Chapter 13: Dreamland

All of the club members were dragged by Kenji to a mall, although, Kazuya proposed to use his car, which was driven by Kiko.

"I always go to this shop whenever I have anything to add or change with my dorm room." Kenji informed the others, as soon as they arrived at their destination.

Kiko opened the doors for everyone and they got out one by one.

The store was named Dreamland, it was huge and flamboyant. It was filled with accessories, stickers, merchandise, and last but not the least, home decor.

They all entered the shop and all of them were shocked by the amount of items sold in there.

"So, I was thinking about what senpai, uhh..." Kenji trailed off then stopped himself. "Oh! Wait, I haven't introduced myself, yet. I am Nakamura Kenji. I'm from class 1—B, I'm also in the Arts Club. Nice to meet you all." He introduced, bowing. His cheerful smile never left his face.

"Oh, well. I'm Yamaguchi Yutarou. As you already know." Yutarou said, he looked at the others who had no desire to introduce themselves. The boy sighed and started introducing the others, as well. "This is my friend, Takahashi Keijirou." Keijirou gave Kenji a brief smile. "This is our classmate, Sato Akira, we're all from class 2—A." Akira nodded at the underclassman. "And, then, these are our upperclassmen, Suzuki Kazuya—senpai, Hime Jiyuu—senpai, and Kaneko Hiroshi—senpai."

"'Sup." Jiyuu greeted while Kazuya didn't even bother looking at Kenji. Hiroshi, as usual, had his apathetic expression.

"Nice to meet you all!" Kenji exclaimed. "Anyway, continuing my sentence earlier. Hime—senpai said something about the club room being appealing to all. It just so happens that I have an idea." He started to suggest a bunch of things.

"Alright, let's hear it." Jiyuu nodded.

"Well, first we must choose a theme. Some of my suggestions are the Four Seasons, we decorate the room with the aesthetic of either summer, winter, spring, or autumn. Another one is astrology, more specifically, constellations. We can also use the classics. Maybe, we buy some paintings and hang it on the wall. Or, have the hosts' painting on the wall." Kenji blabbered. He had always liked art, especially the abstract ones. The more they don't make sense, the more they made sense to him. Because just like those abstract painting, they may seem strange and effortless, there is still a great meaning behind it. At least, that was his opinion.

"Not gonna lie here, those are great ideas." Jiyuu admitted.

Yutarou thought that Jiyuu should just become a member of the club at this point, the founder, aka, Kazuya and the co—founder, aka, Hiroshi, had nothing to say whatsoever.

"Right? I'm glad you like it." Kenji chuckled.

"I like the constellations one. However, something about it doesn't seem right." Yutarou asserted.

"Okay. What do you suggest, senpai?" Kenji asked.

"How about we do Spring? We've only started this, so Spring would be a good theme. New beginnings and such." Yutarou suggested.

"Senpai has a point." Kenji agreed.

"I'll go with whatever Yuu—chan is choosing." Kazuya declared.

"I don't care." Hiroshi said, apathy displaying on his face.

"How about we look at how good the "aesthetics" of the said theme first? We should investigate before jumping into conclusions." Akira stipulated, pushing his glasses upwards.

"I guess you're right." Jiyuu shrugged.

"Oh, it's Kenji—kun!" The lady who seemed to be on their lasted 30's exclaimed, as soon as she noticed Kenji.

"I'm back, Oba—san." Kenji grinned, picking up the largest basket on the side.

"Oh! She knows you?" Jiyuu inquired. She also took a basket from the piled up ones.

"Yeah, I'm a regular customer here." Kenji answered.

"What is it that you'll buy today, young man?" The lady asked.

"Well, we're decorating our club. We've decided on a few designs. May we ask for the Four Seasons aesthetics, uh, Constellations, maybe some, Greek Mythology ones, as well." Kenji recited his suggestions.

The lady wrote them all down on a piece of paper. "Coming right up. As usual, you may use the testing room. Go ahead and bring your friends." The testing room is where people can bring the decorations they liked and test it out on the walls, ceiling, and even the floor.

"Thank you, Oba—san." Kenji bid. He and the others went in the testing room, then.

Yutarou bowed before going in and the lady smiled at him.

"Don't you just adore kids with good manner? Hard to find them in this generation." The lady sighed, shaking her head.

"Woah!" Jiyuu admitted the area.

"I'm actually loving the Autumn and Greek Mythology aesthetics. Hahh... Here comes my indecisiveness." Jiyuu fawned over everything she could see. "Why don't you guys pick?" That was Jiyuu's last words before disappearing from their sight. "I'll look around the shop. Ooh! So pretty! So pink!" She exclaimed, looking at the Barbie aesthetic.

"Barbie really is popular worldwide. Mattel has it good." Yutarou mumbled.

"It's been so long I haven't watched this show." Kenji held a Madeline Hatter doll.

"Ever After High." Yutarou uttered. It was also created by Mattel.

"You know this, too, senpai?" Kenji consulted with a bright smile on his face.

"Yeah. I remembered falling in love with Raven's character. I loved all the Wonderland characters, too, especially Kitty Cheshire." Yutarou blathered. He loved the writing style of that cartoon. The theme and the lessons learned were deep and interesting. Especially how Raven wanted to be a good person, instead of being hated by everyone just because she was the daughter of the Evil Queen.

Yutarou also loved the LGBTQ+ representation of that show. They had their own unique personalities despite being queer.

As an author, he loved that touch. It was one of the works that inspired him in his past life.

"Oh, yes! She just loves to cause ruckus anywhere she goes." Kenji giggled.

"She did it for validation, though." Yutarou gave out a butter smiled.

