Chapter 3: Dreamy
After settling a time to go out for dinner at a not-too-distant karaoke bar, Miwa returns to her bedroom walking head over heels. She even comes to forget that she has Mecha-maru's gift on her right hand and when she closes her bedroom door, she remembers it. Leaves it in the same drawer as that souvenir Gojou gave her and turns to her wardrobe. But her dreamy expression disappears when she sees the monotony she finds in her clothes.
All her suits are next to each other, perfectly arranged and ironed. The white shirts, the ties. As boring and ordinary as she is.
At that moment she regrets not going shopping that other weekend with the girls, maybe she would have something decent to wear for her date now.
Perhaps this lack of style was due to the fact that a possibility of that kind had never been considered. Not just with Gojou Satoru, but more like… with any other boy. Miwa is more prepared to work than to socialize.
This is a disgrace.
At this point she doesn't even know if she'll have time to go out and try something on. She suffers at the thought of borrowing something and listens in advance the girls teasing her in her own mind. They'll surely think that this date is something that it's not, something inappropriate. But she doesn't have many options.
She gathers up some courage and heads to Mai's bedroom, quickly discarding Momo. Miwa may still be young but luckily, she has developed more than Momo probably could for the rest of her life.
Mai, on the other hand, has the bearing of an adult woman.
Standing in front of her bedroom door, she remains hesitant, not sure how to explain the situation to her. Raises hers fist in front of the door and suddenly frowns. She has to do it for Gojou and with that in mind, she knocks and waits.
"Who is it?" Miwa hears from the other side of the door.
"M-Miwa-chan!"
The words giddy out of her throat. Hears nothing and while she waits tries to relax a bit. She's so nervous that her stomach feels like a giant knot.
The door opens shortly after and Mai looks at Miwa with a little curiosity.
"Mai… I need a favor."
Mai's teeth are gleaming, she tastes something on her tongue even though she doesn't know what it's this all about yet. She stands to one side on the doorframe and invites her in. Then she closes the door and leans on it, crossing her arms.
"A favor? You know I don't do those for free." She laughs, blocking the exit in case Miwa gets cold feet.
Miwa twitches her eyebrows. She can't count all the times she borrowed her notes or helped meet a deadline. She doesn't remember all the times Mai stole her candy. She thinks of throw it in her face, but resists the urge.
"Well..." she answers tiredly. She has no time to waste. "What do you want?"
"Get my homework up to date. I'm a little behind and Utahime won't let me be."
Miwa glances over the bed and sees an open magazine. She assumes she was being lazy when she arrived, but doesn't say so.
"Fine. But please. I need your help…"
"Well, c'mon, start talking or I'll end up with more homework than I already have."
Mai takes a seat on the bed and looks at her carefully. This is the moment that Miwa dreads the most.
"I'm going out tonight… and I don't have anything to wear. Lend me something, please. It will only be one night."
"What is the occasion?"
"My birthday."
Mai's face breaks down. An uncomfortable grin bends her smile and her eyes widen like two plates. She looks at her, puzzled. She can be a wretch when she wants to, but Miwa has been nothing but kind since she met her. The dread of not having greeted her is quickly consumed and she frowns.
"You fool! Why didn't you tell me it was your birthday?!"
"It's not very important, it's just a birthday."
"How many? Sixteen?"
Miwa can't contain her displeasure. Not with how much she tries to look older.
"Eighteen."
"Eighteen?! It's an important number! You should have told me! You are making me look heartless."
After that scolding, Miwa hopes that she'll excuse her from the payment. She looks askance at Mai's books and remains silent, but sadly Mai doesn't absolve her of that task.
"I know it's important but I don't expect it to be for the rest."
"Well, well, then happy birthday, Miwa… I guess," she says reluctantly. "Now, you need something to wear. Give me the context. To know what to lend you, I have to know where you're planning to go."
The knot in her stomach tightens again. She is nervous and expects her to overreact.
"Well… Gojou-sensei invited me to a karaoke for my birthday."
"Come again?" Mai asks as if she hadn't heard. She's sure she's wrong, that those words didn't come out of her mouth.
"Uhm... Gojou-sensei..."
"Gojou Satoru?!"
Mai does not usually pay much attention to Miwa, but she's a woman and has quickly and without much effort realized the infatuation that she suffers towards Gojou. However, she's surprised. After spitting out his name in shock, she smiles again a most cynical expression.
"Wow, I guess the idea is to impress him. I didn't know you were so daring, little Miwa. I guess what they say is true, the quiet ones are the worst."
