“Eek! Okudera-senpai!”

Another waitress cries out.

“Your skirt!”

“Hmm?”

Miss Okudera twists to inspect her rear, and her face rapidly flushes. Now that I’m looking, I can see a rough, horizontal slash just above her thigh. With a shocked little shriek, she pulls her apron around to hide the tear.

“Are you hurt?”

“Geez! Nasty. Was it that one dude?”

“I think something like that’s happened before…”

“Was someone harassing you?”

“Do you remember the guy’s face?”

Several staff members gather around Okudera-senpai, chattering worriedly. Eyes downcast, she’s gone very still. I stand motionless, like an idiot, with the words I’d prepared still on my tongue. Her shoulders tremble slightly. I think I see little tears welling up at the corners of her eyes.

This time, I need to rescue her.

The thought seems to burst inside me, and before I know what I’m doing, I’ve grabbed Okudera-senpai’s hand and started walking. I hear voices at my back (“Hey! Taki, you little…”), but I ignore them.

The green can be a field. The orange is flowers and butterflies. I want at least one more design element. The brown is— Sure, it’ll be a hedgehog. The cream is for its nose.

Pinching the edges of the tear in the skirt, I deftly whipstitch it together. For some reason, there were several colors of embroidery thread in the changing room sewing kit, so I’m taking the opportunity to make this a bit of an elaborate repair job. Gran trained me in needlework, and it’s something I’m particularly good at.

“All done!”

I hand the skirt to Miss Okudera. It’s only taken me about five minutes to finish.

“…Huh? This is…”

The dubious expression she’s worn since I dragged her to the dressing room quickly shifts to surprise.

“This is amazing! Taki, wow! It’s even cuter than it was before!”

The tear in the skirt was a straight, horizontal line about six inches long, so as I stitched it together, I turned it into a scene of a hedgehog playing in a field. The skirt is dark brown, so the little decoration acts as an accent, my thought being a cute motif would look especially good on a sophisticated beauty like Okudera-senpai. She has an even-featured, gorgeous, magazine-model face, but when she smiles, she’s more approachable, like an older girl from the neighborhood.

“You really saved me today. Thank you very much.”

I finally managed to say it.

“Heh-heh!” Okudera-senpai’s large eyes narrow softly when she smiles. “To tell you the truth, I was a little worried back there. You’re weak, Taki, but you’re always so quick to fight.”

As she speaks, her slim fingers lightly tap her left cheek. Oh. Vaguely, I grasp the reason for the bandage on Taki Tachibana’s face.

“I like this version of you better,” Okudera-senpai says, a bit mischievously. “You’re surprisingly in touch with your feminine side, Taki.”

My heart leaps with a bo-yo-yoing. Her smile is absolutely unbeatable. It makes me want to give her everything I have for free. I think it’s the most precious thing I’ve seen in Tokyo today.