What Jiro mentioned as a city earlier was a little smaller than Aaron expected. It looked more like a town compared to Beijing. The bookstore was a little smaller than Aaron's bathroom.

“Who was that?” Aaron asked, though he knew the girl's name was Hebe Tian. Everyone seemed to know them, Jiro waved to everyone that passed.

“Oh, that's, you know, the girl I was talking about. You know, why did you say you came from Taiwan? Aren't you from China?” Jiro asked, puzzled.

Aaron froze, he said the wrong thing. Aaron needed to get his fake background straight. “Uh, I was... lying to her, you know, because she is so beautiful and everything.”

If Jiro was paying attention to Aaron he would have noticed that his eyebrow furrowed.

Jiro straightened, he pulled down a book, “Wait, DON'T start liking her, okay? I'm going to confess soon and I don't want another rival!”

Aaron changed the subject, “So, do I have to wear your clothes?” Aaron finished picking what books were on the list.

“Well, I'll go and buy you some, and then you have to pay me back!” Jiro went to pay, surprisingly lifting two piles of textbooks all at once, which would have normally taken Aaron four walks, and walked out the door.

Aaron followed Jiro in front of what looked like a makeshift clothing store. A girl was standing there, peeping through the windows. She appeared to be wearing a crooked wig with a long jacket, looking very conspicuous and suspicious.

Jiro opened the door in a rush. A bell chimed, reminding Aaron of his mom's shop. Aaron froze in his spot.

Jiro didn't take notice of the girl or Aaron's hesitancy, he hugged the storeowner, “Chun! Long time no see! Dude, meet Aaron, he came from..Taiwan or China. Anyways, how's life, bro?”

Aaron looked at Chun, taking in what looked like a junior fashion designer, like the sons of the women Chun Xing Yan had affairs with. Aaron instantly took a semi disliking of Chun. Plus, they had the same name, almost.

Chun replied in a deep voice, “Nothing much, nice to meet you, Aaron. I'm Wu Chun. I want to become the best designer in the world.”

“Hello, mister. I am pleased to meet you.” Aaron's voice seemed robotic, his thoughts still in the past.

Chun moved around Aaron. “Since when have you been into lending short people your clothes?” Chun asked Jiro.

“Uh, he kinda has nothing, so I was wanting to buy some clothes for him.” Jiro replied, flushing as though that was wrecking his cool.

Aaron tuned out of the conversation. He looked around, and spotted the conspicuous girl, still standing there, as if transfixed into that position. She caught Aaron staring. Aaron strode out the door, the two boys barely noticing his disappearance, as they were reuniting. The girl ducked her head down and seemed absorbed in the rocks on the ground.

“Excuse me, miss. Is there anything I can help you with?”

The girl seemed shocked. It seemed that she thought that not staring at Aaron would make him go away. She looked back up, “No, nothing, I .. I just really want something in there — or someone.”

Aaron had barely heard the end of her sentence. Her voice wavered down to a whisper. “Come, my friend will get you what you want.” Aaron grabbed hold of her jacket sleeve and pulled her into the shop. The girl was protesting but she entered anyways. Her wig fell off in the process.

“Oh, hey Ella! What are you doing here?” Jiro asked, suddenly noticing his surroundings. Jiro and Chun's intense conversation was over, Aaron guessed.

“This lady wa--,” Aaron started. He felt a sudden pain in his leg, and found that Ella had jabbed her foot down there.

“U-uh, I just wanted to... buy something. I was just going to leave,” and Ella sped out of sight. Surprisingly fast. The only evidence of her being there was her wig, and the swinging door.

“Haha, weird girl. Second fastest in the grade, second to me, of course.” Jiro smiled, “Oh, by the way, Chun picked out a few clothes for you.”

Aaron looked back at Chun. He was holding a few suits. For a second he wanted to jump and change out of Jiro's clothes. But then, Aaron was supposed to be poor. He lurched and pretended to tie his shoe, although his shoes' laces were short. Courtesy of Jiro.

“Um,” Aaron answered, still pretending to tie his shoe, “I don't like those clothes. Do you have any jeans?”

“Well of course,” Chun said, “I just thought you had this aura so you would have wanted suits. My instinct was never wrong, but I guess it is now.”

“--And some plain t-shirts after that, please?” Aaron asked.

Chun came back with heavily patterned t-shirts and ripped jeans. One of the t-shirts had ! on the front of it.

Jiro whispered, “Chun's taste is very bold. Don't mind that, I'll just pick out your clothes.” Aaron trusted Jiro had no more taste than Chun, with his style, but he decided to agree.

Jiro came back with stuff that Aaron would wear when role playing, or acting, with a few PLAIN jeans and PLAIN t-shirts, and some sweaters. Aaron laughed at the coincidence, What the heck, it seems as I AM role playing.

Jiro payed, surprisingly with over a thousand dollars in his wallet, and skipped back to Aaron. “Do you want to wear them now?”

Aaron nodded and headed for the change room.