Date (Part 1) (5k)

[White Rose: Larkspur, when are you coming back?]

[Larkspur: A little later, probably until evening.]

[White Rose: So late? Then we'll order takeout for lunch.]

[Larkspur: Yes, thank you for your hard work. How's everything going on your end?]

[White Rose: Don't worry, leave it to me!]

Looking at her phone screen, Larkspur slowly took a sip of tea, feeling slightly relieved, and placed the phone back on the table.

It was after lunch, and Larkspur and Xia Liang were resting in their respective chairs in the elegant tea restaurant. The clock on the nearby wall chimed crisply and regularly, which, together with the soft music, made people feel comfortable and pleasant.

The two chose a tea restaurant called Qinhe for lunch, which Xia Liang suggested after seeing a recommendation online, and it wasn't part of Larkspur's original itinerary. The restaurant was quite popular, and the two spent an hour just waiting in line. Once inside, the booths were full of customers, and there were almost no empty tables.

Larkspur wasn't particularly interested in this kind of trendy restaurant, nor did she have any preference for what dishes to order, so the task of ordering was entirely left to Xia Liang. The end result was a table full of visually appealing dishes, Xia Liang took photos of each dish that was served with her phone.

Regardless of whether the meal was good or not, Xia Liang should at least be satisfied.

As Larkspur placed her phone back on the table, Xia Liang, who had been pondering how to take a better picture of the small cake, looked up, holding her phone, and asked:

"What's wrong?"

"It's nothing. White Rose asked where we are now," Larkspur Que replied expressionlessly, telling the truth.

"Why are you still calling her White Rose?"

Xia Liang chuckled teasingly, "Anyway, they're all not here now, so they keep calling me Xiao Lu... Ah, senior, you usually call me Lulu, don't you?"

Larkspur, with drooping eyelids, stared at Xia Liang and said, "I've already said it, this is a matter of self-awareness as a magical girl."

"Um--"

With a somewhat noncommittal hum, Xia Liang raised her voice slightly, then put down her phone and picked up the spoon next to the cake. "You've already started calling me 'Xia Liang' directly, so your insistence on calling Xiao Lu 'White Rose' is probably just because you're shy, right?"

"... As I said, I haven't figured out how to explain it to her yet."

Larkspur looked away with a hint of helplessness. "Anyway, if we're rested, we can set off now. We have other plans for the afternoon."

"Etc."

Upon hearing this, Xia Liang suddenly raised her hand in agreement, smiling broadly, and said, "I suddenly have a place I want to go."

Seeing her clearly meaningful smile, Larkspur's brow twitched slightly, but she still asked respectfully, "Where do you want to go?"

"Well, we've already come all the way to the Electronics Street, and the weather has finally cleared up from the rain..."

Xia Liang pointed out the restaurant's floor-to-ceiling windows with great interest and said, "Shall we go look at some clothes?"

A moment later, in a clothing store not far from the tea restaurant.

"Great! This dress really suits you!"

Inside the shop, Xia Liang emerged from the fitting room, her eyes wide as she gazed at her newly changed outfit in the mirror. The sales clerk beside her showered her with compliments, exclaiming, "Little sister, you're a natural model! Even promotional photos can't replicate your look!"

Xia Liang and Larkspur visited a casual women's clothing store called "remedy," which specializes in clothing for young women, especially those aged 15 to 30.

"Haha, thank you."

Smiling and thanking the sales clerk, Xia Liang straightened her short pink sweatshirt, smoothed out the slight creases in her skirt, and slipped on her white ankle boots. She spun around to get a better look at her overall appearance. "But, um... it feels a little childish."

After staring at her clothes for a long time without making a decision, Xia Liang turned to Larkspur and asked, "What do you think, senior? Is this outfit suitable?"

"It's beautiful, cute, harmonious, and tasteful."

Larkspur remained expressionless, uttering a few words as flatly as a robot. "I think it's suitable."

This was a habit she developed when she accompanied Anya to choose clothes while shopping with her wife.

Whenever Anya chooses clothes and wants to ask Lin Yun's opinion, she's usually not really asking for his opinion; she just wants to hear him compliment her on how good she looks. As for what clothes she ultimately chooses, it usually has nothing to do with Lin Yun's feelings.

Of course, it wasn't just Anya who was like this; in fact, it was common for Larkspur —or rather, Cornflower— to accompany her teammates from the Old Fangting City Squad on shopping trips.

As the only magical girl in the team whose true form is male, Lin Yun is also regarded as a reference for the opposite sex's aesthetics, so she is often asked questions like "How do you think of this outfit?"

