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When the cashier rung up more candy that he definitely hadn’t put in the cart, Kazuki remembered why he usually did the shopping alone. He gave Miri and Rei a dirty look who both faked the same innocent expression. Fine. With all groceries bagged, they left the supermarket, Miri running ahead, playing around with her new hippo plushie.
“Miri, watch out where you’re going!” Relieved Kazuki saw that she stopped right before bumping into a woman. She shouted her usual bright “Sorry!” and hurried back to his side.
Kazuki was just about to apologize again when the women spoke up. “Hi Kazu-kun, long time no see.” Oh no, Carol-chan. She was wearing comfortable everyday clothes, had nearly no makeup on and her hair in a bun. Although her voice hadn’t been high pitched and flirty, either, Kazuki somehow still felt awkward as hell.
“Oh, hello…” Kazuki trailed off. In broad daylight and off work she really didn’t look like a Carol.
Miri tugged at his pant leg, voice as loud as ever, “Who’s that, papa? Is she your friend?” Well, ‘Kazu-kun’ sounded way too familiar for much else, Miri got that right.
“Oh yes, haha…” Rei was right, he was such a shitty actor. But before he could embarrass himself anymore, Carol crouched down before Miri.
“Why, hello there. You can call me Ai-chan. And you are...?”
Miri loved introducing herself, so she immediately let go of Kazuki. “I’m Miri Unasaka! I’m four years old!” She proudly held up four fingers.
“Nice to meet you, Miri-chan. That’s a very cute plushie you have there.” Of course, Carol knew just the right thing to say.
“That’s a hippo! Rei-papa bought it for me! We saw a real one at the zoo today! Kazuki-papa says they’re scary because they have a really big mouth-”, she spread her arms to imitate how big, “but I think they are so cool!”
Carol smiled warmly and petted the head of the plushie that Miri was showing her. “I think they’re really cool, too.” Miri beamed.
Standing back up, Carol glanced at Rei curiously who was his usual unsocial self. Then she grinned teasingly at Kazuki. “It’s been so long, I was wondering what you’ve been up to. But I see you’ve been busy with your sweetheart.” Kazuki felt himself turn red. “Well, I gotta go. You three take care, yeah?” Moving along, she winked, then waved at Miri who chirped a happy “Bye-bye.”
Kazuki stammered his own good-bye. The sliding door wasn’t even shut behind her when Kazuki saw her get out her phone to type furiously on it. Miri hugged his leg. “So pretty! When I grow up, I want to be pretty like her.”
Full of dread Kazuki saw a barely adult hostess Miri in his mind – wearing way too sexy costumes, clinging to gambling addicts, and having sad losers buy her drinks and food.
“No way! Don’t even think about it! I’ll buy you all the sushi, you can ever eat!” While Miri was wailing at him in protest, Rei gave him an unimpressed look. After more back and forth between the two, Rei headed for the car, saying dryly, “Come on, sweetheart. Let’s go.”