「It's official.」

Mieko Takahara sat on her bed, eyes locked on the two evening dresses jumbled together cascading down the back of her study chair.

「I...have no idea what I'm doing.」

Why couldn't she just wear what she had on for the entire day? What made dinner so special?

More specifically, just what on earth made Mister Fosters so special that she had to change into one of these scratchy, sweaty deathtraps?

Dinner is the least we can do for him after all that he's done for you.

Mieko rolled her eyes at her father’s reasoning, arms splaying above her shiny black hair as she lay down in defeat.

The least we can do? With the weekly payments and triple overtime allowances, he could be eating bluefin tuna every night of the week!

But apparently it wasn't enough for that man, even when he took home more than Mrs. O'Halloran could have ever dreamed of making.

Her eyebrows knit into a fine line across her forehead, eyes shooting daggers into the white ceiling above.

Mrs. O'Halloran.

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She should be the one her father was inviting to dinner, not Mister Fosters.

Mieko was considering writing to Kazuma about how unfairly her father had treated her former English tutor, but she decided to wait until he returned home to break the news.

Kazuma.

The thought of finally reuniting with her best friend after three excruciatingly long years was more than enough to brighten up Mieko's otherwise sullied evening.

Propping her body back upright, she sighed as her eyes scanned over the two gowns still taunting her from the chair.

Blue or green, blue, green...

She sighed again.

An hour of putting on this kimono, wasted.

And she had just learned to put it on all by herself! At the very least, she wanted to celebrate by wearing it for the entire day.

Booming footsteps suddenly rang from below Mieko's room, the vibrations sounding her from her musings and back to the bleak reality laid out before her for the evening.

She had to hurry up and get down there, lest her father subject her to even more questioning for the day, in front of Mister Fosters of all people.

Trudging her way towards the two dresses, Mieko reluctantly settled her fingers on the blue silk ready to fall off the side of the chair.

Hey, at least a dress gives me more room for food!

She grinned to herself as she undid her obi, imagining how Kazuma would always tease her for how much she managed to ravage through every dinner.

Anything to get through this, without him.

「Mieko! Come down here, you're ready aren't you?」

One more night, she could handle just one more night.

One more night, and he was home.