Crossing Paths, Traumatized, and Yet…

The next day, Daiki rushed out to buy a gift for Shion.

But he was not sure what to buy.

He did not know what Shion wanted, just like he did with Wakaba.

He reminded himself that he didn’t know Shion as well as she knew him, but he still had to choose a gift.

He thought about it as he recalled Shion.

There were many things that looked good and many accessories that would suit her.

He was getting more and more confused.

He decided to go around the stores for the time being, but nothing seemed to fit.

Daiki was at a loss.

“What is good?”

He walked around looking at various stores, muttering to himself.

In the end, he did not know what to choose, so he decided to look it up on the Internet.

Daiki looked for something that would not make him feel uncomfortable while researching on the Internet.

“Hand cream?”

It was listed in the Christmas gift ranking on the Internet.

He thought that hand creams would be easy to use and would not cause any trouble, so he went to a store that stocked fashionable hand creams, picked out about three, and had them wrapped.

Since it was past Christmas, the wrapping was ordinary, but he felt relieved that he could buy a Christmas gift in return.

All he had to do was to give it to her, but he didn’t know where Shion lived, and he felt bad asking her to come over.

He decided to call her and ask her if he could give it to her today.

“Hello, what’s up, Daiki?”

Shion answered immediately.

Daiki answered,

“Hello, Shion? I’m sorry for calling so suddenly. I wanted to return yesterday’s gift and give it to you, but I was wondering if I could give it to you today?”

He asked.

“Eh? Today? I don’t need a gift in return. I just wanted to give it to you on my own.”

Shion said so, but Daiki said,

“No, that’s not okay. If today is not a good day, when can I give it to you?”

Shion got impatient and said,

“I’m fine with today!”

She answered with vigor.

Daiki was relieved that he could give it to her today.

“Thank you. I don’t know where Shion lives, where should I go?”

Daiki asked.

Shion replied,

“Home? Uhm, home?”

She asked twice.

“It would be bad to ask you to come over, so I thought I’d take you home.”

When Daiki told her again, Shion said

“You don’t have to go to my house. I’m going to Daiki’s now. Please let me come!”

Daiki felt bad and said

“I will feel bad. I’ll come over, okay?”

But Shion did not back down.

“I’ll come. Where are you? I’ll get ready and head there right away!”

So he had no choice but to wait for her to come to the place where he was.

Shion called him to let him know she was nearby, so he headed over there and found her wearing a different clean outfit than yesterday.

“I’m sorry you had to come over, is everything okay?”

Daiki asked Shion.

“I’m totally fine. On the contrary, I am sorry!”

Daiki laughed at the way Shion said it.

“But thank you for coming. You look stylish today too. Unlike yesterday, you look like a beautiful older lady!”

When he told her what he thought, she turned red again and said shyly.

“Thank you.”

She said.

Daiki replied

“Here, this is for you because of yesterday, if you want to use it!”

and he handed her the gift he had just bought.

Shion accepted it apologetically.

“I’m really sorry for making you feel obligated to return the favor. But I’m happy, thank you!”

She was so happy.

Then Shion said

“Daiki, do you have any plans after this?”

Daiki replied by asking

“Plans? I think I’m just going home after this.”

He answered.

Shion looked embarrassed again.

“Since we’ve just met, why don’t we go out together for a while?”

“Now that we’ve met, why don’t we go out together for a bit?”

Daiki didn’t have any plans either.

“Sure. Where shall we go?”

And they decided to go out together.