

I saw myself in the fitting room, wearing light gray pants (Satomi said they were not trousers, but pants, then what do you call underwear pants?) and the top was a white shirt with an open-buttoned cream-colored shirt.

It was simple, but it certainly looked good on her.

I was satisfied. I was very satisfied, but…

“How much does all this stuff cost?”

“Let’s see…9,900 yen including tax. Even this was a cheap deal, and you should be thanking me for it.”

“…Ah, is that so.”

Well, I guess Satomi was right.

She chose the best of the best within my budget.

That was evident from Satomi’s efforts in the last few hours.

However, I lost almost all the money I had brought with me today.

Only a little more than 1,000 yen remains.

Maybe I should hold off on buying books for a while.

Satomi raised her hands above her head and stood up taller.

“I’m starting to get hungry now that I’ve used my brains. …Aizawa, buy me a Max.”

“What!?”

“What, do you have something to complain about? I worked pretty hard today.”

“…..”

I took another look at the clothes I was wearing.

It was simple, but I hate to admit it, I could never have chosen these clothes myself.

My sense of fashion was stuck in my elementary school days when I was picking out a dragon’s apron.

Of course, if I wanted to argue, I could say that I didn’t ask for it in the first place. But I didn’t think there was any point in doing that. It was also true that Satomi had been working hard for the past few hours.

“…what do you want to eat?”

“Let’s see… Big Max, Max Flurry, and then some more…”

“….”

Um, did she know the word ‘reserved’?