Chapter 269 – Choosing Autumn Uniform (1)
After the sports festival and the fireworks festival were over, the weather became noticeably chilly. The hot and humid temperature that hung around the thirty degree numbers since July had gone.
Although we were required to wear our summer uniform until the end of September, some of the girls were already wearing long sleeved shirts and cardigans, clearly prepared for the autumn.
As for me, I think it was a little chilly to wear a short-sleeved uniform, but it was too hot to wear a blazer during this time. Ah, by the way, in our school, boys had to either wear the summer uniform (the short sleeved one) or winter uniform (long sleeved + blazer). Also, because of the weather, getting up in the morning became even more of a pain.
Before the temptation to sleep in grew even stronger, I forced myself to get up and get dressed. Around the same time, Umi came to my house, like usual.“Morning~ Ah, look at your bed hair! Jeez, come over here, I’ll fix it for you.”
“Mm…”
It seemed like Umi opted to wear her autumn uniform; a long sleeved uniform with a pastel pink cardigan. Unlike with boys, our school had a laxer rule for girls’ uniforms. Though, it felt like that was more of a trouble than anything, since they’d had to show off their fashion sense and such during this time of the year.
Well, in Umi’s case, she’d look good in whatever clothing she’d wear— Wait, it was too early to simp on her…
“—Alright! Finally get that one persistent little guy down! Anyway, Maki, do you have anything to say to me today?”
“Um… You look good in that. Well, I mean, you always look good in anything.”
“Yay~ Hehe, you’re getting better at complimenting me. Seventy points!”“Not a hundred? Well, at least it’s a decent score.”
Well, I guess it wouldn’t be me if I were to get a perfect score.
Anyway, it felt good to see her being cheerful again today. Seeing her smile instantly made my mood better.
“It’s a little chilly today, so I was wondering what I should wear, but seeing you wearing your autumn uniform made me feel like wearing the blazer. If it gets too hot later, I’ll just take it off.”
“That so? Anyway, you’ve gotten taller and fitter compared to last year, so the blazer would suit you better now. Alright, let’s go to your room and get you changed~”
“Why are you just entering my room so casually— You know what, whatever…”
Honestly, it felt embarrassing to let her see me changing my clothes, but I guess I’ve done even more embarrassing things with her.
“Now that I think about it, I haven’t taken a closer look at your closet. So, where did you hide your p*rn magz? I’m guessing it’s below the clear case, right~?” (T/N: To give more context, a clear case here is a transparent box where they put their clothes in. They don’t really have a separate wardrobe in their closet, especially when the room is particularly small like Maki’s. By the way it’s literally called clear case/クリアケース.)
“Stop assuming that I even got those kinds of things in the first place, jeez… I’m still a minor, I can’t buy them even if I want to. I didn’t have any friends before you came into my life, so I had no one to borrow them from.”
…Well, at least I had friends now.
By the way, I had seen those kinds of magazines with my own eyes, but I’ve never borrowed them. Well, I preferred to use my phone and computer to— Wait, no, we were supposed to be talking about my uniform here.
At that moment, Umi opened my closet enthusiastically.
“…I’ve guessed it already, but you really don’t have many clothes, huh?”
“I mean, yeah.”
Since it was a closet inside a six-tatami room, the amount of clothes it could hold was already limited. But, even after considering that, the content was sparse, it’d make you feel lonely when you looked at it.
Inside, on the hanger, there were only my school uniforms, some older clothes that Umi and Amami-san picked for me, and some clothes for winter. As for my sweatshirts, hoodies, sleepwears, or anything that I’d wear at home, were all stuffed inside a clear case. I also had three or four shirts that I constantly wore and washed in rotation.
Personally, I think that this many clothes were enough, but from what others were telling me, students my age always had their closet full of clothes. Every year, they’d have to get rid of the clothes that they no longer use.
Well, in my case, clothes that I no longer used were the torn up ones. That meant, this closet would only get sparser in the future.
Ever since I dated Umi, I had bought more clothes, but since we mostly just hung out in my house for dates, I only had like, two clothes for going outside. To put it simply, I had more clothes, but I didn’t have many.
…Maybe, I should consider buying some new ones, at least for the autumn. Considering the temperature, it wasn’t like I could just wear the clothes I wore in spring, so it wouldn’t be a waste of money.
“…Umi.”
“Yes, yes, let’s get you some clothes this weekend. I’ve been thinking about getting new ones for myself too.”
“Thank you for your quick understanding.”
I didn’t have that much money, but as long as we chose the right store, I should be able to afford it.
The more I came into this relationship with Umi, the more I realized the importance of money.
Mom liked Umi, so if I were to tell her everything, she’d probably give me more money, but… Clothes weren’t exactly cheap… I felt bad asking her for more money…
“Still, it’s unusual. I never expected that you’d ask me to go buy some clothes. Just a while ago, you’d still wear your lame clothes unless I specifically told you not to.”
“You called them lame, but I still like those clothes… Anyway, you’re free this Saturday, right?”
“Yes. We’ll buy the clothes on Saturday and wear them on our Sunday date, perfect.”
“…Will the date be at our house?”
“Try to ask yourself that question.”
“…I get it.”
As usual, my weekend was filled with my plans with Umi.
After the sports festival, the school wouldn’t hold anymore events in the autumn, so I’d do my best to devote as much of my time as possible to Umi.
