Disclaimer: We don't own KHR at all except our ocs.
Before leaving the house, the duo decided to change into more suitable clothes for their new setting. They went up to their rooms and met in the living room when they were ready to set out.
Vi tied up her hair into a high ponytail and was now sporting a medium black crossbody. She switched her leggings to a pair of black shorts, but kept on her lilac tank top. Putting on a black windbreaker completed her outfit. Lana exchanged the clothes meant for her adult self for a peach colored t-shirt bearing a red cherry decal, paired with jean capris to match.
Once they were all decently changed, they met back in the living room where the map of the town waited for them on top of the table. Quickly, Lana grabbed the map and unfolded it. On the map, there were several locations that were already circled and labeled, including the school they were supposed to go to, their house, the nearest market and shopping district, a post office, a few restaurants with small notes rating them 5 out of 5 checkered hats, a few shrines, some parks scattered here and there, an arrow pointing off the map that was labeled simply as 'Kokuyo Land', a circle in a random residential area, and a few circles around nothing.
Pointing at the shopping district, Vi declared, "Ohh, I want to go shopping! We could use some clothes, right?"
"We don't really need to go shopping since our clothes have shrunk a bit, haven't they?" Lana pointed out to the excited girl. "Plus the clothes in our closets have also somehow shrunk."
"Let's go shopping anyways!" Vi whined, wanting to go on a shopping spree. "One can never have too many clothes. Especially with our new unlimited bank accounts!"
Lana reluctantly sighed and agreed to go shopping with Vi, remembering the times she was constantly dragged against her will. Folding up the map and slipping it into her bag, she saw her phone to show it to Vi. "By the way, did you find your phone in your luggage upstairs too?"
Nodding sagely as she pulled her phone out of her purse, Vi had a very serious tone. "Yep and I tried calling my house but it wouldn't connect at all."
Lana seemed upset at this knowledge, but started going through her contacts, "Alright, but I'm pretty sure that we can still call each other—" She was cut off by her phone singing the Love Hime song.
Vi held her phone triumphantly in front of her, "Haha! It does work. Calling each other. Also I can't believe you have that as your ringtone.
"No one can stop the power of the Love Hime song." Lana reminded Vi and almost tried to push up her nonexistent glasses, "Besides it's infectiously addicting to listen to."
They each took a picture of the map with their phones so they wouldn't get lost if anything happened. Once they stepped out of the house, they locked the door using their new house keys.
"So shopping district it is?" Lana asked Vi again to confirm their choice.
"Yeah, I'm curious to see what the fashion here is like," Vi wondered out loud. "How different do you think this world will be from our world?"
"Shh!" Lana shushed Vi while covering the girl's mouth using her hands, and then made a few worried side glances to check their surroundings before returning her focus to Vi. "You can't say that here, Vi. We don't know who could be listening into our own conversation right now."
Vi raised her eyebrows at the other girl and took Lana's hand off of her mouth. "Chill bruh. What are the odds that someone would be listening to us?"
But little did she know how true her words were.
"It's just a safety precaution, I don't want us to get in some mess before we even explore this town." Lana admitted, unsure of how to comprehend her feelings about the game.
In the midst of their conversation, a certain person just happened to be passing by. Overhearing snippets of their strange conversation, the figure began to follow them, curious about this duo.
"I suppose. Do you think we should come up with a code then?" Vi wondered out loud.
"How long has it been since we last used secret codes?" Lana tried to recall the last time, and all she could remember the weird expressions people made toward them whenever we spoke of the codes.
Vi thought for a second. "Middle school probably? Most of the 'codes' we used were just numbers though. Like 8059 and 1869, I think. But there were some with letters like D18 or XS."
"Really? No wait, let me rephrase that." Lana clapped her hands together and raised her hand close to her mouth to take a deep breath before pointing at Vi, "Why those codes?"
Vi shrugged and made an 'I don't know' noise. "I don't remember many other codes. I don't even know why I just remembered those codes."
"Do you even remember what they mean?" Lana couldn't remember much of the meaning behind those codes, heck she wasn't sure if they referred to characters or some odd way of communicating to make them seem unique.
"Well, if I recall correctly… Oh. Hm." Vi scratched her head. "That's weird. I don't remember exactly what they meant. I think it was characters or something?"
The person narrowed their eyes toward the duo, suspicious from their words. When the duo stopped to look into the window display of an accessory shop, the figure quickly, let's say, 'borrowed' the wallet from Lana's bag.
A glance at the ID card inside told them everything they needed to confirm their suspicions. The girl in the picture was 18 years old, but the girl who carried the ID card was very clearly not 18. They furrowed their brows in perplexion and returned the wallet to the bag, without the owner ever suspecting a thing. There were plans to be made and people to be confronted, so they took off.
In the meantime, the duo, unaware that they had just been pickpocketed, continued with their shopping. They entered the accessory store, each heading over to their respective interests.
"I want the bow hair clip, I really do." Lana contemplated between a hair clip and a necklace she spotted from the window out of interest, "The black bow clip or the metallic silver star necklace?"
The clip was mostly made up from a black ribbon tied onto a barrette while the necklace consisted of a silver-colored star made up of metal held on a chain. The bow would look good as a daily wear whereas the necklace could do pretty well with outings around town, she remembered in the past that she never had time to buy something to look cute or anything. All that was in Lana's mind were mostly studying to get into medical school. Not a single interest was made, but she was quite fond of being able to do this again.
