The Best Time To Wear A Striped Sweater...
One day, Akihiko decides he needs a new wardrobe. So he decides to go to Airmail and something there catches his eye.
The weekend finally arrives after those dreaded finals at Gekkoukan High School. Akihiko lays in his bed with a thin, sage sheet draped on him. His eyes open to the beaming sun shining through his window. Just a little while longer. Let him sleep a little while longer.
He hears mumbling from outside of his room, one of the voices being Minato and the other one could be Junpei. Someone, either Misato or Junpei knocks at his door.
"Dammit..." Akihiko curses, under his breath. They're great people, but seriously, they have the nerve to interrupt his sleep? Leave him alone, he wants them to do.
He wakes up, stitting at the edge of his bed.
"Rise and shine, dude!" A loud voice, possibly Junpei's, shouted.
"I'll be down in a few minutes."
He springs himself out of bed and runs to the bathroom to brush his teeth.
Akihiko returns to his room and checks his closet for something to wear. He realizes that he needs a change in his wardrobe. All of his life, he's worn vests, trench coats, cardigan sweaters, jeans, blazers, slacks, and scarves, which he chooses to wear these all seasons of the year.
An idea came to him quickly. Since he is free today, he should go to the mall to shop. Not the usual manly thing to do, but what the hell. He should consider asking Minato or Junpei but they probably won't take interest in shopping. He shrugs and slips on a pair of jeans, a v-neck shirt, with an olive knee-length trench coat. To finish it off, he wraps a creme knit cowl scarf around his neck. He finds his style of clothing comforting.
He runs downstairs to see Yukari cooking breakfast, the smoky barbecue smell of the sausage links and the peppery smell of eggs, made over easy, distresses his stomach.
"Hey Takeba," he greeted her, still clad in pajamas.
"Hi Akihiko-senpai, would you like some breakfast?"
"Nah, I'll just eat some biscuits from the counter."
Mitsuru is reading a book in a reclining chair. She looks contemplative and comfortable while reading the book. Deciding whether he should talk to her or not, he does neither of the options, and takes one of the biscuits piled and freshly baked in the basket and exits.
Akihiko is outside of the dorm, and his red MoPed is parked by Misato and Junpei's bikes. Just as he steps on his bike, Junpei and Misato catch him and both yell at him to grab his attention.
"Hey dude! Wait for us, senpai." Junpei exclaimed to him and ran to his bike along with Minato.
"Where are you going?" Minato asked.
"I'm going to the mall."
Both Junpei and Minato exchange looks, "The mall?" They said this in unison.
"To the arcade?" Junpei guesses.
"I'm too old to play such childish amusement," the silver haired senpai answered.
"Buy a new weapon?" Junpei asks.
"No. I'm fine with my Brass Knuckles."
"What for?" The younger boys asked in unison.
"I'm going to shop for some clothing."
Junpei's cheeks puff up as if he wanted to throw up. Minato covers his mouth, with happy eyes, trying to suppress his laughter. "Shopping? Seriously Akihiko?" they thought.
"Why are you two looking like you're going to throw up?"
Finally they let their laughter out. Akihiko sighed at them and put on his glossy red helmet. He ignores their laughter and drive off to Airmail, leaving them laugh on their own.
"Senpai, shopping for clothes? That's a bit unorthodox," Junpei commented.
Akihiko races through the streets on his MoPed and reaches his destination, the mall. He parks his vehicle next to the trash can and enters. A few strides later, he sees Airmail and enters the store. The store is medium sized, walls with shirts on rack, jeans folded on shelves in shades of blue, brightly lit with young men and women walking and looking around.
But as soon as he let his eyes off the jeans, a porcelain male model wearing a sweater catches his eye.
