"Today's the day;"
"I'm finally gonna get it."
Thoughts that had repeated themselves throughout classes and once the final bell rung.
Rina had finally saved up the remnants of various allowances in order to purchase a book that she wanted to read - a manga, specifically. One about two people's awkward, clumsy love for each other, and the friends that try to support them through it all. Volume 4 had been out for almost a month now, but the teen didn't have the funds to grab it right after its release. Because of this, Rina had been contemplating getting a part-time job to make some money.
"People who work get lots of money, right?" That's what she believed - but that's a story for another time.

Gathering her backpack and freshening up after school let out, she casually left the school grounds, still in her academy uniform, and walked down the large, twisting hill of shade-y trees, green wilderness, and paved road. She could have taken the bus down the hill, but that would mean spending money..., which the redhead could ill-afford to do, right now. That aside, it was good exercise; a chance to be out in the sun and breath lots of fresh air, because she knew that once she gets her manga, she was gonna hole herself up in her dorm room and wait out the weekend with simple indoor entertainment until Sunday, which is when that week's allowance arrives. So might as well get as much of this stuff as she can.

After traversing the hill, the shop that she frequents isn't very far - within the block, in fact. It was a small store, but pretty dense with manga - and even keeps up-to-date with newer and popular games, too. There was a game that Rina had considered to get, but didn't have the money to buy. Part of the reason she chose today to swing by rather than yesterday was exclusively because that game was released to the public today, and she could gaze at the box art and read what the game offered on the reverse side. It'll be a cool feeling, but she had to remember that after the manga purchase, she'd be broke. .... ...So it is what it is....

Entering the little shop with an alerting chime from the door, the girl casually made a beeline directly to the Romance section, glancing at many things along the way. The Romance/Action/Comedy aisle was relatively narrow; two people could not easily walk past each other, as one would have to squeeze against a bookshelf a little to let the other pass by, or vice versa. And seeing that someone else was, in fact, that aisle, Rina thought to herself
"Oh, someone's there. ...I might have to squeeze in to get by. ...---?" And upon further inspection, she realized: "Wait a minute..., isn't that... that guy?" Not wanting to attract his attention yet, she entered the aisle and feigned gazing at the books on the first set of shelves "...Mnnn... I recognize him from class, but I don't remember his name.... ---It was something familiar yet different, though; I remember that much...!" She took several seconds wracking her brain to recall his name, coming up with various iterations of it, instead.

But then Rina had an idea. "I still need to initiate conversations more; ...I can use this...!" she indiscernibly whispered to herself. As she thought that, she decided to also gain info on him to add to conversations. In this case, she tried to see what kind of manga he was reading. In other stores in Rina's home neighbourhood, you weren't allowed to read through the books they sold if you hadn't bought them yet (for obvious reasons), so Rina would never really have the courage to attempt even glancing inside the covers once. This guy was either brave, or this shop didn't care much - she didn't know which, nor would she ask about it in the foreseeable future.

Inching a little closer to the young man, Rina was able to vaguely see the front cover image of his manga, which seemed like a normal cover shot, but a bit on the fan-service-y side. Familiar with manga, anime, and online forums, she understood some of the terminology - and that guys liked that kind of stuff. To an extent, she could rationalize it. ...To an extent.

"...."
"He seems pretty into it." She stared for a moment. "I wonder if he even notices I'm here...." .... And with that, she attempted to inch somewhat behind him. As the slightly taller of the two, she was trying to see the panels that he was reading from over his shoulder, obviously not getting too close, but enough to see the top half of each page, if that's manageable.

".... .... ...! ...." A surreal grin then surfaced on her face (if she did get the chance to see some of it).

".... Ooo~*...." aloud.

"Appropriate, huh?" She grinned internally. "What a kind brother she has...." A sarcastic thought that set the tone for the orange-haired teen.

But when the young man tried to label her as a smut reader, she could see what was going on a mile away. Her spitefulness was triggered a little bit, though, for sure.

"H'I mean, I'm not...," Rina began to respond, moving off to the side, giving the guy a little space, "but at the same time, I get it."
As she spoke, she leaned forward and began glancing at the spines of the manga on one of the shelves. The redhead was looking for a manga that she had read before that she could use as an example. With the mangas' titles on their spines, she skimmed through the lines of books in front of her.