"Then again I could buy both." Checkerface did give them an unlimited bank account, although at first Lana perished the idea of splurging money. Lana decided that only this time she would be guilty for spending on something more than what she needed most. She didn't hesitate when she brought the two items over to the cashier to pay, "Guilty as charged."
Vi was busy looking at the earrings, grateful that she had gotten her ears pierced at a young age and wouldn't have to get them repierced after the age change. "Hoops are kind of a bold statement, but studs are always in fashion. Pearls are nice, if not a little mature for a teenager. Dangling earrings might be too flashy for a kid. A simple gem would do nicely, although plain silver works just as well," she pondered out loud.
"So many options to choose from. Ooo owls!" Vi spotted a pair of small owl shaped earrings. They were studs with the outline of an owl in metal and tiny black gems for its eyes. There were many different animal earrings in the display alongside it, like doves and cats. "Ah I want them all, they're so cute! Wait, I could totally get them all with my fancy new card. Bless you creepy old man." She grabbed all the cute earrings she wanted, including the owls, a pair of cats, plain silver small hoops, a simple gold chained ear cuff, and a moon phases earring set. A shop attendant handed Vi a basket when they saw how many items she was holding.
As she inspected her new earrings, she walked past the ring display and caught sight of a purple gem that reminded her of her new ring. "Well, I guess since I'm adding a ring to my outfits now,, I might as well get a few more." Vi leaned in to get a better view of the different designs. "Gold rings are a bit tacky if they're not top quality. Silver rings are better since almost anyone can wear them. Although you wouldn't see a middle schooler walking around flashing a diamond ring. Colored gems are good, too, although I'm pretty sure no one would wear a mood ring all the time…" She made a face, thinking of their own mood rings. She decided on a plain black band that was engraved with a silver crescent moon and a silver snake with inset black eyes that could wrap around a finger.
Taking her basket over to the cashier, she noticed a sheer lavender scarf that matched her outfit. Making a quick decision, she grabbed the scarf and added it to her purchase. Vi mentally thanked Checkerface again for the money, already planning what to buy at the next store.
Next door to the accessory shop was a clothing store, and after glancing inside, they both decided to browse through.
Lana browsed through a section filled with pastel colored blouses, debating whether she should get some more until she came across the latter half. Mostly full of skirts, which silently made Lana cringe a bit by some of their lengths. Not to mention the shorts. Speed walking past the skirt and short aisle, Lana made a beeline for the pants and capris area of the store.
Sliding through the hangers of pants and capris for the right size, Lana finally found a white capri pant to go well with most of the pastel colored blouses hanging in her closet. Better yet, Lana managed to discover a black skort sitting within the capris. Probably a shopper gave up trying to return it to the previous aisle, lucky for her the skort is just right.
"Thank goodness this store sells skorts." Once she found a few more skorts in both brown and navy, Lana headed over to the hats section. Lana pondered a bit on which kind of hat she'd decided to get. The brown yarn beanie with a cute button accent, the nice straw sun hat adorning a blue ribbon with white polka dots, and finally a jean designed baseball cap. They all weren't too bad.
"Would I care to splurge again?" Lana knew she would regret the minute she headed to the cashier with all three. However, it wouldn't hurt to have three new hats. Hats were a necessity for facing the weather, "I would, and I shall."
Taking the clothes and hats over to the person at the register, Lana settled by giving a smile to the cashier, "Hi, I'd like to pay for these."
Once Lana became content in buying the new sets of clothes to add on, she decided to make her way outside the shop to wait.
Out of the corner of her eye, Lana spotted Vi walking in and out of the dressing rooms with arms full of clothes. She grabbed several pairs of black skinny jeans, one pair of jean shorts, several pairs of leggings in different colors, and several skirts of varying lengths. She walked out with two pairs of jeans, a dark blue pair of leggings, a black pleated skirt, a red pleated skirt, and a long flowing gray maxi skirt.
Putting her chosen items in a shopper tote, Vi went over to look at tops. She picked out several t-shirts with slogans like "I'd rather be sleeping" or "All I care about is cats and like 2 people" and other shirts with designs like cute animals or flowers. Several tank tops of multiple colors, two sweatshirts, a plain black jacket, a blue hoodie, a purple blouse, three plaid button-downs, a long sleeved blouse, two short sleeved blouses, and three sleeveless sundresses all went into the cart after a short inspection. The dressing room attendant gaped a little at the amount of clothes Vi had selected before waving her into a room.
When she was content with her appearance, she left the dressing room, leaving with two tank tops, the black jacket, the purple blouse, a pink plaid button-down, and two sundresses, one in cream and one in white with red accents. As she was in line for the register, she realized a detail she had forgotten until that moment.
"Why did I get this many clothes? We have a school uniform." Her eyebrows scrunched looking at her chosen clothes, wondering if it was worth it. "Screw it. It's not my money, make it rain." The cashier was taken aback at the sheer amount of clothes the girl had brought, but said nothing.
Thus, Checkerface's bank account took its second hit of the day.
Vi was carrying four bags at this point, while Lana had two small bags.
Looking at Lana's bags, Vi remarked, "Wow, I can't believe you bought so little. We have unlimited money!"
"I don't like spending too much." Lana reminded Vi while giving her most honest opinion, "You know that money can't give you happiness for everything in life."
The two were just leaving the store when they bumped into two other girls.
"Oh!"
"Oomph."
Being distracted by Vi, Lana had collided with a petite girl with honey brown hair and big brown eyes.
