Chapter 24 - Chapter 20

(A/N Notes: This chapter was brought by the Skeletor memes gang)

It was afternoon, and Yuriko, Ayano, and Aki were inside the shopping at the city center

"How about this dress? Does it fits me?"

"Yup, it definitely fits you Yu-chan"

"Where's he? where's he?" *Looking around trying to find Takeru*

"And what is Aki doing?"

"... Nothing important, so don't worry about it and just go wear the clothes you liked, and see if you want to take them with you"

"Okay..."

Yuriko was somewhat sure that Ayano was hiding something from her, but she considered it wasn't something that was related to her

"Haa... So what the heck are you doing?"

"Trying to find Takeru-kun of course"

"We don't even know if he's here, or if he'll come here, or even if he already left here"

"Oh! Come on, was there ever a time I was ever wrong?"

"Do you want me to list them by their timely order or alphabetic order?"

"... Am I really that unreliable to you?"

"Do you want me to be sincere or honest?"

"..."

Aki could only look at Ayano, who was happily smiling, with an awkward smile. Then when she looked back at the shopping entrance she saw a familiar boy, with very dark brown hair and a single streak of red hair

"HE'S HERE!!!"

"WAT!?"

And both of them looked at the entrance while hiding themselves behind a mannequin, and then slightly behind Takeru, a beautiful young woman with long red hair, wearing a sun hat and sunglasses entered the building. And Aki was able to easily identify who the woman was since she was always cosplaying whenever she could

"Isn't that the actress Tanaka Akari!?"

"Say what again!?"

The two were completely surprised at what they saw, and the actress Akari who was slightly behind Takeru, sped up her steps to get to his side

"What are you two doing?"

" "!?" "

And they got even more surprised when they heard Yuriko's voice behind them

"Nothing!"

"Y, yeah! We're doing nothing!"

The two went into a straight position, to cover the scene of Takeru walking alongside the actress Akari

"? Okay... So you two aren't going to look at the clothes too?"

Yuriko was confused at why her friends were looking so nervous, but she decided to only ask why they weren't looking at the clothes with her

"A, ah! Yeah! The clothes, of course!"

"We were just checking the clothes of this mannequin"

"... I see, that explains why you two were near the mannequin, then I'll go see some more clothes"

< >

And with that Yuriko went back to looking at the clothes, the two looked back at the entrance, but Takeru and the actress Akari weren't there anymore, so, for now, they decided to look at the clothes together with Yuriko

Meanwhile with Takeru

"So why did you need me to come with you?"

"I need you to crossdress for me"

"Say again?"

Takeru happily smiled as he strangled, the actress Akari, who was none other than his older sister

"I'm sorry, I was just kidding, so please let go of my neck..." *Tapping his hand*

*Releases Akari's neck* "So what do you really need me here for?"

"I just needed you to accompany me, because then this way fewer people are likely to identify me if I'm accompanied by a boring guy"

"Do you wanna receive a beating like the good old times?"

"No, I'm sorry for saying that. Well, there's still some time until the photo session. So we can go to any place you want here"

"Are you going to pay for me?"

"Nope"

"Then I'm going home, good luck to you to not get hit by some random guy" *Turns towards the exit*

"Wait! Wait! Wait! I'll pay for everything for you!"

"Great! Then let's go to the pharmacy, I have been needing to buy more hair dyes for quite a while now"

And with a little coercion, Takeru managed to have his sister pay for his shopping expenses for today

About an hour later later

"I already bought the hair dyes, I already ordered a new pair of contact lenses, now what else can I make you pay for me"

"Didn't you bought enough already!"

"It's never enough, and you still have a lot of money from your job"

"Kuh! I can't argue with that"

"I know! I'm sure some new games were released this week"

And the two kept walking, then at one point Takeru noticed a familiar long grey hair in a ponytail style, making him come to a halt and freeze in place for a moment, it was Yuriko together with her two childhood friends, and luckily for him, they didn't notice him walking diagonally behind them

"..." *Robotically turns 90º degrees to the left and goes back to walk*

His sister didn't suspect the way he turned, because the three siblings all had the same habit of leaving a place as soon as possible whenever they saw a school colleague at a shop but the colleague didn't see them, so she already knew, he saw someone from the school (A/N Notes: I don't know why, but this does sound like something everyone does whenever that happens)

Meanwhile with Yuriko and co

"Ah! That's right... I forgot to ask since I'm used to it, but why did you come wearing a detective uniform of the 19th century, Aki?"

"Ah! Because when I called Takeru to come with us he said he already had plans with someone else"

"Huh?"

"Hm? Oh! shoot!"

"And that's one more for Aki's mistakes bingo!"

Yuriko then turned to Aki with a not happy smiling face and her eyes closed, as she made Aki feel a very strong pressure coming from her

"Aki, do you care to explain what you just said?" *

"... *Tearing up*... I'm sorry! I only know that he's also here in the shopping with the actress Akari accompanying him... And Ayano also saw that, back at the clothing store earlier!"

"!? Aki, what've you done!?"

*Turns to face Ayano* "Ayano?"

"... ... ... *Cold sweating* I only know the same stuff as Aki..."

"... ... ... Is that so? Then all we need to do is find Takeru-kun by chance, so let's continue shopping, okay?"

" "Y, yes..." "

The two found out a new side of Yuriko that they don't want to see pointed at them again, and that was a jealous Yuriko

Minutes later in front of a swim store

"Well, time to go pick a new swimsuit for us, right?"

"Nope, it's only for you, right Aki?"

"Yeah, we didn't grow in any area this year"

"... I, I see..."

And Yuriko made her way inside, and the first thing she ended seeing was Takeru who didn't notice her entering the store, Yuriko froze on the spot for a moment and did a 180º turn, and went back to walking

Yuriko was also someone who left a place whenever she saw someone from the school at the same place as her and didn't notice her. Then she once again turned to enter the store and walked towards Takeru

"N, nice to see you here, Takeru-kun"

"Hm? Ah! H, hey there Yuriko-san"

" "..." "

The two didn't know what to say next, since they both didn't really expect to talk to each other so soon. And Akari who saw the two interacting decided to do a little prank on the two

"Ara! What do we have here?"

"... Ah! You're that actress Akari, aren't you?"

"Yes, I'm Akari. And may I know who are you to Takeru?"

"I want to ask the same to you"

"I'm Takeru's..."

Akari tried to hug Takeru's arm for her prank, and with Takeru's cooperation, she failed miserably since Takeru shoved his hand on her face and pushed her away without changing his expression, and Yuriko...

Correctly understood their relationship, while her two friends, were confused at why Yuriko wasn't jealous

(A/N Notes: Well, that was quick, and without any drama)