Friend date? Or something else?

"So today's the date?" Nishikata asked over the phone

"Yup, meet us at the mall within an hour" Takao replied

"Okay we will be there" Nishikata grudgingly replied

"Ok sweet!" Takao excitedly closed the call

Nishikata grabbed his hat, and draped a jacket over his back.

He was dressed surprisingly nice considering the circumstances. He had a white shirt and a black jacket, some jeans covered him under the shirt

He left the house and was surprised by Takagi, who was already outside the door, waiting for him.

"Hey Takagi-san, didn't expect you to be outside my door" Nishikata put his arm behind his neck in mild embarrassment

"Well I wanted to walk to the bus stop with you" Takagi smiled, doing a cute little pose.

"(Ahh she's so cute but I can't let my guard down!)" Nishikata thought as he started to walk to the bus stop with Takagi

The two arrived at the mall and were greeted by two people

"Hey guys! Meet Sanea-chan!" Takao gestured towards a beautiful girl with blonde hair

"(Wow she is pretty...I can't believe she agreed to a date with Takao out of everybody in the world!) Nishikata stared in awe at Sanea, only to be broken out of his hypnotic state by a subtle glare from Takagi

"What is it Takagi-san?" Nishikata turned around to face Takagi

"Umh nothing..." Takagi looked away from him

"Hey you two! Takao told me about you two" Sanea smiled, the 4 friends decided to start walking down the mall

"So Takao told me, are you are the strongest boy in our class?" Sanea asked Nishikata with interest

"I guess so.... I can beat everybody in arm wrestling" Nishikata sheepishly replied

"Except for Takagi-san!" Takao added grinning with excitement

Nishikata rolled his eyes at Takao but smiled anyways from his statement

Takagi hadn't said a word until Sanea switched places with Nishikata to talk to her

"So you must be really strong right?" Sanea bothered

"I guess so.." Takagi mumbled back a reply

"Well that ain't normal don't you think?" Sanea pressured her even more

"Well she beat me because she...she.....never mind" Nishikata died internally of embarrassment

"Hey guys want to go shopping for hats?" Takao offered

The four made their way into a nice hat store and began browsing

"Don't you think this looks nice Nishikata?" Sanea poked his shoulder, revealing a sun hat with the insignia "local tourist"

"Yeah I guess" Nishikata proceeded to put the hat on Sanae's head

Sanea blushed a little before taking off the bat

"Wanna help me shop for more hats?" Sanea politely asked

"(Well why not right? Why not help her?)" Nishikata decides to agree and the two walked together deeper into the store.

"So are you dating Takagi-san?" Sanea questioned

"What!? No I am n-not, I swear!" Nishikata hastily denied it

"Hmm, okay" Sanea picked out another hat

"That one looks good" Nishikata looked at Sanea

"Really? I guess I'll get it then" Sanea happily took the two hats to the cashier where Takao was checking out a baseball hat

"Where's Takagi-san?" Nishikata looked around the store, only to be poked by her when he turned around

"I'am here~" She giggled as Nishikata flusteredly reacted to her sudden poke

"Hey want to split up? Me and Nishikata will go the arcade and you two can figure out where to go." Takao asked

So the 4 split up into pairs as they began to diverge away from one another

"So where do you want to go Takagi-san?" Sanea asked the brown haired girl

"Hmm, you pick" Takagi looked at the two boys leaving

"How bout the swimsuit store?" Sanea offered

"Sure" Takagi replied

She smiled as the swimsuit store the two had chosen was the same swimsuit store her and Nishikata had went inside for her swimsuit

As the two wanted inside of the swimsuit store.

There was another storm brewing inside the mall

"Hey dude you are getting too close to Sanea-San!" Takao panicked

"Sorry I didn't mean to hang out with her like that! She just asked me and I had to say yes! I'll let you hang out with her from now on" Nishikata explained

Takao sighed in relief

"Okay good bro" The two shared a bro hug before leaving for the arcade

At the Swimsuit store

"Wow Takagi! Look at this one!" Sanea showed Takagi a white frilly two piece.

"Wow that one looks pretty nice" She replied

"Are you shopping for a swimsuit as well?" Sanea questioned

"Ah no I already got one from here before" Takagi answered

"With who?" Sanea pressed

"With Nishikata" Takagi looked at Sanea

"Wait you two had gone swimsuit shopping before? Are you two actually dating?" Sanea had already asked Nishikata but she was confused, those activities were reserved for only couples she thought

"No we are not dating" Takagi answered

"Well if you are not dating..." Sanea moved closer and closer. "That Ain't Normal at all" Sanea squinted at Takagi

"Who said it wasn't?" Takagi shot back, a little annoyed

"Well it's clearly not normal, have you seen other non-couples gone swimsuit shopping together before?" Sanae crossed her hand

"Yeah I have" Takagi looked away

"You are lying" Sanea looked at the two boys approaching them

"Well looks like your boyfriend is here to save you" Sanea teased before joining up with the two boys

"Did you guys get anything?" Nishikata explored

"No we didn't, Takagi said she already got one at this place, is that true Nishikata?" Sanae asked, with a little bit of intrigue

"a-ah well yeah... I guess" Nishikata once again slung his arm over the back of his neck

Sanea made a puzzling look before Takao invited them to a juice bar.