"Sorry." Switching to Japanese, Lana immediately apologized for suddenly bumping into the girl, accidentally dropping her bags in the collision.
"Oh no, I'm so sorry!" The girl clapped her hands together and bowed her head down. "Please let me buy you a coffee or something!"
Lana shakes her head, feeling bad for making this girl owe her. "No, I couldn't possibly. I'll just be a bother if you do that for me."
"I insist! It's the least I could do! Besides Hana-chan and I were just about to get coffee after this!" Elbowing her friend, she stressed her words, "But I'm sure we could go get coffee right now!"
Lana suddenly felt guilty at the thought of refusing, not wanting to see the girl sad. "O-Okay." She glanced over to Vi. You don't mind right, Vi?"
Internally amused at the small girl's insistence that the four get coffee, Vi agreed. "I'm game if you are." Turning to the two mystery girls, she continued, "By the way, as my friend here mentioned, I'm Vi. She's Lana. And you two are?"
The aforementioned Hana nodded. "Yeah, I'm Hana and this is Kyoko," she said, placing a hand on Kyoko's head. "And I guess we're getting coffee now."
As the four started walking, Lana decided to ask Kyoko out of curiosity, "So do you two live here in Namimori or just happen to be passing by here for shopping?"
"We live here, plus today we just happened to have some time to go window shopping." Kyoko replied happily, before realizing what Lana mentioned. "Now that I think about it, are you two new here in Namimori? I've never seen you two before."
Vi and Lana looked at each other before Lana responded.
"Yes, we moved here recently and the both of us decided to explore the area to become familiar with the area." Lana explained making sure she didn't slip up her own words, "Unfortunately we got a little too side-tracked with shopping right now." Lana raised her right hand holding the two shopping bags.
Vi held up her own four bags. "I found a lot of stuff that I like. The stores here are really nice. Do you two like shopping here or do you go somewhere else?" She asked the other two girls.
Hana seemed to think for a second before responding. "Well, we have school uniforms so we don't really go shopping that much. But if I had to say, I really like that one store we were just in." She gestured at Kyoko. "Kyoko doesn't usually get anything from there." Hana leaned in and mock whispered. "She likes girly clothes, like pastels and frills."
Kyoko gasped and lightly hit her friend on the arm. "Hana-chan! So mean!" She pouted cutely. "You said I look good in those colors!"
Vi muffled a laugh with her hand. "Oh my god, you're just like Lana. Her closet is completely pink."
Lana blushed in embarrassment, "Vi!" Sending a glare at her friend instead of aiming a light hit at Vi, because she knew Vi would dodge it. "It's not all pink! I have some other colors too!"
"Sure, I think there's some peach in there." Vi immediately retorted. "Basically pink. Light blues and greens. But just so much pink. I could go blind."
Lana puffed her cheeks and huffed, "It's not that bright. You make it sound like I'm a walking highlighter and pink highlighters aren't even a pastel color!"
Kyoko giggled at seeing the two girls playfully argue about Lana's closet. "You two get along so well!"
After sending one last huff at Vi, Lana turned to answer Kyoko. "We met in the same primary school together back in America and ended up sticking together like glue until the end of elementary school."
"You're both from America? Then are you two planning to transfer to a middle school here in Namimori?" Hana jokingly added on, "It'd be funny if you two end up transferring to our middle school. Our class lately has been getting some transfers, but only one of them stayed."
"Yep! It would be great if you came to our school. Oh! We're here already!" Kyoko held open the door to a quaint little coffee shop. "They're kind of small but in my opinion, they have the best coffee in this district! Plus they have the cutest little cakes!"
Perking up at the mention of cake, Lana quickly walked over to the cake display with a gleam in her eyes. The first row had fruit tarts or jelly, second were small cakes decorated with animal-like edible decorations, and the last ones were whole cakes that Lana stared for the longest especially at the tiramisu.
Lana stared hard at all of them, until she noticed a dessert of fruits within small jelly bombs within club soda. She remembered how she hasn't had one of those types of desserts in long time, and was debating between it and the strawberry shortcake with a chocolate rabbit on it.
Vi looked amused at Lana's excitement at the cute cakes. "Chill out bruh, you're drooling a little. Not that I don't get it. These desserts are beautiful. Kinda just want a chocolate croissant, kind of want to eat an entire black forest cake."
Hana raised an eyebrow at the two girls, then gestured over at Lana. "Yeah, that was basically my reaction the first time Kyoko brought me here. Who knows how, but she has a great eye for desserts. If you asked her, she could probably give you a list of the best bakeries and dessert shops in a ten mile radius." Shaking her head, she corrected herself. "Scratch that, she'd probably take you there herself."
"Really!" A burning flare ignited in Lana's eyes as she turned over to Kyoko, "Let's exchange numbers and go cake shopping when we're free, Kyoko-san!"
Kyoko nodded in agreement, "Sure, but you don't need to refer to me like that after all we're now cake eating buddies!"
"Then is Kyoko fine? Sorry I'm more used to saying first names without honorifics better since I'm comfortable in speaking English than Japanese." Lana asked Kyoko, hoping she wouldn't mind.
"That's fine, and I'll refer you as Lana-chan from now on!" She proceeded to get her cellphone from her bag and started exchanging numbers with Lana while discussing if the fruits jelly is better than the strawberry shortcake.
