Monday soon rolled around. Kanji walked to school through the rain, considering the task at hand. He rubbed his head. All this thinking he'd been doing was giving him a headache.
"Hey, Kanji!" he heard a voice behind him. Turning around, he saw Naoto walking up to him. His heart suddenly seized up. She looked…really nice.
"Umm…mornin' Naoto-kun…urm…chan…sorry." Naoto chuckled.
"Hm, either's fine." she assured him. Kanji averted his eyes, embarrassed. He noticed that this was the best chance he was going to get. He swallowed hard, and decided to go for it.
"Naoto, uhh…I wanted to ask you something." Naoto looked up at him attentively.
"I was sorta…wondering if you wanted to g-g…" he struggled to form the words. He suddenly wished he had spent some time afterschool working on expressing himself. He cleared his throat to try again.
"Ahem I wanted to know if you wanted to go…go to the…urgh."
"Kanji, what are you trying to say?" Naoto seemed a bit flustered. Kanji blushed lightly.
"So…yeah, um…go to the dance w-with me?" Naoto's eyes widened.
"Well, uh, I…" Naoto blushed "Urm…I really wasn't planning on going, and I…well…" Kanji's throat felt like it was closing. This sounded way too much like a no. "I don't really have the proper attire; I'm not the dress-wearing type, after all. I would, honestly, but I don't really have time to get anything to wear; the dance is tomorrow, and I'm currently helping the Inaba PD with a case. Sorry, I have to…decline." Kanji took a deep breath.
"Aah, that's…alright." He appreciated her effort, but he heard this excuse before, at the school campout. 'Oh, if only we had swimsuits.' The atmosphere was silent and awkward the whole rest of the way to school.
It really didn't hit Kanji that he'd been bluntly rejected. He was upset enough to skip class that day, however. "No dress, huh…" He sighed to himself. "Dammit!" Kanji reared back and ran his fist through a stall door. "Hmph. What are you upset about, huh?! You knew this would happen! Look at ya! Dammit!...dammit…" Kanji slumped to the floor. Again he found himself wishing Souji was there. He couldn't exactly mention this to anyone else. He tried to imagine what he would say.
"Aw dude, that sucks." Not the sage-level wisdom he was hoping for.
"I told you though; you have to do it your way." Kanji considered this for a moment. "Heh, yeah…I guess so. Yeah! I'm Kanji Tatsumi! I helped save the fuckin' planet! I'm not getting set back by something like this!" Kanji jumped to his feet and began pondering what he was going to do with this newfound resolve. He paced back and forth feverishly, racking his brain. If she really didn't want to go with him, he didn't want to force her, but he felt like, in the words of his Senpai, he was "missing something." "It is possible" he thought "that she was actually telling the truth." But Kanji didn't really know how to deal with the situation. Not without becoming a stalker, anyway. It hit him just then. The only real difference between her rejecting him and her not being able to go is whether or not she actually had a dress. If he could get her a dress, he would get a final answer, and he just happened to know a guy who had a knack for sewing and access to a textile shop.
Kanji began work on the dress as soon as he got home. He didn't have much time to finish it; the dance was on Thursday, and he had to get it to her at least the night before. So he spent every spare second he had sewing. It was difficult work, he had never made anything this complex, and he didn't even actually have her measurements. He judged mostly by looking at pictures and measuring things he had seen next to her at school. He worked late into the night, until his mother came in.
"Kanji, what are you doing this late at night?"
"Nothin' ma, go back to bed." Kanji droned with sleepiness in his voice.
"Is…is that a dress Kanji?"
"Huh? Yeah, it's for…a friend."
"Oh, a 'friend' huh? Well. And here I thought you liked that cute little Naoto boy. Ah well. Good night Kanji." He groaned and slammed his head against his desk.
