Clothes Shopping with Celian
“You’re here, El.”
On the day of the play for which I’d received tickets from the class president, I arrived at our meeting spot to find Celian waiting in casual clothes. Instead of the school uniform she usually wore when we went out together, she had on an outfit I rarely saw her in. The frilly pink dress was lightly cinched at the waist with a belt, subtly tracing the lines of her figure, and she wore heels she normally avoided because they got in the way of running. Even a delicate bracelet dangled from the hand she was waving at me, swaying along with her fingers.
Seeing her all dressed up like this made me realize all over again just how beautiful she was.
“Have you been waiting long?”
“No, I just got here myself.”
“By the way, why did you insist on meeting here? Couldn’t we have just left the dorms together?”
It was the weekend, so there was no academy schedule to speak of. We could easily have headed out from the dorms side by side, yet for some reason Celian had deliberately set the meeting place in front of the city’s fountain.
“Walking together is nice, of course… but there’s a certain feeling that comes with setting a time and place to meet like this.”
I had no idea what kind of “feeling” she meant, but if it made Celian happy, I supposed there was no problem.
“We’ve still got plenty of time. Want to kill it at a café while we wait?”
The play started at four, but it was only a little past one. We’d both already eaten lunch at the student cafeteria, so a café seemed like the best way to pass the hours.
“Hmm…”
Instead of answering, Celian rested a finger against her chin and stared at me intently, lost in thought. Wondering if something was stuck to my clothes, I even checked my arms and looked myself over, but nothing seemed out of place.
“Come to think of it, El, you always wear your uniform.”
“Uh… yeah?”
I’d been thinking about how often Celian wore her uniform and how rarely I saw her in casual clothes, but I hardly had any right to talk. Whenever I went out, I was always in my school uniform myself. The only other outfits I owned were a few T-shirts and my gym clothes.
I’d gotten used to wearing the girls’ uniform by now, but the idea of picking out and putting on women’s clothes still left me with a lingering sense of resistance. Even knowing a day would come when I’d need casual wear, I’d never actually gone out to buy any.
“Perfect. Today we’re going shopping for your clothes. Come on, follow me!”
With the same decisive energy as Anne, she grabbed my arm and pulled me along. I hesitated for a second about whether to follow, but it really was only a second. There was no point debating it—Celian’s strength already outmatched mine as she dragged me forward.
“This is a brand I buy from a lot. I’m sure you’ll find something you like.”
The place she led me to was a shop specializing in women’s clothing from a brand even I—someone who’d only ever studied women’s fashion in books—recognized by name.
The interior was spacious, stocked with every kind of clothing imaginable, plus accessories. It was clearly popular; plenty of customers were already browsing the racks.
I’d been to clothing stores with friends before, but I’d never bought anything myself. I’d always stood a step back, watching the others shop and tossing out comments like “That looks great on you” or “It’s pretty.”
So now I just stood in the middle of the store, turning my head this way and that, unsure where to start. Celian had already wandered off to one side to look at clothes, leaving me no choice but to examine the nearest racks.
The first thing that caught my eye was the same dress Celian was wearing right now. So this was the brand she liked—no wonder her current outfit was from here.
Dresses felt like too much, so I moved on to the next display. This one was full of fluttery skirts. Some were even shorter than the uniform skirt I had on, the kind that would make you careful with every step. Naturally, I passed on those too.
After several more stops, I finally found clothes that met my standards. Years of wearing nothing but dark, drab outfits as an assassin had left their mark; my hand naturally reached for a pair of black long pants. I held them up against my waist in front of a mirror. Aside from the brand logo stamped on the hip, they were a plain, unadorned design—perfectly ordinary.
I considered looking at other options, but nothing seemed all that different from the pants I was already holding, so I stopped. All I needed now were a few T-shirts to go with them.
“Find anything?”
While I’d been choosing pants, Celian had apparently found something she liked as well; a soft, airy garment dangled from her hand.
“Yeah. Like you said, there are a lot of nice clothes here.”
To my eyes they all looked pretty much the same, but lip service cost nothing, and there was no need to be stingy with it. I lifted the pants I’d chosen so she could see them.
