Go to Babel Records

(Chapter originally by MidnightWisher at writing.com)

Makoto walked as fast as she could without attracting unnecessary attention toward the closest of her ‘promising’ shops, Babel Records. Her heart went a mile a minute, and her surroundings blurred around her. She only cared about beating the deadline. When she arrived at the entryway to the store, she slowed her pace some. Yet her heart only seemed to beat faster. She wondered how much time she had left, her stomach knotting.

She briskly walked through the automated, sliding glass door, where she was greeted by the ice-cold air conditioning of the store. She put one eye on the cashier, who didn’t even bother to look up, looking as bored as could be while she was in the middle of a crisis, while her other eye scanned the room. A couple people were inside, looking through rental bins or checking out what was stocked on the shelf. A slight feeling of relief came to her when not a person paid any attention to her entrance. She walked over the display shelf that covered the entire middle of the store, the only thing stopping people from outside from being able to see everything inside. She was thankful that the discount bins were toward the front of the store, because that was where most of the customers seemed to flock to. She was all alone on her side of the shelf. For a moment, her hand almost drifted to pick up a DVD case to at least pretend that was the reason she was here, just in case someone she didn’t notice was actually watching her. Her hand stopped before it ever got anywhere. I don’t have time for that, she thought hurriedly.

Makoto kept the cashier in her sights as her hands worked their magic to unhook her bra as discreetly and fast as possible. As soon as the hooks came loose, she felt the slack in her bra. Now came the hard part, getting it off. Throwing all caution to the wind, Makoto pulled her arms, one at a time, into her shirt as she worked to free them from her bra’s straps. Ordinarily, removing a bra wouldn’t be too difficult of a task, even if you’re removing under a shift, but due to Makoto’s frenzied rush against an invisible clock the task involved a bit more struggling than usual. But she did succeed. Quiet as a feather, her bra landed at her feet and she pushed her arms back out of her top.

With the task complete, Makoto found herself panting hard and coated in sweat, almost like she had just been in a marathon, with one thought on her mind, Did I make it in time. She moved to rest her arm on the display to help support herself. With each deep breath and each minute movement of her body, she could feel the soft, delicate fabric of her dress get acquainted with parts of her it never touched before. She risked a glance at her surroundings to see if anyone had seen her. A sigh of relief left her mouth when she saw no one looking her way. The only evidence of what she had done laid at her feet. But just when Makoto thought she would have a moment to catch her breath, a sound broke through the quiet around her. The sound of-