Pre-Translation Notes: The amount of katakana here was awful. Also I almost left “ikemen” untranslated because while “handsome” is a good sort of equal, I’m not sure if it carries the same sort of ‘oomph’ to it. I think I’ve mentioned it before that the better equivalent is ‘hunk’, but it sounds super clunky to have these characters say that. Any suggestions are appreciated and I’ll give it some thought. I try to reduce the amount of Japanese specific terms but for this one I really struggle to find a good one. I even consulted a friend of mine who natively speaks Japanese for this one, as the title more literally translates to something like “The standard choice of hot guys”, but in the adverbial sense. tl;dr this title made me anxious for translating this chapter.
Misono Ren and Misono Shizuku.
According to the younger brother and older sister pair, the “Oshio Sota Remodelling Project” was extremely difficult.
“…….it’s good, isn’t it?”
Finishing changing clothes in the narrow dressing room, I said that while simultaneously opening the curtains.
On the opposite side of the curtains, is Ren sitting on a footstool and crossing his legs, next to an extremely confident and proud Shizuku-san.
Shizuku-san snorted and replied,
“I tried to match the German-made fisherman’s shirt with the white pants! The bucket hat with a navy stripe has an ideally sporty and marine feeling! How is it~”
……what kind of magic spell is this?
I didn’t understand the meaning of Shizuku-san’s words. but anyhow I tried to return an obedient expression……
“—the feeling that he’s wearing clothes isn’t there, you know. The silhouette is too big and it doesn’t fit with Sota’s slenderness. ”
Then, immediately Ren pointed out the faults.
What would you answer back to that? [T/N: Literally “As for you, to answer?” Hard to translate without the next sentence.]
For sure, I thought, “As for this, would it be better for a more built guy to wear this?”
Shizuku-san examined me unblinkingly and stared at me before saying “Certainly!” and clapping her hands together.
This time, Ren got up from his chair, and handed over a set of clothes he had seemingly matched beforehand.
“We’re taking turns, sis, you sit down and watch.”
“Fufu, let’s go ahead and see what you’ve got, little brother.”
Changing out who was sitting on the stool, Shizuku-san sat down and crossed her legs.
There’s no relief for me, even though I’m the one who’s changing clothes……?
Shortly after I voiced such doubts like that, the curtains were closed.
Reluctantly, I changed into the clothes Ren passed me.
“……good, right?”
It was said with anticipation, and then the curtains were opened.
“The paisley pattern on the open-necked shirt tucked underneath the grey slacks, the point being the dangling belt. The calm coloring is antique and adult, and it’s perfect for Sota’s slenderness. How is it?” [T/N Note: So the kanji for “dangling belt” can be read as “hanging belt” as well, which when I went to go look it up that fashion, ended up giving me some suicide prevention links. I was thoroughly confused for about a minute before it clicked.]
……so, what kind of magic spell is this?
Shizuku-san hummed an “Uuun.” in reply.
“You’re on the right track but as expected, if it’s for a high school student, there’s the feeling of trying to stand on your tiptoes, moreover with this coloring, it’s gloomy and isn’t it going to be hot? It’s summer, right? In fall, it would score 80 points.”
“Definitely, right.”
“Yes, yes” said the Misono siblings as they nodded their heads.
……what about what I’d like to wear?
“—as expected, adding a military style shirt can make the difference in how casual it is! This is the best! A French navy border shirt!”
“No, if you’re going to use military style, it has to be the bottoms! England style cargo shorts!”
“No, no, no! After all, for military style, boots are the best! Easy to match and excellent functionality! Italian sailor shoes!”
No no no, no no no, along with many words I have never heard before, noisily flow through the store with such volume that it drowns out the BGM playing.
In the middle of this, for some reason the person who is left behind is me, the person who is the one wearing these clothes.
It doesn’t mean that they’re taking me into consideration, it seems, as their argument goes in circles, when Ren suddenly turns his head towards me.
“Sota, what kind of style is good?!”
Ren says that, coming to touch on this subject.
Seeing this, Shizuku-san turns her attention this way.
How should I put this…
Because I was embarrassed, I scratched my cheek which made a baribari sound while I said,
“……as for me, I honestly don’t understand clothes, but this is a setting that I absolutely want to look good in.”
The noise up until now seemed like a lie, as the two people here kept their mouths closed.
Even the heavy bass of the BGM, which could be heard anywhere, was consumed by the silence.
“It’s embarrassing to say, but in sports and in my studies I’m average, I’m not good in chatting or in having fashion sense, well, not especially up until now, and because of that, it was fine, since I don’t want to be popular with women like Ren, but……”
Then, I finally say it.
“—because it’s the girl I like, I wonder if I want to look good enough so I’m not embarrassed to walk next to her…”
I have a feeling I am talking about something awkward, but that’s how I honestly feel.
—the unreachable flower who everyone envied, Sato Koharu.
It could be good, it could be folly.
I want to be equal to her, even if it’s for an instant as short as releasing the shutter of a camera.
I wanted to become a man who doesn’t feel uncomfortable in a single photo of a scene where she and I walk side by side—that’s my one, only wish.
The Misono siblings, for a short while, vacantly held their mouths open as if they had frozen in place. [T/N: Raw uses something more literal to “harden/solidify” but so “froze in place” seemed like a good alternative.]
Did I say something that drew them in that much, or did I say something that sounded that bad?
At the time when I started to think that.
“Sis, do you have a shirt? A beige one?”
