Family Outing~
So as my mother Yuri promised, we would have an outing with the whole family this Saturday, I heard how father Masato would leave his phone at home to not get any interruptions. He even booked a table at a western cuisine restaurant, where I could possibly snack on Italian dishes.
"Hmm~ Garlic bread." I fantasized as I took a glance inside my closet. This was the first time I paid real attention to what kind of clothes I owned, previously I was only walking around in the school uniform, so there were no opportunities to wear casual clothes. And inside the house I just paraded in a simple t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants, pondering about my life and how it will progress from now on.
"Wait... why does my closet look like something I would usually wear back at home?" I saw coordinated outfits hanging on hangers that looked like they came straight from my timeline. I grabbed one of the sweaters and checked the tag, there was none, meaning this was either handmade or possibly something the system provided for me.
"Could it be there was never a Michi, to begin with?" could it mean that I was actually their daughter and didn't take anyone's place? I shook my head, there was no point in pondering about it because there was no way I could find any answers anywhere, unless the system.
"No let's dress up, I don't have time for philosophy." I took some high-waisted mom jeans, with a mint-green crop top and white bucket hat. Since it was already June, it was important to grab a pair of sunglasses as well. But I still needed somewhere to put my phone in, I found a cute round purse which was in the shape of a cat's head, in gray.
"Listen Cupid, our family is going on an outing, you can't tag along, since we're going to a really crowded place. Please be reasonable and don't eat all the food and water at once, since we don't know how much we will be out there." Cupid seemed to somehow understand what I was saying, so I gave its little ginger head a pat.
"See ya." I left the door open so Cupid could wander around the home freely, and also opened the bathroom door on the way downstairs, so Cupid could access the litter box.
"I'm ready~," I said in a joyful tone, ready for the thrills and adventures of the big city life.
"We were about to call you." mom said, as I started to appraise her outfit. She had a long summer-like dress on, in a light blue shade. I saw her wearing wedged-soled shoes, there was also a white jacket on top of her dress, most likely to protect her arms from the raging sun. Her hair was curled softly, and she looked really stunning. On the other side dad looked just like his everyday self in a suit, but just lost the jacket on the way and changed the white shirt to a blue one. Were they profusely matching colors?
"Michi, shouldn't you get a jacket?" I shook my head, I didn't mind if I got a tan.
"Then at least put suncream on." Before I could even move, she walked away and brought it for me. I tried to take it from her, but she poured it on my arms and spread the cream herself.
"Um... thanks." why even mention it if you were going to do all the work yourself, mom?
Once that was done I finally asked.
"So what do you think about my outfit?" I was proud of it even if my fashion taste was off by like 10 to 15 years.
"You look cute our rebellious daughter, now let's head off." I was confused, so I was wondering why she said that while putting on some white sneakers on my feet. However, only when we stepped onto the subway to get to Shibuya did I realize what she meant. I could tell my fashion sense really stood out from the crowd. I could witness the 00's fashion all over again, I was no doubt fascinated, because it finally felt like I traveled back in time, when I didn't watch only people that were either in school uniforms or black suits.
"Wow," I said out loud confusing my parents.
"Oh I'm just happy we can out like this together." the distraction of words worked because I received a hug from my mother that was sitting beside me.
Once we arrived we started to go around different clothing malls and stores, we even went to shops that sold only men's clothes since we wanted everyone to feel included in this family weekend trip. It became fast obvious that I and mom didn't share the same taste in clothes. She was more up to the trends nowadays, meanwhile, I was stuck in the future k-pop fashion movement. But we shared the same taste in summer dresses at least, with cute flowery patterns.
We found one that I fell in love with, a white summer dress with a sunflower pattern.
"We should buy you one of those summer hats, to complete the look." Mom suggested after we purchased the dress.
"Yes, let's get the most stylish one, so I can look like a single woman traveling to the Bahamas." I couldn't believe that was all it took for them to start laughing, was it that funny? As if fate wanted me to I not only found the best hat on display there were also sandals I knew would be a perfect fit for the dress.
"Now a bag." Mom came running with one from the same store, and my single lady that went to the Bahamas to drink cocktails look was complete.
"This is amazing," I said wondering where I could possibly use this outfit for, for the beach obviously but would mom and dad let me go there anytime soon? Yet the summer break was approaching, did these two plan to voyage anywhere as a family? My only worry was the missions, would I even receive any? In most cases, I got them around characters that I have seen in the manga. We grabbed some ice cream on the way and as we sat down on a bench I began the conversation.
"Mom, dad, are you planning to go on a vacation over the summer, like all of us together?" I asked.
"Yes, we were planning to go visit Juju Island." Mom answered.
"I was thinking, that you two should go together, alone." I nodded but their faces suddenly were filled with worry.
"I just want you guys to have time for yourself. Go on romantic dates and such." Isn't that usually what parents desired once the kids were old enough?
"Like I'm already big enough to stay at home alone, and don't worry you two I will master some cooking before the vacation so you don't need to worry about my food intake." would they swallow the catch and take this chance?