If she didn't answer, she would be repeatedly pressed for answers; if she gave a perfunctory answer, she would be scolded. Over time, Larkspur developed a rather sophisticated set of perfunctory talking techniques.

Xia Liang could sense the perfunctory tone in Larkspur's words. She narrowed her eyes slightly in dissatisfaction, but then, as if she had thought of something, her smile became somewhat ambiguous.

"Elder sister."

She suddenly spoke up, saying to the sales assistant beside her, "Do you have any clothes in this child's size?"

"This child?"

Turning her head to look at Larkspur, the sales assistant sized her up for a moment, then nodded. "If it's the smallest size we have here, it should be about right, right?"

"Since they're about the same..."

Xia Liang chuckled, took two steps closer to Larkspur, and said in a flirtatious voice, "Hehehe, little senior, why don't you give it a try?"

"Try what...?"

The previously absent-minded Larkspur snapped out of her reverie and gradually understood the meaning behind Xia Liang's words. She then looked expressionlessly at the various clothes in the shop. After staring at them for a while, she turned back to Xia Liang and solemnly said, "I won't wear it."

Why?

Xia Liang said with a hint of regret, "Young senior, you don't have many everyday clothes, do you? And most of them are like what you're wearing, basically children's clothes. Why don't you try dressing up in a slightly more mature style?"

"I'm different from you."

With a slight frown, Larkspur crossed her arms helplessly and said earnestly, "As for me, as long as my clothes are enough for daily washing, that's fine. I don't need to, and don't like, dressing up in such a flashy way."

"Have you worn this before?" Xia Liang suddenly asked.

The question made Larkspur freeze for a moment. After looking up and meeting Xia Liang's gaze for a moment, she nodded helplessly. "Through."

What she didn't explicitly say was that it wasn't just that she had worn them, but rather that she had worn almost everything.

Leaving aside the styles that have been popular in the last decade, she wore every single one of the clothing styles that were popular among young women at least twenty years ago, at Anya's insistence.

If we were to trace its origins, we would have to go back a long time.

Anya's attitude towards Lin Yun becoming a magical girl was very positive from the very beginning.

At first, when she first met Lin Yun, who had become a magical girl, she thought she was a girl from out of town. But when Lin Yun revealed her identity, she was overjoyed at first, and then readily accepted the fact.

Anya never had thoughts like "it's disgusting for a boy to turn into a magical girl." In fact, she seemed to like Lin Yun in his magical girl form even more.

To express it using Anya's favorite cheesy love words:

"My favorite boy is Lin Yun, and my favorite girl is Cornflower. If I combine both of my favorites, I'll be the number one favorite in the world."

That's why Anya is actually very enthusiastic about dressing up Lin Yun, who has become a magical girl.

At first, it was just about mixing and matching some of her old clothes. Over time, it became something she would pick out while shopping. Eventually, it evolved into a bizarre tradition she proposed called "Cornflower Image Refresh Day."

Every so often, the Old Fangting City Squad would take Lin Yun, who had transformed into a magical girl, to a special place to choose clothes and have some new everyday outfits made for her.

Most magical girls look quite good after transforming. Although their styles differ, they are mostly cute, beautiful, and unique. However, Cornflower's appearance and temperament are rare. In the words of her former teammates, she has an "aristocratic" air, "Like a noble lady from who-knows-where."

Several teammates, especially Anya, treated Lin Yun, who had transformed into a magical girl, almost like a dress-up doll, trying out all sorts of outfits on her.

Therefore, although Larkspur herself wasn't interested, she couldn't deny that she had worn all sorts of women's fashion. In fact, because she had done it so many times, she had become completely accustomed to wearing various dresses in this way.

"We actually made it through!"

Hearing Larkspur's answer, Xia Liang clenched her fist excitedly. "Well, it's not the first time anyway. I also want to see what the little senior looks like in other clothes. Let's try them on!"

"Yes, I want to see it too!" the shop assistant next to him echoed.

Larkspur glanced at the two people in front of her and, recalling Xia Liang's inexplicable smile and suggestion in the restaurant earlier, immediately knew: this was something she had planned long ago.

However, since her purpose in accompanying Xia Liang today was to make her happy, and the various experiences this morning were indeed not very pleasant, there was nothing wrong with going along with Xia Liang's wishes at this time.

"Let's agree on this beforehand."

She looked up at Xia Liang and said solemnly, "I don't wear clothes that show too much skin."

--"Very good!"

As soon as she finished speaking, Xia Liang and the shop assistant high-fived and cheered, as if they had overcome some difficult problem, creating a very lively atmosphere.

Then, led by Xia Liang and with suggestions from the shop assistant, the two began a lively discussion about what kind of clothes would suit Larkspur's temperament and body type.

