“Would you mind, if I keep you companion, while you look for some others? We aren’t hanging around really often." Or better said never.
"Not at all, Nakamori-chan… be my guest. After all, I do believe I said something about lunch later… There’s a delicious little cafe further into the mall that makes crepes of both savory and sweet. I’m not certain what kind of food you like, but I always love to stop there when I have the chance. What do you think?”
She smiled softly at, taking the tie in her hand. “The tie looks great! I’ll buy it for my father. What about you? Do you like the ties or do you want to look a bit more for some others?” She somehow got the feeling, that the ties she chose for him, wasn’t really what he was looking for.
“Well…” Hakuba glanced down at the selection in his hands and once again evaluated, attempting to determine which was more important – the daughter of Nakamori-keibu’s personal feelings, or getting the right tie – and floundered.
“Perhaps I need to keep looking just a little longer. I can always use more ties, after all. You never know what occasion will come up with them…"
“I thought about buying a black tie for him. They really suit him.” She kneeled down and looked for a black tie. “Hm.. I don’t see any black tis here. Do you see any, Hakuba-kun?”, she asked the detective behind her.
Hakuba continued to rub the tie between his fingers as he turned his attention back to the racks, working his way through the colors to reach up to a set of black ties higher up. “There are some here,” he said, and read over the labels to find one of higher quality. Once he found one of a suitable thread count and length, he pulled it from the hook and offered it to her. “Here… he may like this if it’s within your price range. The width of it is just right for the windsor knots he usually wears."
“Then how about a red or white tie? It got pretty rare to see people walk around with ties in these colors.”, she suggested to the detective, while she searched through all the different ties taking a red and a white one, showing them to him. “What do you say?”
“Red and white?” Hakuba repeated, looking down at the offered tie with a bit of a helpless expression. It weren’t exactly what he would have picked, but he supposed it were functional enough. He reached to take the slip of fabric from her, fingers running over the surface for a critical analysis. “I’ll… think about it. Which are you thinking for your father, again?”
As he asked, he thought about what he’d seen the inspector wearing before and wondered if, perhaps, his lack of fashion had been his own fault or that of Aoko. Was she to be Nakamori-keibu’s savoir, or was an intervention necessary? Was it even his place to worry about his superior’s attire?
Perhaps Nakamori would have better luck if he dressed a little more professionally. But then, did he want him to have better luck? Would a change in dress actually even help anything? Perhaps it might improve his own opinion of the man, at least… … … not that he deserved it, but it was something to think about.
She thought about it for a moment but then acepted his offer. “Sure! I’d love to go eat lunch with you! Well, we should get going. It surely it will be troublesome to find a fitting tie for you, since I’m sure that every kind of tie will look great on you.”, she said and walked towards a shop that sells ties.
Well, at least she sounded sincere when giving the compliment. Hakuba managed a small, but genuine smile at her, brows knitting. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad after all. It was just spending the afternoon with his classmate, right? He followed along with her, wondering what kind of store Aoko frequented, given their vastly different price ranges. But if he could find something with the right material or thread count, perhaps it was salvageable…
Besides, it was retail therapy, not a tie needed for any sort of function. Hm.
“That’s very sweet of you to say, Nakamori-chan. I can only hope that you’re right, though the biggest trouble will be finding something different enough from the ties that I already have.” He chuckled. Oh what a good joke. Even though it was true. The detective had far, far too many ties.
“Oh really? That’s nice. If you want to, we could buy one together. You know, my dad asked me to buy him a new one anyway. So I wouldn’t mind helping you to find one too.”, she offered him with a smile on her lips.
Oh. Getting help buying a tie? Hakuba resisted the urge to make a horrified face, instead forcing his smile to be just a little bit broader. It was strained at best. He didn’t need help buying a tie. He didn’t need help with anything, really, and especially not with clothing.
But… it was a sweet offer… and the detective didn’t have it in him to be overtly cruel, so with a sort of sag in his shoulders he nodded, corner of his mouth twitching. “Certainly… yes, that would be wonderful, Nakamori-chan. Perhaps…” No, don’t say it. “Perhaps we could get lunch together while we’re at it?”
God, no what was he getting himself into?
Her eyes widened a bit at his question. “What do you mean ‘my’ Kaito? It’s not like we’re dating or anything. I was just about to buy some things here. How about you?”, she asked the tall boy in front of her.
“Ah hah.” Hakuba coughed politely into a fist and glanced away, folding hands behind his back at his faux pas. “Ah, yes, quite. Ah, I’m here with plans of a similar design. I’m…” He wondered if there was any real merit to telling her of his plans, but there didn’t really seem to be any way out of it, either. “…shopping for a new tie, actually.”
He only hoped that she wouldn’t tease him. After all, it was well known (at least as far as he was aware) that he had a very extensive collection of ties already.
Aoko was just hanging out at the mall as someone familiar passed her by. She turns her head a little to see who it was. ”Isn’t that Hakuba?” She followed him for a few seconds to make sure that she won’t greet him to end up talking to a total stranger. As she finally was able to see his face she was totally sure that it was him. “Hey, Hakuba!”, she friendly said as she walked over to him waving with her hand.
For a moment, Hakuba thought about not answering the call from that familiar voice. No! She’ll only get between you and your new ties! The detective winced, considering… but it would be so, so rude in either culture to simply ignore the call of one who was supposedly his friend. At the very least, Nakamori Aoko was his classmate, and that held SOME sort of weight, surely. Particularly because of her ties with that stubborn Kaitou-in-disguise that she usually hung around with…
Defeated, he forced a smile and turned to her, raising a hand in greeting in return. “Hullo, Nakamori-chan… fancy meeting you here. Is your Kuroba-kun with you?”
Ah, the shopping district of Shibuya – the perfect place for some retail therapy. Hakuba, the prestigious and famous foreign high school detective, left his car in the parking garage and stepped into the large mall with a deep, happy sigh. It was the weekend, he’d finished all of his homework, his case files, and his chores, and there was nothing else left to get between himself and a brand new tie.
Or so he thinks…
