Golden Time:Volume2 Chapter3
Status: Incomplete
10% completed (estimated)
Golden Time 2: Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Tada Banri was trying on blue-jeans.
And now, this old second-hand shop's cramped changing room had an overpowering smell.
There was the characteristic, detergent-like fabric-softener-like artificial floral scent. But on top of that, the fully half-tatami-sized carpeted floor reeked of the soles of unwashed male feet. As if in answer to that problem, set in the corner of the changing room was a car deodorant strong enough to kill a person, smelling of Hawaiian coconuts.
Coming from the other side of the ventilation fan there was a smell as of lunch and tobacco mixed together, and beneath it a rather unusual presence was drawing near, making itself known. Was it water in the basement? Or was it sewage? A bathroom-like smell was hidden there.
Forming a perfect blend in the confined airspace, the stagnated smells violently invaded Banri's nerves and mine by way of the mucous membranes of our noses. Feeling like the time we had that awful car sickness, our heads hurting and getting dizzy, our stomachs squeezed out from top to bottom like cleaning rags. We could've thrown up, really.
Though it was bad for a customer staying only a short time, didn't the employees think about it at all? Were their noses broken and numbed already? No, they must've thought it stank, else why the Hawaiian coconuts? But this thing's sickly-sweet, strong smell was on the edge of being dangerous, and in fact was the worst offender.
Enduring all this in bad humor, anyhow I quietly stood in the corner of the changing room, watching Banri changing, not all that impressed.
Staying like this, motionless, in the upper corner by the ceiling, I felt as if I were being sucked, as if hypnotized, into that notably gloomy, dark-looking shadow. And then clinging to it, as if I'd become stuck there.
To say that I think of myself as a ghost, in short this place, is haunted...
"...Zzu! ...Uoe...!"
Pulling on the cheap, $25 blue-jeans, Banri looked down for a moment at the troublesome front buttons. He started to get nauseous from the overwhelming smell, which turned into a fit of coughing, and swallowing back something acid. It seemed somehow too much.
From the other side of the closed curtains, "How do they feel?", the store clerk was asking pointedly. In a panic, Banri fastened all the buttons, opened the curtain, and slipped on the shoes he'd left outside the changing room. He still wasn't wearing the New Balance shoes that Linda had given him. Today it was the same old Jack Purcells again.
Banri and I turned and left the narrow space together, taking the deepest breaths they could. I could not, since I am a spirit that people cannot see, but the store clerk was able to tend to the material Banri. Trying to be as quiet as possible, he was breathing desperately through his mouth.
The store clerk fawned over him, making little flattering noises as she squatted and fiddled around with the pant's cuffs appreciatively. Looking at Banri in a flattering way, her hostess-like done-up hair swaying, saying things like "Heeyy? Isn't that just right!? Look, the style looks good on you!", using no more volume than necessary for her compliments to be heard.
And yet, if I say so myself, the image of Banri in the mirror was certainly more than ever recklessly stylish. Even his legs looked longer and slimmer.
"Hey, you're right!" said Banri, slightly blue in the face, laughing foolishly as he turned around, confirming that his rear end was settling in nicely. It looked better than any other blue-jeans he had right now, so he muttered, "Why not go for this one?"
Banri, for the sake of the first-year's drinking party hosted by Oka Chinami tomorrow night, was out picking up some new duds.
Embarrassed to the breaking point, he didn't notice that the changing room mirror was one of those trick ones, reflecting only a narrow image.
The store clerk, making sure to not stand in front of the mirror (because the difference from reality would be revealed to the customer), immediately began trying to adjust the height of the bottom hem, rolling it up and down. When she told him that there was no need to bring up the hem, Banri said, "Well then, I'll go with this. I'll go take them off.", and once more closed the changing room curtain.
It seemed that he was completely decided to buy it. Well, the reflection in the mirror was good, and they were simple straight pants. Besides, what surprises would there be for $25? There wasn't too much funny stitching or extra stuff.