"Whoa," he said, overwhelmed by the sweater. He walks closer to the still model and examines the sweater. The sweater, was thin, tight knitted, with crimson red and cream alternating in horizontal stripes. The sweater, in his opinion, speaks to him. It's his favorite color, v-neck, and it's knitted with yarn. What more could he want? It looks sophisticated and well suits his style. He checks the price tag: ¥4,433. It's an instant buy from his credit card. He calls an employee and asks, "Do you have this sweater," he pulls on the model's sleeve, "in a medium size?"
"Yes," the employee answers, "wait here."
He waits and the employee returns with his soon-to-be sweater and goes to the register. Akihiko follows, wallet out, and the person scans the item. He looks at the scarves in various summery colors but he believes that he already has a red scarf in his closet.
"4,500 yen, sir."
Akihiko takes out his credit card and swipes it in the machine while the register person puts his sweater in a green plastic bag.
"Thank you for shopping at Airmail, please come again."
He takes his sweater and flashes a smile at the person who checked his sweater out. He leaves the store with a smug expression on his face. He wonders what the gang will think of his new sweater. "I should wear my sweater now," he thinks. He quickly goes to the bathroom and changes into his sweater and wraps the scarf around his neck again.
He returns to the place where he's parked his moped and hops on, driving back to the dorm.
He enters the dorm, and finds Mitsuru still in her place, reading, and Yukari sitting on the couch crocheting a scarf. He greets them with a cool hello, while Mitsuru replies with "You're back so soon, Akihiko? What did you--"
She looks up at Akihiko with widened eyes. She could not believe what Akihiko was wearing...a striped sweater. To her, this was something she was not used to seeing Akihiko wear. Yukari looks up with the same shocked expression Mitsuru has.
"Akihiko, so this is what you went shopping for?"
"Yup," Akihiko replied, looking at his sweater, "I needed a change of wardrobe."
"Uh huh," Mitsuru replied, flabbergasted at his article of choice, "A striped sweater?"
"Yup," he replied oblivious to their faces.
Mitsuru's not the one to make faces, such as surprised or goofy, but the expression on her face was so surprising to Akihiko, he looks down at his sweater and replies, "You guys like it?"
Yukari's eye twitched at the pattern of his sweater and says, "Really? A horizontal striped sweater? Reeeallly, Akihiko? Stripes? I find this weird and surprising that a guy would wear a sweater with stripes. Especially you."
"I think it's rather unconventional of a guy to wear patterns, period. Personally, I don't like patterned clothing, and this is why: unflattery of the physique and it's not really in style nor season."
Akihiko is surprised at their criticism. He'd expected them to say, "It's cute", "I love it" or "It suits you", so he replies, "Well, I think it's best to wear a sweater regardless of the pattern and style anytime. And when you're wearing that one special sweater--"
"No, Akihiko. This-this isn't your style! I just can't see you wearing that in public. Return it." Yukari begged.
"Affirmative," Mitsuru said, agreeing with Yukari.
Junpei and Minato return from where they went, and drop their bags, distracted by the sweater Akihiko wears. Junpei snickered while Minato raised an eyebrow.
"Duuuude senpai," Junpei blurted, wide-eyed at Akihiko's sweater, "You're wearing a striped sweater! Ouch, my eyes burn from the repulsive-ness."
"Yes," the striped sweater clad Akihiko replied, "I am wearing a striped sweater."
"It looks good on you," Minato replied, lightening up Akihiko's mood.
"Thank you Minato," Akihiko said, nodding, "someone agrees that I look good in stripes."
"No problem."
"NO, HE'S LYING. Are you Minato? IT DOES NOT LOOK GOOD ON YOU. Just stick to solids, dude," Junpei resolved.
Akihiko was disappointed with his friends' disagreement of his sweater, so he groaned. Only Minato liked his sweater. Only Minato. See, Minato has good taste in wardrobe, unlike the others, in Senpai's opinion. If only they lived a little, Akihiko thinks, they would think of striped sweaters as cool and interesting. He grinned at Minato, the only person he likes right about now because he was the only one who agreed with him on his sweater.