Chapter 18: Weekend department store date

The last bell of Friday’s class rang.

Has the eventful week finally come to an end?

‘Phew… I don’t even know how I spent the week…’

After entering school, every day passed by so quickly.

During that time. So many things happened to me…

The entrance ceremony, the student council invitation, volleyball practice, the happening at the nurse’s office after getting injured…

Fortunately, when I went to the hospital, they took the cast off quickly.

Oh… and, there were the confessions.

Ha… haha.

‘I’ve already turned down 4 times, and once it was even a middle school girl…’

I smiled wryly.

I never knew high school life could be this dynamic.

In my past life, from the time I entered until graduation, it was a repetition of class-lunch-class-supplementary class-cram school.

‘Come to think of it, is this how it’s supposed to be?’

It feels like I’m regaining my high school life, but my daily life was far from ordinary. When I first entered this school, like a mob character, I just thought about living quietly and ordinarily… but somehow I found out that this was the world of a novel, and I ended up becoming friends with the two heroines of that novel.

Yukikawa Aya, Asakura Mizuki.

The two young ladies who are now packing their bags next to me.

Having become irreversibly close to the two, I sighed deeply and looked out the window.

Cherry blossoms were fluttering outside the window.

‘I wish reality could flow away like those cherry blossoms.’

Oh, speaking of cherry blossoms, when I first possessed this body, it started from the entrance ceremony, so I naturally thought it was early March.

But the entrance ceremony in Japan was in April.

I was surprised when I took out my phone and checked the date.

‘…I want to rest quietly this weekend.’

I was thinking that, staring blankly out the window.

But my plan for a peaceful weekend was shattered in less than 5 seconds.

“Rina~ What are you doing this weekend?”

Mizuki approached me cheerfully and smiled brightly.

Ah, peaceful weekend, goodbye.

“We, weekend? I was just thinking of resting at home…”

Mizuki slyly stood next to me and linked arms.

“Hey, don’t just stay at home, let’s go out with us~ Rina, how about the department store?”

Department store?

As soon as I heard that word, I paused.

In the novel, the important event that advanced the relationship between the protagonist and Aya was the ‘accidental weekend department store date’.

In the novel, the protagonist goes to the department store on an errand and accidentally meets Aya and Mizuki.

But since the protagonist is gone, there won’t be a chance to meet… Were Aya and Mizuki originally planning to go to the department store on the first weekend?

Next to her, Aya, who was quietly organizing her books, looked up and added.

“Mizuki said she wanted to go. If Rina is okay with it, do you want to come with us?”

Aya looked at me with a calm smile.

Facing the expectant gazes of the two, I thought, ‘I have no choice,’ and ended up agreeing.

“Um… well, I can do window shopping.”

As I answered, I was surprised that I naturally agreed.

‘Wait… I was a man until a few days ago, window shopping…?! I’m thinking like this naturally?’

Shocked, I shut my mouth.

Now I even take it for granted to go shopping at the department store with girls…

Taking my embarrassment as agreement, Mizuki linked arms with me and laughed.

“Great! Then it’s decided! It’s a date with the three of us this weekend~!”

“Da, date?!”

I was embarrassed and waved my arms, but Mizuki didn’t care and laughed.

Aya watched quietly from the side and corrected.

“It’s not a date, it’s shopping.”

Aya smiling while covering her mouth at Mizuki’s joke.

…This weekend seems to be noisy too.

***

On the weekend morning, I woke up late and sat halfway on the bed, deeply 고민 in front of the closet.

“Ugh…

What should I wear…?”

First of all, there were two closets.

First, the closet I open every day.

When I opened the door, neatly arranged school uniforms and a few casual clothes were hanging inside.

Literally ‘ordinary’ blouses, knits, skirts, T-shirts and jeans, and a few hoodies. They were the kind of clothes that my mom would buy, and they felt ‘girly’ in the way I, in my past life, thought of.

“Would this be okay?”

I lightly pulled on the shirt hanging on the hanger, then immediately let go.

But… would this really suit the place we’re going to today, the ‘department store’?

And above all… I’m going with Aya and Mizuki.

I sighed and opened the second closet next to it.

And… there, dazzling white frills and ribbons sparkled.

“Uwaaaaaah!?”

I screamed out loud and fell backward.

The closet was filled with pink, white, and light purple.

A-line overalls, blouses with intricate lace, and cute ribbon headbands.

It was truly a collection of mass-produced, or Lolita fashion.

“Ri, Rina… you, you were kind of into this?”

In my past life, I wouldn’t even imagine wearing something like that.

I stared into the closet for a long time, and carefully took out one outfit.

A soft pastel-toned frilly blouse and a light purple skirt.