"It appears my best friend has found a new best friend." Vi sighed. "So Hana-san, since I'm guessing you've been here before, do you have any recommendations?"
Hana looked surprised at the honorific. "Um, yeah. But could you not call me Hana-san? It feels a little weird since no one ever calls me that. You could just call me Hana, or Hana-chan like Kyoko does." She shrugged lightly.
Vi eyed the other girl for a couple seconds. "Hana then, since you seem more comfortable with that. You can just call me Vi. So, I'm deciding between the matcha latte and the caffè mocha."
"Oh, I really love the matcha latte!" Hana exclaimed in surprise. "Kyoko always says it tastes too bitter for her, but I think she's just too used to her sugary drinks."
"Same," Vi nodded in understanding. "Lana always puts more sugar in her coffee than I do."
"That's because I can't handle the bitter taste." Lana made a look of distaste remembering the last time she tried black coffee on accident. "I still don't understand how other people can drink one cup full of it."
"Watch me drink a whole thermos of black coffee without breaking eye contact." Vi shot back immediately.
Kyoko came over to the trio. "Are you guys ready to order already? I don't know what cake I want today!" She peered into the display. "They all look delicious as always!"
Hana sighed. "You say that every time and get the same thing every time. A strawberry shortcake, a slice of tiramisu, and a strawberries and creme frappe."
"But Hana-chan! Today is a day for trying out new things, since we met new friends!" Kyoko tsked at her friend. "We should get something different!"
"Then let's try the fruit jelly bombs in club soda!" Lana suggested, "I haven't tried those in a long time."
Vi looked for the mentioned dessert in the display. "Oh sure, those are cute!"
Hana nodded in agreement. "I'm down, they look tasty. As long as I get my latte."
"Okay!" Kyoko perked up. "You three go find a table while I order and pay. What drinks did you two want, Vi-chan and Lana-chan?"
Vi looked surprised at the honorifics for a second, before making a neutral expression. "I'll have an iced matcha latte. Thanks for paying, too."
"Chocolate Frappe for me, and thank you for doing this Kyoko." Lana thanked Kyoko, although in her mind she kind of felt guilty for letting Kyoko pay just because she bumped into her.
"Okay and it's no problem at all!" Kyoko smiled and headed over to the register.
"So how are you guys dealing with Japan now?" Hana decided to continue off from the conversation from earlier after they found a table.
"We're still kind of jet lagged from our flight yesterday, despite the time difference and the long flight, our caretaker conveniently managed to put away all of our belongings in our room before we arrived." Lana explained.
Hana's eyes widened in surprise, "You two just arrived yesterday?"
Vi nodded in confirmation. "Yep, our caretaker suggested that we go out and check out the town before we have to go to school tomorrow. Do you remember the name of the school we're going to, Lana?"
"Yeah, it's Namimori Middle School." Lana recalled Tsunomichi's words from earlier, "Tomorrow we'll be enrolled in classes over there."
Overhearing what Lana said, Kyoko came up to their table with a gasp. "Oh my gosh, really? You two are going to be going to our school!"
Vi opened her mouth in surprise. "Oh wow! Really? What are the odds?"
"Maybe fate is at work doing this, I mean it's not everyday you meet friends before transferring." Lana gave a friendly smile, but knew in the back of her mind that Checkerface might have pulled a few strings to do this.
Vi coughed under her breath. "Gay."
"Not." Lana poked Vi in the stomach to counter.
"Oof. You're the one bringing up fate." Vi huffed under her breath.
"Lana, that sounds so romantic in the way you word it!" Kyoko grabbed Lana's hands with starry eyes.
Hana sighed heavily. "Miss shoujo manga over here loves talking about ooey gooey romantic stuff."
"Hana-chan, that's mean!" Kyoko released her hold on Lana's hands to pout at Hana.
Hana scoffed while brushing some of her hair away, "I only speak the truth."
A waitress interrupted their conversation with a tray. "Hello misses, I have your drinks and dessert."
"Thank you." Lana immediately thanked the waitress for bringing the drinks over.
The waitress placed their drinks on the table and set the fruit jelly in the center. "Enjoy your dessert, ladies." She bowed slightly and walked away.
Vi looked at the drink in front of her. "Who had the latte again? Hana?"
Hana raised her hand. "Kyoko, I got your strawberry and creme frappe here." She handed it to the other girl.
Lana moved the cup over the right owner, "I think I got your matcha latte, Vi."
"Then this must be your chocolate frappe, Lana!" Kyoko handed the last drink over to Lana.
"Thanks." Lana brought the cup to her lips, but her eyes widened in surprise. "Wow, this is a nice blend."
Vi sipped at her drink through the straw. "Yum, this tastes really good."
"I'm glad to hear you two like it!" Kyoko grinned. "Now let's try these fruit jellies. I haven't tried them before but they look really yummy."
Each of the girls picked up a spoon and scooped up a jelly.
"Mmm!" Hana put a hand on her cheek. "It's so good!"
"The club soda really gives a nice sharp flavor to the sweetness of the fruit jellies." Lana admired the jewel-like shape the jelly were in before taking another bite.
Vi chewed the jelly thoughtfully. "Kinda tastes like QQ jelly. But more fruity. Pretty good."
Kyoko nodded in agreement with everyone. "I like it! We should get more if we finish this one!"
Hana tapped her spoon against the cup. "This is pretty small, I bet I could finish it by myself."
"Hm, it's a bit sad that it's a small amount but I guess quality goes over quantity in the case of fruit jellies." Lana admitted before taking another spoonful of jellies.
