I saw an ad this morning so I thought I'd go to the mall and figure something out but I'm stuck... what would a girl like as a gift?
"Hello Aru, you are alone today"
"Blegh"
I reflexively made a disgusted noise,I didn't intend to but I definitely do not regret it
"That's harsh you might hurt my feelings"
"Nothing would make me happier"
The blonde guy just kept walking toward me and started talking as if nothing happened just now
"Are you buying something from here?"
I wasn't particularly hiding so I expected to meet someone especially since it's a weekend but this guy is a special case
..
His name is "Aki" not sure if it's his full name or some kind of nickname but that's what Emma used last time, he's a returner like me so you'd think we'll hit off quickly but that's not entirely correct, I have a bad feeling about him a feeling that I can't shake off easily
"Aru?"
"It's Sawano for you"
"Fair enough, you can call me Aki"
I won't be using that name, why does he expect me to be friends with him? More importantly now..
"What are you doing here? Spying on me?"
"No, well... I got kicked out of the house and didn't know what to do"
"Huh?"
The boy scratched his face with a weak smile on his face
"Uncle got angry because all I do is working and studying, he said that I should get a life"
All of my bad feelings dissappeared suddenly, what so he's just a normal dude too?
I dropped my guard immediately, knowing that he's not the perfect man I expected him to be made it a little easier to talk to him
"So you thought you'd go go the mall? What would you do if you didn't find me"
"Well..."
He didn't have a plan huh? I can use him for info since he's here
"Do you know what kind of gift would make Emma happy?"
"Oh white day I see, I was gonna buy something for my family too"
"So?"
I don't care about his situation what I want to know is Emma's preference
"Well I'm not good with women, but she broke her watch a few days ago so maybe she didn't buy a new one yet"
That was surprisingly useful? But she could've bought one already since it's basically free for her, should I take the risk?
"Hmmmm"
I crossed my arms to think about it forva while but decided to just go with it
"Do you know anything about watches?"
I asked not expecting any answer, he shook his head immediately as expected he shouldn't have been in this world for long so there's no way he knows anything better than me
I gave up thinking and just started walking, I'm sure I'll figure it out when the time comes
***
Yeah I didn't figure out anything, and to add salt to the injury it seems like Aki is even more lost than me, since all watches here look the same I thought I'd buy an expensive one but...
"These prices are nuts..."
"Hmmm? Is it expensive? I think it's well within my budget if you need to borrow some money"
Of course a rich kid won't understand the value of money
"You can buy a car with this price do you understand that?!"
"Are cars expensive?"
Aki tilted his head innocently, I thought he could be boasting but he's actually just clueless about the value of money
"Oh right, I have an idea to help you understand"
I scrolled through my phone for a bit trying to see if the system has the function I want, It's here as expected
"Here look"
I threw my phone to him, normally I'd be more careful with my things but I didn't have the slightest of doubts that Aki's gonna catch it
"What's this?"
he caught my phone easily and looked at it in confusion
"I translated the value of our currency to the gold coins used in the other world"
He slammed my phone in the ground quickly
"Oi"
"THAT'S MORE THAN TGE REWARD OF KILLING THE DEMON KING?!"
While Aki was having a crisis I quickly grabbed my phone to see it...as I thought it's unusable...
"You'll pay for fixing it you know right?"
"That's not important... does my uncle have more money than the entire Kingdom?"
"I'm not sure but it's probably true yeah"
I couldn't help but laugh at seeing how he's understanding how rich he is for the first time
"Let's delay the gift for now...I need to get my phone fixed"
"That's right...I'll pay for it"
We walked out of the store empty handed, in fact our outcome is negative since I've lost my phone...
"Hey Aru....and...who's that?"
Naru looked flabbergasted at seeing Aki, I had a feeling that we'll meet another person here so I'm not very surprised about seeing here, what's weird is her reaction...
Oh right I forgot about it since he's stupid but Aki is actually kinda handsome right? Maybe that's the first time she sees a natural blonde guy
"Oh this is Aki he's Emma's cousin"
"Glad to meet you, Kiriyama Naru I suppose?"
Naru looked at me for a second and asked
"Is he your friend?"
"No"
I answered immediately
Naru smiled at my response and punched my shoulder
"I thought you actually had friends! That scared me for a moment"
"That's rude"
"Am I wrong?"
"It's not about wrong or right..."
"Then I'm right"
She smiled with enough confidence that I didn't know what to say anymore..
"So, what are you doing?"
"Changing the subject huh? As expected of Aru I'll learn a lot from you"
"First it's Sawano for you, second I'm not going to teach you anything"
Ignoring our small argument here Naru answered my question with ease
"We'll do a goodbye party for Chi-senpai right? I wanted to buy something to wear there"
"It's just a party between us right? Why bother getting new-"
I had a sudden realization, Makoto is probably going to delay his confession until the last moment which is the party, and as we all know he's gonna rejected...
"You're not planning on seducing him when he's broken right?"
"It's called using the opportunities you got"
She shrugged her shoulders with a smile
"She is correct, they say it's all fair in war and love"
"Hey you may be a good person"
Ugh...well I'll be happy if things work for Naru so I'm not exactly angry about this strategy
"Oh right what are you both doing? Something related to Emma?"
