Chapter Text
Gin practically bounced out of his apartment, shutting the door behind him and racing through the hallway of their cramped complex. After many days of watching TV commercials for the new Mew-Chan merch line, and many nights of begging his mom for more chores to do to save up, today was finally the day. The day that Mew-Chan merch was coming to Claire’s. Of course, Gin wasn’t old enough to drive, or even walk to the mall on his own, but luckily, his mom had told him that he could go with any of their family friends in the apartment building. They were all a tight knit group of friends, but Gin’s first choice was on Mr. Policeman, of course. He was so cool and strong, and Gin wanted to be just like him when he grew up! He approached the detective’s door and knocked as hard as he could with his puffy cat paws.
“Mr. Policeman, meow! It’s me!” he called out, to no response. That was strange… He knocked again.
“Mr. Policeman? Are you home, woof?” Gin hugged his Mew-Chan plush closer, only to be met with silence. After waiting for what felt like forever, to a twelve year old, Gin realized that Keiji probably wasn’t even home. He sighed, and began the walk back downstairs to his apartment, so he could tell his mom he’d have to wait even longer.
That is, until, Gin heard a door open and close behind him. He glanced around, and saw Shin locking up his apartment with a grocery bag. He was going out! And to the grocery store, which was right next to the mall, too!
“Hey hey! Loner!” Gin practically skipped up behind the man, who seemed to be surprised to see Gin out this early. “Can I ask you a favor, meow?”
“Oh, um… Sure Gin, what’s up?” Shin asked with a smile, although still uncertain.
“Uh… uh… I was wondering if you could take me to the mall , woof!” Gin said, “You don’t have to come in or anything… I’m a big kid, so you can just drop me off and pick me up, meow!”
Shin anxiously rubbed the back of his neck under the scarf. “O-ok, but… Your mom would probably get angry at me if I left you there. It’s okay though, I’ll come along.” Gin used one hand to hold Mew-Chan and the other to wag his pretend-tail back and forth.
“Yayy!! Thank you, loner, meow! For coming to Claire’s with me, woof!”
Shin’s face went white. “C-claire’s…?” Gin stopped wagging his tail and looked up at Shin with confusion.
“Y-yeah, meow… To get Mew-Chan stuff, woof…”
“O-oh… I see.” Shin gripped his scarf with a sigh. “I’m so sorry, Gin… I can’t take you there.” Gin practically jumped up in shock.
“Wh… why, loner? Did something bad happen at Claire’s, meow?!”
“It’s a long story…”
---
According to everyone Shin had seen for the last week, his beanie had been looking rattier than ever. And he’d have to agree. It was time for a replacement. The thing was… he had been wearing this hat for so long, that he practically forgot where he even got it from. The last time he’d been seen in public without it was probably sometime in high school.
According to the internet, he had his options. The mall near his apartment had many stores that came up when he looked up “knit beanies”, the first of which being one he had never even heard of before. Claire’s. Not bothering to look at the website, and figuring he would just browse and look around for what he needed, Shin donned his worn-out friend one last time as he walked to the shopping center.
Shin stood outside of the store, and the first thing he noticed being the loud, ear-bleeding pop music coming from inside. That, plus the pink and purple theme of the store tipped him off that this was a store marketed towards little girls. It felt awkward just being there, now that he knew, but… Maybe he could just take a look around. It said they’d have beanies, and worst case scenario, he could always find something that Kanna may like.
The unrelenting pop music only got louder as Shin walked in, and the stench of a million different perfumes was enough to almost give him a headache. He was in such a woozy state that he didn’t notice a long-haired employee coming up behind him.
“Sir, are you in need of assistance?” he calmly asked, scaring Shin a little from how sneakily he appeared.
“I-I’m fine, just looking around for today, ehehe…” Shin replied awkwardly to the apron-wearing man. He stuffed his hands in his pockets, a habitual nervous reaction.
His empty pockets.
Had he… left his wallet at home?
As Shin stood there, trying not to tip off that anything was wrong, the employee just nodded and walked out of sight behind a shelf. Shin let out a sigh of relief, but then mentally groaned at the thought of having to walk all the way back to his apartment for money.