Vi had a thoughtful look on her face and stood up. "I'm going to go to the bathroom for a sec."
"By the way Lana-chan, do you read shoujo mangas?" Kyoko brought up the same topic Hana was making fun of her for.
Lana shook her head, "No."
"Oh boy." Hana muttered to herself as she watched Kyoko get a twinkle in her eye.
"Not really." Lana took a sip of her drink before continuing, "I didn't have much time to read them back at home. I mostly got recommendations for thriller or mystery filled stories."
"Then are you interested in reading some?" Kyoko offered as she took out her cell phone to pull up the titles, "I can recommend you this really good one, it's called-"
"Not that one, Kyoko." Hana groaned in memory of the trouble she went through in reading it.
"But it's so good! Why not?!" Kyoko huffed at her friend.
"Not when the protagonist is too indecisive in choosing which is the right guy. Especially when we obviously know that she's gonna end up with the first one she meets." Hana pointed out to Kyoko to support her side.
"Indecisive? What exactly is the plot of this interesting story?" Lana interjected, wondering how interesting this so-called story was.
"Well the story is centralized on a girl determined to get revenge on her ex-boyfriend, who's a rising singer." Kyoko explained in thorough detail.
However Hana wore a look of confusion, "Wait which one was that? I thought you meant the one involving the girl who disguised herself as a boy to meet her favorite high-jump competitor in an all-boys school."
"Hahaha." Unable to control herself, Lana's soft laughter soon gained the attention of two girls after watching their conversation. "You two seem really invested in them. I'll consider reading both of those stories sometime later on."
The three went one and on about which mangas seemed to be good recommendations, until Vi returned.
With a slightly guilty look on her face, Vi walked back to the table with a box. "So. Um. I bought a whole cake."
When Lana glanced over to see the cake, she choked upon the sight of it. Quickly she sent a glare to Vi, "Why?!"
"You are at least 40% of my impulse control." Vi took her seat, placing the box in the middle of the table.
"Wow, brutal honesty." Hana laughed. "So what kind of cake did you get?"
"Strawberry deluxe. It's pink and has pudding in it." Turning to the other two girls, Vi opened up the box, "Also, this is too much for Lana and me, so I'm gonna give you guys half, okay?"
Kyoko put her hand over her mouth in surprise. "Oh my gosh, really?!"
Lana gave Vi a look. "Again, why?!"
Vi shrugged. "I wanted cake and Hana mentioned that Kyoko likes strawberry something? I liked the look of the deluxe. Also as thanks for the coffee."
Sighing in exasperation, Lana made a noise of confusion. "Coffee! Is not? The equivalent! Of cake?!"
A peep noise came from Kyoko's direction and Lana and Vi turned their heads to look at the girl. Kyoko had her hands over her mouth and she looked as if she might cry.
Panicking, Vi turned to Hana, who looked amused at her friend.
Hana smirked. "She's fine. She just really likes cake."
Sniffling, Kyoko stood up and went over to Vi's side with her arms spread out. "I need to hug you now if that's okay."
"Yeah, it's great, I love hugs!" Vi got up and was immediately embraced by the smaller girl. "Oh my god, you're strong."
Kyoko mumbled into Vi's shoulder, "You're my new best friend. We have to exchange phone numbers."
Hana made a noise of protest. "I thought I was your best friend."
"I thought I was her new best friend," Lana brought up jokingly.
Finally letting go of Vi, Kyoko amended her statement. "Vi is my new new best friend. She got me cake."
"I got everyone cake. Everyone's my new best friend." Vi grinned, taking out her phone. "Except Lana. She's the old best friend. But not old old. Young old?"
"Wow, you make me sound a bit too old with the way you worded that." Lana narrowed her gaze at Vi, while giving a small smile toward Kyoko and Hana to share her number.
Hana held out her cell phone. "This seems like the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
"Absolutely!" Kyoko entered her number into Lana's phone. "Do you like calling or texting more? I like texting!"
Taking Vi's phone, Hana laughed. "Her texts are filled with kaomojis, it's adorable. I'm a texter, too"
"I prefer texting over calling, unless someone is lost then I'll call for example whenever Vi moves ahead in a swarm of people in a department store during a sale. I lost her immediately." Lana mentioned as she entered her number into Hana's cell phone.
"Wow bud, thanks for bringing that up." Vi sniffed in fake offense. "If all of us like texting, then let's make a group text or something," she continued while handing Kyoko's phone back to her.
"Sounds like a plan!" Kyoko played on her phone for a couple seconds, sticking her tongue out a little in concentration. "There!"
Three different ring tones sounded. A bell dinged from Hana's phone. The sound of a harp chord chimed from Lana's phone. A cat's meow came from Vi's phone.
On the screen of each of their phones, was Kyoko's message.
5:12 PM Kyoko: ( ⸝⸝•ᴗ•⸝⸝ )੭⁾⁾ Hi!
5:12 PM Hana: why
5:12 PM Lana: xD
5: 13 PM Vi: :3c nyello
"Well! This has been a very exciting day." Hana interrupted their texting. "But it's getting late and we should probably be heading home soon."
"Oh, do we have to?" Kyoko looked up at Hana with a pleading face.
"Yes, Kyoko, if you don't get home by 5:30, your brother will tear the town apart." Hana rolled her eyes. "Besides," she turned to Lana and Vi, "You two are coming to our school tomorrow!"
