A Thousand Cranes

Second Crane

Keigo excitedly returns to his seat, and he's greeted with a teasing grin, "so, mind telling me how you got to join them?"

"I want to, but I don't want to be too obvious," Keigo says, stealing a glance at Touya while holding back his smile.

Rumi rolls her eyes, "right, as if your blushing and grinning isn't obvious enough,"

Keigo frowns. He neutralizes his expression before sitting straight, asking, "Is it still too obvious?"

Rumi laughs, then pats Keigo's head, "You're so cute,"

Keigo pouts and lets Rumi ruffle his hair. "don't worry, I think he's too dense to notice anyway,"

"You think so?"

Rumi nods, "yeah, trust me on this,"

Keigo stays silent for a while before saying, "can we go shopping later?"

"Shopping? Are you two going on a date or something?"

Keigo shakes his head. He leans closer and whispers in her ear, "I'm going to his house on weekend. I wanted to impress him,"

Rumi's eyes grew wide. She looks at him in shock before pulling him into a hug, "my baby's all grown up. I can't believe you're finally making a move on your crush," she whispers into his ear.

Keigo rolls his eyes and lets Rumi talk nonsense while wrapped in her arms. He wonders why and how they even became friends in times like this.

"Don't worry, I'll help you turn into the most dashing man to ever exist," Rumi proudly announces.

-*-

"How does this look?" Keigo asks after trying out the fifth outfit. Rumi squints her eyes and scans him like she's looking for the perfect model for her runway show.

"I think I've reached a conclusion," Rumi says after a few minutes of silence. "You suck at this,"

Keigo's jaw drops. He looks at himself in the mirror, and to him, he looks decent.

"He looks too plain," Rumi says and walks beside Keigo. "You always get the same thing. A shirt and loose pants. Your handsomeness should be able to cover for such plain taste, but the sizes you chose are too big for you that it looks horrible."

"What do you want me to wear?"

Rumi's eyes light up as if she had been waiting for Keigo to ask her that question.

"Wait here," She says, dashing off to get articles of clothing. Minutes later, she returns with a bulk of clothes. "God, I've been waiting for you to switch up your style."

The excitement in her eyes is evident as she gives Keigo instructions on how to wear and pair each of the clothes she gives. Keigo lost count of the times he went in and out of the dressing room. By the time they were done, it was already past ten.

"Remember to update me after, okay?" Rumi says, obviously excited that Keigo's love life is progressing.

"What if I act weird? You said I blush easily around him. What if he notices? What if he gets turned off by me? Or I do something he doesn't like while I'm there?" Keigo slowly spirals as he imagines everything that can go wrong.

Rumi grabs his shoulder and forces him to look at her, "don't panic. You're a wonderful person. I'm sure they'll like you. Right now, don't think about things going wrong or you'll end up sabotaging yourself. Okay?"

"But, what if something does go wrong?" Keigo almost wants to back out, but Rumi stops him before he can even utter the idea.

"If things do go wrong, just send me an SOS. I'll pick you up, and we can get ice cream," Rumi wraps her arms around Keigo's shoulder as they walk, "I know you're scared since it's your first time hanging out with your three-year crush. But I know you, you'll do great. Amazing even. So, don't sweat it too much, okay?"