Surprised by the man's sudden roar, she looked at him only to find him dumbfounded. They both showed flustered expressions—wide eyes and agaped mouths.
"Changing my clothes," she answered flatly after she recovered to her surprise.
"I know! But why are you doing that here? …in front of me?"
"Oh! Sorry I forgot to ask, do you also have dressing areas here?" Aki asked, raising her right eyebrows.
"The bathroom's over there." He nearly face-falmed on how their conversation was going.
"Do I need to take a bath first?" She blinked her eyes a few times waiting for an answer. It was a bathroom after all, it was the room to take a bath.
"What the heck?! Just go there and change your clothes now!" he shouted pointing his index finger to the direction of the bathroom.
Aki didn't say anything else, she just headed to the bathroom to change her clothes.
'Does she really have to ask me every single move she has to do? I'm so hungry and she still wants to take a bath? For Pete's sake!'
While waiting, it crossed the young man's mind that he had to buy clothes for Aki. That was in exchange for him to hear his sister's laughter again.
******
“It’s a date, isn’t it?” Aki suddenly asked him. He choked to his surprise. It's not the first time he choked today because of Aki and Mharc.
"Just eat your food. Don't blabber," he said as he slid his spoonful of desert to Aki’s mouth to stop her from talking.
“Hmmmn…yummy! But it’s really a date, right? Look, you even feed me using your spoon!” Aki, who was sitting in front of him, stared at him seriously waiting for his reply. They were eating at a fastfood chain and only deserts were left in their table of two.
‘Where does this angel pick up these ideas? Whereas last night, she didn’t even know anything,' he thought. He also wondered if it was Mharc who taught her such things. There wasn’t anyone who could talk to her since she arrived last night.
‘Arrived…’ He couldn’t help but repeat that word in his mind. He wondered if it was right to call that “arrival” when she fell in the middle of the street last night. 'Is it just a simple arrival? If that happened to a normal person, he would definitely be dead as soon as he hit the ground.'
“Silence means yes. So, It’s really a date! Yey!” Aki added, giving him a happy facial expression and cute little claps.
He glanced at her again. Mharc's clothing suited her. The dress was pure white. It was sleeveless and only had a lace design around the chest and waist. There’s also a white strap connecting the bottom and top of the dress. The cut of the hem of its skirt was uneven; the front part was above the knee while the back part was longer. It was paired with white shoes that also belonged to Mharc.
It suits her better compared to the one she wore last night which seemed to be just a patchwork of white fabric because of its minute size.
"Where did you pick that up?" he asked the woman when he was satisfied with her current appearance. She looked more presentable in this outfit.
"Hey! I didn't pick anything up," she responded to him with a frown.
"What I mean is, where did you find out about such things? It's wrong though," he said sarcastically. But the other person didn't catch that. “It’s not a date,” he added.
"I saw it on the device earlier."
"Device?" he asked, confused.
Aki answered with a series of nods along with the words, "The device that lights up and has many buttons. The rectangular one that releases a lot of information."
"A laptop?"
"What's that?" she asked. Her left hand scratched her head. Her right hand still has the spoon she used to scoop into her vanilla ice cream.
"That device you're talking about. I think you mean a laptop."
Aki just nodded at him and continued to savour the rest of her ice cream.
"Why does it say in the device—laptop," she corrected herself remembering that that was what the thing was called. "...that omelette is for breakfast? Why did we eat it for lunch?” she continued.
"Oh, right. Good thing that you reminded me about that. Let's go to the grocery store later, there's no more food in the house."
"What's grocery store?"
"Don’t ask anymore. We'll buy some food," he said and then scraped the rest of the food in front of him.
"Yey!"
'Childish,' he commented in his mind about Aki's actions. 'No wonder, she and Mharc liked each other.'
After eating, he took Aki to the department store. In the part where there was a big red sign poster that had "50% OFF" written on it.
"Try this," he said when he picked up the yellow dress he saw. It was off shoulder with two thin straps. The length of its skirt, which in his estimation, was just above Aki's knees.
Aki was about to take the dress from his hand when he suddenly picked up another one.
"And this one," he said before he handed both dresses to Aki.
The second dress was still yellow, but lighter to the first one, and now has floral prints on the fabric. It has sleeves that were as long as those of a t-shirt. It was a body fitted dress.
"Why are you always choosing this color?" Aki muttered when she saw the two clothes in her hands. They have a monochromatic color scheme.
"That's the cheap ones," he said flatly.
Aki marched with a snort because of that. She couldn’t help herself but pout her lips.
He was about to scold the grumbling girl when he noticed a shelf full of underwear.
'Oh, right! Do I have to buy her those as well? What do I know about women's stuff?'
The young man was currently debating with himself when he was suddenly approached by a smiling sales lady.
"May I help you, sir? May I know what you are looking for?" she said.
"Ah, well, are those also on sale?" he asked while scratching his neck.
The sales lady followed where his eyes lay. "Yes, sir! These are also 50% OFF. Take your pick, sir. What size do you need?" she answered, touching the items on the shelf one by one..
'What do I know about those sizes?' he frowned in his own thoughts. 'Why do I have to do this? I should have just ordered Mharc, she's the one who wants that angel to stay!'
"Nevermind, miss. Thank you." He was about to turn away when he suddenly changed his mind because of the last thing the sales lady said.
"Too bad, sir. Today is the last day of our sale."
"Did you see the girl I was with earlier?" He pointed to the fitting room that Aki entered.
"Is it for her? This, sir. It's her size, the design suits her too."
'That girl sure was freaking fast.' He was suddenly holding the set of underwear recommended by the woman. He didn't even realize that she had already handed him a package of panties and bras. He was left dumbfounded.
They were on their way to the counter when they passed several shelves of women's shoes.
"Buy 1, Take 1," he said, reading what's written in the small signage above the shelf near him.
He looked at Aki who was also looking at him because of his sudden halt. He just shook his head before speaking.
"I'm not going to buy you shoes. I have already spent a lot on you," he murmured.
"What?" asked Aki. She didn't follow what he was saying.
"Nothing. I said you are pretty," he said and led the walk again.
"Thank you!" Aki answered happily. She even jumped up and down because of his praise.
"...but you’re deaf."