Chapter 30

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Shiho wouldn't say that she conforms to the gender norms and stereotypes placed on women, but sometimes a few shopping sprees and spa visits never hurt. She likes calling it having hobbies. And it's not very pleasing when the first image that comes to people's head is shallow feminine woman with expensive purses when you say you like female associated things. Not everything people like doing has to be related to a stereotypes. Maybe some just like doing it. 

That's why she's sitting in Lovely Nails, meticulously flipping through the colours of acrylics until she finally finds one she likes. 

Just an hour before she was sitting at home and watching a 90's series about a woman fighting for other women to take on masculine roles which is empowering and all until she started trashing on feminine things.  

 Like can we normalise bringing things up without dragging others down?

She felt her blood boil for the first time in years after that time when Kudo lost her Fusae purse after 'borrowing it'. She never found out his reasoning. 

So she decided to silently protest by enjoying new acrylics she hasn't had since she shrunk. 

She also hadn't realised how much she missed the feeling of being in a nail salon. 

"Mam have you decided the colour yet?" The young nail artist who had been patiently waiting for the past 10 minutes comes up to her with a passive look of aggression on her face, which Shiho picked up on but frankly didn't care much about. 

"Yeah give me 5 more minutes and I'll have a colour decided," she was always pretty indecisive when it came to these kind of things. Once it took her a good hour to pick a hairstyle she wanted during school in America.

Right now she is stuck on between two colours; mint green and glittery pink. 

She wanted to go for white at first because it would go with most outfits, but it's too basic. So she went for her two favourite colours, just not sure which one. 

From her peripheral vision, she sees the door open and the bell ring for the umpteenth time since she had been sitting here. Her brain seemed to have realised it, but not processed it.

So she didn't really register the fact the Rei Furuya stood directly in front of her, hands in his leather jacket pocket, looking down at her. 

His all too familiar aura strikes her in an unexpected way. Speaking only after she fully takes in his presence. 

"You wanna get your nails done or something?" she asks almost innocently, a smirk forming on Rei's face.

"Nah not today," he sits down beside her with a look of casualness like he was supposed to be here, "you're not gonna ask how or why I'm here?"

She shakes her head mockingly, "I am not interested, and I know it's probably because I'm here anyways,"

"Self obsessive now are we?"

"Got it from you,"

They chuckle slightly, "I actually went over to Agasa's and he said you went to get your nails done," he recalls, eyeing the colour pallet and noting the awful scent of nail salons"you never struck me as the nail type".

"Maybe you just don't know me much,"  

He shrugs, "maybe."

She then takes the two colours and places them in front of Rei, "mint green or pink?"

Without hesitation, he replies, "pink".

She raises her eyebrow in a look of confusion and surprise, not expecting Rei's sudden enthusiasm "why so eager?"

"I've always had a thing for pink," he explains, "plus it'll compliment your skin tone the best". 

She nods her head in approval, quite impressed, "good eye for detail, not bad." Shiho walks up to the lady who seems awfully relieved she'd finally chosen, given that there was a line waiting outside the shop. 

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"Does that hurt," he gazes at her elongated nail in awe like a child, almost squinting his eyes in cringe every time the razor blade thingy neared her finger. 

"No it actually doesn't," she says with nonchalance. It did look a bit rough when she was pushing her nail back, but it didn't really hurt, it just felt weird. A look of mischief festered, "you wanna try?"

He immediately backs away, hands intuitively placed in front of him defensively. "I am good, thanks, I'm more comfortable with getting beat up,". It was rare to see his cool demeanour put at stake in the face of a beauty tool.  

She eyes him teasingly, "next time". 

The nail artist had told her to wait for a while for the polish to dry so they can put an extra layer of polish on afterwards. 

Shiho looks down at Rei's watch which she'd noticed he'd been wearing ever since he saw him, but that's beside this point, "what time is it?"

"Quarter to 12," he glances down, "you know we should get lunch after this".

Her signature smirk curls up in a strangely alluring fashion, never failing to captivate him every time. Enough for Rei to know that she was about to throw him another few of her sarcastic remarks, "asking me out on a date I see,"

"Hey," he chuckles with his purposefully husky voice he'd put on, which he knows is Shiho's weak spot, "I'm hungry".

She hums in response, "sure, excuses excuses-"

A voice behind them nearly startles them both for a second. 

"Hey guys!"












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