"That's right I thought I'd buy her something for white day"
"White day? I thought all the chocolates for you magically disappeared"
"Oi what does that have to do with anything?!"
I'm still not completely recovered from that...Naru looked more confused than me,there's obviously something she's misunderstanding
"So...let's get this clear what's white day?"
Huh? I looked at Aki and he looked back at me with a confident smile
"It's a day to celebrate white people correct?"
"Even I know that, and Emma's the only white person I'm friends with"
"What about me?" Aki asked
"Yeah only Emma"
It took me a while to understand who counts as a white person and who doesn't so I'm confident with my answer, however Naru seems about to explode from laughter...?
"It will be hilarious if I just let you do it...but I'm indebted to you so I will just help you this time"
She grabbed her phone and did a quick search on the internet it didn't take two seconds to realize how stupid I am
"I want to dissappear.."
I fell on the ground feeling my cheeks burning from embarrassment
"That's weird...we always give each others a gift.."
While I was dying from embarrassment Aki started questioning his existence
"That was a good laugh.."
Naru who spent the past few minutes laughing finally stopped
"So did you get any choco?"
"Two I guess...three if we count the one Suzuki gave me a day later"
"I see so you'll still need to buy something, I don't mind helping you out"
Now that I think about it I need to buy a gift for Rei-senpai huh? I need to get something good enough to show my sincere feelings..
"What kind of gift would you like Makoto to give you?"
I asked Naru for refrence, I'm not hoping to get the answer from her but a hint would be cool
"I would like something that reminds me of him so a stuffed animal would be fine"
"Aren't you too old for that..?"
"I have quite the collection actually"
Naru raised her nose proudly, people have different hobbies I guess...does it even count as a hobby? I wonder
"Wouldn't buying sweets be enough? It'd be uncomfortable if you bought something that the other person doesn't want but can't throw away"
Aki who returned from his mental breakdown said something useful for a change, he's right if someone gave me a teddie I wouldn't know what to do with it
"Yeah I'll keep it simple and buy something edible, I have a budget so maybe something expensive?"
"By the same logic, giving something expensive when they gave you a hlaf assed one would be uncomfortable right?"
"That's true, let's go with usual ones then"
After buying some random sweets that aren't exactly cheap but not expensive either I asked
"Do you wanna eat something since we're here?"
"I apologize but I have to go now, I'll treat you another time"
You weren't invited though? I was clearly asking Naru.
"See you later I guess"
I've been too mean to him today so I'll just let this one slide, he smiled at my response and waved goodbye to us
"He's not a bad person why do you hate him so much?"
"This city isn't bug enough for two heroes"
I answered jokingly but in reality I don't really have any reason.
"So wanna eat?"
Naru asked while fidgeting with her hair, her acting this feminine is actually disgusting but I won't be saying that
"Yeah let's do that, I'll invite Chi-senpai too since she's been tailing us for a while now"
"Huh? Why didn't you talk earlier"
Naru kicked my leg angrily, did she want us to be alone? Or is she just embarrassed that someone else saw her act all girly now
"She wants to avoid Aki so I didn't want to throw her under the bus, he probably noticed her anyway but didn't act"
"Yo Arucchi and Naru-chan it's a coincidence seeing you here!"
After confirming Aki isn't around she tried to pretend that it's a coincidence, should I even talk?
"I will treat you both but if you order anything you wouldn't normally eat just because it's expensive I'm ditching you"
"You don't trust me at all huh? If that's the case let your senpai here take care of the bill!"
Naru started clapping to feed Chi-senpai's ego more
"As expected of our great senpai! Unlike the poor Aru you didn't put any price limit!"
"That's right! Order everything you want I will take care of it for you!"
***
We ended up splitting the bill afterwards
"I'm s-sorry I wasn't expecting Naru-chan's stomach to be a black hole"
"Hmph I do sports of course I need food"
I was under tge impression that she's in a diet or is it just a delusion?
"Ouch" I felt someone kicking my leg
"You were thinking about how the food doesn't go to my boobs!"
"No?"
The kick itself probably hurt Naru more than me but being hit unreasonably breaks my little glass heart
"Don't worry Naru-chan Makocchi doesn't care about the size"
Chi-senpai raised her thumb with a bug smug but that only made Naru angrier
After a little fight Naru ended up going home while stomping on the ground with anger
"Eh? I didn't say anything wrong did I? I was trying to cheer her on"
That's the problem, but that's not the problem now. Naru is gone and we should just go our separate ways and yet...
"Why are you following me?"
Chi-senpai was jumping around with a dumb smile on her face after hearing my question she forgot everything that happened a few seconds ago
"I thought I should give you a visit at home to make sure you didn't do anything naughty"
"What do you even...No, I don't want to know do whatever"
This little issue aside the day was surprisingly going a lot better than I expected so why do I still have this bad feeling?
"Ugh"
In front of my house I saw a familiar face, it's Aki but why did he bother coming to my house when we were together a few hours ago...
"I sent you a message but your pho-"
The mood changed suddenly, time was moving slowly, it's even slower than my usual time stop skill, and for the first time since I returned to this world a system message popped up in front of me
[Someone close to you is in danger]