Holding Hands and Pretending to be a Couple?
"Kouhai-kun, what do you mean?"
Seeing Ren's left hand stretched out in front of her, Asumi paused for a moment before asking this question.
"Because I'm afraid of getting separated, I have to hold hands." Ren replied.
He remembered back when he and Gabriel came to the mall together, they held hands because they were afraid of getting separated in the crowd.
Therefore, there was no problem holding hands now.
Asumi said with an unsatisfied tone, "Are you treating me like a child?"
Although she wasn't very tall, it was too much to treat herself like a child.
"I'm just worried we might accidentally get separated."
Ren never treated her like a child.
"I didn't say that's the problem." Asumi ignored his outstretched hand and instead reached out her right hand towards him, "I'm your senior, if you're worried about getting separated, you should be the one holding my hand, Kouhai-kun~"
"Sure."
After a moment of surprise, Ren gently held her hand.
Before he could say anything, Asumi turned around and urged him, "Let's go in quickly, it's too hot outside."
"And now there's no need to worry about getting separated."
"Yes."
Seeing her slightly red cheeks, Ren agreed.
The weather was very hot in the summer, and Asumi's face turned red from the heat.
"Where should we go shopping first?"
Entering the mall and feeling the coolness of the air conditioning inside, Ren looked around and asked.
"Let's buy clothes first... I haven't bought clothes in a long time."
Asumi revealed her planned itinerary.
"Oh."
So, they followed the instructions in the mall and walked towards the clothing area.
However, because there were too many people, they had to stay very close to each other. If not, even though they were holding hands, they would easily get separated.
This situation did not ease until they left the area at the mall entrance and entered inside.
(Why is everything developing like this? Weren't we just here to visit the mall?)
While Ren's attention was not focused on her, Asumi secretly glanced at the hand they were holding, unable to hold back her breath.
Holding hands was something she never expected.
But it didn't matter, it was just holding hands, not a big deal.
Not a big deal!
(Why does his hand feel so comfortable to hold?)
Feeling the coolness coming from his palm, Asumi was slightly confused.
Just when they started holding hands at the mall entrance, she realized one thing, that is, the strange temperature of Ren's palm.
Clearly it was very hot outside, but holding his hand felt very cool.
This was really confusing.
(Is he really a man?)
Looking at his exposed white skin, she couldn't help but think about this very important issue.
Generally, women's skin is much smoother than men's, right?
But why was Ren's better than hers?
Asumi didn't pay much attention to this before, but after the two of them held hands, the difference became too obvious.
Ren's hands turned out to be prettier than hers.
Ren's hands weren't big, but they weren't small either, they were just right.
The most worrying thing was his skin, which seemed to leave marks on the back of her hand with just a little force.
So much so that she didn't dare to hold his hand too tightly for fear of accidentally hurting him.
"I said, how do you take care of yourself Kouhai-kun? Why are you so fair?" Asumi asked this question.
There was nothing to do now, so bringing up random topics to talk about was a good choice.
"Because I rarely go out before, so I'm just pale."
After a moment of silence, Ren gave his answer.
During the ten years he was imprisoned, he only went out for five days.
"That's it." Asumi nodded and said with a smile, "But, Kouhai-kun, you go out often now. Do you think going out is more interesting than staying at home?"
"Um."
Ren always thought so.
"This is the clothing area."
After some casual conversation on that topic, they arrived at the clothing section in the mall.
"How do you want to see it?"
Ren had a little experience in buying clothes, so he planned to listen to Asumi's advice.
"The first step, should we let go of our hands?"
Pointing to the hands they were still holding, Asumi reminded while chuckling.
"Of course, if you want to hold hands with me and buy clothes, it's not impossible."
Hearing this, Ren let go of her hand.
His purpose of holding hands with her was just to prevent getting separated by the crowd. Now that there were fewer people, there was no need to hold hands anymore.
"Kouhai-kun is really cunning." Asumi moved her right hand, "Do you often hold hands with women?"
"No. Just occasionally."
He didn't expect himself to often hold hands with women.
"Occasionally? I always feel like your choice of words is very subtle."
Asumi always felt that if she kept asking more, she would ask some more personal questions, so she chose to stop asking and invited him to walk around the clothing area.
Soon, she found a short-sleeved T-shirt that suited her. After checking the price, she picked it up and asked him, "How do you like this dress?"
This short-sleeved shirt was entirely black, and the only pattern on it was a white moon pattern in the lower right corner of the shirt.
"Not bad."
Because of Fumino, Ren liked things like stars and moons.
"I think it's good too. I'll try it on. You can wait for me here for a moment."
Seeing a store employee walking towards this side, Asumi looked at the size of the shirt and took the initiative to walk over there with the shirt in hand.
"Oh."
In response, Ren was ready to wait here until she returned.
However, as soon as Asumi entered the fitting room, the clerk immediately walked towards him.
"Hello, would you like to try on this shirt?"
As he approached him, the clerk took the initiative to point to another shirt next to it and asked.
Seeing the direction pointed by the clerk, Ren saw a T-shirt that was entirely white, with the only decoration being a small black sun on the upper left chest.
"This one is being tried on by your girlfriend, it's a couple outfit." The clerk then added.
"Couple outfit?"
This was the first time Ren had heard that term.