"Which one are you getting?" Takagi asked Nishikata

"I guess the Pineapple Fury, what about you?" Nishikata curiously questioned

"I'll get the same as you then" Takagi responded

The two put in there orders as they arrived at the cashier to pay

"Don't worry guys! Since I all invited you here, this one's on me!" Takao proudly payed for everybody

He got a little applause from Takagi and Sanea before realizing he left his new baseball hat somewhere.

"Hey guys I have to go, Sanea can you join me?" Takao had a beseeching look

"No actually I want to talk to Nishikata" Sanea replied before turning her full attention to Nishikata

Nishikata just gave Takao a helpless look saying something along the lines of "not my fault" or "why me?"

Takao turned around in sadness and started walking back to get his baseball hat

"Hey so how did you guys befriend each other?" Sanea asked the two teens

"We meet on the first day of school" Nishikata replied, with a concerned look due to Takagi acting weird.

"Oh really? That's so cool!" Sanea smiled at the two

"What do you like about Takao?" Nishikata asked, trying desperately to steer the conversation towards something related to Takao

"Well uhh I like... how gentlemanly he is, like he always gives me room when I ask for it" Sanea genuinely answered

Both Nishikata and Takagi shot a look towards each other

"(It's not because he is gentlemanly! It's because he never properly interacted with a girl before!)" Nishikata worriedly thought

"Hmmm This Pineapple juice is good Nishikata!" Takagi praised Nishikata

Nishikata blushed in what she said

"Hey so I want to ask you somethi-"

Sanea was cut off as Takao appeared behind her

"Alright are you guys ready for mini golf!" He excitedly announced

The three looked at each other, like most in Japan, they all in total have only one hour combined in anything golf related

"Ehh...yeah sure!" Nishikata answered

The 4 walked together to the mini golf section

"Don't we need to pay?" Sanea questioned while the 4 arrived at the cashier booth

"No I already reserved and payed beforehand" Takao reassured

"Wow I'am impressed" Takagi praised

"Let's golf!" Takao declared!

The 4 got their golf clubs and picked their balls. I had a glow-in-the-dark theme so they carefully picked their colors

Takagi picked orange

Nishikata picked blue

Sanea picked yellow

Takao picked black

"Let's have a contest!" Takagi offered

"What is it?" Nishikata responded

"First one to 22 wins!" Takagi announced

"(Hmm, I don't have many hours in golf but Takagi probably doesn't either, this is practically a coin toss, But Takagi probably has a trick up her sleeve!)" Nishikata tactically thought about it

"Deal, but only if there is no funny business" Nishikata responded

"Okay I promise!" Takagi excitedly ran down the course to the "start" area

"I am going to win!" Nishikata said confidently

"We'll see about that!" The other three shouted back in unison

The 4 started

Out of the three inexperienced golfers, Takagi was the one who owned the majority of the hours, unbeknownst to Nishikata of course.

Takao though proved the best of the mini golfers, getting though the first segment within minutes

Nishikata meanwhile, keeped foolishly whacking his ball with all of his might. Not realizing that golf is NOT a strength contest

Sanea was neck to neck with Takagi on who was going to claim the second place

"Takagi! Who ever loses has to do anything the winner says!" Sanea shouted while hitting a spare

"(Ah ok, I will have to do two contests now)" Takagi agreed

Nishikata meanwhile was struggling to even make the second goal, he keeped on overshooting it in his anger.

"(Damm it Takagi! How are you so good at everything)!?" Nishikata angrily thought to himself

He overshot again, cursing in frustration

"Fudge!"

"Damm it!"

"Ahhh why!"

He was going to try again for the 9th time when a soft hand grabbed his hand and golf club.

"Want me to help you with this?" Takagi smiled

Nishikata blushed in embarrassment

"n-no I can do this myself Takagi!" He stubbornly resisted her help

She continued to hold on though

"So you want to hit the ball lightly?" Nishikata asked

"Yes you are getting the hang of it!" Takagi supported him

And eventually, the two finished, Takao looked at the everyone's scores

"First goes to me! Let's go!" Takao proceeded to flex his muscles, if he had any

"Wait so you and Sanea raced? Who won?" Nishikata was confused by what Takagi said

"We are about to see~" She teased

"Second goes to... Sanea-san!" Announced Takao

"Wow you lost Takagi?" Nishikata was dumbfounded, he thought Takagi won everything

"Well I wanted to help you golf so I stopped partway though" Takagi teasingly smiled at him

"What Takagi! You should have just won! Why did you do that!?" He stepped closer to the exit

"Because you did the same thing to me at the bridge..." Takagi looked him in the eye

"What...what... what!? Nishikata was extremely confused

"Cmon let's go, it's getting late" Takao signaled everyone and soon, he, Sanea, Takagi, and Nishikata left the mall

"Wow that was fun. We should do this something later!" Takagi jumped in excitement

"I agree, I had a lot of fun" Sanea added

Takao beamed with pride

"Thanks for inviting us" Nishikata thanked

The four of them parted ways, Takagi had a family dinner with some relatives to get to so she couldn't walk with Nishikata home

Nishikata soon made it home, tired from his eventful day.

His mom came into the room

"Had fun with your friends today? She fondly asked

"Yeah I did" Came Nishikata's answer

His mom left him a cup of water as she left, closing the door behind her

"That girl was really weird..." Nishikata thought to himself

"I liked her yet something about her, I don't feel is right" Nishikata contemplated this for a minute

"Hm It's the strangest thing... I should go to sleep"

He turned the lights off, and slowly dozed asleep