8 The Fitting Room

She opened the door with ease. Her clacking heels entered the room and the young Tadashii soon followed.

Fluorescent lights were scattered about the ceiling, the light permeating beautifully onto the room. There were only about 4 fitting stations which was certainly surprising. But, the thing that shocked him the most was not the fact that there was such a small number of stations for a spacious room.

It was the fact that there were no curtains with the stations. After seeing that, he gulped. He assumed he'd probably have to come here perhaps once or twice every year, or maybe even every time he needed to get a new outfit. It probably wasn't uncommon for uniforms to get torn up in a school that practiced magic. Essentially, he'd have to see and be seen by other boys while he was being fitted. No, wait. Perhaps there was magic that allowed one to get someone else's measurements? Surely. Surely. Suddenly, he began to get a little frustrated with himself. Why was he so nervous of being in his underwear around other boys? It certainly wasn't uncommon, and it's not like his body was displeasing to look at. Then again, it wasn't as if he always fancied the idea of practically getting naked in front of other people-

He went on.

"Ms. Ichida! I've brought our newest student!" Lea raised her voice as if it was necessary. Though the room was spacious, it's not like it was a kilometer long or anything.

…

There was no response.

The only sound that emerged, other than Lea's voice reverberating off the walls, was the gentle noise of swaying cloth. A little towards the back of the room, there was a small table with a thick white cloth over it. On the table laid a book, he assumed it contained all of the students' measurements or something like that.

Lea scoffed in reaction to the silence. "That girl. I told her to be here this morning."

Nakayama walked up to the table with the moving white cloth and peered at the book from above. It was already opened, so all he had to do was turn it around to see what was on it.

Sure enough, it certainly contained all the names of the students, or at least that's what it looked like. However, there was no writing next to the names as if it were some kind of hit list or something.

"That's weird." He thought to himself, paying no attention to Lea's constant calling out for a name he didn't recognize. "If these are all the names of the students, then why are there no measurements?"

He flipped through the pages, getting the same result over and over again.

The cloth, which was now next to his leg, hit him as if it were pushed by an external force. It startled him a little, but he easily brushed it off and sat the book back in its original resting place.

Then, he heard a slight rustling.

"Huh?"

It was coming from the table's cloth, but it was no longer just a subtle swaying of it. It sounded as if something alive was moving beneath the table, or at least somewhere around it. For some reason, it made his stomach drop, but he made no vocalization of his fear. His eyes turned to look at the other side of the table.

And there he saw just a couple of hairs poking out from behind it.

Slowly, he pressed one hand on top of the table to balance himself as he leaned forward. He began to take just a small peak over the table to see what was on the other side. What he saw was the top of someone's head, their red hair----

"Boo!!"

Suddenly, the thing behind the table shot up with a "boo" which was distorted into something unintelligible due to Tadashii's surprise.

"Gaaahh!!" he yelled in shock. His hands flailed in the air and his feet lost their grace as he backed up and began to fall. Lea looked over quickly, but made no big deal of the situation. As he landed on his bottom, the figure of a woman looked at him from behind the table as she stood up from her previously crouched position.

"Ahh! It's a monster! Help! Ms. Akayoruuu!!"

"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" the 'monster lady' laughed mischievously.

Lea walked elegantly over to the situation, standing just beside Tadashii who was now pointing at the 'monster lady' who stood before him.

"Just what were you doing, Ichida?"

"Aaaah-eh...huh?" Tadashii stopped himself, ceasing his overreaction in confusion. He stood up, gripping his suitcases as he did so. Finally, he got a good look at the culprit.

"He-he-he-he-he! I scared you didn't I, little man? Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

She was laughing hysterically in a high pitch at a less-than-climactic prank on her part.

Lea sighed as if she were dealing with two preschoolers. "Mr. Tadashii, this is one of the school's fitting staff, Ms. Maiya Ichida. Though, for all intents and purposes you shall call her Ms. Ichi-"

"Hey, hey, hey! Wait a minute, now! You did that last year, too. Telling these kids to call me by my last name. I don't like that!"

Lea lifted one eyebrow in confusion.

"Hm, you seem to be a fine young man. Ms. Akayoru has a reputation for being a little too professional, so don't mind her." The red-haired lady spoke as if the principal of the school was no more than one of her own friends. "You can just call me Maiya, I don't mind."

"...Okay…?" Nakayama said, a little confused.

This girl was Maiya Ichida. A woman who looked like she was fresh out of high school. She wore cute glasses on her round petite face, decorated by her shoulder-length red hair. Her skin was as smooth and well-kept as a pearl, and she had a rather slender upper body with a curvaceous waist and upper thigh. She wore black leather boots and a white spaghetti strap pleated dress with a tight skirt reaching only about halfway down her thighs with a short white blazer on her top. She was probably only about 5'6 as she was noticeably shorter than both Tadashii and Lea. She looked something like a tomboy as everything about her represented some kind of youthful and playful sexiness rather than maturity.

As if it were her signature pose, she stood with a hand on her hip and a hand held up to her face, her index and middle fingers stretched out with a big smile on her face.

"Huh, she's kinda cute…" Nakayama thought before shaking his head. "No, wait! That's a problem. No way she's one of the fitting staff. I mean, this is an all boys school. Why is a cute girl like her getting the measurements of half-naked guys!?"

At first, he resented that idea. But soon, his teenage instincts kicked in. "Well, maybe it wouldn't be that bad." he thought, closing his eyes and putting his fingers up to his chin. "I guess a little bit of skin-to-skin contact between a man and a woman is only natural."

He nodded to himself with a "hm, hm."