"I read manga, too, you know. And I can tell you it's definitely not my first rodeo, either.... I've seen my fair share of fan service, so at this point, I don't really mind it, much; ...what can ya do...." Soon finding one that she recalls reading, she pulled it off the shelf and flipped through the pages of the book with a maid on the cover flipping a pancake that had a design of a young male crying. "So yeah, it's whatever. 'Sex sells.' People do what they've gotta do...." She paused momentarily, then looked back at the youth in front of her. She turned the open book to face him so that he could see the art on the pages. A 'Cloud Crab' battle machine at a beach was snipping off swimsuits with anime precision, having guys and girls alike - mostly girls, though - covering themselves up. With a smug grin and a nostril-ed sigh, Rina threw up her right hand questioningly. "Guys like what guys like, am I right? .... And apparently your sis, too. "

He officially fessed up, noting that his sister was in fact not into the stuff he claimed, but rather, he was. That confession made Rina not want to prod him any further about it. "H'Yeah, I think it's better that way."

As she tucked the book away where she got it from on the shelf, Doku told her what he came into the shop for. Then, he asked Rina to keep it a secret, which, at first, Rina was confused about. She arched a brow at the request, but once he explained, things made sense, once more.
"! Aaah, ...za shmutt. Mm, mm," nodding twice with her eyes closed in understanding before opening them again.
"Okay," said simply before briefly snickering to herself.
"H'For a second, there, I thought you were asking me to keep you-buying-a-game-and-a-manga a secret. I was about to be, like:"
she narrowed one eye and arched her upper body forward a little, sinking her neck downward while keeping her face directed at Doku, tilting it to the right slightly.
"'...Huh? Isn't that normal?'"
Straightening up again, waving her hand dismissively: "But yeah, I wouldn't do that; I mean, I'd hate it if someone did it to me, after all." Rina very much lived by the idea of 'treating others as you'd like to be treated,' barring a few minor, harmless indulgences. She had her father to thank for that.
Opening up to Doku wasn't too hard for the redhead, it seemed. Initially, she expected more rigidness from him, and in turn, she probably would have been, too.
Rina was kind of enjoying this a little.

With the question of what kind of genres Rina liked, she took a few seconds to compile the information in her mind.
"Mmm, I guess~... action-adventure; comedy; ...those are the main ones, really, since they're the most fun."
"- And a little romance here and there," she kept to herself. ...Then realized, "---Why am I keeping that to myself?? He's gonna see me grab a romance book, soon, anyway...!"
"...Romance, sometimes, too," she resolved.

"In fact, ..." with that said, she "shuffle-shuffle-shuffle"-ed past Doku to reach the Romance portion of the aisle. However, as she did, only now did she really absorb something about what the young man said a short while ago, even though she repeated it, herself.
"---! Oh right: So you're getting a game, you said? Which one?" Rina asked as she began looking through the shelves for what was sought after.

While Doku was expressing his need to hide his nerdiness from girls, Rina flinched and paused momentarily... before resuming what she was doing.

When the boy introduced himself proper, Rina took a moment to respond in kind - while throwing in a salute for good measure.
"! Rina Kasakura; Legold." She realized afterward that she didn't need to state her House since she was wearing her uniform, but being caught up in the moment does that to you, sometimes.
The taller teen was glad that Doku spoke up, though; she didn't want to be the one to ask, and she didn't want to meet him in the future and accidentally call Doku by the wrong name.

-----
As Rina shuffled past Doku to go towards the romance section, she thought about Doku's opinion on romance manga, surprised to hear a guy say he liked them. A rare breed? Maybe Doku really, truly was a nerd among men. Not that it bothered her; if anything, on a random day they might have something interesting to chat about.

-----

She looked over towards him, eyeing the game's cover when he named the game and showed it off.

Rina was familiar with its series of games, having played the one before the previous one. Immediately, she recalled absolutely sucking at it the first time she played. Revisiting the game a year later, armed with more knowledge on the genre - and online guides, the orange-haired teen got as far as the third-to-last boss fight, being unable to get past it. Despite those issues, she had fun playing it. There was certainly an appeal to this series, now on the 7th installment. She had thought about giving Dragon Mission 5 another go every blue moon or so - even having considered saving up her allowance to one day buy Dragon Mission 6 - and the mention of a new Dragon Mission 7 ignited those flame yet again.

As Doku spoke about it, however, he stopped suddenly, which caught Rina's attention. She looked up at him..., then a question surfaced, which... perplexed the redhead. "...? Huh?" was her immediate response to it, not sure if he was asking that literally, or if he was trying to pick up a chick. It was a familiar line from a few TV programs, after all. "For a 'nerd,' you sure work fast," she joked. The tone of voice sounded like he might have meant it literally, but what did she know? "...I mean..., I don't come here too often, I guess:" she answered, taking him literally, "just when I'm buying stuff, or scouting out manga to buy. ...Why?"