"So this is what people call, a mall?" You ask before looking at the mall with interest. Charlotte suddenly looks over at you with a confused expression to what you were saying.
"You're joking... You've been to a mall before, right?" Charlotte says as you give off a serious expression signaling her that you weren't joking before letting out a chuckle. "Eh? What's so funny?"
"Charlotte. I find it funny you think that I haven't been to a mall before. Of course, I've been to one. It was a joke... The mood is kind of heavy was all." You smile before walking in.
Charlotte finally realizes it, she runs a bit to catch up with you. "Jeez. I don't know what you've done and haven't done! Don't tease me like that."
"Sorry for my teasing." You look around the mall seeing all the different shops that surrounded both of you. "So what would you like to do? Never really been on a date all my life so perhaps you should take the lead."
"Hold up! What makes you think I know anything?" Charlotte questions causing you to shift your eyes sideways.
"Well you being you, I thought that you would at least had a boyfriend or been on a date or somewhat popular. Was I wrong?" You look back at Charlotte who looked quite embarrassed.
"N-No. I also never been on a date with anyone." You remained speechless at what you heard. "So I also have no experience as well."
"Hmm... Then do you just want to look around and do normal shopping?" You said, trying to come up with stuff to do. "Plus. Now that's summer break is over, I have some stuff that I want to do. Like going to the beach and such. I need to detoxicate from all of that studying."
"Of course you would be like that. In any case, let's go shop around. I need a swimsuit if we plan on going for the beach." Charlotte smiles before looking through.
"Eh..." You question before standing still to contemplate what's going on before realizing what's going on. "Swimsuit?!"
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"I feel so uncomfortable right now..." You mutter as you feel stares coming from all the girls in a swimsuit store waiting for Charlotte to try out a swimsuit. You look around to see many girl swimsuits around you causing a nervous sweat to drop slightly down your neck. It wasn't for a few minutes before Charlotte comes out with her swimsuit leaving you speechless as you couldn't help but stare at the sight that unfolded in front of you.
"S-Stop staring at me like that. It's really embarrassing... Pervert." Charlotte mutters with her face flushing bright red. "What do you think?"
You remain speechless before being snapped in reality with the question as you look away rather embarrassed. "It looks good on you. I like it."
"Really?" You nod in response before Charlotte taking a step back into the changing room and comes out in her normal clothes, holding the swimsuit before going to the counter to purchase the swimsuit before realizing something. "Ah..."
"What's wrong? Did you forget your card?" You ask as Charlotte nods. Students who attend IS Academy are given a card which is a credit card of sorts. All students are given a balance every month which can be used for personal pleasure. "Oh well. Nothing we can really do about that. I'll be doing the buying today, then."
"You don't need to do that. I can just get it another day." Charlotte said before trying to take the swimsuit from the counter as you quickly intervene and give the store clerk your card making the purchase.
"Trust me. I really don't go shopping often. I'll never really spend this money so go ahead. Plus this is a date... so I'll be doing the purchasing." You say before being given back his card and the swimsuit is wrapped up in a clothing store bag. You pick it up with a smile before holding it over your shoulder.
"Thank you," Charlotte said with a smile before looking at the bag before looking at you. "I should at least carry it myself. It's not fair for you to carry it after being the one to pay for it."
"It's no real problem really." You say with a shrug. Charlotte folds her arms giving off the impression that she wasn't going to be letting this go as you finally caved in and hand the bag to her. "So now that we got that now, what do you want to do?"
"We can explore the mall. We are here after all." Charlotte suggests leaving you to think a bit before nodding. "Great. You've been to this mall, before, right? Do you know anywhere we can eat? I'm feeling slightly hungry."
"I mean... There's a crepe place that I used to work at back then." You say thinking about it. "It's right down the hall."
"Alright. Lead the way then." The two leave the swimsuit store and make their way to the crepe place where they ordered their crepes before sitting at the fountain area to eat.
"Looks like your enjoying your snack." You smiled watching Charlotte enjoy her treat. She looks at you real quick before her eyes trail off elsewhere as you couldn't help but chuckle.
"Ain't this a sight for sore eyes. The loner is hanging around with a girl." A voice could be heard from behind both of you causing you two to turn around. A face that you could never forget was standing in front of you with a smug expression on his face.
"And what do you want? Can you just leave me alone, Ryoma?" You grit your teeth while staring at the figure. The figure was Kazuma Ryoma, a student that went to the school that you used to attend to before transferring to IS Academy. "Are you going to harass me again with your stupid mom is dead jokes?"
"Hold on. You know this person, (Y/N)?" Charlotte questions while seeing how irritated you were.
"I definitely know this scumbag. He would bully and harass like there was no tomorrow because he thinks that he's all high and mighty because his father is part of the Diet." You stood up to face Ryoma.