"Oh, wow! You're a handsome one aren't you?" she said playfully with sparkles in her eyes. It looked as if a greedy cartoon character had just come across a mountain of gold coins.

"Ah-!" Tadashii awoke from his thoughts at that remark. "I-uh!"

"This is Ms. Ichida's second year." said Lea. "A teenage boy such as yourself has probably already noticed just how young and pretty she is." She spoke like a robot, but somewhere in between those monotone words was jealousy.

"D'ah, hey! Don't say stupidly embarrassing things about me like that!" Nakayama scolded. Lea took a bow and apologized, though it was probably insincere.

As if she was trying to escape something, Maiya hopped over the table quicker than anything Tadashii'd ever seen before and put her hands on his shoulders. Her nose became uncomfortably close to his face but, for some reason, he felt unable to say or do anything about it.

"Hm. When I first got this job last year, I didn't think I'd see a boy like you at this school!" She said all excited.

"A...boy like me? Eh-ah!!"

Suddenly, she pressed her head up against his chest and rested it there humming to herself. Her red hair grazed his nose and he felt as if he might pass out from all the blood running to his cheeks.

"Wha-! I-wha!? What is she doing!?" he whispered in the direction of Lea.

Maiya took her head off of Nakayama's chest very quickly and peered into his eyes with her own which were brighter than any star.

"Your chest is all hard! It's not like those other soft boys! Do you play any sports? That must explain why you're so fit-uhmf!"

Lea pushed Maiya's face away from Nakayama's, which caused her to fall back a bit. It was somewhat aggressive, but the weird red-head kept laughing anyway.

"I apologize on her behalf. Her wild youth tends to get to her sometimes, so please don't mind her. She's always been like this." Lea said professionally, taking another bow.

Tadashii sighed out of relief. His teenage body absolutely could not handle something like that twice. He thought so anyway. "You keep saying she's young. She's not my age is she?"

"Of course not. She's only recently turned 20 years old. She became a fitting room attendant at age 19."

It would have been a lot more impressive if she'd have been 14 or something, but a 20-year old working with teenage boys was still a shocking thing to hear. That meant she was barely 5 years older than him, if that.

"He-he-he-he-he!" Maiya rubbed her face as if Lea had left a bruise. "Aw, come on Lea! Just let me have my fun!" she said as she rushed over to Tadashii and bear-hugged him, burying her face in his chest yet again.

She kept laughing like a kid in a playground. Her actions weren't necessarily 'weird' or 'malicious' in any way, she just didn't seem to have very many boundaries.

He somehow felt as if he should just get used to her endearing personality and not react too much, so he just sighed instead.

"What a weird girl." he thought to himself.

After about 20 seconds of awkwardly hugging him, Maiya decided to back off from him and prepare for what should naturally come next. She put her hands behind her back and took several steps back while staring him in the eyes like a schoolgirl might do to the boy she likes.

"Well, I guess we should get started!"

She ungracefully ran to the back of the fitting room and fished out a measuring tape. She took off Nakayama's suitcase that he carried on his back, grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him into the nearest fitting station. He was pretty much forced to strip down to his underwear for a reason he didn't quite understand but he reluctantly followed his instructions anyway.

There was a large body mirror in front of him, likely for Maiya's use rather than his own. Just in case she needed to get behind him and take a measurement from there and-

"Wait...a measurement from behind!?" he thought to himself.

He swore he thought he heard the crack of a whip as Maiya approached him from behind with a playful smile and the measuring tape in her hands.

"Have fun." Lea said in a monotone voice.

"Go to hell!" Tadashii thought he said aloud, but it was only in his mind.

First, she started with his collarbone. Simple enough, right?

No. For whatever reason, she decided to make uncomfortable little comments like, "Wow! Your neck is so nice and tight!" or something like that. As she went further down, measuring his arms and head too, she finally came to a midpoint.

"Okay, now I'm moving onto your waist!" she said with a weirdly excited tone of voice. Nakayama could see her behind him in the mirror, a waterfall practically emitting from her mouth.

"You're drooling!" he said angrily.

She decided to get down on her knees and wrap her arms around his naval, tickling him slightly. For whatever reason, it made him incredibly uneasy even though she hadn't done anything yet. His heartbeat sped up and he swore he thought his nose was going to shoot blood like a rocket from his nose.

As she successfully and gently wrapped her arms around his waist with the measuring tape, she fiddled a bit more with the tape, trying to perfectly complete the measurement gathering.

And to do that, she closed her eyes and pressed her cheek up against one of his 'cheeks.'

His jaw silently dropped and his mind squealed like a pig in reaction.

"Fucking what!? What is she doing!? What is happeniiiiingg!?" he internalized.

Surprisingly enough, she made no big deal about it. She simply and professionally carried out her measurement duties.

Though, surprisingly on the contrary, Tadashii could see the reflection of that professional woman behind the both of them with a hand up to her mouth trying to stop herself from laughing.

"You bitch! You knew this would happen didn't you!?" he thought to himself, somehow screaming in his head.

It took her about 10 seconds to complete the waist measurement, then she immediately moved on to the outside leg and the inside leg. There was no reason to measure his feet simply because she could just use the measurement from the shoes he had just taken off. However, she never took her cheek off of his butt ever since the waist measurement. With a slight giggle, she finally stood up behind him.

His entire body shook out of sheer embarrassment. As he turned around, he put his hands and arms over his chest as if he were a topless girl trying to shield herself from an audience. When he met Maiya face to face, he was greeted with one simple statement and a thumbs up from her:

"He-he! Nice glutes!"

"This is totally sexual harassment!"