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Naoto sat on Rise's bed, straight as a board, extremely intimidated by just how pink everything was. It hadn't been entirely unexpected, Rise being who she was, but there was just so much of it that it felt abrasive. Naoto felt like she couldn't relax, despite the enormous pile of pillows that covered the bed.
"Oh, come on, Naoto-kun, loosen up!" Rise said, staring down the bridge of her nose at her classmate. Naoto just fidgeted and looked away. "Gosh, it's like we're the ones going on the date!"
Feeling a knot in her stomach at the word, Naoto looked away from the other girl, trying desperately to hide her eyes under her hat. If it weren't for Rise, she wouldn't be in this mess right now; she and Kanji could have continued being nothing more than (incredibly awkward) friends. But no, Rise simply hadn't been content with that. She'd weaseled her way into Naoto's life, eating lunch with her and babbling about all kinds of inane things, until one day, finally, she'd brought up "the Kanji situation."
"So what're you gonna do about the Kanji situation?" she'd asked as they sat next to each other on the roof during a sunny lunch period.
Naoto had just about spit out her melon bread. "W- w- what do you mean, situation?"
Rise had giggled and scooted closer. "You know! How you have a crush on him! And he has a crush on you! You two are totally into each other!"
"Y- you don't know what you're talking about," Naoto had stammered, looking away from her friend. "I don't have a c- crush on him."
She'd hoped that looking away would hide the red that was coloring her cheeks, but Rise had leaned forward and could see the whole thing. She giggled again, kicking her feet, which were dangling over the side of the ledge on which they sat. "You do so!" Her voice dropped to a whisper. "D'you need some help writing a confession letter?"
Naoto had jumped up at that, taking quick steps towards the door to the stairs. Her face was almost entirely red now. "No, I most certainly do not!"
That had been two weeks ago, and the conversation had proven to be Naoto's undoing. In the middle of last week, a letter had mysteriously made its way into Kanji's shoe locker. The letter had been written with pink pen in big, loopy characters, complete with an ample coating of hearts and signed Naoto Shirogane. Kanji wasn't stupid enough to be fooled by that; even so, he'd confronted Naoto about it after class the next day.
Having no idea where to start, he'd held up the letter with a confused expression on his face. "You... you didn't write this, right?"
It only took the most cursory of glances for Naoto to recognize what had happened. She had snatched the letter uncerimoniously out of Kanji's hand, and he had just stood there blinking. After reading the letter, Naoto was even more furious. "Ugh, Rise-chan, how could you?!" she'd blurted out in a strangled tone, completely forgetting that Kanji was even there. "How could you even imagine I would write anything so tactless?"
"Uh, Naoto," Kanji mumbled, looking down at his feet as he spoke. A hint of anger was evident in his tone. "Why would Rise-chan write something like that? If- if she's just pullin' a prank on me, that ain't very nice."
Naoto looked away as well, not wanting to admit to the conversation the two girls had had about "the Kanji situation." Even so, she didn't know how to explain in a way that wouldn't leave Kanji disappointed. "I don't believe she intended to decieve you, Kanji-kun."
And then suddenly Rise was there, ready to ruin everything. "Awww, you two are soooooo cute!" She had skipped into the classroom, acting as if she hadn't been listening the whole time. Of course, Naoto realized with horror, that had been exactly what she'd been doing the entire time. Then, ever-so-smoothly, Rise proceeded to pull two movie tickets out of her school bag. "Aren't you two in luck! I just happen to have these movie tickets for Sunday! I was going to invite Senpai, but he can't make it that day. Lucky for you, right?"
Never before had Naoto wanted to punch someone as much as she'd wanted to punch Rise in that moment.
But now it was Sunday, and for some ungodly reason, Naoto was sitting in Rise's room, preparing to have her friend dress her up for this so-called date. Rise had insisted on it, of course, absolutely refusing to take no for an answer. As soon as Naoto saw Rise's bedroom, she knew that she'd made a terrible miscalculation.
"I went ahead and picked out some stuff," Rise continued, babbling away as usual, spinning around to open the door to her closet. Naoto had been expecting it to be filled with frilly dresses covered in bows and lace, but was surprised to see that it looked much the same as her own closet. Certainly, the colors were brighter and there were actually skirts and dresses inside, but it wasn't as bad as Naoto had feared. Even so, she had this voice in the back of her head reminding her to always prepare for the worst when it came to Rise.
The first outfit didn't look all that bad to begin with. Sure, it was a skirt, but it wasn't scandalously short, and the colors weren't as outrageous as some of the other things in Rise's wardrobe. But the top was all wrong, would show far too much skin. "I can't wear something like that," Naoto said flatly.
Rise rolled her eyes and returned the outfit to the closet. "I figured you'd say that," she grumbled, reaching for the next hanger. This time it was a dress; an extremely modest dress by Rise's standards, mind, but still a dress.