"Oh come on, (Y/N). Don't be like that. You remember when we were classmates since primary school." Ryoma comments before walking towards you. Before you even realize it, your whole body was shaking. Memories of what Ryoma had done to you was overwhelming over the years causes you to take a step back. Before he knew it, Ryoma had his arm around your neck giving it a tight squeeze forcing you to not being able to breathe. "So (Y/N). Are you going to introduce me to your lady friend? He seems way above your league so you don't mind if I take her off your hands."
His grip gets tighter and tighter and your head was starting to get a little woozy before suddenly a sudden thud sound could be heard. You dropped onto the floor letting out loud coughs, desperately gasping for air. You look up to see Charlotte kneeling down to help you and another familiar figure with her foot on Ryoma. It took a while for you to figure out exactly who your savior was.
"What are you doing bullying one of my friends, huh? That's not cool whatsoever!" Ling comments pushing her foot down on Ryoma as he screams in pain. It was truly remarkable as Ryoma was definitely well built and in shape and it looked like Ling was able to take care of him no problem.
"Damn it, you bitch..." Ryoma grunts as he rolls over causing Ling to lose her balance and fall on her butt. Ryoma stands up before cracking his knuckles while giving an irritated glare at Ling. "Now it's my turn to return the payback for earlier."
"I will not allow that to happen." A wooden katana smacks the back of Ryoma's heading dealing another blow revealing Houki, Ichika, Cecile, and Laura standing behind the figure. Houki places the katana away before helping Ling up before looking at you and Charlotte. "Are you ok, (Y/N)?"
"I-I'm fine... Thanks." You managed to let out from all the gasping with Charlotte supporting you. It was a few moments before you were able to fully recover and was able to stand up, though your legs were still shaking. You look up to see Ryoma standing up once again. Though being a bully, he seems quite resilient but it was quite obvious that he was a bit tired after taking blows from girls who fight under the supervision of the military. Ryoma takes one last stance before rushing over with Charlotte having enough and pushes Ryoma away for him to hit the edge of the fountain and he falls in.
"Nice push Charlotte..." You managed to say before feeling a bit woozy and falling on your butt. Another few moments passed and you start seeing clearly again with all of your friends surrounding you.
"Hey. Take it easy. I'm surprised that you're able to be conscious after all that." Ling comments with concern.
"Y-Yeah. Thanks." You mutter still a bit dazed with Houki and Charlotte helping you up to your feet. "What happened to Ryoma?"
"Gone. After Charlotte's final blow, he was out of it for a few seconds. After that, he ran off as fast as he could." Laura comments with her usual calm and collected demeanor. "I could have stopped him but Ichika stopped me."
"It would have just been more of a headache if we just followed him." Ichika comments. "Plus. I think he learned his lesson after what happened today to not bully you anymore."
"Are you alright? You were coughing a lot." Charlotte asks with concern.
"My head hurts a lot." You groan while rubbing your head.
"It's probably because of the lack of oxygen from him choking you. Was he trying to kill you?! He was a despicable person." Cecile said with everyone nodding in agreement.
"Though he somewhat saw you two earlier," Laura said looking at you with a curious look. "(Y/N)... You didn't even try to resist. It looked like your froze up. Care to explain why?"
"I-I..." You mutter trying to let out the words. It was a hard thing to bring up all those hard memories and the next thing that you knew, all of the memories of what he did to you came out like clockwork. From the constant bullying to the massive amounts of damage that came, it was definitely something overwhelming. The most your friends could do after hearing that was to comfort you after all that.
It wasn't until a little while before you stood up and took a massive breath. "Alright. That's enough sulking for now."
"You sure that you'll be alright? I think you should rest a bit more." Charlotte looks at you with a look of concern.
"Trust me. I'm perfectly fine." You let out a small smile. "But thanks Charlotte for your concern... Speaking of which. Why are all of you together?"
You point to Houki, Ichika, and the others with a sense of suspicion. The group was mostly giving off slight looks to Ichika while Ichika just gave a blank expression.
"We just came for swimsuits. It's nothing special really." Ichika comments as everyone slightly groans with how dense that last statement was.
'What are we going to do with this guy?' Everyone else thinks to themselves with a sigh.
"Well since we're all here together, why don't we plan for a trip to the beach? It is summer vacation after all!" Ling comments receiving agreements from everyone.
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"That bitch... I'm going to make them pay for what they did to me." Ryoma comments while storming off from the mall dripping wet. He recalls the scene that had just happened. "That girl he was with... She had the audacity to push me while hanging around with that loser... Though something is off... She's foreign."
Again while Ryoma may be a bully, he is indeed both smart and able to point out a few things with a simple look.
"Which means that she might be a transfer student... I think I have the perfect revenge for those two." Ryoma chuckles a bit before walking towards his father's office.