Shopping with My Little Sister
Shopping with My Little Sister
On a Saturday in mid-July, Itsuki was suddenly asked by his tax accountant Ashley to come to her office “to address an emergency.” Chihiro worked at Ashley’s office on Saturdays, so she was there as well.
“Oh, what’s up, Itsuki?” Chihiro asked when he came in, looking surprised.
“Ashley called me in here.”
“Hee-hee-hee… You’re here, Itsuki.”
Ashley Ono appeared from the other room, surprising the confused pair of siblings. She was dressed not in casual home wear, but a red outfit suited for going out on the town.
“Oh, you were changing?” Chihiro asked.
“What’s the emergency?”
“Well, I’ve reached a milestone in my work, so Chihiro and I are going shopping right now. I want you to come with us.”
“Huh?!” Chihiro sounded as surprised about it as Itsuki.
“Shopping? That’s fine…but where are we going?”
“You’re going to buy some cute clothing for your sister, Chihiro.”
“A-Ashley?!”
Ashley’s pout made her baby face seem especially childish. “What? Chihiro’s revealed her true self to you, her brother, but her fashion hasn’t changed at all, has it? She said she hasn’t bought any new outfits, so I want you, Itsuki, to buy her something cute and girly.”
Even after the revelation, Chihiro was still going around in unisex clothing and sweats. That applied not just at Itsuki’s place, but at home, during school, and in her workplace here.
“Cute clothing for Chihiro, huh…? All right. Let’s do that.”
“Y-you’re okay with that, Itsuki?!”
“Didn’t I tell you?” Ashley asked the reluctant Chihiro. “I told you to have your big brother buy you something cute someday. Well, the day’s finally here!”
“Um, you think so?! Isn’t this kind of…soon?!”
“Ee-hee-hee… You’ve already changed your hairstyle. That proves you want to look cuter than you did before, doesn’t it?”
“Th-that…” Chihiro choked on her words a moment, still trying to slip out of this. “B-but I don’t want to bother my brother…”
“No, Chihiro, let me give you a present. Haruto treats his little sister to stuff all the time. It’s a really big-brotherly thing to do… And don’t worry about the money. I may not look it, but I’m the creator behind a hot new anime series!”
Chihiro smiled a bit at her brother’s grinning braggadocio. “Itsuki… Well, I guess I’ll go, then…”
“Great! I’ll buy you whatever you want!”
Ashley gave Itsuki an alluring grin. “You know, big brother, I’d like some new clothing, too.”
“Buy it yourself,” came the quick, point-blank reply, turning Ashley’s smile upside-down.
So the three of them went to the same department store Ashley and Chihiro had visited almost exactly a year ago. Heading for her favorite section, Ashley gave Chihiro a gauntlet of outfits to try on.
Having her brother right there made Chihiro a bit bashful, but she tried on a few girly things, following the advice of Ashley and the saleswoman.
“Wh-what do you think, Itsuki?”
“Y-yeah… It looks good on you.”
Brother and sister were both blushing hard as the dress-up show continued.
“Wow,” Ashley said, beaming. “Everything just looks great on you, Chihiro! We’ll take this… Oh, this is nice, too.”
Now she was giving her choice of clothes to the saleswoman one after another. Chihiro forced her to pare it down to three outfits, not wanting to bankrupt her brother, and changed into one of them before leaving the ladies’ section. They all then took a break at a café inside the department store.
“Thank you, Itsuki… Buying all this stuff for me…”
“D-don’t worry about it. You could’ve had more if you wanted.”
“Hee-hee… Your face is all red, Itsuki. You falling in love with Chihiro now that she’s all dolled up?”
“Not—not like that, no…”
The playful jab panicked Itsuki further. Right now, Chihiro had on a pink, frilly dress, almost cloyingly cute to him. The gap between this and the Chihiro he once knew was yawning wider and wider.
“Oh, Chihiro, you’re just sooo cute now… Just like a living doll…” Ashley, meanwhile, was virtually in a trance, which dissuaded Chihiro a bit.
“What’s gotten into you, Ashley…? You’re acting even weirder than usual.”
“Well, I mean…to tell the truth, I just love little girls with flat chests when they’re dressed all cute…”
“Huhhh?!”
“Hee-hee-hee! Just joking with you.”
“Are you sure…?”
Ashley’s gaze felt deadly serious to Chihiro, which kept her on high alert.
“By the way, Chihiro, you’ve got on some cute undergarments. The last time I saw you, you used a plain sports bra.”
“Wh-why were you looking at that…?” Chihiro blushed again. “Kaiko gave some to me earlier. She said she bought a lot for research purposes, so I could have them.”