Miwa turns almost completely red. A rapid flow of blood leaves her suffocated.
"It's not what you're thinking! Just… It's just… Gojou-sensei has been very bored at the College and it happens to be my birthday! If you want you can come with us, we can invite Momo too."
"No way, I'm not going to spoil your moment, Miwa. As much as I wanted to ruin my night by sharing it with someone as weird as him. Also, if you wanted to invite me, you would have done it in the first place. But you want the sensei all to yourself, don't you?"
"N-no... it's not like that..."
"Let's see…" she murmurs as she ignores her and walks to her wardrobe. She opens the door and strokes her chin while she thinks about what would be more suitable. "Plunging neckline? Uhm… Well, you don't have much to show… Red? No, with that hair it will look terrible. White? No, too virginal. Unless Gojou Satoru has such fetishes, maybe… He actually looks kind of depraved. Maybe something black..."
She takes a short dress from the closet and places it on Miwa's chest. But she twists the face when she smiles and the outfit doesn't look so daring anymore.
"I don't think I have anything to go with that good girl face. I'll tell you something, since we have a deal, I will accompany you to a store not far from here. It should be a twenty-minute walk. I'll help you choose something that's more your style and that will leave that depraved Gojou Satoru with his mouth wide open."
Still blushing, Miwa nods. She doesn't deny that she seeks to impress him this time. She has come to wonder why is she looking so much for something different to wear and she knows that it can only be due to him. It's not for her birthday or for going somewhere new.
It's for Gojou Satoru.
As Mai says, the store is not too far away. On the way, she doesn't say much, and it gives her the impression that she would have said yes to robbing a bank as long as she finished her homework.
The store is small and is run by its owner, a friendly middle-aged woman.
Mai watches her try on one dress after the other, but she likes none of them and she has no contemplation when she says it.
Miwa begins to lose her hopes, looks at the time on her cell phone until her eyes finally light up on a flowered dress. When she tries it on, she knows it, she knows it's the dress before even showing it to Mai.
"I guess it's more or less your style."
It doesn't sound like a compliment, but it's the best she can get out of her, and as she gets closer to pay it, Mai stops her, takes her wallet out of her purse, and walks over to the cashier.
"It's your birthday, right?" She says in an unkind tone, but her mouth twists in a smirk.
Upon returning to the temple Miwa's cheeks hurt, she has been smiling all day. And before saying goodbye to Mai at the door of her room, she approaches her, looks towards the corridors and dares to ask one last favor.
"Could you please not mention anything to Utahime-sensei?"
"Only if you promise not to mention that you did my homework. Oh… and one last thing."
She takes a lipstick out of her bag and hands it to her.
"Let's hope Gojou-sensei likes it."
She winks at her and closes the door to her room.
Once alone, she looks at the lipstick that Mai just gave her. She's not sure of her own intentions, but she really wants to wear it, she wants to look good, she wants it to be a special night, and she holds onto it with conviction.
The knot on her stomach tightens again, she can't remember the last time she was so nervous. Not even a curse could do this to her. Anxiety forces her to look at the clock over and over again. She even dresses too far in advance and styles her hair in a semi-updo. She desperately searches for a small pair of earrings that she knows are missing somewhere in her room and finally finds them under her bed.
When the time comes and she is ready, she remembers Gojou's bad habit of being late everywhere he goes and doesn't know whether to meet him at the time they agreed on or wait a few more minutes. But her anxiety is stronger than her and she sneaks out of her bedroom. She walks towards the exit of the temple, where they settle to meet and from afar, she sees him.
Again, her heart thumps like crazy into her chest. She feels it throbbing over her ears and neck. She swallows nervously when he notices her presence and turns to greet her.
It is the first time she has seen him without the dark blindfold, but he still covers his gaze with black sunglasses. He's not wearing the suit that she has always seeing on him, instead he's wearing a leather jacket, dark pants and a light blue T-shirt.
He's so cool…
"You're on time, Gojou-sensei." Miwa is flattered by this unexpected gesture.
"It's a special occasion, by the way… nice dress. I like what you did with your hair too."
He has noticed, Gojou-sensei sees her.
She nods ecstatically. Her effort paid off.
A cab awaits them outside, Miwa asks him if he's hungry and he takes the opportunity to tell her about everything he'd like to eat in great detail and she listens to him with the same devotion she has towards her katana.
Getting into the cab, Miwa squeezes her legs against each other. Gojou's are so long that he's about to touch her knee. He settles in, relaxes his arms against the seat, and lets his head fall back.
