Narumi Tōru considered himself neither a highly efficient multitasker capable of running several threads at once, nor a pure-hearted youth who believed he would meet the person he could spend his entire life with at such a young age.
Of course, very few people actually manage "one person for a lifetime," but his computer could manage to run only one application at a time—cough, that analogy might have gone a bit off track.
In any case, as a complete beginner who had never gone on a date before, he felt it would be better to start with the tutorial mode and gradually adapt to the rhythm.
"Throwing me straight into a date with Yukinoshita, Yamada, and Bocchi all at once… for someone like me, who's going out with girls for the first time, that difficulty level feels a bit too high."
Take steps that are too big and you're bound to pull a muscle—after all, one wrong move and things could spiral out of control.
So the simplest solution was to temporarily stop treating his appointment with Yukinoshita as a "date" in the first place.
"What date? What meeting? No one ever said that, right? We just agreed to go shopping together."
If they were going shopping to buy something for Yuigahama-san, then having a few extra companions along wasn't unreasonable at all. Yukinoshita should be able to understand that.
Yes, up until then, Narumi had been clinging to that kind of wishful thinking.
That was, until ten o'clock on the morning of the agreed-upon weekend, when he stood outside the shopping mall and spotted the slender figure of a black-haired girl standing right at the center of the mall's main entrance.
Since Yamada and Bocchi didn't live along the same route as him and would have to come from their own homes, Narumi hadn't expected them to arrive on time anyway. He had simply agreed to meet them inside the mall later, and came ahead to meet Yukinoshita first—and, just as expected, those two slowpokes were both late.
Dressed in a carefully chosen, light-blue summer dress, Yukinoshita Yukino had, quite rarely, tied her long hair into twin ponytails that fell behind her. Paired with the small leather bag slung over her shoulder and a cool, stylish sunhat, she looked unmistakably like someone who had put serious effort into preparing for an important date.
"..."
The curly-haired boy didn't immediately walk up to her. Instead, he lowered his head and took a look at what he himself was wearing that day.
A loose, oversized black hoodie, equally casual and baggy gray sweatpants, and an utterly ordinary pair of black-and-white skate shoes.
Standing together like that, the two of them looked like characters who had stepped out of completely different art styles—if not entirely different worlds.
If Yukinoshita Yukino was the kind of refined young lady whose privileged upbringing was obvious at a glance, someone with a keen sense of aesthetics and fashion, then Narumi Tōru looked exactly like the kind of otaku who would dive headfirst into figure shops or Nintendo-exclusive stores, freeze in his tracks at the sight of a cute maid advertising a café on the street, and wear "my money is easy to scam" right on his face.
But judging a book by its cover was a good way to get burned.
Narumi didn't care whether this outfit—one that others might easily equate with a "gloomy shut-in otaku"—would be seen as somehow "unworthy" of Yukino. He simply walked up to her with an easy, relaxed stride.
"Yo. Sorry to keep you waiting, President."
He greeted her with his usual bright smile. The black-haired girl, who had been quietly surveying her surroundings, turned at the sound of his voice and met his gaze.
"It's fine. I haven't been waiting that long."
She showed no sign of caring about his clothes, not even giving him a scrutinizing once-over—and that, surprisingly enough, caught Narumi off guard.
"…What's with that look?"
His brief hesitation caused Yukino—who had just been about to turn and head into the mall—to pause and refocus her attention on his face.
"Ah, nothing. I just thought you might be a bit disappointed that I showed up dressed like this for our—uh—outing."
"There's no need to project such shallow assumptions onto me."
Yukinoshita Yukino shot him an annoyed glance.
"What kind of clothes are appropriate for what kind of occasion is a standard I impose on myself. I have no right to demand that others conform to my preferences. And besides, I'm not the sort of person who judges others based on their outward appearance."
Only then did she give Narumi a brief look from head to toe, before turning on her heel and walking into the mall.
"And if Narumi-kun does feel like changing his look, then this is a perfect opportunity to get you some new clothes, isn't it?"
She waved her hand in a clear follow me gesture. Narumi, who hadn't expected her to handle things so smoothly, followed after her a beat later.
"I thought Yukino would be all awkward and stiff about this, but she's surprisingly calm and composed."
She led the way with practiced ease, guiding Narumi through floor after floor of shopping areas while asking for his opinions and calculating what kind of gift would be best for Yuigahama.
Compared to before, today's Yukinoshita Yukino gave off a much stronger sense of being in control.
Of course, if Narumi had known what was going through Yukino's mind as she walked a few steps ahead, he probably would have retracted that newfound admiration.
"Good. Cultivating a calm, unflustered attitude when dealing with trivial matters is the first step toward maturity."
In a corner unseen by anyone else, Yukinoshita Yukino quietly clenched her small fist.
Ever since her sister, Yukinoshita Haruno, had made those pointed, meaningful remarks that day, Yukino had found herself tossing and turning at night over it—she had even pulled out her phone the night before this outing and scrolled through articles she would normally scoff at, like "How Should You Dress for a First Date?" and "What to Pay Attention to When Going Out with Someone Special for the First Time."
Yukinoshita Yukino was exactly the type of person who would chant internally, "No, this is way too stupid. Why am I even reading something this dumb," while still being unable to resist going back over it several times to memorize the key points.
Or the type who would think, "I'm not going to dress up just to leave a good impression on that guy," only to end up—true to form—showing up in what she herself believed to be the most appropriate and prettiest outfit anyway.
Clear-headed yet contradictory—that was probably the perfect set of keywords to annotate Yukinoshita Yukino's personality.
Although she genuinely didn't care what kind of clothes the boy chose to wear to meet her, the fact that he hadn't shown any particular concern about his appearance still left her feeling a little disappointed.
Was it because, in the end, he only saw her as a familiar face at school—a club president, nothing more?
Yukino hid that faint sense of frustration well. After all, there was still plenty of room to take things slowly—
Until she turned her head, no longer walking in front, and an unexpected figure entered her field of vision.
"U-um… Koumi-senpai…?"
"Oh, Bocchi-chan. Morning, morning."
The pink-haired girl had popped up from who-knew-where and appeared right beside the curly-haired boy, the two of them chatting away with inexplicable familiarity.
"?"
Yukinoshita Yukino froze on the spot.
Dating strategy guides hadn't mentioned what you were supposed to do when a second girl suddenly appears mid-date.