…If I go out wearing this, won’t I stand out too much?

‘Aya and Mizuki look luxurious and elegant no matter what they wear, but if I wear this, I’ll just look like a kid cosplaying, right…?

I closed this scary closet and took out the T-shirt and jeans from the first closet again and held them up in front of the mirror.

It’s definitely plain, but I somehow didn’t like it.

Going to the department store in a hoodie and jeans… I could see what Mizuki would say.

“Rina, it’s too plain~ It’s not bad to dress up a little, you know?”

Mizuki’s lively voice seems to be automatically playing in my head.

“..Ugh.”

I clutched my head.

Everything seems strange!

But… a thought suddenly occurred to me.

The fact that there are so many of those clothes… doesn’t that mean they suit Rina?

I opened the second closet again and ran my hand over the clothes with ribbons.

There were clothes that had actually been worn a few times, with signs of use.

So I could tell that Rina really wore this kind of clothing.

‘Is there a possibility that she only wore them at home…?’

I could ask my parents who are resting at home on the weekend… but I think they’d think it’s a little strange.

‘Yeah, yeah, just go with the feeling.’

I naturally took out a white blouse and a light purple frill skirt with lace from the closet.

Because Rina has the last name Kurosawa, I thought maybe she liked characters like Ku○mi, having such foolish thoughts.

‘Yeah, yeah. This much… wouldn’t be too plain, right?’

I self-rationalized internally and carefully tried on the clothes.

The frills were a bit burdensome, but surprisingly, it wasn’t bad.

Looking at my reflection in the mirror…

‘Cute! I look like a Japanese girl!’

I had become a perfect Japanese girl in the mirror.

It was amazing how I was moving in the mirror in a way I couldn’t even imagine a few days ago.

I felt awkward about the fluffy clothes touching my skin, but I was getting used to that feeling too.

Finally, I put a light purple ribbon on my head, looked slowly in the mirror, and muttered quietly.

“Oh… it might not be bad… it suits me because I’m cute…”

So, I put on the so-called mass-produced cute clothes and picked up the camera.

And I took a picture towards the mirror at an angle where my face couldn’t be seen.

“Wow… it’s really cute.”

Talking to myself, I went into the photo album and saw the photos Rina had taken before.

Photos taken with friends who seem to be middle school friends, wearing these clothes with light makeup on their faces.

Looking at those pictures… I was somewhat relieved.

It seemed okay to go out like this…

‘Wait’

Makeup?

Makeup?

Since Rina’s face is cute, I often looked in the mirror.

To that extent, Rina’s bare face was familiar to me.

However, I looked at Rina’s middle school photos again.

Clear and natural skin tone, slightly moist lips, and subtly emphasized eyes.

I realized that this was not just a bare face, but perfect natural makeup.

‘What is this, the skill level is very high.’

It’s also base makeup that’s so thinly layered that it’s not noticeable.

Kurosawa Rina, you, have you been building up this technique since middle school?

Of course, it would have been natural not to wear makeup because it’s prohibited at school…

“…Can I do it too?”

I carefully looked at the dressing table.

The things I had been ignoring were there.

Various cosmetics were neatly arranged. The types of cosmetics were surprisingly diverse.

Foundation, cushion, tint, shadow, brush…

I just read the names on the labels, and I already felt like I was looking at an alien language.

‘Hmm…’

But what age is this!

There are plenty of beauty videos on Y-Tube. I searched for a makeup style that was as similar to Rina’s as possible.

So I followed the video and started to lightly pat my skin with a small sponge.

Grooming my eyebrows, lightly applying mascara, carefully applying tint…

‘What. Why does this feel so familiar?’

Like when I played volleyball, my hands remembered the makeup method.

Before the video, I patted powder on my face as if I was used to it, and picked up a brush to apply light shading.

Then, I inadvertently looked at the mirror in front of the dressing table.

A slightly groomed face was reflected in the mirror.

Far from awkwardness, I even felt like ‘This is basic’.

It seems like I barely put on any makeup, but I remember the things I applied.

I think I applied at least 6-7 things…

‘Is this basic for girls…?’

I shook my head and pulled myself together.

“Okay. This is perfect!”

Finally, I applied pink lip gloss to finish.

It looked very dark, but when I applied it, there was almost no difference in tone.

And my appearance in the mirror… was definitely almost the same as the photos from middle school.

‘Ah… I’m really a beautiful girl.’

Honestly, I didn’t think I was pretty enough to be confessed to so much…

But after putting on makeup, I definitely felt confident that I wouldn’t be inferior even if I was next to Aya and Mizuki, who don’t wear makeup.

“Shall we go now?”

Finally, I put on light purple loafers, greeted my family, and left the house.

“I’m going~”