The next morning the Paranormal Club finds themselves at the school gates with Mayumi and her family getting the last of her luggage in the trunk of her father’s car. Kirika is latched onto Mayumi and lightly sobbing into her chest.

“Kid, I’m not dying or anything. I promise I’ll visit you guys and you could see me on TV when my show is on.” Mayumi then looks up at her father, “Hey, what time slot did we get anyway?”

He finishes putting her way too big suitcase in the way too small trunk and then clears his throat, “Well I told them about your potty mouth and they did see the footage from the incident, so our time slot is a bit late.”

Mayumi frowns at what he says. “The fuck? I don’t curse that much,” she says, then looks at her friends for confirmation. They all look away from her, avoiding eye contact, except for Cerys who yells out, “That is bullshit.”

Yuuri walks over to try and politely pull Kirika off of Mayumi. Yuudai follows behind her. “Oh, we’re doing a group hug? Let me get in!” He quickly spreads his arms and grabs all three girls together, smiling wide as he hugs the trio. Katsuki joins in as well, looking expectedly over at Saito, Cerys, and Akina. After the three shrug it off, she frowns, but completes the hug all the same.

Yuudai finally lets go of his embrace after Yuuri taps his bicep, freeing everyone from his grip. After the rest back off, Cerys walks up to talk to Mayumi face to face. Yuuri grasps Kirika’s shoulder, guiding her away to give Cerys room with Mayumi. “Kirika… I understand that you’re sad that she’s leaving, I am too. But, we have to let her go. She has a chance to finally be with her family!” Kirika, tears still in her eyes, simply nods and gives a slight smile.

“Awww, look. Our little Mayuu made some really sweet friends here.” Mayumi’s mother says while holding onto her husband’s arm. “It reminds me of our old group. Remember how we would go to the mall and sneak- Oh!” Her head pops up as if she had her first idea in a decade. “Kids, kids! Come over here for a moment!” She waves her hand to get the club’s attention, successfully gathering most of the group around her. “You’re all of the Paranormal Club, aren’t you? That’s the spooky stuff, right?” She asks.

Katsuki, acting as the mouthpiece of the group, nods. “Yep! Ghouls, ghosts, and g… goblins?” She looks back at Yuuri, who shakes her head. “Okay, not goblins, but the other two yes!”

“Oh, good! Then I might have something that might be up your alley! You know the mall? Well, I heard…” She bends over and speaks in a lowered tone. “I heard that couples who go to the mall… they’ve been having strange things happening to them! Isn’t that spooky?”

“What do you mean by strange, miss lady?” Saito asks.

“Well, like… They go into the camera booths and the pictures are all messed up! And… uh… and the food court tables shake when they’re eating! But only when it’s couples, it doesn’t happen when it’s only a single person.”

“Well, we can’t use that info, we don’t have any couples here.” Cerys scoffs, having returned from her talk with Mayumi.

“You couldn’t pretend to hook up with that hunk there and fool the ghost?” The older woman points at Yuudai, causing him to blush.

“Me? A hunk? No, you mean Saito, right?” Yuudai points at Saito, who’s listening to some music at this point and eating a candy bar.

Mayumi’s mom shakes her head. “No, I wasn’t talking about that spring boy. I was-” She’s cut off by Mayumi’s dad clasping her shoulder.

“It’s time to go, sweets. Let’s stop harassing the nice kids here and get to the airport!”

“Ooh, you called me sweets! You only call me that when you want to fu-!” She’s cut off by Mayumi covering her mouth and leading her to the car.

“That’s enough mom, you and dad can have your sweets later when my friends aren’t around!” She quickly says before turning back to the club. “Well, later gals, guys, and Saito!” She waves and gets in the car as well.

Even Cerys joins in waving at the car as it speeds off towards the airport.

There’s a silence after the Asukas leave everyone’s sights, soon broken by Yuudai. “So, uh, who are you taking to the mall on a date, Saito?” He asks as he peels the headphones off of Saito’s ears.

“The WHAT?” Saito replies astonishedly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t go on dates, and I only go to malls to go to the arcade.”

“Oh, you weren’t listening?” Yuudai repeats what Mayumi’s mom explained. “There’s a ghost harassing couples in the mall, so we have to send a fake couple in to solve this mystery! And we- NOT IT!” Yuudai shouts and raises his hand.

“NOT IT EITHER!” yells Katsuki, followed by the same from Kirika and deathly glares from Akina and Cerys.

“Oh, uh… n-not it!” Yuuri says and raises her hand much later than everyone else. ”Oh darn, was I last?” She looks around, then looks at Saito. “Looks like we’re going to have to head out together!”

Saito looks unamused at the group. “I did not agree to anything like this. We’re not going anywhere Yuuri!”

“What, are you afraid of losing your loser loner reputation?” Cerys says, radiating a smug aura.

Akina matches Cerys’ smugness. “I guess you were just gay all along, gay boy.” She turns to Yuudai. “I guess you’ll have to go along anyway, baseball boy.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Yuudai swipes his hand through the air. “I wouldn’t go on a date with my bro like that! We’re bros! Not… uh… love bros!”

Saito sharpens his gaze to the two hecklers. “If you want it done so bad, why don’t you two go make out in the food court together? I’m sure that’d draw out a ghost as much as your fantasies about us would.”

Akina gets visibly angry. “Say that one more time and the only making out will be you and my fist.”

Yuuri steps in between the two uneasily. “H-hey, stop fighting! It’ll be fine if-” She suddenly has an idea.

Yuuri glances up at Saito. “Hey, you remember Y2K, right? She told me she’d like to challenge you again when you had the time. And, well, if we make it look like you’re a couple then it’d be enough to draw out the ghost!” Yuuri smiles, thinking of herself as a genius.

