My Romance Life System
Chapter 93: Shopping V2

Chapter 93: Shopping V2

He took her to one of those stores where the price tags have more zeros than a lottery ticket.

Thea walked in behind him and just... stopped.

She froze right there in the entryway, her eyes wide as she took in the racks of perfectly folded clothes, the bright, minimalist décor, and the sales assistants who looked like they’d just stepped out of a fashion magazine.

You could almost see the math happening in her head. The quick, panicked calculations of a person who knows the exact price of a loaf of bread, now faced with a t-shirt that could probably feed a small family for a week.

’I can’t be here.’

She took a half-step back, ready to bolt.

Kofi, who was starting to get a PhD in reading her silent panic attacks, turned around.

"What’s wrong?"

’What’s wrong? What’s wrong is that this place is for a different species of human, you idiot.’

"I... I can’t," she whispered, shaking her head. "This place is... it’s too much."

He looked around the store, then at her, and the penny finally dropped. He’d been so focused on getting her good clothes, on not taking her to some cheap, second-hand place, that he’d massively overcorrected and landed them in the land of luxury.

’My bad. Time for a new plan. Lie. Lie your face off.’

"Look," he started, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "Here’s the deal. My parents, they send me these gift cards for my birthday. For this store specifically. And if I don’t use them, they get mad because they think I don’t appreciate it."

"So, you’d actually be doing me a huge favor," he continued, selling it for all he was worth. "Help me spend this, so they get off my back. Please?"

She just stared at him, her expression a mix of suspicion and exhaustion but she was too tired to argue. She was also too smart to believe him completely, but the lie was a life raft. It gave her an excuse, a role to play that wasn’t ’charity case’.

She gave a small, hesitant nod.

"Okay. A favor."

And so began the most awkward shopping trip in human history.

Thea moved through the racks like a ghost, her fingers barely brushing against the fabric. She was on a mission, and that mission was to find the most boring, practical, and inoffensive items in the entire store. She picked out a pair of plain, dark-wash jeans.

A three-pack of plain white t-shirts. A pack of socks. Underwear. She held each item up for a second, looked at the price tag, flinched, and then reluctantly put it in the shopping basket Kofi was holding.

She was shopping like someone who was stocking a bomb shelter, not like a fourteen-year-old girl picking out clothes.

"Is that it?" He asked, looking at the sad little pile of beige and denim in the basket. "Don’t you want a sweater or something? It gets cold at night."

"This is fine."

"What about something... not plain?" he pressed. "Like, with a color? Or a pattern?"

She just shook her head, her eyes fixed on the floor. "I don’t need it."

He let out a quiet sigh. This was harder than he thought. He was trying to give her a choice, but she was so used to having none that she didn’t know what to do with it.

They were about to head to the register when she stopped. Her eyes were fixed on a simple, long-sleeved shirt hanging on a display. It was a soft, heather-gray color. And on the pocket, almost too small to see, was a tiny, embroidered blue jay.

She just looked at it. She didn’t reach for it. She didn’t say anything. But her whole body went still.

He saw it. He saw the flicker of want in her eyes, the first genuine, non-survival-based desire he’d seen from her all day.

"You like that one?"

She jumped, startled, and quickly looked away. "No. It’s stupid."

"It’s got a bird on it."

She didn’t answer.

He walked over, took the shirt off the hanger, and checked the size. It was about right. He walked back and just dropped it into the basket on top of the pile of sensible, boring clothes.

"We’re getting it," he said, his tone leaving no room for argument.

She opened her mouth to protest, to say she didn’t need it, that it was too much, but he just started walking toward the checkout counter. She had no choice but to follow.

The cashier, a girl with impossibly perfect hair, scanned the items with a bored efficiency. The number on the little screen climbed higher and higher, reaching a total that made Thea feel physically ill.

Kofi didn’t even blink. He just pulled out his wallet, tapped his card, and it was done.

The cashier put everything into a few large, glossy bags. He took them, then handed one of the bags to Thea. The one with the bird shirt in it.

She took it, her fingers curling around the crisp paper handles. She was clutching it a little tighter than the others.

They walked out of the store and back into the main concourse of the mall. They had done it. They had survived.

And Thea had a shirt with a bird on it. Which, in the grand scheme of things, felt like a pretty big win.

’Okay, clothes are done. Now for the other stuff. Notebook and Pencils.’

"Alright, next stop is the bookstore."

"...mm."

It wasn’t a word, really, just a sound, her go-to response when she didn’t want to talk but felt like silence would be too rude.

He was about to start walking when the system window appeared.

[New Quest Available!]

[Urgent: Find a lost kitten in the West End park district.]

[Reward: 5,000 NAD.]

’A lost kitten? Seriously?’

He swiped the window away, that can wait.

They walked to the bookstore.

Thea was still trailing behind him, clutching the glossy shopping bags like they were evidence of a crime she’d been forced to commit. The mall was loud, full of people who were laughing and talking and not having an existential crisis about their new roommate, which felt kind of rude, honestly.

Kofi led them into the bookstore, a place that was blessedly quieter. He headed straight for the back, to the aisle marked ’Art & Supplies’.

He stopped in front of a whole wall of sketchbooks and pencils.

"Alright," he said, turning to her. "This is your department. Pick whatever you want."

Thea looked at the wall of art supplies like it was a complex math problem she was not prepared to solve. Her eyes scanned the options, her expression going from cautious to panicked in about three seconds.

She pointed to a small, flimsy-looking sketchbook with a plain brown cover and a pack of two basic drawing pencils. The kind of stuff you buy when you’ve completely given up on life.

"This is fine."

He just looked at the sad little pile she had indicated.

’Nope. We are not doing this again.’

"That’s, uh, not gonna work," he said.

She looked at him, her expression turning guarded again. "Why not?"

"Because," he said, improvising wildly. "That paper is too thin. It’s for, like, math. Not for birds. Birds require... sturdier paper. It’s a known fact."

She just blinked at him, completely unconvinced but also too tired to argue with his nonsense about bird-specific paper requirements.

He took that as a win. He walked over and grabbed a thick, spiral-bound sketchbook with a heavy black cover. The kind of book that looked like you could do some serious, important drawing in it. Then he grabbed a full set of drawing pencils, the ones that came in a neat little tin box and had all the different numbers on them.

"This," he said, holding them up. "is proper bird-drawing equipment."

He put them in the shopping basket, then looked at her. "What about colors? Do birds have colors?"

’Yes, you idiot, birds have colors.’

She just gave a small nod.

He grabbed a set of colored pencils, too, and a couple of fine-tipped black pens for outlining. The basket was now full of a whole arsenal of artistic weaponry.

Thea just watched him, her expression unreadable. She didn’t protest. She didn’t thank him. She just stood there, a ghost in the art supply aisle.

They went to the checkout, and he paid for everything without comment. He put the new sketchbook and pencils into one of the empty shopping bags.

They were walking out of the bookstore when the system popped up again, a lot more aggressive this time. It flashed across his vision, a blinking, red banner of urgency.

[URGENT QUEST ALERT!]

[Objective: Find lost kitten. Last seen: West End Park.]

[Time-sensitive. Reward has been doubled.]

[New Reward: 10,000 NAD.]

’Ten thousand for a cat? What is this, a royal cat?’

He swiped it away. He had a fragile, traumatized girl with him. He couldn’t just drag her on a wild cat chase across the city.