She can't help but feel intimidated by his presence and has a hard time speaking with him along the way. She doesn't know where they'll go, but she trusts her sensei's judgment. He seems to have a good idea of the best places in Kyoto and even if he took her to a seedy place, it would be fine with her, as long as she has him by her side.
When they finally arrive, she looks at the sign: Bar and Karaoke Roseo. She shows her ID at the entrance and the receptionist informs her slightly uneasily that she won't be able to drink.
"No problem, we didn't come to drink," Gojou answers and the girl smiles at him with an expression similar to Miwa's when she is around him.
The Gojou Satoru effect spreads among the rest of the female employees, Miwa sees them whispering from the other side of the bar as they look in their direction. He doesn't blame them; it seems natural. But he seems to ignore them completely and that surprises her. Then she thinks about it for a moment and comes to the conclusion that he must be used to it. If they knew that the best sorcerer in the world had just entered their bar, maybe they would lay a red carpet to make way for him, but they don't know, only she knows.
He chooses a table located on one of the corners of the premises, from which they can see the bar in its entirety.
It doesn't take long for a man to offer them free snacks. He lends them the menu and then leaves after a friendly bow.
Miwa looks at the prices before looking at the dishes and he seems to notice.
"My treat," he says with a warm smile.
Miwa is about to assure him that she can pay for her food, but before those words leave her mouth, he cuts her off.
"I won't take no for an answer."
She is not going to argue, she is not going to ruin such a perfect evening. After all, he invited her. Miwa just nods and smiles at him. She purses her lips together, notices their doughy texture and feels a little embarrassed for trying so hard, she wonders if he has noticed the lipstick.
She watches Gojou out of the corner of her eye and manages to see his white eyelashes peeking out of his glasses. But since she cannot see the color of his eyes yet, she wonders what they will be like. Will they be green or gray? Maybe dark, maybe black.
It doesn't take Gojou long to jot down his menu. They order two servings of gyozas, four yakitori skewers, and three plates of adamame.
They hear the groups singing out of tune, laughing, and Miwa wishes her classmates were that outgoing. There is nostalgia in her eyes, there's a hint of an implicit desire in them. She rests her face on one hand and watches them have fun from afar.
Suddenly, Gojou takes her by the hand and drags her towards the stage. Before she knows it, she has a microphone in her hand and Gojou chooses a song. Miwa runs up to him when she realizes that she is alone under a bright light and he twists his six-foot tall on a small device at the side of the stage.
"I don't know that one."
"That's boring. They'll fall asleep."
"That's not a duet..."
"This is perfect, you're gonna to love it."
"N-No, I'm going to go out of tune..."
"It doesn't matter, I can sing."
Gojou ends up choosing a song that Miwa doesn't even know, but a sudden feeling of bravery invades her just by being by his side and she tries to keep up with him, reading the lyrics on the monitor located in front of her.
The knot on her stomach loosens and ends up laughing when they both mess up and are forced to pick up the pace. She could cry with joy.
They hear applauses, not because they're the best duet of the night, but because they look happy, they're having a great time and they can tell. Miwa's laugh is contagious and Gojou is so easy to see that he steals more than one sigh.
Miwa bows to the audience while Gojou greets with that friendly smile that disarms her. Not only her, but also several girls in the audience. The waitresses applaud and Miwa feels the luckiest girl in the world.
It's the best birthday of her life.
When they return, their order is on the table. Gojou eats without caring much if he smears sauce on his cheeks.
"Ah…" he sighs. "We should buy kikifuku on the way back."
Miwa makes a mental note.
Gojou Satoru likes kikifuku .
When mentioning the way back to the College, Miwa fears that this long-awaited moment is slipping through her hands too quickly. She needs to immortalize it, just like she did the first time she saw him.
"Can we take a picture?" She asks excitedly and he nods. He leans against her and smiles as Miwa takes a picture of the two of them.
"Send it to me," he asks immediately afterward.
"I-I don't have your number."
Gojou takes Miwa's cell phone and with a few quick movements of his long fingers he saves his number and sends the photo to himself.
She has Gojou Satoru's number!
Miwa can't get over the excitement. The day just keeps getting better.
As he takes the last sip of his soda, he turns to look at her. Miwa feels like he can see inside her again. As if he could see everything. She dares to hold his gaze, she has never had him so close and despite the low light that bathes the walls of the Karaoke Bar, she notices the peach color of his lips, they look glossy and soft.
"Then Miwa-san, why don't you tell me about that dream?"