Celian only glanced at the pants in my hand and said nothing. Instead, she held the clothes she’d picked up against my waist.
“This should work. Why don’t you try it on?”
“Huh? The pants?”
In answer, she snatched the pants from me and pressed the skirt into my hands instead. When I still just stood there, she dragged me straight to a fitting room and shoved me inside.
Of course I knew what she was getting at. She’d held the skirt right up against me—how could I not understand? I was just too embarrassed about wearing a skirt to admit it. Even if it was still a skirt, a casual one felt completely different from the uniform.
I cracked the fitting-room curtain open a sliver and peeked out, only to lock eyes with Celian. I gave a tiny, timid shake of my head to say I couldn’t do it, but she shook her head right back just as firmly, making it clear there was no escape.
Fine. Better to take the hit early. I’d just close my eyes and get it over with.
Giving up, I unzipped my uniform skirt and let it drop to the floor. I stepped out of it, set it on the shelf, and pulled on the new one. It was even lighter and more fluttery than the uniform skirt, which somehow made it feel even more awkward despite being the same type of garment.
There was no mirror, so I couldn’t check how I looked before opening the curtain. Celian looked me up and down the moment I stepped out.
Then she casually held out another outfit, pressed it into my hands, and yanked the curtain shut again. Hadn’t she only been holding one skirt earlier?
I checked what she’d given me this time—a blouse, not another skirt. Compared to changing into the skirt, the resistance was milder, so I swapped tops without much trouble.
Now I was wearing the full outfit Celian had chosen, top and bottom. When I opened the curtain again, she looked me over once more from head to toe.
At least this time she didn’t shove me back inside, so I carefully stepped out.
“Does it look weird?”
I spoke up in place of the silent Celian. Honestly, my own taste still leaned toward the pants from earlier, so I deliberately offered a negative opinion—but Celian seemed to feel differently.
“Not at all. It suits you wonderfully. Much better than those pants you picked earlier.”
I hadn’t even mentioned the pants, yet she somehow knew exactly what I was thinking and shut it down first. At this rate I was going to end up buying this outfit whether I liked it or not.
“Still, maybe I should try the—”
“No. The clothes you’re wearing right now are far prettier.”
Her answer was so decisive I couldn’t bring myself to say another word about the pants. It felt too late to refuse, so I had no choice but to buy them.
In the end I gave up, went back into the fitting room, changed into my original uniform, and came out carrying the clothes Celian had chosen.
But when I stepped outside, Celian already had another outfit in her hands.
“Celian?”
We’d already decided on the clothes, so why was she holding more? If they were for herself, couldn’t she just use another fitting room?
I glanced around; plenty of fitting rooms were empty.
“Here, try this one next.”
She took back the previous outfit and pressed the new one into my hands.
“No, I’m buying the other one—”
“No. I think this will suit you better. Hurry up and try it on.”
What could I do when Celian put it like that? A former man looking at women’s clothes was never going to have a better eye than an actual woman. She’d gone out of her way to find something she thought would look good on me; turning her down felt rude.
So I went back in, changed top and bottom once more, and came out. Somehow, every time I entered and exited the fitting room, the pile of clothes in Celian’s hands seemed to grow.
…I was probably just imagining it.
Only after I’d tried on outfit after outfit that Celian kept bringing me did I finally get the OK for a single set. The result was what I was wearing now: a plain white T-shirt, a black fluttery skirt, and an ivory cardigan layered over the top. My original uniform was carefully folded into a shopping bag hanging from my hand.
“If we leave now, we’ll make it just in time. Let’s go.”
It was already past three-thirty. I could hardly believe we’d spent more than two hours on a fashion show. I was exhausted from changing clothes so many times, yet Celian still looked completely fresh. She’d been running back and forth fetching and returning clothes the whole time, but she didn’t show the slightest sign of fatigue.
“Y-yeah…”
At least I hadn’t been forced into heels like hers. I hurried after her on my still-comfortable feet. The theater wasn’t far; we should arrive with time to spare. As long as nothing unexpected happened.
“Waaaaah!”
Of course, the moment I thought that, something always did.