4

"Whoa." Arle looked around in amazement, "This place is big."

I shrug, "It is actually smaller than you think."

Arle glances at me disbelief.

"Well then, where do we start?" Arle asks.

"Um…" I stammer.

"And you said it was smaller than it looked." Arle remarked.

I look at Arle in dismay. Arle chuckled a little bit.

"I'm just messing with ya." She smiled.

"Can I help you guys with anything?"

A sales assistant lady walked up to us, with a greeting and happy smile on her face.

"Yeah. Two things." Arle noted.

Arle also help up two fingers for a second.

"One, where are your soaps, and two, what do you recommend for a rich girly girl?" Arle asks.

The lady took a minute to process what Arle had said.

"The soap department is down that way." She points to where she was talking about, "What's your budget?"

I pull the money in my pocket.

"2000-" I pause for a minute.

I dig in my pocket more. I pull out what I found. It was an extra 1000¥!

"-no 3000¥." I note.

I put the bills back in my pocket.

The lady nods, "Okay, follow me then."

The lady walks off towards the direction she was pointing. We followed her.

Eventually, all of us get to the soap aisle. We look around.

The bottles were probably about half the size of my hand. The each retailed for about 500¥.

I don't understand exactly why people like this stuff, but then I must be in the right direction.

"So this collection here is exclusive to the Christmas season. The fragrances range from peppermint to gingerbread." The lady noted.

Looking around, there was peppermint, gingerbread, cocoa and even a Christmas tree scent. Interesting set.

"Can we smell them?" Arle asks.

"Yes."

The lady motions to the testers.

I guess testers help us.

Arle opens one. She sniffs it. Arle then hands it to me.

I smell it as well. It was really accurate too.

"What other options do we have?" Arle asks the lady.

"Well, over here this is our standard collection. The smells range from scents of different flowers." The lady notes.

The flowers types were chrysanthemum, hydrangea, and cherry blossoms.

Arle sniffed some of the scents. She puts it back on the shelf.

"Smells like soap." Arle notes.

"And over here we have our most expensive collection." The lady notes, "The scents range from different deserts."

There was chocolate cookie, cookie dough, apple pie and even a Christmas cake.

"You can also create a basket for 2800¥." She says.

"What is the basket?" I ask.

I glance over at Arle. She is completely disinterested, and I can't blame her either. Oh well.

"You choose from a variety of 6 bottles of your choice." The lady replies, "You would save 200¥ with this deal."

Arle still isn't really paying attention.

I do the math. 6x5 is 30, so we would save some money.

"We'll take it." I say.

The lady smiles, "Good. Which ones are you going to pick?"

Arle looked up.

"What are we doing?" Arle asks.

"We get to pick 6 soap thingys of our choice." I tell her.

"Oh." Arle replies.

Arle walks over to the shelf and takes 6 random bottles.

"This good?" She asks, slightly holding out the bottles.

"Yep." I nod.

I have no clue what Raffina likes, so we'll just have to find out. Hopefully the easy way.

"Follow me then." The lady motions for us to follow her. We do follow her.

Eventually, we find ourselves in front of the checkout area. Arle gives the lady the soap and the lady processes it.

"Is this for your own use?" The lady asks us.

"No." We both said in unison.

"It's for a friend." I say.

"Would you like it gift wrapped?" The lady asks.

We both nod, "Please."

She puts the soap in a basket and wraps it.

"That totals to 2800¥." The lady says.

I give her all of the money Mom gave me. She gives me back 200¥.

"Thank you." The lady says.

"Thank you." We both say in unison.

I take the basket. Arle and I walk out of the store.