Smiling, Vi nodded. "Yep, I'm looking really forward to it!"
"It's nice meeting you two!" Lana gave a small wave to the two.
Once they see Hana and Kyoko walk out of hearing distance, Vi and Lana relaxed a little.
"Jesus I can't believe I'm going to carry a cake home." Vi shook her head at herself. "Nah, it's good, I made the decision to buy a cake and I will stick with it."
"So why in the world did you decide to do it?" Lana asked Vi and constantly made an emphasis toward the size of the cake, "How in the world are we gonna finish this?"
With an indignant expression, Vi retorted, "Listen. It was there and it was beautiful and it called to me. Plus, it's not like we have to finish it immediately!"
Lana groaned as she silently face palmed herself, "I hope your cake doesn't attract animals."
"I just got up to use the bathroom and I bought a cake. You are at least 40% of my impulse control, remember?" Vi reminded the other girl. "Possibly more."
Taking a detour on the way home, they spotted a supermarket and decided to re-stock up their kitchen even though it was barely used.
Entering the store, Lana grabbed a cart and looked at Vi. "What's the plan?"
"This would go a lot quicker if we split up," Vi pointed out, grabbing a second cart. "I know what you like and dislike and vice versa."
Lana pondered the suggestion for a second. "Alright, what do you want to get?"
Looking around the store, Vi mentally drew out a layout. "Well, hm. You can get produce and the bakery-slash-deli. Drinks? Maybe some candy, too." Vi thought for a moment before continuing. "So that leaves meat, dairy, and snacks for me. And pantry staples, I guess."
"Okay, any specific requests before we set out to our zones?" Lana asked.
"Not too much veg." Vi made a face. "But lots of fruits is good. What kind of meat do you want?"
Lana pondered a bit while narrowing down to two categories of meat, "Maybe fish and the grill meats, but are you planning on getting anything from the frozen aisle?"
"Yeah sure, since I'm headed that way. What did you want?" Vi started making a checklist in her head.
Lana thought back on the vegetables she saw in the refrigerator and added onto the list. "Frozen vegetables, in case the vegetables in the fridge spoil later on."
"Alright, did you want anything for the pantry?" Vi asked. "Snacks? Other?"
"Snack-wise we're fine, unless you want more snacks, but we may need some soup and broth cans. Either one or the other, whatever works best." Lana suggested, recalling how many of their favorite snacks were well stocked in the pantry.
"Alright, see you at the end!" Vi hopped onto her cart and rolled off to the meat section.
Shifting the cart the girl made her way over to the produce section, Lana first checked the tomatoes to replace the ones used earlier for sandwiches, "Even if Vi hates them, it's still good for us."
Glancing around for any other vegetables on sale, she grabbed a few more plastic bags, "Then let's get those mushrooms, zucchini, and broccoli too since they go well with stir-fry. It's a good thing there's already some cabbage in the refrigerator."
Lana pondered back on what other vegetables were in the fridge combined with the ones she had in her cart. Soon a worker arrived to restock the vegetables, the person brought out a few sets of cauliflower and bean sprouts which were not on sale but were at a good pricing.
"The cauliflower and bean sprouts also for later." Heading over swiftly, Lana grabbed a few more of the vegetables and wrapped each in plastic bags to place into the cart. She proceeded to head over to the fruits aisle.
"Strawberries?" Lana would get them if only they were in season, but looking at the prices and seeing which fruits were on sale, she decided to buy something else. "Since the persimmons are on sale, that means it's autumn here…hm, maybe some pears too although persimmons are better crunchy than soft."
"But which one is better?" In the midst of her thoughts, Lana suddenly heard a small voice from behind her.
"I recommend the crunchy persimmons." A boy bearing short brown hair and eyes to match while wearing a green long sleeved sweater and pants. He was holding a plastic bag of persimmons in one hand while smiling at Lana.
"Ah, that's an interesting point but why do you recommend the crunchy ones over the soft ones?" Lana asked the young boy out of curiosity, after all persimmons wasn't a common fruit she would buy often.
"The soft ones are really good in desserts, but personally speaking the crunchy persimmons are better eating individually." The boy pointed out to support his claim.
"Is that so? Thank-" As Lana was going to thank the boy, she realized she didn't know his name.
Giving a bright smile, the boy introduced himself formally. "My name is Fuuta."
"Nice to meet you too Fuuta, but shouldn't you be with your mother?" Lana did notice how the boy wasn't standing near any parental figure and wondered if Fuuta was lost.
"I'm actually going over to her now, because I got the persimmons for her. My other friend and I are helping mama out in finding ingredients. We're taking these fruit for our friend in the hospital." Fuuta explained, making Lana feel a bit sentimental in hearing what he said.
"Oh, that's kind of you to do that, but remember don't stray too far from your mother okay?" Lana made sure to remind the boy to never stray too far from his parent. It's bad to see a child getting lost in a crowded area, who knows what would've happened to him if she didn't see Fuuta.
"Okay!" Before Fuuta left the produce section, he turned around to wave to the girl, "Bye bye!"
Lana, in return, did the same as Fuuta before resuming her focus in picking delicious ripe fruits. Once she finished taking a pound each of pears and persimmons, Lana walked over to the bakery section wondering what baked goods she could get.
"There's the milk bread, a certain person definitely would eat all of it before I even get to do so." Lana could already imagine the culprit stealing the milk bread from the kitchen, "Red bean paste bread…cream puff bread…curry bread…Vi might like the red bean paste taiyaki."
