Chapter 17 - Tomboy No More

-7 years ago-

One hot summer day...

"Hey, Shizu?"

"Hm?"

"Do you like girly stuff?"

Haruto Renzaki said such a thing to his best friend, Shizuku Shirakawa.

In response, she leaned back against the chair she was sitting in and stretched her arms out.

"Girly stuff is kinda troublesome, so I try not to have anything to do with it."

Everything Shizuku said was completely true, Haruto had never seen her wear any girly clothes or play with any dolls.

The only time he saw wear a dress was when she was forced by her mother for special occasions.

Other than that, Shizuku tended to wear boyish clothes and played with action figures with Haruto.

Due to a bit of silence after she replied, Shizuku spoke up to clear the air. "Is it a problem that I don't like girly stuff?"

She looked at Haruto with a desperate expression that seemed to suggest that she didn't want to be abandoned by him.

"Of course not, I like you just the way you are."

When Haruto said such a line, Shizuku bashfully smiled and twirled her hair. "Ehehe... You're so nice to me, Haru."

Seeing Shizuku smile so bashfully with a faint blush on her face made Haruto's heart skip a beat.

"What a cute smile..." Haruto muttered to himself.

***

So that was just a dream...

My alarm clock just went off and woke me up from that warm dream of mine.

Speaking of which, Shizu has really changed a lot from back then, huh?

She's become much more girlier in many ways.

Even though she said that girly stuff was troublesome, here she is wearing makeup and enjoying girly stuff.

I'm not complaining, but the gap between her past self and present self is pretty big, y'know?

What could've caused a drastic change like that is beyond me...

Anyways, I have a date with Shizu later today.

It's not an official date, but a secret rendezvous between a male and a female should be considered a date in every sense of the word.

Let's see... What should I wear for today?

I don't have that many outdoor clothes besides my uniform, and most of them are just plain one-color designs.

I'm probably going to have to go with that neat and tidy black button-up shirt and a pair of nice jeans.

Even if my sense of fashion isn't the best, I don't want to embarrass the girl I'm hanging out with today.

It's almost time to meet up with her at the meetup area, so I better hurry up and get dressed.

Half an hour later, I was fully dressed and waiting at the meetup location for Shizu.

Of course, I was about 45 minutes early.

I'm not that inexperienced when it comes to being tactful.

"Hey, stop that!"

As I was leaning against a wall, I heard a scream from a very familiar voice.

Turning my head towards the sound of that voice, I noticed a glint of light reflect off the exotic silver-colored hair of my childhood friend.

It looks like she's being hassled by a couple of guys in broad daylight.

I'm pretty annoyed that they're bothering her like that, but there was another emotion in my heart that was burning much stronger.

It was anger.

I rushed over to her location in the blink of an eye and placed my hand on one of the delinquents' shoulder.

"Who are you?" The delinquent glared at me.

"The person she's waiting for," I responded. "Now, move."

I lightly shove the delinquent away and grab Shizu's hand. "Let's go."

"E-Eh? Haru? Okay..."

Before we could fully leave the premises, another one of the delinquents spoke up in a haughty tone. "And where do you think you're going?"

He tried to place a hand on my shoulder, but I quickly swatted his hand away. "Back... OFF!"

In a tone of voice that I had never used before, I told the delinquent to leave.

My voice was so low that it came from the very abyss of my gut when I uttered those words out, I was quite surprised that I could make such a noise with my voice.

When the delinquents heard my low growl, they instinctively backed off from the surprise that I used such a tone on them.

Taking this chance, I firmly gripped Shizu's hand and ran away with them.

"Hey, wait up!" The delinquents yelled, yet we were way too far for them to catch up.

A few minutes of running later, Shizu and I sat down on a bench to cool off from the running.

"We should be safe now..." I said, exhausted.

Shizu nodded. "Thanks for saving me back there. I got here a bit early and they started hitting on me."

Now that we finally had a moment of peace, I took a second to take a glance of Shizu's outfit.

She was wearing a cream-colored blouse over a black skirt that emphasized her maturity, elegance, and raw beauty.

There was a cute heart-shaped pendant that she was wearing as a necklace as well.

I'm not entirely sure why, but that necklace seems oddly familiar.

That doesn't matter right now though, it just feels so surreal to me that she has grown so much.

This beautiful idol-like girl in front of me used to be a tomboy who liked to wrestle in the mud with me.

And I'm the only one that knows that.

"Haru?"

"Yes?"

"What do you think of my outfit?"

Ahaha, I was waiting for such a question beforehand.

It's obvious to prepare for a question that is asked every single time on a date, right?

"I think you look quite stunning."

Nailed it.

"Is that so?" Shizu indifferently said. "Thank you."

Even though she tried to sound unaffected by my comment, I could see a faint blush on her cheeks as Shizu turned her head away from me in embarrassment.

What a cute girl...