It Sucks To Be A Single Dog
Rin and Ashley had both quickly left the house after a short while. Their neighbourhood was actually rather well-kept and maintained. Though it looked rather suburban and quaint, there were some more overt signs of it being highly developed as a local community. For example, all the important landmarks in Ashley's area could be reached by foot. There was barely any reason to use transportation such as cars - humanity had progressed far beyond that necessity. Therefore, Ashley and Rin both reached the local mall in about ten minutes of brisk walking.
It had to be said, that in the high school which Rin and Ashley attended, Rin could be considered to be one of the school's so-called belles. She had outstanding teenage beauty that would certainly make boys and men fantasize about her a lot, however she was rather fierce and possessed an enhancement ether power that allowed her to innately multiply her physical strength by several magnitudes. Therefore, she wasn't very easy to court.
Despite this, Ashley was able to befriend her because they happened to be next-door neighbours. In a way, she could be considered to be a childhood friend. Many 'otaku' or 'anime fanatics' lamented such a cliche way to get close to one of the resident sexy girls, but they also had to acknowledge that Ashley had unique looks himself and had an outstanding background. By the time they had reached the mall, the pair of them received many curious stares.
This was because the entire time, Rin had one of her arms around Ashley's shoulders, it was as if she was the one taking Ashley out on a date. However, they were simply just talking about random nonsense and hanging out. It definitely couldn't be considered a romantic date. Merely just a casual hang out between close friends. Unfortunately, it was very easy to misunderstand the situation. Rin decided to mess around by taking Ashley shopping for girls' clothes.
They went to a local store called 'Clair de Lune.'
"This... this isn't too much, right?" Ashley asked a bit nervously.
"You'll be fine," Rin grinned. "No one will even realize a thing."
Eventually, Rin treated Ashley as her Barbie doll and had him dress up in an assortment of outfits and looks ranging from trendy, to punk, to even night formal. Even in a backless gown, Ashley gave off the aura of a high-class woman thanks to the
Back to his everyday wear, Ashley and Rin continued to roam around the mall and go window shopping. Eventually it was already getting into the afternoon and Ashley offered to take Rin to take a break at a cafe. Agreeing, since they had been carrying a lot of shopping bags for several hours by now, they went to their favourite cafe [Parabellum] which served a wide variety of traditional cafe food cooked in dazzling modern ways.
At this point, Ashley and Rin both enjoyed milkshakes and were sharing a nice typical banana split ice cream. The sight of two beautiful young girls (well, one of them wasn't really a girl) seemingly on a date together drove those single guys absolutely mad with jealousy. Eventually it got to the point where all the tables near Ashley and Rin weren't occupied, though it was filled up everywhere else. Unfortunately, despite Ashley having a wonderful time with his friend, his mood was ruined when he spotted a familiar face walk into the cafe with a young lady slightly older than him draped around one of his arms.
"Noriaki...!" Ashley grumbled under his breath as he saw his tormentor in the corner of his eye.
Noriaki also caught the table Ashley was seated at, but only because Rin was seated there, looking happily at the girl sitting across her. In his mind he thought that Rin didn't swing that way, and decided he would introduce his new girlfriend to her. Though Noriaki still had strong feelings towards Rin, Rin totally didn't care about it. Noriaki totally blamed Ashley for this, but he didn't know that the girl who was with his crush was actually Ashley himself.
Who knew what would happen when Noriaki discovered this fact?