Taking one last glance around the store, before he was planning on bolting before the employee saw, he noticed something. A rack of hats, out of sight of the counter and workers. In a surprising contrast to the pastels and neons of Claire’s, there were colors more up Shin’s alley, even a dark green knit beanie like he usually wore. (Or puke green, as miss Sara liked to call it).
Just Shin’s luck, coming all the way here for something right in front of him that he couldn't even get. Unless…
He peeked over his shoulder, taking note that both the employee and the crowd outside were completely out of sight. Shin unclenched his gremlin hands from inside his pocket. His pocket that could fit a beanie. Wouldn’t it be so easy to just…
In one swift motion, Shin picked off the beanie, snapping the tag off in the process, and stuffed it in his pocket. Mission accomplished. He let out a sigh of relief and began to casually walk towards the exit until-
“What do you think you’re doing?” Shin froze. Right behind him was the employee. He had snuck up on him again. What was he, an assassin?
“Ahaha… W-Wait, I…” Shin gulped, and nervously turned around to see not only the man, but also another woman right behind him. A manager, perhaps? She began to speak.
“Sir, I suggest you pay for that hat,” Her voice was full of venom, “or we will have to ban you from this Claire’s.” Shin was stuck. He was gonna get banned from this random store.
“I… I don’t have money.” He hung his head in shame, taking the beanie out from his pocket.
“Wow, that’s sad! You don’t even have money for a stupid hat?” An annoying, nasally voice called from the counter.
“Shut it, Ranger!” the woman snapped as her mismatched red and yellow eyes gleamed with anger. She stared at the counter for a moment longer before regaining her composure. “Ahem… Then we will have to ban you. This behavior will not be tolerated in my Claire’s.”
“I understand…” Shin still focused on the ground, cursing himself for ever going into this store.
“What is your name? We will need it for our records.” The long-haired employee brought out a notepad he was holding behind his back.
Shin just said the first thing that came to mind.
And with that, Sou Hiyori was banned from Claire’s for attempted robbery.
As Shin walked out of the mall, back into the cool air of the outside world, he vowed to never go there again. Between this and the Macy’s incident, going to the mall was becoming a nightmare. Even if Shin Tsukimi wasn’t banned, the embarrassment was just too much. He sighed, figuring that he’d just have to order a beanie from online or something. Whatever. Much less hassle.
---
“So… yeah.” Shin finished recounting his story, almost in shame. “I’m sorry Gin, as I’ve said, I can’t go back.” Gin drooped his head, and just nodded.
“O… Okay loner… meow…”
“Well, don’t be so down. I’ll make it up to you, you can come for ice cream with me, Kanna, and miss Kugie some other day.” Shin shuffled with his bag and began walking towards the elevator. “See ya!”
After hearing the elevator doors close, it just left Gin more determined than ever to find a solution to his problem. He had a bunch more friends! More than the affectionately-nicknamed loner, that’s for sure! At least one of them could hopefully bring him to Claire’s for his beloved Mew-Chan.
---
Weeks later, a strange man came up to the Claire’s counter with a basket full of glittery bath bombs. Even though he spoke with a smile and acted like this was a completely normal day, Kai was still curious.
“Ahm… What are you buying all these bath bombs for?” Kai attempted to spark a conversation as he scanned them all one by one. This would take a while.
“Oh, I like to eat them!” The man responded happily. Kai’s eyes widened slightly in fear as he continued scanning, and they both just stood in an awkward silence for a minute or so.
“Ahaha… Just kidding! Wow… you should’ve seen the look on your face.”
Kai just let out a forced, awkward chuckle, getting the feeling that it wasn’t a joke at all. He hastily finished scanning all of the items in, and let the man swipe his credit card for $500 worth of bath bombs.
As if this situation couldn’t get any weirder, Kai’s eyes widened at the name that appeared for the credit card on the ring-up machine. He looked the man dead in his petrifying blue eyes, and then down at his attire. Of course. The very first thing he noticed about the thief was his hideous scarf.
“I… apologize, Sou Hiyori, but I thought we told you never to return here.” Kai spoke with a stern yet tired tone. The man cocked his head in confusion.
“Huh?”
“Er… Sue, the thief from a couple weeks ago has returned.” Kai called out to the back room behind the counter. A very enraged Miley stomped out, and after a bit of a struggle, had the man kicked out of her store.