At Tokyo's Ueno Zoo.
Natsume Chikage arrived and looked around, searching for someone.
But the place was crowded, and he couldn't spot her right away.
As far as he remembered, Mido Orihime almost always wore a kimono, so he assumed she would be wearing one today and kept searching the crowd. Before he found her, though, she found him.
"Where are you looking?" a girl's clear voice came from behind him.
Chikage turned, surprise on his face.
"Orihime?"
Today, Mido Orihime wasn't wearing a kimono. Instead, she wore a black dress—the sort of everyday clothes she almost never put on.
The hem fell just above her knees. Beneath it, her fair calves led down to loafers and white socks. A small cream-colored bag hung from her shoulder. Paired with her breathtaking face and uncanny air, the outfit made it hard for Chikage to look away.
Looking at her now, Chikage felt she reminded him of someone, but he couldn't place who.
"Why do you look so surprised?" Orihime tilted her head under his stare. "Is it because I asked you here on a date?"
"No... I've just never seen you in casual clothes. That black dress really suits you. You look beautiful." Chikage didn't hold back his praise.
His words brought a faint blush to her usually cool face. Plenty of people had told her she was beautiful before, but she had no point of reference and had always taken it for flattery.
Only after hearing Chikage say it did she realize that, to those "lumps of flesh," she might actually look good. "So compared to other girls, I'm pretty?"
Chikage froze. He hadn't expected that question.
"Yes. Very pretty."
Orihime asked with interest, "What about compared to Hitomi and the girls around you?"
Chikage felt a nonexistent bead of