205 He...Has a Crush on Me?

It was quite difficult for me to bring myself to purchase the outfit that the girls had picked out for me, but since they've devoted the effort to scour the store for the clothing that suited me, I decided that I should purchase the raiment as a token of approval for their efforts. After the store employee at the counter bagged up the clothing items in the high-quality plastic bags, I scanned my phone on the scanner, paying for the entire outfit and watched as 3500 Vil is taken from my wallet.

I stared at the transaction receipt, feeling a sense of disbelief that clothing would be so expensive. Maybe it's because it's clothing for colder weather, thus it uses more material, but whatever the case was, it's so expensive. I really can't understand how do people afford different outfits? Maybe it's just accomplished through mixing and matching?

Whatever the answer may be to that question, it can be thought over later. I lifted my head and shifted my gaze from the ground beneath me to the road before me. Walking in front of me was the other girls who were chatting amongst themselves, and passing by us were also women who were shopping for clothing either by themselves or with some friends. I didn't know where our destination was as I was simply following behind the others, just like what I like to do even when I was still a guy.

"Where're we headed now?" Irina finally asked out loud.

"Do you still want to look around?" Luna turned around and asked us.

"I think I'm good," I answered, smiling awkwardly as I recalled the high price tag on the clothes that I had already bought. "We can go around and look at clothes for the rest of you."

"Let's do that," Erith nodded. "The day's still young and we still have time."

With that being said, our little group of girls continued roaming the floor, heading to different stores to check out different clothes. Even though I'm not the most confident in my ability to pick out clothing that would be in style, I did my best to try and help the others pick out clothes by simply choosing clothing that I believe would look good on them. Even though the results of my attempts weren't the worst, I believe I still have plenty to learn and improve upon in this field.

During our shopping journey, we came across a store that was selling makeup material. Standing in their respective slots in the display stand were the many different colored lipsticks. Nearby, there were the different colored powder that I believe is used as a foundation. There were just so many different things here that I felt a bit overwhelmed taking them in all at once. Upon seeing the confident and natural behavior the others displayed when picking up and looking at the makeup utensils, I made up my mind that I would have to learn how to apply makeup if I want to blend in and act my part as a normal girl. However, it won't be today though. I won't be buying the makeup materials today. I've already spent too much money today. Besides, it would be quite weird struggling to buy makeup material with the others around me being so adept at it. I'll probably stop by sometime later this week while alone to purchase them.

After walking for a while, I suddenly had a strong desire to urinate, something that has really started bothering me ever since I've been transformed into a girl. Even though I've never tried, I know that trying to hold it in is relatively bad for the body, and since I see no real purpose in restricting myself, I decided to use the restroom.

"I'm going to use the restroom," I said when I saw the restroom sign.

"I'll go with you," Irina said.

"I'll go too," Luna added.

"We'll wait out here then," Erith crossed her arms before her chest and looked over at Muria, who was also standing with her arms crossed. However, Muria had her eyes closed, almost as if she was trying to avoid having a conversation. Like I had guessed, Muria isn't the best at dealing with Erith.

"We won't be long," Irina said as her, Luna, and I walked towards the restroom.

Upon entering, we were greeted with the sound of running water at the sink. When we made the final turn that led us to the main restroom area, I saw that there were two people standing by the sinks. One was washing her hands and the other was standing by the former, chatting as she waited. The girl washing her hands had long hair that was of a similar hair color as that of Irina's and the other girl that was simply standing and waiting had short blonde hair that was down to her upper back.

"Elise," the blonde girl said to the other. "Any luck with finding a boyfriend recently?"

"I'm not in a hurry," the other girl softly chuckled and said. "I'll find someone when the time's right. You should be more worried about yourself."

"If you're not worried, then I guess I shouldn't be that worried myself," the blonde girl sighed.

"I'm done," Elise said as she reached her hand over to the automatic, paper towel dispenser and wiped her hands dry with the paper towel. "Let's go."