“I do, after, what about a white tanktop and denim pants?”
“That’s right, a bright blue, one that’s tight and made in Britain.”
“What about the military bag, it doesn’t have a good vibe.”
“There’s a satchel bag I haven’t used.”
“Okaaay.”
Suddenly, the time that was stopped started up, as the Misono siblings ran through the store restlessly.
Then, for the bewildered me, the two who until just a little while ago had violently argued with each other, passed ideas off to one another, and briskly gathered up miscellaneous clothes from the store’s interior.
Just like that, I was handed a complete set of coordinated clothes.
“Eh, this is……?”
“The truth is, as a second-hand store employee, I want Sota-kun to awaken to the merits of second-hand clothing, however…… this time in consideration for Sota-kun’s manly energy, I’ll drop the humor so I can earn your forgiveness!”
“Well, if you choose to say something so handsome to that extent, I’ll pick seriously, since this time I was just having fun.”
“……As expected, the two of you are playing with me.”
“Don’t say anything troublesome, just change clothes!”
Shaaaa went the curtains as they were vigorously closed.
There were a few things I wasn’t satisfied with, although I changed into the “coordination” they had prepared, then—I opened the curtains.
Between the two a sound of “Oo—……” is made.
“It’s safely arranged, hm.”
“It’s the standard choice for handsome guys, isn’t it?”
“Don’t get mad.”
“It’s a little boring, right?”
“I’m stuck on how to say it……”
I felt something subtle when I saw that the two’s comments are obviously not as passionate as one would expect until a bit ago.
……However, for me who was disinterested in fashion, my impressions, well, this was considerably neat and good, wasn’t it?
From the light beige short sleeve shirt, the white tank-top only barely peeked through.
The brightened blue jeans indeed made a fresh, summer impression.
As for the satchel? It’s something like a small pouch and the dark blue sneakers also have a sporty and good feeling, you know, but in the end that’s an amateur’s opinion, well……
Well, anyway, this is what my best friend and his sister recommended to me.
It can’t be a bad thing.
“Ren and Shizuku-san, thank you very much. As for this, I’ll buy it.”
“Yes, thank you for your purchase! As for this price~~~here!”
Shizuku-san held out a hand calculator which presented the amount of money.
——I was surprised.
It didn’t go that high, as was cheaper than my expectations.
“I, is it okay to have a complete set of clothes be this cheap? I thought that these used clothes had to be expensive……”
Really, that was my one fear.
Some time ago, I checked the prices of the clothes Ren and Shizuku-san were wearing, and for a high school student it was a very heavy blow.
However, this is more than what I expected.
“That’s well, almost everything in this house is dad’s, directly purchased from overseas, so the price is of course, expensive but I’m not a demon! I know the lonely circumstances of high school students! So we picked cheap ones!” [T/N: This is Shizuku talking, but in the raw she addresses herself as “onee-san”, sort of in a “general older woman”, but that doesn’t translate well into English so I just went with I.]
“And then that satchel, it’s one of my hand-me-downs, and since I can’t use it anymore, it’s free.”
“And then, you have the evening 20% discount, right! As for the remaining money, use as much of it on your date to show off!”
Nahahahaha, cheerily laughed Shizuku-san.
An evening discount……?
While I held my doubts, honest feelings of gratitude gathered in my chest.
“……Thank you very much, I’ll do my best.”
I bowed my head to the siblings, for reducing the price of the clothes I bought.
Then, from Shizuku-san, I received the price tag for the clothes I was wearing.
“Ku,kushu!”
Even though it’s summer, my nose is weirdly itchy and I sneeze.
While I was wondering what it was, Ren for some reason says “Ahhhh” with a know it all look.
“Sota, this is your first time in a second hand store, so you might feel a bit bad because it’s dusty.” [T/N: Literally this sentence was “you were killed because it’s dusty” for trivia.]
“Ah, in the end there’s a lot of vintage items, so it can’t be helped, you know—”
“……kushuu!”
I make another successive sneeze.
Making showy sneezing noises had a feeling of being a little rude, so I muffled my voice, but it didn’t stop.
“For now, you should get some air outside, since my sister and I will be talking.”
“……my bad. Then, for today, sincerely, thank you very much for everything.”
“Yep, until the next time you come—! Rainy days have a 30% discount, and thunderstorms have a 50% discount—!” [T/N: Yo, I wish I knew a store that gave 50% off on thunderstorms.]
……isn’t that overdoing it on discounts?
That’s what I thought, as I left “MOON”.
It had already become dark outside.
This chapter was not actually that long but all of the katakana and clothing shenanigans were a real pain, haha. Thank goodness these chapters are back to their usual length instead of being godforsakenly long.
Next chapter is of course, something parallel to this but on the Sato side of things.
Not a lot to say for this chapter, other than Oshio stepping up and saying what he wanted was pretty cool. Anyways, expect the next chapter on the 11th of December since the normal schedule hasn’t changed, as I released this one early in order to account for the holiday.
For everyone who’s celebrating it at the time this goes, I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving! Thanks again for reading, and see you all next time!
Right, as we should have expected those two were playing with Oshio (I forgot about it).
Thanks for the chapter! Awesome translation! God bless you!
LikeLike
Thanks for the chapter!!
LikeLike
Thanks for the chapter!
I was trying to read the raw version on syotetu but it was awfully full of katakana so I couldn’t understand much.
Thanks for your work!
LikeLike