It was a busy two days until the date, ignoring the fact that she still had to participate in training during the mornings, then go to class, do homework at the last minute and still all the while feel that odd gaze on her back.
But that was neither here nor there (she could still feel it though).
No.
The real busy part of the two days was all the cramming she got when it came to makeup and the like.
She had originally expected the crash course to be a simple affair, what she didn't expect was for there to be so much detail.
She shivered even thinking about the crash course as her mind went all the way back to it.
…
Her mind was ringing.
Moisterize, cleanse, base, primer (wasn't that something they put on walls? Her old man never taught her THIS!), foundation, blush, and the list went on!
She had NEVER HEARD OF THIS UNTIL DAIWA STARTED THE 'crashcourse'.
HELL she had NEVER EVEN OF ALL THIS UNTIL NOW!
"I thought I asked for the short version..." She couldn't help but whine.
Daiwa stopped explaining giving her a serious expression, her tone losing all forms of joy and vitality, "This is the short version."
"What?"
…
Eh, it was horrifying even thinking of it all.
How she even managed to retain about half that information was a mystery even to herself.
Actually? Wasn't she given textbooks as well?
…
Daiwa sighed as she looked at her pitiful state before speaking up, "By the way, here have these textbooks," she said as she placed down books almost as big as entire dictionaries.
"Textbooks?"
"I can't teach you all of it would take too long, soooo you'll have to right an entire essay explaining the proper makeup process."
"What?"
…
She was exhausted when she finished the essay.
Thank the three goddesses that was the end of it.
The only problem was that after the makeup she had to get a crashcourse on how to dress casually appropriately for a date.
…
"I understand buying clothes and all to wear, but a crashcourse? Again?"
"It's not that big of one, it merely exists so that you may understand the difference between dressing casually for a day off with friends and a dressing casually on a date, desuwa."
She looked down at her outfit, looked at the brown shoes that she had bought with her old man, the white shirt that she wore with a red scarf that was gifted to her by him, and the knee length skirt that completed the outfit.
"What's what wrong with it?"
"Well… it is a bit too casual, in a sense, the basics of a good outfit are there, the only problem is that some of it is… a bit out of place," she said while looking at the red scarf.
"What's wrong with my scarf?"
"Hope… while I know that you like wearing it, it's springtime," she stressed, "You should normally only wear a scarf during late autumn or winter."
"But… it's so comfie…"
McQueen sighed, "While I do not doubt that, I do not recommend you wear it."
She looked down sadly before opening her mouth to ask another question, "Then what should I wear?" She really had no idea.
She was used to wearing what she usually wore while in the mountains, it was nice, it was comfortable, it was airy, it was warm, it kept her cool, she never once felt out of place while wearing it.
According to some of the shopkeepers at the lower part of the mountain, they swore that they had never actually seen her break a sweat while wearing that exact same ensemble.
"Hmm, keeping the skirt is a good idea, but it would be better if we made it just that bit longer so it could go past your knees, we could switch the scarf with a jack—"
"Do I really have to not wear the scarf?"
"Haah, you could if you want but it won't look as good, the red, while eye catching clashes too greatly with the soft tones and colors that would fit you best."
"Really?"
"Yes, really. It is imperative that you don't stand out too heavily during a date, if you do then your date will spend all their time looking at your outfit."
"…Wait… McQueen-san, if they were looking at my outfit then wouldn't that mean that they would be looking at me?"
McQueen paused for moment and thought about it, "Yes. Yes I suppose so, desuwa."
"I see… then thanks for the crashcourse McQueen, but I'm going to wear my normal casual outfit."
"Are you kidding me?"
…
It was safe to say, that she failed that crashcourse.
But she did end up changing her shirt at McQueen's behest to at least do that much.
So instead of a casual slip on shirt she now had a white dress shirt, black knee length stocking (which she also put on at McQueen's behest), a dark gray/black knee height skirt, a pair of brown shoes and finally her red scarf.
To say that McQueen was happy at the inclusion of her favorite red scarf would be a lie, she was very angry.
Saying things like, 'You ruined a perfectly good outfit! Desuwa~' and 'You were this close, this close! Desuwa~'.
She understood her senior teammates anger perfectly, her reason was perfectly understandable, the only problem was that she wanted to only have Orfy's eyes on her and her alone.
While she couldn't simply say that to her teammates, she did imply it, so it was fine!
…probably.
…
Hope for Tomorrow was many things in Dream Journey's eyes.
Somebody who had common sense she was not.
She had heard her grandfather rant to her about her sisters crush's lack of knowledge and willingness to dress properly (in her opinion) for a date when she had sat down to share tea with her.
To say that her grandfather was irritated was an understatement.
In her grandfathers view, the advice she had given was completely ignored.
Dream Journey thought otherwise.
It wasn't a simple matter of comfort for Hope for Tomorrow, she could tell that while she really liked her scarf, she wouldn't wear it if she had to.
The thing was, that Hope wasn't simply aiming to dress properly for a date, no she had wanted to dress in a manner where Orfevre's eyes were on her and her alone.
She could understand that perfectly, after all she had done the same with her own trainer many times.
Even while he still pined after Curren-chan.
Luckily for her, she was out of the picture for now so she didn't have to deal with her meddling in her game for her trainers undivided love and attention.
So in a twisted sense, she understood why Hope for Tomorrow didn't fully head her grandfathers advice, she had her own motives after all that were separate from simply the date.
She would let Hope for Tomorrow of the hook, if only because she reminded her of herself when it came to her trainer, she could respect someone wanting to have another person's eyes only on them, the only problem was that the person Hope wanted was her sister.
But that was a problem for another time.
The date was tomorrow after all.
—————————————————————————-
AN
Inkstone (what I use to write these chapters) got a dark mode and it made writing this chapter so much easier on the eyes.
I am not going to lie when I say that I feared that this chapter would be late for the simple fact that I wasn't sure I was going to have the time to finish it, then I realized, "Wait, all my exams are in two weeks! Not this week!" So I actually have time to write this chapter.
Should I have spent this time working on preparing myself for the English minastery exam on organic mimicry?
Probably.
I didn't for the french minister anyway, so I don't care.
Not really anyway.
Either way, 50 power stones for an extra chapter and so on and so forth.
Until next time, (I still have to study for my math final)
and this is Greek Antrielos.
Signing off.