"Is that a new skirt?"
The young man smiled.
The young woman's face flushed with embarrassment.
She hadn't told him about it beforehand.
She'd just felt a little awkward.
It wasn't any special occasion.
It was just an ordinary date.
And yet she'd gone out of her way to mention that she was wearing a new skirt...
"Come on."
The young man looked around.
"Let's go buy you a new skirt."
"Huh?"
The young woman froze.
"If you keep wearing that skirt, are you going to be able to enjoy our date?"
The young man teased her.
"You've been paying attention to nothing but your skirt."
From the moment they left the screening room, through the restroom and all the way out of the cinema, the young woman had kept her head down, staring at her skirt.
She knew it would only upset her more the longer she looked.
Yet she couldn't stop.
As if she were deliberately making things harder for herself.
She looked like she couldn't bear it.
He might as well have been invisible beside her.
Even when he spoke to her, her replies were perfunctory.
"It's only dirty."
"It'll be clean again after we wash it."
The young man could tell how much she liked the skirt.
"Then it'll be a pretty skirt again."
"For now... just change into another one."
"Let me give it to you as a present, okay?"
"...Mm."
The young woman nodded.
The young man tugged at her hand. "All right, cheer up a little."
"There's nothing wrong with your skirt..."
"And now you'll have a new one, too."
"That's great."
"What are you doing?"
The young woman grumbled.
"Can't I ask you to buy me a new skirt?"
"Of course you can."
The young man