Saturday came around faster than I expected. Then again, when you’re out with your friends, play gatcha games, and sleep during that time. The next day will arrive pretty fast.

Which leaves me standing out front of the train station waiting for Azurie. Since this was supposed to be a “date”. I decided to try my hardest not to wear one of my printed t-shirts with an anime girl on it. Unfortunately that leaves me down to a pair of grey sweatpants and a black hoodie.

“I really have my work cut out for me.” Azurie said as she walked over.

I put my phone back in my pocket and turned to face her. She wore a white sweater that hung a little low. Revealing her collarbone and most of her shoulder. With light blue jeans.

“That’s what you wear to go out?” I asked with a raised brow.

“W-what? I look cute! What about you, you look like a bum.” She huffed crossing her arms underneath her cleavage.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t care, this is more practical. I’m warm, comfortable, and I definitely don’t have anyone I want to impress. So why go through the hassle of dressing to impress?”

Azurie stepped closer, grabbing me by my hoodie and pulling me close. “Listen, this plan depends on whether or not you can be impressive. So I need you to put in effort for everything, got it?” Her voice was firm leaving no room for argument but there was also a hint of a plea there.

“I’m assuming you’ll show me how to do that?” I responded which got her to let me go and smile.

“Of course I will. But I need you to put in effort too. I can get the ball rolling as easy as possible but you need to keep it moving. So lets go, your appointment is coming up.”

“My appointment?”

Next thing I knew I found myself sat inside the fanciest hair salon I’ve ever seen. The hair dresser stepped in front of me and pushed my hair back and out of my eyes. Looking, scanning my face, which made me feel incredibly uncomfortable.

“Well, when you two walked in I couldn’t believe you two were together.” She said letting go of my hair. “But he has a really good face so there’s quite a few things we can do.”

“Is this really necessary?” I asked looking at them through the mirror.

“Yes.” Both of them shot back at me.

To be entirely honest it wasn’t the prospect of getting a haircut that I didn’t like. It was the anxiety of what I would look like with one. I know it has the opportunity to really change a person’s appearance. But I’m just so used to looking this way, where my appearance just lets me blend into the background.

“When was the last time you even got a haircut?” Azurie asked as the hair dresser showed her a list of options. Completely ignoring me and what I would want.

“Our first year.” I answered as the hair dresser walked back over to get started. “I stopped putting in effort and getting haircuts after my incident.”

Calling it an incident is the only way I could think of calling it. It was the first time I had ever rejected a girl and I did it harshly in front of so many people. So I don’t blame her for smacking me as hard as she could.

“I only heard the rumors. So I don’t really know what really happened between the two of you.” Azurie said as she stood back and watched.

“You know Kiku right? She’s in our class.”

“The class president?”

“Yeah, she was the class president during our first year too. I was the vice president meaning we spent some time together and got to know each other. I could tell she was starting to develop feelings for me so I tried to act more distant and blunt to have her lose feelings for me. But she confessed anyway at the front gate in front of everyone and I turned her down harsher than I should have.” I explained during the haircut.

When the hair dresser was finished I looked at myself in the mirror. Truly unable to recognize my own reflection. It was stylish and complimented my facial features really well. I could tell I looked really good like this and that the hair dresser was really good at her job. But for a reason I couldn’t explain I felt gross.

I walked over to the register to go pay for the haircut. Right as I was about to pull out my wallet Azurie stopped me.

“I already paid for it online.”

“What, why?”

“Don’t think about, lets go.” She said as she took my hand leading me out of the salon. “There’s this cafe that I really want to try before we go to our next spot.”

She really is just dragging me around everywhere. Is this how a date normally goes? Being dragged around to God knows where for however God knows how long? I feel like a dog being yanked by his leash. 

We entered the cafe and to my relief it looked normal. Not high class or expensive looking like the hair salon that she took me to earlier.

“Hey, I need to use the restroom first. Mind finding a table for us?” I asked as we entered.

“Sure, just don’t make me wait to long.” She said over her shoulder as she walked away.

“Hello Sir, is there anything I can assist you with?” The lady at the register asked as I approached.

“Sorry for the inconvenience.” I apologized as I handed her my card. “Could you hold onto my card for me. My ‘girlfriend’ has a habit of always paying for me on dates.” I explained, feeling weird saying the word girlfriend.

She nodded understandingly so I made my way over to where I saw Azurie. As I sat down across from her I noticed that she had already ordered a parfait.

“I see you didn’t wait long to order something.”

“What? I heard they had really good parfaits.” She said with a little bit of cream lingering on the side of her lips.

One of the servers came back around and I placed an order for a cappuccino.

“So are you going to tell me why the haircut was necessary?” I asked as I crossed my arms over my chest.

“I thought seeing yourself in the mirror would have been enough to show you why it was necessary.” She explained before wiping her lips clean with a napkin. “It’s almost jarring how well of a transformation it was. It will help when we go buy you a new set of clothes.”

“Clothes? What’s wrong with how I’m dressed now?”

“You’re joking right? We need this relationship to be believable. Meaning you also need to look the part not just act it.”

I let out a sigh as I finally got my coffee. “You say that but I think you’re forgetting an important part.”

“Which is?”

“My reputation.” I put it bluntly. “My streak of rejections during my first year has given me a poor reputation with the girls. Even with some of the guys for some reason. So how are they going to react when they see us together at school?”

“They’ll get over it.” She said with a shrug as she finished her parfait. “I mean you haven’t looked very approachable for a while because of your appearance and attitude. But a good chunk of opinions will change because you’re hot.”

Did she really just say that? Wow, I think I want to vomit right now.

Though her point is semi valid. Most people are simple when it comes to things like that. A rough or questionable personality usually gets glanced over when the person is attractive. It’s why some people get together when they should have never even considered it. Even if her putting it like that makes me feel gross.

“And what about the people that won’t be swayed by my change in appearance?” I asked before taking a sip.

“Why do they matter?” She let out a sigh as she leaned back in her seat. “You’re thinking too much about this. What do you even expect to happen? It’s not like someone will see us and try to put themselves between us.”

That’s where she’s wrong. I know just how strong something like jealousy is. Especially when in a situation where someone sees a person with someone they wanted. If they also feel like I never stood a chance of being with Azurie then that jealousy would be stronger than normal.