The appointment with King Halo arrived as scheduled.
They'd agreed on 8.30 AM. Hayato had set his alarm extra early, double-checked his outfit the night before, and left the dorm with plenty of time to spare. He showed up at the meeting spot at 8, thinking he'd be early for sure.
King Halo had beaten him there anyway.
She was standing near the wall-glass, phone raised in one hand, staring at the screen as it had personally betrayed her. The navy dress she wore was simple, dotted with small white patterns, swaying slightly every time she shifted her weight. It suited her, cute without being flashy. A light mint cardigan was thrown over it, buttoned halfway, like she'd dressed for comfort but still cared how she looked.
A brown shoulder bag hung at her side, and black stockings framed her legs, giving her a more grown-up feel than usual. The green ribbon tied into her hair caught the light when the breeze passed, matching her cardigan perfectly. Of course it did. She never missed things like that.
Her brows were furrowed, lips pressed into a small pout. Definitely annoyed. Probably because I was late.
Even so, there was something oddly composed about the way she stood there, irritation and elegance mixed together. Waiting, sulking, and clearly unhappy, but still smiling after seeing Hayato.
Yeah. I was in trouble.
Hayato apologized as politely as he could manage. "Sorry, I'm late."
"You're not actually late." King Halo's expression was unusually serious, her arms crossed. "But do you really feel good about making me wait for you that long? As a first-class trainer, if we agreed on 8.30 o'clock, you should've arrived at 8."
It's not even past 8 yet, is it? But arguing about this seemed wrong. Hayato didn't like making women wait, he looked down on all men who did that.
He apologized again, more sincerely this time. "You're absolutely right. I'm sorry. I should've come even earlier."
King Halo, who'd arrived way early herself, wasn't actually angry. Her eyes scanned his outfit from head to toe before she nodded with obvious satisfaction. "Didn't expect the trainer to be so good at keeping up with trends."
She'd figured she might have to go shopping today with a trainer wearing boring work clothes. Hadn't expected him to actually show up in decent casual wear.
How rare.
"Really? As long as you're satisfied. I was worried you'd say I dressed poorly." Seiun picked out these clothes, and they really are good. Thinking back, if he'd worn a formal suit, King Halo might've actually sent him straight back home.
Thank goodness Seiun helped big time.
Hayato didn't dare mention that Seiun Sky had chosen the clothes though, worried it might cause unnecessary misunderstandings.
"So, where to next?" Hayato got straight to the point. He wanted to finish helping King Halo buy things and get back to rest early.
"Let's, let's go over there." King Halo pointed toward the department store, her finger wavering slightly.
"Oh, okay."
Although she'd said she came to buy things, she showed zero real intention of actually buying anything. Passing by snack shops, she'd stop to buy food, eating and playing as they went.
The whole way was just "let's eat this," "I want lamb skewers," "let's sit over there for a bit."
Hayato groaned inwardly, his expression screaming I knew it.
If paparazzi saw this scene, it'd become headline news for sure.
"Shopping" as promised, but it was basically a date. After eating one ridiculously cheap lamb skewer, King Halo was already having the time of her life.
Buy things?
Not happening.
"It's a day off. Today's super relaxed."
In the cafeteria, Urara sat at the same table with Seiun Sky, Grass Wonder, and Daiwa Scarlet, the lunch crowd buzzing around them.
Seiun Sky lay sprawled across the table like a dead fish, not wanting to move at all, her mouth slightly open as she recited, "Spring's not for studying, summer's too hot for sleeping, autumn brings mosquitoes, and winter's too cold. If you want to study, wait till next year."
"Seiun, you're way too unmotivated." Grass Wonder's eye twitched at the display. "Trainer's not here, and you get this lazy."
"You don't know, yesterday while you all were playing together, just me and trainer went shopping." Seiun Sky didn't even lift her head. "We bought several dumbbells for training. It was really hard work."
"Eh? Seiun-chan went shopping with trainer yesterday?" Urara perked up immediately, eyes bright with interest. "Why didn't you call us?"
"Because you were all having a tea party. I didn't want to disturb you."
Whether she was bragging or not, Daiwa Scarlet and Grass Wonder's gazes instantly sharpened.
Seiun Sky caught their looks, her eyes narrowing just slightly. My scheme worked.
She continued, keeping her tone casual. "Don't get any wrong ideas, okay? I really just went to help trainer carry things... We just happened to eat some noodles in between, and I helped pick out a few outfits for him. Really nothing much."
"I see." Grass Wonder smiled with her eyes closed, refusing to fall for Seiun Sky's obvious trap.
Daiwa Scarlet raised her eyebrows with mild curiosity.
A trainer to them, it really wasn't much. Just someone who helped Uma Musume improve training efficiency and handled registration processes. Kind of like an agent or assistant.
Although they'd heard many trainers would do this and that for Uma Musume, and uma musume easily fell in love, even to the point of going crazy over them.
But they wouldn't fall for that. Their trainer wasn't the type to make moves on his own uma musume, right?
"Speaking of which, don't you all want to know where Halo-chan went?"
Seiun Sky casually dropped a bomb.
"Eh? Right!" Urara's hands flew to her mouth. "Even with no training today, Halo-chan woke up so early. She tried on like a dozen outfits in front of the mirror before going out."
Urara dropped the second bomb.
"She went shopping with trainer, too."
"EH!?"
Even Silence Suzuka passing by stopped mid-step, her eyes wide with surprise.
"Are they buying a lot of things?" Urara asked, genuinely puzzled.
"Probably. He didn't finish yesterday, so today he called Halo-chan to go again."
"Then why didn't he call us to come too? We could help too!" Urara flexed the tiny bit of muscle on her wrist, thinking she was pretty strong, actually.
Her pink sakura pupils sparkled especially bright, giving off this warm, comfortable feeling.
"Maybe he didn't want to disturb us, wanted us to rest more." Seiun Sky shrugged. "Shopping is pretty tiring, and you have to eat a lot too."
Oguri Cap, who'd been eating in the back this whole time, heard Seiun Sky's words and looked up, showing this expression like she desperately wanted to hear more.
"Eh? That won't do. Urara wants to help too, because there's good food!" She was already bouncing in her seat, excitedly.
"Trainer probably doesn't want us to help, or he would've called us already." Lazy Seiun Sky finally lifted her head and straightened her back, stretching. "How about we go shopping too? I was just thinking of buying some food. Maybe we'll run into trainer and Halo-chan."
"Sounds good! Urara wants to go!"
"I also have quite a few things to buy." Grass Wonder nodded thoughtfully. She remembered needing to pick up nice rice paper and tea sets.
"Then I'll go take a look too." Daiwa Scarlet said flatly, though her tail swished just once.
"Me too." Oguri Cap immediately joined the group, already standing.
"Me, me too... I also have things to buy." Silence Suzuka spoke quietly, her ears perking up slightly.
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*As usual, the illustration is commented on.