26 Shopping inside the Hotel

There were glass chandeliers on the roofs that sparkled from the sunlight sweeping through the glass roof.

The workers were standing in a straight line with the ambitions of getting picked as the guide for the shoppers in the mall.

Luke walked up to the first person in line and asked, "Will you be willing guide us?"

It was more like the worker couldn't refuse as he answered back eagerly since it was part of his job, "Of course my dear customers!"

"What are you looking to buy today?" The worker asked while wearing his brightest smile.

"A custard bun and strawberry milk," Luke answered back.

The worker's face looked kind of confused with his face shriveling up in confusion by Luke's statement. However, he quickly changed his face back to his brightest smile and got ready to serve us.

"Then I'll escort you to a dessert shop, my dear customers."

It was only then did I realize how luxurious the hotel was than I initially thought it was. The other shoppers had their servers hold their bags for them as they had a seperate staff member in each store trying to sell them an product.

Whenever a shopper exited a store, the whole line of staff bowed down to say farewells to the customer as well as thanks for shopping in their store.

While I was observing our surroundings, we already led to a dessert shop with a fancy twist to it. The chairs had the typical white silk cloth around it with the tables topped with a shiny white table cloth with flowers embroidered into it.

The workers were holding the customer's belongings while the others were enjoying their meals.

No matter how many times I was forced into this situation, I still couldn't get used to the weird vibe from having the elites being constantly served by others. I was already feeling intimidated by seeing the other shoppers, so I didn't feel like acting the same way as them.

I reluctantly sat down onto the chair when the worker pulled my chair out to indicate I should sit down. When I was about to order by myself, the worker had already gotten Luke's approval and went to the counter to get our desserts.

Sigh. Part of the fun in shopping was actually seeing all the desserts lined up behind the glass display.

The fancy version of the custard bun and the strawberry milk in a crystal glass cup made me lose my appetite since I knew I needed to eat them gracefully instead of actually enjoying them.

While I was pondering about what to do next, a girl with ash brown hair wearing a elegant blue ribbon hairband came up to us. Her doll-like looks accentuated the clothes that she wore, like that pure white frilled dress and the elegant smile that came with it.

"Wow! It's a coincidence seeing you here again Luke!" The girl said to get Luke's attention.

The girl frustrated by Luke's indifference added, "I'm actually Rika's student and that's how I was able to meet you."

Luke slightly nodded and then went back to enjoying his cake.

I don't know why but it seemed that from the past years of living with Luke, I got to know that he wasn't that talkative if he considered it wasn't necessary among the people he wasn't familiar with. More like it looked like he was trying to avoid talking to them and especially if it was people that were the opposite gender.

I wondered what may have been the cause in the past as I asked Alex in elementary school. Apparently it was part of a trauma from attending a family socialite party when he was three years old. He didn't tell me anything further than this but I could already somehow guess what happened.

He was probably swarmed by a large crowd of girls at the party with his good looks like it usually happens in shoujo mangas with the male lead.

I guess this was why we were having this awkward situation now.

The girl who once seemed overwhelmingly friendly in the classroom was now starting to give me threatening glances to say something to get rid of this stiff atmosphere.

I knew I that Luke was counting on me to do something about this while he was evilly enjoying his cake.

Sigh. This was all happening because Luke didn't want to let me go sightseeing outside the hotel.

I finally said something under pressure from two people.

"She's one of the students you met today when you were picking me up to go to this hotel," I added from the jabbing glances.

I glared very intensely at Luke to do something about this situation since he was the one who caused it. Giving in to my glares, he finally said, "I remember now, nice to meet you. However, Rika and I will be a little busy today trying to settle in so I'm afraid we won't be able to talk much further than this."

I knew Luke was sending me a cue: 'let's get out of here' and at this point, I agreed. This beautiful looking girl was giving out weird vibes so I wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.

I hurriedly finished my dessert and got ready to leave.

I knew there was a reason why I didn't like coming to these kinds of places!

"Where should we go next?" Luke asked.

At this rate, I just wanted to go back to the hotel room and sneak back to my house in the third district when Luke fell asleep.

"Anywhere that you'd like to go," I answered back.

Luke would know that something fishy would be going on if I went back to the hotel room immediately after eating the desserts. So I planned to look around three or four stores and then return back to our room to take a small nap to wake up in the middle of the night and go back to my parent's place.

"Then can you lead us to a clothing shop?" Luke asked the staff member.

"Of course. Right this way my customers!" The staff gestured his hand the way to the clothing shops that would be fit for our age.

It was only a few metre walk to the clothing shop that was located almost right beside the desert shop.

The clothing shop looked modern to the extent that it looked like a newly built fancy shop from my past life. Although, it was much lower quality than the normal shops in the first district since the technology wasn't as developed in the third district yet.

Just when we were in front of the shop, a line of employees were out to greet us, "Welcome to the Floral Boutique!" The employees said simultaneously while performing a 90 degrees bow.

I took a step back as I didn't feel like entering the store anymore. Whenever I went to these kinds of places, the staff always expected me to make a big purchase while in turn treating me as a princess.

Since I didn't want to act like a elegant lady right now because I already used all my energy at the dessert shop, I was hesitating to go in.

However, Luke had already grabbed my hand and pulled me into the shop while I was pondering whether I should go in or not.

By the time I was aware that I was not in front of the shop anymore, I realized I was in the preteen clothing section.

Since I was already here anyways, I picked up a decent sweater that was embellished with flowers.

I looked at the price tag to see it listed: $5,750 in the currency of the third district.

I quickly looked around the store to see if anyone was looking in my direction. Thankfully all the other employees were busy with the other customers, so I carefully put the sweater back down making sure it wasn't damaged in any aspect possible and walked away from that sweater.

Sigh. If all the items were this expensive today, it was going to be a long day.