Out of nowhere, Vi rolled by with her cart. "I'd like curry bread and custard taiyaki," the girl requested, before rolling off again.
Jumping at Vi's sudden appearance, Lana sighed and made her decision, "Might as well get the curry bread along with a loaf of white bread since we practically used up the last one for the sandwiches."
Thinking that she bought enough, Lana was going to head over to the cashier only to meet with the smell of fried karaage. Halting in her steps, Lana slowly glanced over to find boxes of freshly cooked karaage. However…there was one problem. It looked like this supermarket had those half price hour sales, and karaage is gonna be on sale in three…two…one…
Dashing like a crazy madwoman, Lana dove right into the emerging crowd of home-stay mothers and tired persons that recently came out of work. She wasn't going to lose to these women, Lana would get her karaage and celebrate her success with vegetable stir-fry.
A glint shone in the corner of her eye, Lana went after the first one she spotted immediately only to have a businesswoman's hand grab the box at the same time. Upon raising her head, Lana could see the woman glare directly at her. There's no way she's gonna lose to this woman, Lana thought, tightening her grip over the box. When the woman did the same, the two continued to hold their grounds until the box of karaage started to have nail markings over it.
The woman attempted to shove the box out of Lana's hands, but unfortunately for the businesswoman doing that act was the wrong choice. Especially for someone as determined as Lana. Instead of Lana's hands being forced off, it was the businesswoman's.
Lana muttered silently while giving off a scowl toward the woman, "There's no way I'm losing this karaage."
"Is that girl really a middle schooler?" was all the businesswoman uttered the minute Lana returned to her cart.
As she was heading out of the baked goods and went straight for the drinks section , her arm brushed against a guy's arm without her realizing it. Causing the guy to drop the drinks he was holding in his arms.
"Oh man." Lana paled upon what she saw and immediately apologized for her abrupt action. "I'm so sorry!"
"Nah it's fine." The guy had dark short brown hair, but his eyes were hidden by the red hoodie he wore and kept his head down to stare at the drinks that fell from his arms to the ground by his tennis shoes. He also had a chained necklace going around his neck in addition to his outfit that seemed out of place. The guy didn't seem like the emo type in Lana's eyes with the way he waved off her apology. "At least they're not soda cans or something."
"Oh okay." Feeling a bit guilty, Lana offered willingly. "Let me help you gather them!"
Surprised by her offer, the guy then said. "You don't need to do that."
"Don't worry! I can help!" Pumped with determination, Lana quickly gathered the items that were scattered on the floor around them. Handing each and everyone of the drinks to the guy's arms while making sure none of them were dented.
"That's all of them." Lana mumbled while making sure she didn't miss a single bottle. Amused by the girl's determination, the guy decided to place a drink next to the girl's cheek. Causing her to yelp upon sudden contact with the cold drink. "What was that?!"
"A reward for the girl who managed to get all of my drinks back." It was a bottle of strawberry Calpico, one of Vi's favorite drinks. "I don't need this one, since my friend prefers plum tea juice over it."
"Oh, but you don't need to do this." Lana wanted to push the calpico back into the guy's arms, but remembered that it was her fault in making him drop the drinks in the first place. So she relented from pushing them back, and ended up taking the calpico into her hands. "Actually, I'll accept your calpico anyway." Otherwise she'll end up dropping his drinks again, and repeat what just occurred a few seconds ago.
"Glad to see we're on the same page." Giving a small grin, the guy gave a small wave of a goodbye to Lana. "See ya."
"You too." Lana did have to admit, the guy was indeed a nice person which was rare to find among a sea of men that just had horrible attitudes minus her brother and father. "Ah, I should get the other drinks too as well as the candy now before I forget!"
Lana hustled her way down the aisle to find the other drinks that they needed, but as the girl busied herself in getting the right drinks the guy that supposedly said bye to Lana a few minutes ago continued to watch her from the end of the aisle.
"So she's one of them." He muttered to himself as the grip he held on the drinks tightened within his arms. Once Lana had gotten the drinks and disappeared into another aisle for candy, the guy sighed before heading for the register to meet up with his friend. Now back over to Lana, she placed two bags of glico's chocolate pejoy into her. Lana gave a satisfied nod, "That should be it."
Pleased with her victory from getting karaage from the baked goods section, Lana headed towards the register with her haul.
Vi made her way to the meat section. "Meat. Ahh so good." She drooled a little at the thought of barbeque. Lana would probably make her eat vegetables, but Vi didn't mind eating vegetables as long as they weren't raw. "Yum yum. Brisket with a side of cabbage stir-fry."
She carefully selected two packages of sliced beef brisket and one of pork belly for grilling. A package of chicken breasts and a tilapia fillet also went into the cart. Then she headed to the counter and asked for a half pound of shrimp from the man behind the counter. As an afterthought, she also grabbed a box of salmon sashimi.
After the meat was the dairy section. Recalling a carton of lactose free milk in the fridge, Vi didn't grab any more cartons. She wondered if there were eggs in the fridge at home, but since she didn't look in the fridge, she wasn't sure. She decided against getting them for now. Recalling seeing an ice cream machine on the counter, Vi contemplated getting heavy cream to make a batch, but figured it wouldn't be good since the weather seemed to be getting colder.
Spotting the flavored milk boxes on sale, Vi gasped. "Aw yes, the gold mine."