"Absolutely not," Naoto said, not missing a beat.
"Fine," Rise replied, making a face at her friend before putting returning the dress to the closet. "But you can't be so picky! You wanna look cute for Kanji-kun, right?"
Naoto looked down, trying to hide behind her hat again as a blush spread across her cheeks. "Whether or not I look cute isn't any particular concern of mine." In fact, she'd rather that they just forgot about this whole thing right now so she could go home and spend her Sunday in peace, but she didn't say that part to Rise, who likely would have thrown a fit.
Apparently Rise just took Naoto's constant reluctance as a challenge, because the former idol's face became even more determined. "Kanji's gonna see you at the train station and he's gonna be like 'Whoa, Naoto is way hot! Why didn't I ask her out sooner? I shouldn't've been such a huge dummy!'"
The way Rise tried to imitate Kanji's gruff voice was just too much. Despite herself, Naoto started laughing softly, trying to hide her mouth behind her hand as she did. Rise wasn't so easily fooled, of course. She took the break in Naoto's rigidity as an opportunity to present her with a third potential outfit. "How about this one, Naoto-kun?"
Naoto looked up and considered the clothes that Rise was holding up now. To her surprise, she didn't completely reject this ensemble on sight. By some miracle, Rise had actually put together an outfit that consisted of pants and a fairly nice-looking blouse. Girlier than Naoto's usual clothes, to be sure, but nothing that she would be too embarrassed to be seen wearing in public. "I suppose that one isn't too terrible," she conceded, giving Rise a lopsided smile.
"Yay!" Rise exclaimed, giving Naoto a victory sign. "I had a feeling you'd pick this one!" She pushed the clothes into Naoto's lap, then stood back and waited expectantly.
Naoto just looked up at the other girl, blinking. "Um..."
"Oh, come on, you can undress in front of me! Geez!" Rise put her hands on her hips, pouting mightily.
Biting her lower lip, Naoto looked away again. "I'd really prefer that you not..."
"Fine, fine," Rise interrupted, spinning around and putting her hands over her eyes. "Better?"
Figuring that was the best that she was going to get, Naoto got up from the bed and walked into the far corner of the room, as far from Rise as she could manage. Even though she was fairly sure that the other girl couldn't see much from where she was standing, Naoto was still mistrustful, and changed her clothes as discreetly as possible. "Okay, I'm done."
Rise spun back around, uncovering her eyes to look at her friend. She swept her eyes up and down Naoto's petite form quickly, taking it in. Yeah, okay, she could work with this. Except-- "Hey, you're still wearing your chest bindings!"
"Wha- of course I am!" Naoto shot back, covering her chest with her hands in a sudden fit of embarrassment.
Rise crossed the room in two quick strides, reaching out to move Naoto's hands and attempt to unbutton the blouse. Naoto twisted away, escaping to the other side of the room. "C'mon, Naoto-kun! Just for today! Kanji-kun will reeeeeeeeeally like it!"
Quite literally putting her foot down, Naoto gave Rise an icy stare from the other side of the room. "One hundred percent absolutely not."
"Fine, fine," Rise grumbled, throwing up her hands in a gesture of defeat. "But you gotta let me do your makeup."
Naoto wasn't exactly sure why all of this fuss was necessary, but she sat courteously in Rise's desk chair while the other girl applied makeup to her face. It was quite a strange feeling, like someone was putting flour on her skin. After what seemed like entirely too long, Rise gave a big smile and spun the chair around to face the full-length mirror on her wall. "Done!"
She wasn't sure exactly what she'd been expecting; probably for her face to look similar to a clown's, like what usually happened on television during situtations like this. But despite the oppressive feeling on her face, she couldn't particularly tell a difference. She raised an eyebrow, and her reflection raised an eyebrow back.
Rise rocked back on her heels, looking pleased with herself. Then she glanced up at the clock and grabbed hold of Naoto's wrist, her eyes wide. "C'mon, you're gonna be late!"
The two of them raced down the street, running at top speed towards the train station. Naoto nearly tripped several times, what with Rise's tugging combined with the uncomfortable shoes her friend had insisted she borrow, but they still managed to make it to the station with time to spare. Kanji, predictably, was already waiting; he may have been rough around the edges, but he wasn't the kind of guy who would make a girl wait.
"Have fun," Rise whispered in Naoto's ear, then she pushed the other girl towards Kanji and skipped off to watch the proceedings from a safe distance. She wanted desperately to follow them and eavesdrop, but she restrained herself. Instead she settled for watching the two of them get on the train together, Kanji awkwardly offering Naoto his hand to assist her as she stepped on (she really was a lot shorter without those platform shoes she always wore), Naoto blushing and embarrassed but accepting his help.
Once the train had disappeared out of sight, Rise whirled around and started skipping back towards Marukyu Tofu. "Mission accomplished!"