Off-the-shoulder jackets, suspender skirts, cartoon hoodies, knitwear... all sorts of clothes were handed to Larkspur by Xia Liang Larkspur, who then put them on with an indifferent expression and walked out of the dressing room with a cold demeanor.

Even though her reaction was indifferent, the other two's enthusiasm did not diminish in the slightest.

Based on the clothes Larkspur was wearing, the sales clerk even personally changed Larkspur's hairstyle a few times, including but not limited to pigtails, buns, and three-strand braids... while Xia Liang took photos from various angles with her phone.

Looking at the girl in unfamiliar clothes in the mirror, and listening to the shop assistant's flattery, Larkspur's eyes widened slightly, and she suddenly felt a sense of temporal dislocation.

It felt like stepping back into the days of going out with the old team members, and outside the locker room, laughing and joking, were Anya, Margaret, and Su Shengzi...

However, this feeling only lasted for a very short moment before she came back to her senses, her thoughts returning from the past to the present.

"How was it, young senior?"

After the photos were taken, Xia Liang walked out from the side, put her hand on Larkspur's shoulder, and looked at herself in the mirror. "I think this one is the most satisfying."

Larkspur looked in the mirror and saw that she was wearing a short, loose-fitting long-sleeved cardigan, a high-waisted skirt, white socks, and canvas shoes, which gave her a student-like appearance.

Her appearance as a magical girl was somewhat youthful, but this outfit makes her look more mature, almost like a middle school student.

It was precisely this point that made Larkspur nod subconsciously after a brief silence, admitting, "I think it's fine."

It wasn't just a perfunctory response; I was genuinely quite satisfied.

After nearly an hour of trying, they finally stopped because it was inappropriate for the shop assistants to leave other customers waiting. Larkspur and Xia Liang then walked out of the shop carrying several bags.

By this time, it was already afternoon.

"Ah, I'm satisfied, I'm satisfied!"

Holding her phone, Xia Liang walked along, flipping through the photos she had taken earlier. "I would never normally see my junior wearing these clothes, but now I can save them all."

"... I actually hope you can delete it."

Carrying the paper bag, Larkspur walked slowly down the street. "If you really don't want to delete them, then be a little careful not to let these photos slip to the other members."

"Hey? Wouldn't it be better to show it to Xiao Lu?"

Xia Liang raised her phone and waved it. "I think she'll be very happy to see this, after all, the little senior is very cute."

"You know what I mean."

Larkspur rolled her eyes at her. "No means no."

"So this is our secret?"

Xia Liang smiled and held her phone to her chin, "This way, we have even more secrets between us now."

Larkspur remained silent in response to her deliberately provocative words.

Responding too attentively would undoubtedly encourage Xia Liang's playful nature; responding too indifferently would make her feel neglected. Not responding at all, handling Xia Liang situation lukewarmly...

The two walked along the pedestrian street for a while, crossed the driveway they had come from, and returned to another block. Larkspur didn't speak, so Xia Liang didn't ask either, but occasionally threw out some questions, chatting casually.

A short while later, after turning a corner, Larkspur said softly, "We've arrived."

"Where?" Xia Liang asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Our next stop is a privately owned hand-drip coffee shop."

As Larkspur reminisced, she said, "It used to be the place where the Fangting City Squad would meet after school. I don't know if it's still in operation, but let's go take a look."

"Just like how we used to insist on meeting on the rooftop of an office building?" Xia Liang asked thoughtfully.

"More or less," Larkspur replied lightly.

"Eh... I never thought you two would meet in a place like this before," Xia Liang said with a hint of surprise. "Was there some special reason behind it?"

"Is it strange? Going to a coffee shop shouldn't be unusual."

"It's not that going to a coffee shop is anything special, but the kind of coffee shop you've come to seems a bit..."

As Xia Liang spoke, she stretched out her hand and pointed across the street. "Look, that should be the one, right?"

"What kind of coffee shop? It should just be an ordinary one..."

Larkspur looked in the direction Xia Liang was pointing and saw a coffee shop in the spot she remembered. However, when she saw the coffee shop's sign and decor, she seemed to forget what she was going to say and swallowed the rest of her sentence.

In her memory, the location across the street should have been a small and exquisite Western Region- style coffee shop, which was a bit quiet, but the atmosphere and equipment inside were very sophisticated.

But what she saw now was not the shop she remembered.

A young girl in a black and white striped uniform stood at the entrance, enthusiastically promoting the café to passersby; the storefront was decorated in a light pink color, giving it a girlish feel; the signboard had the café's name written in cursive script, but the logo next to it featured a miniature black and white dress.

This type of dress has a specific name in the public's perception: maid outfit.

--It was a maid café.