Ren stood outside the dressing room, leaning against a display rack. He actually forgot how to breathe for a second.
"You don't look stupid," Ren finally managed, his voice slightly softer than usual. He grabbed one last dress from the rack next to him—a sleek black number—and held it out to her with a returning smirk.
"Here, try this one just for fun. But we're absolutely getting the sweater and skirt. That's the winner."
Twenty minutes later, they were walking out of the boutique. Ren was casually carrying three glossy shopping bags filled with the extra dresses and casual tops he had absolutely insisted on buying for her, completely ignoring her protests about him spending his money.
As they merged into the crowded mall concourse, Ren found his gaze constantly drifting to his right.
Maki was walking a half-step ahead of him, her dark green ponytail swaying slightly with her confident strides. Without the heavy, suffocating weight of her Jujutsu life dragging her shoulders down, she looked genuinely stunning.
Maki caught him staring from her peripheral vision. A faint pink dusted her cheeks, and she defensively crossed her arms over her chest, the heavy cursed tool bag still slung securely over her shoulder.
"Stop staring," she muttered, though there was no real venom in it. She looked down at the soft fabric of the beige turtleneck.
"It's... weird. It's my first time actually wearing these kinds of clothes. I'm used to things that are tear-resistant and dark enough to hide... dirt." She caught herself right before saying blood.
"You look beautiful, Maki," Ren said effortlessly, completely ignoring her flustered scowl.
He shifted the shopping bags to his left hand and closed the small distance between them. Without making a big deal out of it, he reached out, his fingers brushing against hers before he gently but firmly took her hand.
Maki's breath hitched. She stiffened for a fraction of a second—her combat instincts practically hardwired to react to sudden touches—but as soon as she felt the warm, familiar grip of his hand, she immediately relaxed, her fingers slowly intertwining with his.
"So," Ren said, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze to distract her from her nerves. He looked around the multi-level mall.
"Now that you're officially dressed for a date, where to? You want to grab some coffee? Or tea? I know a great spot right down the street near Shibuya crossing."
Maki's heart skipped a beat, but this time, it had absolutely nothing to do with romance.
Shibuya crossing? Main Tokyo? Maki's mind instantly began running tactical calculations at lightning speed. No way in hell.
If we stay in central Tokyo, the chances of running into someone from the school are dangerously high.
Fushiguro patrols around here, Satoru is always roaming around looking for trendy desserts, and if Panda catches me skipping training to hold hands in a mall... I'll never hear the end of it.
If her classmates figured out she was dating someone, they would either tease her mercilessly or, worse, drag Ren into their dangerous, cursed world. She couldn't risk it.
"No," Maki blurted out, maybe a little too quickly. She squeezed his hand, pulling him gently but urgently toward the exit escalators.
"Not Shibuya. Let's go... somewhere else. Somewhere quieter. I know a little tea shop in a totally boring, out-of-the-way district."
...
The train ride out to the sleepy, out-of-the-way district was the deep breath Maki desperately needed. Away from the dense, suffocating cursed energy of central Shibuya, the tight coil of tension in her chest finally unspooled.
They found the quiet little tea shop she had promised. Ren made a point of ordering the most ridiculously sweet pastries on the menu, teasing her relentlessly every time a speck of powdered sugar threatened to ruin her new beige turtleneck. They spent hours just talking, wandering through a local botanical garden, and browsing dusty retro bookstores where Ren pretended to understand high-brow literature just to make her laugh.
As the sun began to dip below the horizon, casting long, golden shadows across the pavement, Maki walked closely beside him, their hands comfortably intertwined.
She caught herself staring at the sidewalk, genuinely bewildered. Since when did my luck get this good? Usually, the Jujutsu world had a terrible habit of ruining her rare moments of peace.
She had spent the first half of the day completely braced for Satoru Gojo to magically pop out of a trash can with a camera, or for a rogue, low-grade cursed spirit to force her to draw a weapon in front of Ren.
But... nothing happened. The universe had miraculously given her a free pass. It was just an uninterrupted, perfect bubble of normalcy.
The streetlights flickered on, buzzing with a faint electric hum as they finally navigated back to Ren's neighborhood.
They were less than a block away from his apartment building when Ren suddenly stopped in front of a brightly lit convenience store.
"Hold that thought," Ren said, gently untangling his fingers from hers. He offered her an easy smile and pointed his thumb at the automatic sliding doors. "I need to grab something real quick. Wait right here?"
Maki blinked, adjusting the strap of her heavy weapons bag on her shoulder. "Right now? We're literally two minutes from your place. What do you even need?"
"Just... last-minute essentials," Ren said smoothly, already taking a step backward toward the store. "I'll be out in sixty seconds. Promise."