Volume 2 - Chapter 28: Shopping?
One day in the middle of summer vacation.
Kyouya had gone out to the local shopping mall, but he had no plans to buy anything in particular. As he was going from store to store window-shopping...
Suddenly, Kyouya heard a girl"s voice calling out to him.
"Hey! Is that you over there, Shinomiya-kun?"
Turning around, Kyouya found a mountain of boxes standing before him.
No, it was someone who was carrying a mountain of boxes taller than their own body. A girl.
"Megumi-chan?"
Kyouya could tell from her voice. It was his fellow GJ-Bu member, fellow first year student, and fellow comrade made to suffer under the president"s hands. It was the girl he felt the closest to, Amatsuka Megumi-chan.
With her last name meaning "angel", it was truly a fitting name for the angelic girl. She was too pure, the type who wouldn"t harm a fly.
"Ah, what a coincidence! I don"t even know what to say. Let"s see, it"s like finding help from a police station in the middle of a desert!"
Said Megumi-chan from the beyond the mountain of boxes, her face completely blocked from view.
The boxes piled higher than her head were all clothes and shoes and things of that nature. Her elbows that were sticking out from either side were also laden with bags. Kyouya had seen this in manga and anime before, but it was the first time he had witnessed such a scene in real life.
"You sure bought a lot."
Kyouya said, half stunned.
"Yeah. It"s the first time I"ve been to a place like this, and I didn"t think there would be so many shops, so I ended up buying way too much."
Kyouya wondered whether she was beaming with her usual smile right now, but he couldn"t see anything at all.
"By the way, I"m in a bit of a tough situation. Could you help me with this?"
"Ah, sorry. I"ll hold some for you."
Kyouya surprised himself with how inconsiderate he was being.
After taking about half of the boxes, about 1 metre tall, he could finally see Megumi-chan"s face.
Megumi-chan wearing something other than her school uniform was a sight Kyouya wasn"t used to seeing.
Her lemon yellow one piece dress and simple straw hat that clearly conveyed the fact that she had no intent to dress up fit her naive charm perfectly. On her feet, she wore sandals decorated with flower shapes, or were these called mules instead? Although he had been studying his sister"s magazines, Kyouya still couldn"t understand the difference between mules and sandals. He was sure they were mules.
"Sorry for being so inconsiderate."
As an aspiring gentleman, the first thing Kyouya had to do was apologize.
"Hm? Ah, not at all."
Megumi-chan blinked her eyes a few times then turned to Kyouya.
"Um... do you know where the exit is?"
"Huh?"
"I"m a little lost, so I was feeling kind of down."
Said Megumi-chan. Kyouya had felt something off about her since a while ago, but now he finally understood that she was just embarra.s.sed.
"Um..."
Kyouya spun around, looking here and there. He had been wandering without a goal himself, so he wasn"t immediately sure where they were. Still, there was an information board right there, so it shouldn"t be possible to get lost that easily.
"I think it"s this way."
Kyouya started walking, leading the way.
"That"s amazing, Shinomiya-kun! You"re as reliable as my sister!"
Kyouya wasn"t sure whether to take that as a compliment. What an awkward situation.
"Usually Yodogawa-san or Mori-san would be accompanying me, but everyone was busy today so I tried coming here myself, and as expected, got completely lost. Shinomiya-kun, if I didn"t run into you here, I might"ve become dried fish in this desert."
"That"s a little too dramatic."
Kyouya laughed. He was curious about the Yodogawa-san and Mori-san mentioned earlier, but he held off on his questions. He wasn"t sure what Megumi-chan would think if he asked about something as abnormal as butlers and maids. He had always been aware of the Amatsukas being rich, but this was outrageous.
"Ah! That store looks nice!"
As they were walking side by side, in an instant, Megumi-chan walked into a store they were pa.s.sing by. It was a movement that was as natural as water flowing from high to low.
"Do you think my sister would look good in this? What do you think?"
A difficult question for a guy to answer.
In the end, it took them all day to get to the exit. Kyouya followed while Megumi-chan was shopping, and helped carry everything she bought, to the point where he could no longer see in front of him while carrying two mountains of boxes.
Not only that, but Megumi-chan didn"t buy a single thing for herself. There were gifts for her sister Mao, for her younger sister Seira, who Kyouya had only ever heard the name of, and for her mother and father. Everything was a gift for someone else.
Kyouya learned two things from being with Megumi-chan the entire day.
This girl was truly angelic, and her sense of direction was truly terrible.
Character Profile
Amatsuka Megumi ② - How She Spends Her Days Off
Gardening: Taking care of things like bananas.
Taking care of Onee-chan and Seira: Brushing their hair and washing them in the bath.
Making snacks: It"s a hobby but also really useful. I have to make a whole week"s worth at a time.