"Thank you for thinking about us, but I'm not sure we are ready to leave you alone... we never know when you get sick again." Right it said in the description that Michi was a weak and sickly child.
"How about this, I will exercise and eat only healthy food, so you don't need to worry about me getting sick all the time." Mom seemed pleased by my determination.
"I'm happy you are so determined to keep your health in check... since it came to this, I promise you that if you stay healthy until the trip, of course, we will let you stay all by yourself." I cheered as I made her promise it with our pinkies. There would be always another opportunity to visit Jeju Islands, so I didn't need to worry. Besides, I still felt like a tourist here in the middle of Japan, so there were enough thrills and sights as of now.
"Also Cupid could be missing us since we adopted him recently," I said while father furrowed his brows.
"You aren't saying all this, just to later invite some guys home when we are gone? I mean you're at that age..." his voice seemed to have thrilled off at the end.
"Even if I invited someone it would only be for watching movies, or a girls' sleepover." I hoped I could make that happen, but at first, I needed to meet some girls for it to be achievable. Mother just smiled while glaring at father for even suspecting of me doing something improper. Once we consumed our ice-creams we continued with our shopping spree, once we were finished mother said.
"How come I ended up with more clothes than you dear?" Well, that was because I saw how most of my clothes seemed new or unused, there was no need to overbuy. Thinking about the environment was important even if you were stuck in some gang manga.
"Well I'm happy with just spending time with you guys, and since I mostly spend most of my time in a school uniform I don't need that many new pieces to my collection." I smiled.
"Awww." mom let out a cutesy sound and kissed me on the forehead, which made me smile wider.
"It's time we headed for the restaurant." I cheered while making up some song about yummy food being in my tummy. I was so ready to gulp down that macaroni and of course garlic bread, but when we came into the restaurant and were directed to our seats something unexpected happened. I saw Hinata Tachibana at the table next to ours, with her family. But the most surprising thing, our fathers knew each other? But then I realized our mothers did too?
We ordered food, I didn't stop at only one plate of garlic bread, but asked for as many as three. Mother didn't stop me at all and my father was too busy chatting with Hinata's father, they kept on turning their necks around and it made me so uncomfortable watching this so I just piped up my humble suggestion.
"Father since you two have so much to chatter about, why not change the seats? We the kids can sit together and you as adults can chatter your marry day away." maybe I said it too aloof, but I hardly cared, anything to stop them from twisting their necks. I could already feel mine itch from just looking at them.
"Of course if everyone is content with it." Hinata seemed okay with it, I guess she was happy making new friends, Naoto just followed his sister, so they grabbed their plates and joined me, while mom and dad joined the other table.
"This is better," I muttered to myself.
"I hope you don't mind me suggesting it, it was so painful to watch their necks do that." it felt like I owed them an explanation.
"It's ok, it didn't look like he would start talking to us anyway," Hinata said as I nodded.
"You can call me Michi." I would make everyone call me by name. But suddenly I saw this smile on Hinata's face.
"Is there something wrong with my name?" I asked.
"Sorry, my boyfriend has a similar name to yours, Takemichi. I thought it was just a nice coincidence." I just realized how I was fooled by Mikey, he always called him Takemitchy so I assumed Takemichi's name was Takemitchi, what a fool I have been.
"Is something wrong?" I think she picked up my despair, but I just brushed her worry off.
"No sorry I just had a random thought of a sudden, but it's nothing." Soon I saw a waitress bringing out my food.
"Are you going to eat all that bread alone?" he must have thought the three plates were too much.
"Yep," I said proudly as Naoto said something.
"Are you sure you want to let us call you by name, you seem older than us?" I finally realized a small detail I had been ignoring before. I was the same exact height as Tetta Kisaki, maybe Naoto thought I was older because of how tall I was for a girl, which probably was unusual here in Japan, then again giant delinquents were walking the street in this manga, so was this really so unusual, I couldn't tell.
"But I'm 13 years old tho, aren't you guys around the same age?" I asked, they seemed a little shocked but recovered pretty quickly.
"I guess you had your growth sprout pretty early." I heard Naoto mumble to himself, was he jealous by any chance?
"Anyway, so what should I call you guys?" I asked biting in one of the delicious garlic pieces of bread.
"I'm Hinata and this is my brother Naoto. I don't mind being called by my name." Awesome, was my hidden power convincing people to call them by their first name? Or did they unconsciously realize I was older than them? I shook that thought out of my head.
"Call me Naoto then." I nodded, then an hour went by, we ate our food in peace, talked about various topics, like games, Pokemon cards, what food we liked to eat, and so on and so forth.
"We should get going." Suddenly we heard Hinata's father say.
"Wait a minute." I whipped out my phone.
"Gimme your number guys, it was nice chatting with you so I think we should stay in touch." and this was my heroic story of how I made new friends and shaved some garlic bread into my purse because I didn't finish it. Once the Tachibana family left mother said.
"It's nice to see you made some new friends." well yeah finally someone that wouldn't have a bad influence on me that's for sure.