"Alright," the blonde girl said.

Then, the two of them walked out of the restroom, leaving Luna, Irina, and I the only occupants of the restroom.

"Boyfriend, huh?" Irina sighed when the two girls were finally out of earshot. "Luna, you have one, right?"

"Y-yeah," Luna responded after a brief, almost nonexistent, period of hesitation.

"You're so lucky," Irina said. "I don't even know when I'll find someone."

"I'm sure you'll be able to find someone," Luna tried to comfort Irina. "You don't have to worry about a lack of boys approaching you."

"Well," Irina smiled bitterly. "That's the bad part about my job." Her facial expression softened. "I can't let my guard down and interact with everyone as equally as possible. There's always the threat of people who approach me just because of my status, what I do, and not for who I am."

"Right," Luna nodded. "You have that issue."

"I think if anyone, Alvelyn would be able to find a boyfriend with no problem," Irina looked over at me.

"M-me?" I said, feeling a bit flustered and surprised.

"Yeah," Irina smiled and gently poked me with her fingers. "So how're things going between you and Loyd?"

"Huh?" I asked, tilting my head in a somewhat confused manner.

"When did this happen?" Luna smiled in an amused manner towards Irina.

"I'm not sure exactly, but I just feel like Loyd has a thing towards her," Irina answered.

"Me?" I exclaimed.

"I just have that feeling," Irina smiled and looked over at me. "I'm not saying anything is true or stuff like that, but just be on the lookout when you're around him."

As the three of us each entered into our own respective stalls, I thought about what Irina had just told me. I suspected something already yesterday, but...I can't believe that it just might happen to be true. Of all people, me, the person that doesn't really existed until a few days ago when I was turned into a girl and would be gone after a month? This is just...bad and awkward.

After we had finished, we approached the sinks to wash our hands. I'm not sure if it was intentional, but the conversation continued from earlier.

"So," Luna looked into the mirror and at me. "What do you think your brother would do if Loyd confessed to you."

"I don't know," I answered. "I'm guessing he'll be conflicted."

"Right," Irina chuckled. "When your best friend tries to date your younger, twin sister."

"That sounds like quite the difficult fact to accept," Luna nodded.

"It is," I sighed.

We then wiped our hands using the paper towels we collected from the paper towel dispenser. Then, we exited the restrooms and rejoined Erith and Muria, who stood quite a distance apart. After that, we continued the shopping spree, making our rounds through this floor of the mall and even riding the escalator to other floors to look at other stuff such as accessories for our rooms, phone cases, and such. Come to think of it, Alvelyn's room is quite bare for a girl's room. That won't do.

After roaming the mall for a bit more, when we approached the escalators leading down, we saw three familiar faces on the one escalator leading down from the floor above ours. On the escalator, Loyd, Noah, and Zaksus appeared somewhat dazed when they saw my face; especially Loyd, who appeared to blush somewhat, which made me frown as I recalled what Irina had informed me in the restrooms. They then greeted us, and upon seeing them, we stopped in our tracks to wait for them to arrive on our floor.

"So I'm guessing we're done for the day?" Loyd asked when he saw the bags in our hands.

"Yeah," Erith nodded.

"Let's head home now," Loyd announced to the rest of us.

Without any objections, everyone piled onto the escalators leading down and started making our way to the ground floor. While we rode the escalator, we made small conversations, and most notably, Noah approached me, leaning from behind me to my ear.

"So what you get?" He whispered.

"Like a coat and stuff," I responded back. "Things are so damn expensive."

"No kidding," Noah said.

As I talked with Noah, I glanced over my shoulders and at Loyd, who I caught observing our conversation intently. On his face, there was a slight frown, maybe due to jealousy.

Looks like that hypothesis is right, I sighed.

"What's the matter?" Noah asked me.

I looked over at Noah. "I think Loyd has a crush on me..."