Shy

Chapter 21

          Sigh.

Tanaka took a deep breath to calm himself down. After finishing admiring Tsukiko's beauty from afar, he was finally able to bring himself to her.

"Kita-san! I'm sorry I'm late!" He clearly wasn't, but as long as she was waiting for him, he would apologize for being "late."

Tsukiko's head jerked towards his voice and quickly responded, "A-Ah! I-It's okay, T-Tanaka-senpai. I-I just g-got here m-myself, and i-it's still e-early."

The wing spiker nodded to her, "Still, I'm sorry for making you wait." He hesitated, "Y-You look...stunning." She was already blushing before, but now her face blew up with red. She quickly tucked her head down to use her bangs as a curtain and then bowed to further hide her face.

"T-Thank you v-very much! M-My mother h-helped a l-lot..." She peeked up at him. "U-Um...y-you look v-very nice t-too..." Now it was Tanaka's turn to blush. "E-Eh? R-Really? You think so? I thought I might've been too plain." He responded, looking up in embarrassment and scratching the side of his jaw with his index finger.

Tsukiko quickly shook her head at him. "I-I don't th-think so! I th-think it s-suits you...e-especially the b-beanie..." He was ecstatic, but due to both of their embarrassment, neither said anything for a bit.

Trying to break the silence, Tanaka began, "W-Well! Let's do some window shopping or something since we're too early for the movie." The shy girl nodded at that and used both hands to clutch the sling of her bag, as if for support before she began walking. Tanaka was momentarily disappointed at that.

Guess there's no chance at holding hands then, huh?

Much of the time they used for window shopping was spent in silence since Tsukiko was too shy to say much and Tanaka couldn't think of something to talk about. Their first conversation after a while was prompted by Tsukiko stopping to look at a mannequin through a shop's window.

She was looking at a simple black and white dress that reached the knees. It was a strapless, straight neckline dress. The top of the dress was fitted to the mannequin, but from the waist down, it flared out somewhat. There was a moderately sized bow pinned to the top left side. It was mostly white with only the top of the neckline, the lace at the ends of the skirt of the dress, and the outline of the bow being black. It was simple, but Tanaka felt that by no means was it plain. Not if it was on her.

"That would look perfect on you..." He blurted out involuntarily. The girl squeaked in shock. Being surprised, himself, Tanaka tried to recover, "I-I mean! Uh – Y-You would look cute in anything, but I just thought this dress would look cute on you!"

Just like that time when he walked her to school, this type of comment didn't help Tsukiko's blush one bit. It still didn't help when they heard two older women comment, "My, my! Young ones sure are bold these days!"

The two "young ones" both jumped at that, glanced at each other, and quickly looked away, the color of their cheeks matching the whole time.

Looking for an excuse to move on, Tanaka called out, "C-Come on! It's time for the movie!" Appreciating the change in topic, Tsukiko quickly followed after him.

When they reached the movie theater, he handed her a ticket. "E-Eh? L-Let me p-pay you b-back!" She reached into her bag to pull out some money, but Tanaka grabbed her hand and placed the ticket into it instead. He reveled in the feeling of touching her hand, missing the chance to do so before when they were window shopping.

She blushed further at that, but didn't pull away. "It's fine! I'm the one that asked you out here in the first place. And what kind of man would I be if I let the girl pay for everything?"