"Ha." Kazuya scoffed, looking away when Yutarou faced him.

The group started to discuss in what theme they wanted to use and which decorations they wanted.

"Alright, we've been here for half an hour, have you guys chose your theme?" Jiyuu asked the others.

"The Spring theme do sounds tempting. The aesthetic fits well with our brand new club, as well." Akira said, sharing his vision.

"Floral designs to sound tempting! The butterflies, too!" Kenji exclaimed.

"Yuu—chan, let's go and ditch them." Kazuya whispered on Yutarou's ear.

"Huh—what? But..." Yutarou stammered.

"It's gonna be okay, they're just looking at some artsy stuff anyway. Let's go eat at a restaurant or something." Kazuya invited.

"But, Suzuki—senpai, they might think that we got lost." Yutarou reasoned out.

"It's okay, besides, we both have our phones with us." Kazuya brought out his phone, it was in gold color but it looked exactly the same as what he had given Yutarou.

"Eh?"

"I bought one for me, as well, so we'll match." Kazuya told the boy. "Do you like the gift I gave you?" He asked.

'If you mean that billions of yen, then, no. I'd rather not be indebted to you.' Yutarou groaned.

"Y—yeah. Your generosity has been deeply appreciated, senpai." Yutarou said in a cheerful voice, trying to smile.

"What do you want to eat, Yuu—chan?" Kazuya asker, dragging him out of the store

"I don't know, senpai, I'm not that hungry. Besides, I don't have much money on me." Yutarou explained. He didn't want to go with the redhead yandere. Who knows? Kazuya could isolate him, then kill him.

"Pfft, come on. My treat." Kazuya slung his arm in Yutarou's shoulder.

"Ah, no, no. You already gave me a gift. How could I abuse your kindness?" Yutarou shook his head.

"Nonsense. I'm doing because I want to." Kazuya chuckled.

"...okay." Yutarou agreed, not wanting to trigger the yandere.

"Do you want to go somewhere?" Kazuya asked him.

"Well, if you ask me, a bookstore, I think?" Yutarou responded, immediately.

"Sure, I've seen one here. Oh, right there." Kazuya trailed his eyes until he saw their desired destination, pointing at it.

Yutarou's eyes sparkled as soon as he saw the piled up books. His heartbeat raced and his breathing hitched. It was as if he could die right at that moment. His hands were trembling, and he wasn't able to wipe off the grin plastered on his face.

"What, you're paying more attention to the bookstore than me." Kazuya blurted out.

Yutarou snapped back to reality. "No, not at all. It's just that, it's been a while since I went out the campus. Just feeling nostalgic, you know." He explained.

"If you want to buy anything, use this." Kazuya took something from his wallet, handing it to Yutarou.

"Oh, no! I'm just looking around." The teal haired declined.

"You sound like a stalker." Kazuya laughed.

'You're one to talk, you yandere!' Yutarou wanted to retort.

Yutarou stared at the gold card in hands.

Money. It was something he had never been able to attain before. If only he had money, his family would've been still alive and his dreams would've been accomplished.

Yutarou shook his head.

The bribe was really tempting, considering this was a bookstore he's currently standing in front of.

Would he risk his life just to read a few books that will give him happiness for at least an hour in a day?

The answer is...

Yes, he would.

He definitely would.

An aspiring author like him whose dreams were to be surrounded by books, both his works and others'...

Yutarou's feet dragged him inside and his eyes roamed around the store.

Kazuya was walking behind him. Yutarou didn't notice but he had been making weird face expressions for the past minute, and Kazuya deemed himself lucky to see them. He had a good laugh, as well.

He was looking for a flower dictionary, a Greek mythology book, zodiac dictionary, or MBTI personality studies.

"Uhm..." Yutarou squatted on the ground. There weren't that much costumers and he was able to look at all the books in peace.

"So, that's what you picked?" Kazuya asked him.

"No, I can't pick between these five." Yutarou answered, he had all the books that he wanted earlier, and now, he's trying to figure out which one is the most important.

"Why pick? Just buy them all." Kazuya raised his eyebrow, as if that was the only option to begin with.

'Damn these rich kids!' Yutarou cursed.

"But, senpai..."

"Nope, we're buying them all and that's final." Kazuya said, carrying the books to the counter.

'Why are you doing this to me? Are you putting me in debt so you could blackmail me?' Yutarou was bribed. He wanted to take the chance of read the books he wasn't able to before.

Yutarou's worries were gone by a heartbeat the moment he bought the books and secured them in his bag.

Yes, he was that shallow.

Yutarou was smiling, even though his jaw started to hurt.

The phone in his bag ringed, then.

"Yamaguchi! Finally! Kazuya wasn't answering his phone!" Jiyuu exclaimed.

"What? He said that..." Yutarou glared at Kazuya who just tilted his head when their eyes met. "Nevermind. What is it, senpai?" He focused on what Jiyuu had to say instead.

"We're in a restaurant, right now. You both come here immediately." Jiyuu informed.

"Which restaurant, senpai?" Yutarou asked.

"XXX."

"Okay, we'll be there." Yutarou said. "Let's go, senpai. Hime—senpai called for us." He dragged the redhead to the restaurant Jiyuu told them about.

"Okay." Kazuya was more than willing to accompany him, even though their time alone was done. He had held hands with Yutarou.

As soon as the two joined the group, Kazuya and Jiyuu has entered in a all—you—can—eat competition with 30 other participants.

15 shopping bags were visible beneath the group's tables.

They won and were granted free meals along with the whole group.

∞

Kazuya was in the bathroom. He held his hand close to his lips.

"Even his scent smells nice..." He mumbled. "His compliments never fails to amuse me." The boy smiled.