Decisions, Decisions

(Chapter originally by MidnightWisher at writing.com)

Arriving at the Shibuya Station Square, Makoto felt a lump form in her throat. All she had to do was walk through the entryway, go down a flight of stairs, and she would arrive at her destination… Then the real challenge would begin… Forcing herself forward, Makoto was greeted by the station’s refreshingly chilly air conditioning as she entered the building and approached the stairs. Her hand touched the top of the railing, and she hesitated, staring down the stairwell. A handful of people were ascending, not a single one appeared to be paying her any mind, yet she suddenly found herself concerned with the length of her dress.

Her dress wasn’t short by any means, especially not in comparison to what she has seen other girls wear. But, without her leggings, she began feeling a little self-conscious. As people started moving around her to descend the stairs, Makoto steeled herself. It was silly of her to be so nervous over something so trivial. Though, that thought didn’t stop her from holding the bottom of her dress down with her free hand as she descended. She took no time celebrate her victory over the stairs, making her way toward the Underground Mall the moment her feet touched down.

It was more crowded than she expected, full of families, kids running around, and people her own age just hanging out. She expected the place to be nearly vacant, considering the time. Admittedly, though, she didn’t know much about the mall. She had only been there a handful of times, and each of those times Ann had been dragging her along, telling her it was the perfect place to relax. Makoto didn’t feel too relaxed, quite the opposite. She was a bundle of nerves as she circled the mall, looking for the best place to complete her task, while also trying to keep an eye out for anyone tailing her without looking too suspicious. She was sure she was failing.

She knew from shopping with Ann that the mall had a couple clothing stores, Lovely Melody and the ever-crowded Problem Child. Normally, clothing stores would be the best place to ditch clothes, or at least one would assume. It didn’t certainly didn’t seem that way to Makoto. Lovely Melody seemed to have a steady number of people entering and exiting it. Problem Child was worse. No matter the time, it seemed Problem Child always had an enormous crowd in its rather small store. Whenever you were in it, you were always shoulder-to-shoulder with someone else. And due to the hole-in-the-wall nature of the stores in the Underground Mall and the need to maximize space, neither of the clothing stores appeared to provide changing rooms for their patrons. Makoto cupped her chin in thought. If the obvious choices were out, where could she get her task over with?

Makoto walked around the mall, scanning every business within it with a critical eye. The worst locations seemed to be the Shoe Repair store, the Sundry store (though, she would admit, it did have cute book covers), the Souvenir store and the Umbrella shop. The latter two hardly had enough space in their stalls for their product let alone customers. The jewelry stores weren’t any better, but for the opposite reasons. The mall apparently housed three different jewelry stores, each one spacious and open. Honestly, she commended their ability to maximize their spaces while still leaving plenty of room for customers to browse. However, that was part of the problem. In each of those stores, there would be nowhere for her to hide her bra after she removed it – if she even could without being seen. Likely due to the rather expensive cost of their product and quite possibly her age, the employees in each of the jewelry stores watched her like hawks. Similarly, the employee in Body Chop, a cosmetics store, was stuck to her like clue after she entered it, but she chocked that one up to the employee having nothing else to do than anything else, because they had been very friendly.

Makoto did eventually manage to find a few promising locations. Across from Body Chop stood a shoe store called Beauty Feet. Inside, the walls were covered with displays of shoes and shoeboxes. There were even aisles with shelves that nearly reached up to her eyes. She would be able to have at least an illusion of privacy if she did it there. A few stalls away from Beauty Feet was a purse store that for a reason Makoto couldn’t identify was named Funny Face. Similarly, it was not crowded, and its large, circular displays provided cover for her. Plus, she would be easily able to hide her bra in one of the various purses. Aside from those, the only other promising store was Babel Records, a music and DVD store. It had the benefit of an inattentive cashier, who seemed more interested in his phone than doing his job, and a large shelf of CDs that would provide cover the wandering gazes of people looking through the establishment’s wall of windows. She was deep in thought, weighing the pros and cons of each option, when a ringing noise snapped her out of it. Tentatively, Makoto pulled up the phone she had been given and answered it. “Hello?”

“Do I need to remind you, Miss Makoto, that we don’t have all day for you to finish this?”

“I know, but-”

“We were generous in allowing you to decide where to complete this task – which I now see was a mistake. A mistake that will not happen again. You have 5 minutes to go to your store of choice and remove that bra. Fail to complete the task in the timeframe, and I’ll have to determine you’re not up to the task of clearing your debt to us. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you what happens then, Miss Makoto.” With that, the line went dead. A jolt of panic passed through her, as her eyes dashed among her choices. What am I going to do?