But that was often the case. He had spotted some blue-jeans that felt right in one of the used clothing shop's carts, but when he took them out and spread them, the upper legs had cheesy chinese-style tiger striped embroidery. The side seams were completely covered, from top to bottom, with some strange Tyrolean tape.
It was only through the magic mirror that he looked so stylish, but everything considered, you could call this a success. It's OK, Banri, go ahead and buy it. Through the mirror, I flashed Banri an OK sign.
Banri, looking pleased with himself, unfastened the buttons and was about to take off the pants, but suddenly he stopped moving. His underwear showing in the half-dressed style--- if somebody were to see him they wouldn't be pleased: the frozen figure of a young man bent over. It seemed he was looking at a seam between the legs, inside the taken-off blue-jeans.
Peeking from behind, wondering what he was worried about, at that moment, a shiver ran up my spine. This, for sure...
Right there, in the middle, around the stitching. Right between the legs, in the butt-crack, right in that area. Strangely the whole area, black perhaps, or maybe brown, a stain of a questionable color had not been fully removed.
At that spot only, for some reason or other... I don't want to say, for some reason... That, of course, to put it simply, what would you call it?
"What's this here?", he asked the store clerk from earlier. I myself thought, "He ought to point out how bad the damage is." If he could talk them into keeping in at the store and, without fail, removing the stain for him, that would be lucky for him. If that didn't work, then of course he could just stop, but that's OK, I think. It didn't need to be hemmed, and the style looked good even if was a trick mirror.
However Banri was still looking motionlessly at the seam, thinking about something in a half-dressed style, in lack of movement thinking it through. "What's wrong? If you're worried speak up, otherwise stop it!", I nagged him from behind like that, but Banri didn't notice. He didn't move. He must've been confused as to whether to buy it as it was, or what. "If you're confused, stop it! Get it over with!", I kept beating him over the back.
Of course, Banri didn't notice it at all. Hmm... he frowned, his head tilted as he thought it through. He was completely silenced by the trap of the changing room mirror. "Stop it already!" It was at that moment that he was pushed rather hard on the back.
"Ah, ah, ah...!"
...By reflex, even if I was only a ghost behind him, I covered my eyes against the disaster.
It was a coincidence. Absolutely. I wasn't responsible for the push. Really.
Banri, unsteady on his feet, his balance destroyed, hopping on one foot, his rear exposed, jumped out from the changing room curtain into the bright store--- and said it. Said it completely. Whoa. Wh, ooaaaa...
...But, he was saved by there not being any other customers around. Still on one foot, he ran rather forcefully into the store clerk from before, standing nearby. As it was, supported by her as if in her embrace, at least he didn't fall down.
Excuse me... sorry... moaning feverishly, Banri, his rear exposed, ashamed, ran in his socks back into the changing room.
As a human being, so far, getting embarrassed, blushing and so forth, were things he seemed to encounter every step of the way. Banri, his face strangely darkened, took off the jeans in the blink of an eye. He took them off as fast as if they were on fire. Too quick to see, he gathered his stuff and went to the register. And then,
"This please! Do, ...does it show...!?"
With a terrible expression, he timidly asked the store clerk. He could see several security cameras watching over the store, protecting it from shoplifters. The clerk accepted his money as if nothing had happened, and gave him a receipt. While she folded the jeans with practiced hands, with a very small voice she said, "Eh? Black." Looking at him kindly, she smiled a bit and said, "I didn't see anything. Here you go." He had thought her a flattering salesperson, but then not understanding well what she said, his heart now thought of her as an angel. I'm sorry, store. Please excuse me, seriously. But the smell and everything else spoke thoroughly bad of you.
Taking the bag Banri bowed, and ran at full speed up the stairs to the store's open door. Going out to the street like that, he dashed even harder. He was fleeing. I saw that the strange things that had just happened had already disappeared from his brain.
At that moment his cell-phone rang, and he flipped it open as he ran.
<~~10% Completed~~>
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