The manga artist storming into Itsuki’s apartment with bags full of lingerie had surprised them both, but size-wise, only Chihiro and Ashley could use most of it, so she decided to gratefully accept the gift.
“Um, actually, Itsuki,” she said, trying to steer the topic away from bras and panties, “do you shop at places like these with Kani at all?”
“Nah, Kanikou usually shops for her clothes with Miyako, so…” Then Itsuki blushed a bit. “So I’ve never gone shopping with her…but I did come here by myself recently.”
“By yourself? What for?”
“I wanted to buy a birthday present for Kanikou.”
“Ohhh… Wow, Itsuki, you all alone in this fancy department store… That must’ve taken a lot of nerve.”
Itsuki glared at Chihiro’s warm, understanding eyes.
“Who do you think I am? I can go in a department store by myself. You see middle-aged dudes in here with their families all the time. It’s not like I’m going to some high-end fashion boutique in Shibuya. This is way easier.”
“So what did you get for a gift?”
“A bracelet. With her birthstone.”
“Oh, that’s so nice! …I bet Miss Kani liked it a lot.” Chihiro’s eyes sparkled with admiration.
“I wasn’t sure whether to go with that or this big king crab they were selling in the gourmet foods section…but the crab actually cost a little more.”
“I think you absolutely made the right choice,” Chihiro asserted.
“Ohhh?” Ashley gave him a snide look. “You’re being an honest-to-goodness boyfriend to her, huh, Itsuki? That’s a little surprising.”
“Yeah, I think before, I would’ve gone with the king crab for a joke…but I decided to get real about this, so… By the way, do you have anyone in your life, Ashley?”
The offhand question made Ashley freeze. “Not…not now, no.”
“…Oh, didn’t you take a taxi home with Mr. Kaizu after the cherry blossom party?”
“…What are you implying? There’s nothing in particular between us…nothing…”
“That’s a minefield, Itsuki,” Chihiro stealthily whispered to him.
“Oh?”
“There really is nothing between them. He hasn’t contacted her in the three months after that, and I think it’s eating at her. I don’t think she necessarily loves Mr. Kaizu, but being completely ignored kind of irks her.”
“Wow. The complicated heart of a maiden, huh?”
“Why the questioning tone, Chihiro?” Ashley asked, overhearing her. There was a smile on her lips and a throbbing blue vein on her forehead. “What about you, hmm? Anyone in your class you’ve taken a fancy to?”
“Ooh, I’d like to know, too.”
Chihiro, seeing how eager Itsuki was to join in, reared back a bit.
“Th-there’s nobody like that, no!” she protested.
“You’ve been going to school as a girl all this time, haven’t you? No guy’s come up and asked to go out with you?”
“A few times, yeah…but I said no to them all.”
“Why is that?”
“I… I don’t really get love…and stuff…yet…”
“So you haven’t even had a first love?” Ashley asked.
“No… I don’t think so anyway… What’s being in love like?”
“It’s when you want to have sex with someone,” Ashley explained.
“Ah, s-sehh…?!” Chihiro’s face turned red as Itsuki winced.
“Can you not contaminate my sister with a thirtysomething’s wild views on love?”
“You tell her, then,” pouted Ashley. “You’re her brother.”
“Um…” The question made Itsuki self-consciously avert his eyes. “Well, when you think about someone, it’s like you feel a pain in your chest. Your heart races when you’re together, and you can’t stop thinking about them all day…”
“Well, along those lines, I think about you the most, Itsuki.”
“D-don’t spring that on me out of nowhere… You’re embarrassing me.”
The blunt reply made his face turn red.
“Boy, what a terminal case…,” Ashley growled. “But the more someone’s honestly like ‘oh, I don’t care about romance at all,’ the more likely she’ll steal someone else’s guy in the future, you know.”
“Did something like that happen to you, Ashley…?” Itsuki asked. The apparent years-long grudge in Ashley’s voice was worrying.
“No, nothing… By the way, Itsuki, if you love your little sister so much, what’ll you do if she finds a boyfriend later?”
“What’ll I do?” Itsuki thought for a moment. “…Depends on the guy. If he’s no good, I’ll kill him.”
“Oh, Itsuki…” Chihiro gave a troubled laugh. Itsuki sounded a little too much like he meant it.
Ashley squinted at him. “Does that mean you’ll welcome him if he’s a decent person?”
“Well, if he’ll make Chihiro a happy girl, then it’s my job as her elder brother to accept him.”
“Hmmmm…”
Ashley looked closely at Itsuki’s face, appraising it, then sighed a little. “…Well, that’s boring.”
“…?”
All Itsuki and Chihiro could do was glance at each other, puzzled.