“A challenge, huh? Well, we did draw last time…” Saito thinks it over, then nods. “You know, as long as it gets me out of here right now, that’s good enough for me.”

“Then it’s settled! I’ll take Saito to the mall and we’ll meet up with Y2K there and put our plan into action!” Yuuri exclaims, then glances at Katsuki. “Oh right, sorry. Well, Ms. President, will you do the honors?”

Katsuki nods then walks in front of everyone and points at them. “Yuuri will take Saito to the mall, meet up with Y2K, and put the plan into action!”

“What will the rest of us doing while they are dating?” Kirika meekly asks.

“We’ll keep watch from afar, making sure no one sneaks up on them and does any kind of funny business.”

“O-okay! We’ll make sure nobody does any funny business with Yuuri!” Kirika clenches her fist and glares at Saito from behind him.

“And Saito, don’t forget to dress up. This has to at least LOOK like a real date, you know!” An alarm goes off on Katsuki’s phone. She takes it out and looks at it before gasping. “But for now, we really need to get to class! We’re gonna be late!”

Yuuri turns to Saito before they head off. “Meet me at the school gate an hour after class is out, okay?” She then turns and heads into the building with a smile. Saito sighs and puts his headphones back on.

After school, Yuudai and Saito are waiting at the gate. “Did we really need to be this early, Saito, and didn’t you need to dress up for this?”

“I did. This is my freshest school uniform. I even ironed the shirt.” Saito puffs his chest out. “And there’s no reason to wait around if I’m already ready.”

“If you say so, Saito… I just don’t get it. You get to spend time with a girl as pretty and nice as Yuuri and you half ass it like this? Weird, man.”

“Hey, this is my full effort for things like this, mang.” Saito shrugs. “She’s pretty and all, but I don’t think there could really be anything there between us.”

Before Saito can lift his headphones to his ears, they’re filled with Katsuki yelling. “SAITO YOU IDIOT! I TOLD YOU TO DRESS UP!” Before he can respond, Katsuki already has him by the lapel. “C’mon, this is important! You can’t be fooling around when we’re on official Paranormal Club business! Please take this seriously!”

The rest of the club follows suit behind her, a mix of amusement and embarrassment on their faces. Yuuri steps in between her friend and her date and tries to calm down Katsuki. “It’s fine, once we get to the mall I’ll take Saito shopping for a new outfit.” She looks at him, “One that isn’t orange.”

“Are you sure? I don’t think he has the money for a new outfit and Yuuri-senpai wouldn’t go on a date with someone who looks so poor.” Kirika flips her hair with a pout on her face, “That’s how they would tell it’s a fake date.”

“We’re not going to get anything done wasting time here,” Akina bluntly says, “Let’s get to the mall already and get this shit over with.”

Not wanting to get Akina any angrier, the group ends the seemingly endless argument there and gets ready to head out.

Once the club gets to the mall they immediately split so no one would think they were together. Yuuri and Saito head to a store with a big red logo out front. “This is the primo clothing store in this mall, they have all of my favorite styles here so I know we can find something for you.”

Before Saito can even say anything about what he likes to wear, Yuuri grabs his forearm and begins to drag him around the store going from rack to rack looking for an outfit that suits him. After about 10 minutes of piling clothes into his arms, she pulls him to the changing rooms. “Okay, now it’s time for my favorite part!” She excitedly giggles as she pushes Saito into the men’s changing rooms with the first set of hangers, giving him a thumbs up before she takes a seat on a nearby chair. “I’ll be outside waiting on you to get changed!”

Saito wordlessly enters the stall and begins to change into the outfit picked out for him. He walks out of the changing area with a dour expression. “The legs on these pants are too long, and this shirt is made of some stuff that makes me itch.”

“You’re not wearing an undershirt?”

“I never do.”

“T-Then try the next set on!” she says as she turns to her side, grabbing the next set of clothes she had picked out and thrusting them into his hands. “Try these on!”

“Okay..” Saito says as he takes them inside and changes. He steps back out again, still not looking too pleased. “This makes me look too… out of my element. I’m not comfortable looking this nice.”

“C’mon, you should want to look nice, especially on a da- a fake date!” Yuuri exclaims with a frown.

“Yeah, but my normal clothes are nice enough.”

Yuuri’s eyes narrow and she lets out an exaggerated sigh, “Just try on this last outfit!”

He changes one more time, stepping out into the light again, wearing dark skinny jeans and a light blue shirt with an album cover on it. “Well it fits and I actually like this band.”

“Oh yeah, it’s that weird ghost band isn’t it? Until you talked about their music I thought they were a fake group made up for t-shirts.” She replies, looking a bit more lightened up than before. She claps her hands together. “Then let’s get it! Perfect for our day out!”

Saito looks down at his outfit and then back up at Yuuri. Her smile is contagious, her face glowing with joy as she is clearly enjoying herself. He smiles back and feels like he has to say something to clear the air.

“You’re taking this fake date seriously aren’t you, Yuuri?”

She tenses up, the glow replaced with a blush. Yuuri’s legs feel a bit lighter as if she’s been tripped while running at full speed. Her mind works hard to come up with some kind of answer.

“Well, duh! You think I can take it easy for our mission? We got a ghost trick, er ghost to trick here.” She blurts out, stumbling over her words. “A-Anyway, you have your outfit right? Why don’t you change back into your normal clothes so we can go buy it?”

For some reason, Saito feels a bit let down at the non-answer. His own emotions slow him down a bit, as he simply nods before reentering the room to change back.

Yuuri grabs at her arm and blushes again. “It’s real to me.” She mumbles, trying to think of what to do next.