She was about to grab a pack of strawberry milk boxes when she was hip checked out of the way.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" Vi's metaphorical feathers were ruffled. She put her hands on her hips and stared down the guy who bumped her.
The boy had long-ish black hair pulled up in a short ponytail and fake nerd glasses, Vi noted by the lack of lenses in the frame. He was wearing a worn dark blue t-shirt and tight pants. Really tight pants. A sparkle on the right side of his face caught Vi's attention. An earring, probably. Vi would give him a 6/10. The pants were too much and the fake glasses were just sad. Nice face though. But a nice face doesn't give you an excuse to push people out of the way of strawberry milk.
"Excuse you, did you notice me here?" Vi glared at the boy, who looked amused by her anger.
Putting his hands up in defense, the guy grinned placatingly. "Sorry little lady, but I actually didn't notice you, if you could believe that."
"Wow. I don't believe that for a second." Vi raised an eyebrow skeptically.
Huffing out a laugh at Vi's straightforwardness, the boy continued. "Well, you see, I was in a rush to get my friend his milk boxes, since he's always complaining about his height, even though I think he's perfect the way he is, but he always whines about our height difference. Anyways, he drinks milk 24/7 but he doesn't like the taste of white milk, so I always have to get him the flavored milk, like this week he got a craving for strawberry milk, even though the past two months he's only been drinking banana milk. So I was in a rush to get him his strawberry milk when I accidentally ran into you. Sorry?" He finished his rant with an apologetic smile.
Vi blinked once, twice. "Okay. Firstly, I can't believe I understood that. Second, I suppose you're off the hook for bumping me. Third, how does this guy feel about melon milk?"
The boy grinned widely at her response. "He thinks it's too green." Picking up a pack of a dozen strawberry milk boxes, he handed it to Vi. "Here you are, little lady. Your milk boxes as a formal apology."
"Thanks." Vi took the milk and placed them in her cart. "You better get your milk to your boy before he shrinks or something."
The boy laughed loudly. "Oh my god, he would be so mad if he actually got shorter. Thanks for the laugh, little lady. Later." He waved and walked off. As he left the aisle, he murmured under his breath, "How amusing. This'll be fun."
Thrown off by the guy with the milk, Vi took a second to remember what else she was getting in the aisle. "Pudding!" She quickly grabbed a packet of three and placed them in the cart.
Taking a short detour through the bakery and scaring the bejeezus out of Lana, Vi rolled quickly past the aisles. As Vi passed the non perishable aisle, she recalled the pantry in the kitchen. Plenty of snacks, but nothing wrong with getting more snacks.
Spotting the shelfs of rice crackers that she liked, Vi pushed her cart over.
"Wao, they have a much better selection than the ones in Taipei," she mused out loud.
"Eh?" A small girl's voice exclaimed behind her. "Do you speak Chinese?"
Turning around, Vi saw a little girl with a braid wearing a cheongsam. "Yes, I do! It is nice to meet you!"
The girl held out her hand in greeting. "My name is I-Pin! I like the seaweed rice crackers! Can you get them for me? I can't reach them."
Vi grabbed the bag of snacks that I-Pin pointed to. "Of course I can. But where is your parent?" She didn't notice an adult with the little girl and was worried for her.
"Mama asked me to get snacks for my friend who's in the hospital." I-Pin explained. "He likes grape candy more than rice crackers, but I will change his mind. Thank you for getting these for me, big sis!"
"Oh! No problem, little sis." Vi smiled at I-Pin. "Be careful getting back to your mother now!" She watched the little girl run off. "Adorable."
Grabbing a back of her own rice crackers and senbei, Vi was prepared to leave the aisle until she saw the boxes of teas and coffees. "Oh sweet heaven." She grabbed a box of green, black, and barley teas, stacking them in the cart. Reaching the herbal teas, she grabbed a box of jasmine, chamomile, hibiscus, and earl grey, adding them to the cart.
"Alright, I think that's enough to last us months of tea time. Now time for coffee." Vi vaguely wondered if her middle school self had the mild caffeine addiction she developed studying for college exams. "Well, there's no time like the present to develop a lifelong addiction!" Looking at the instant coffees, she made a face, trying to remember if there was a coffee bean grinder in the kitchen. Nothing tastes better than freshly ground coffee. Picking up a french vanilla creamer that she remembered Lana using and a hazelnut flavor that she quite enjoyed, she tossed them into the cart.
Spotting the soup cans, Vi quickly selected a chicken noodle soup, a clam chowder, and a tomato soup. She also grabbed several packets of her favorite corn potage. "Yum, tastes good with egg drop."
Heading to the frozen aisle, she grabbed a bag of assorted frozen vegetables. Examining the goods, Vi also grabbed a frozen pizza and a bag of chashu buns.
Looking into her cart, she figured she was done and headed for the check out.
As the duo paid for their goods, they all earned some strange looks from the other customers who had never seen them before. Although it could have also been because they were two middle schoolers with terrifying amounts of food in their carts.
They left the store loaded with an entire day's worth of bought goods. Vi managed to "borrow" a cart from the supermarket so they wouldn't have to lug them all the way back home, although Lana made her promise to take it back as soon as possible. They attracted a lot of attention, being children pushing a cart with an assortment of grocery bags and clothing store bags.
At last they reached home and were all excited to add their purchases to the house. Vi reached the front door first and opened the door while Lana unpacked their items from the cart. They entered the house together when they spotted a strange shadow in the darkness of their living room.
"!"