In the city, we can find different types of people returning to their homes: there are those who spend a large part of their lives stuck in traffic, smelling the exhaust of other cars.

  There are those who travel on public transportation, sleeping from exhaustion and waking up exactly at the moment of their stop… how do they do it?

  There is another group, a tiny one, who return home on bicycles, arriving all sweaty—ugh.

  And then we have the worst type of people who return to their homes, aside from those who don’t stop for a few beers first: those who go home with coworkers or partners. But fortunately, our protagonist is not one of those… but what the hell?

  At the entrance of an apartment building, we find our protagonist Jeff, strangely accompanied by an odd and unknown being… ah, right, and by his side is his companion Esfer, floating over his shoulder.

  “Ah, we finally made it,” Jeff said cheerfully.

  “Ah, finally. This outfit was already starting to tire me out,” Alejandra said, adjusting her wide-brimmed hat a little.

  “If it tires you so much, why didn’t you take it off?”

  “And expose my identity with you? Never… not until we fix you.”

  “Okay, I feel doubly offended.”

  Alejandra ignored Jeff’s words and walked into the building, followed by Jeff.

  Inside, they saw a short, plump woman, full of cheer, sweeping the hallway.

  Jeff immediately realized who she was.

  “Good afternoon, Mrs. Marta,” Jeff said with a kind smile.

  Upon hearing the greeting, Marta turned her gaze toward Jeff. “Oh, good afternoon, crybaby.”

  “Don’t mind her, it’s a long sto—”

  “He screamed and made a mess in his apartment over a tiny little spider,” Marta commented mockingly.

  “Haha, really?”

  “No, that’s not true,” Jeff denied sharply. “Besides, Mrs. Marta, you didn’t see the spider.”

  Despite Jeff’s words, the two of them kept teasing him, which led Jeff to grab Alejandra and push her out of there while saying goodbye to Marta.

  But his attempts were in vain, as Alejandra kept laughing.

  And it went on like that until they reached the doors of their apartments.

  “Well, before I go in and rest, I want to ask you: how do I use this mousse thing? And the creams—do I put them on my face or all over my body?”

  “Huh? What are you talking about? I’ll help you with that.”

  “Huh? Really?”

  “Of course. I don’t want you to mess something up and waste everything we bought.”

  “…Okay, I’ll give you that—just this once.”

  Alejandra laughed a little, then headed toward the door of her apartment, but Jeff interrupted her.

  “Hey, and when are you going to help me?”

  “What are you talking about?” Alejandra opened the door to her apartment. “I’ll help you today.”

  “…Ah, I get it now. You’re going to grab something from your apartment. Fine, I’ll wait for you in—”

  “No. I’m going to help you in my apartment.”

  Faced with Alejandra’s words, Jeff stayed silent for a moment before asking “…In your apartment?”

  “Yes. That’s what I said.”

  “…And I go in?”

  “Yes,” Alejandra said, a little irritated.

  “…What if you just recommend a YouTube video so I can apply the mo—”

  Before Jeff could keep refusing, Alejandra grabbed him by the arm.

  “No videos. I don’t trust that you’ll do it right, so come in.” With that, Alejandra pulled Jeff by the arm, taking him into her apartment.

  “I won’t make it to the altar in white anymore.”

  “What kind of stupidity are you talking about?” Alejandra asked, then grabbed him by the arm and pulled him up. “Come on, let’s start working.”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  When Jeff lifted his gaze, he was able to observe Alejandra’s apartment. The layout was the same as his apartment, but the style was different.

  The walls were brown, and the furniture was in colors like gray, dark red, and camel.

  In the living room, there was a mannequin that had no leg or arm; it was only the torso fixed with a tube that kept it standing, and it had its head.

  Besides that, there were some sheets scattered around, all of them with several lines drawn across the middle, making it difficult to see the complete drawing, but on some of them clothing designs could be seen.

  “Wow, your apartment is—”

  “You were going to say it’s a mess, right?”

  “No, I was going to say it has style. It’s like a cozy place and… it has a charming kind of mess.”

  Alejandra looked at him, somewhat irritated, then let out a sigh.

  “It’s my fault for letting you in before cleaning.”

  “If that’s the problem, then I’d better leav—”

  As he turned toward the door, Jeff felt a hand on his shoulder.

  “You’re not leaving. You already saw everything, so it doesn’t matter anymore.”

  With that warm invitation, Alejandra led Jeff to sit on the sofa while she began taking things out of the bags.

  But what Jeff saw was something else entirely. He watched her like a mad professor pulling out her tools and polyjuice potions, ready to experiment on him.

  Alejandra turned to look at Jeff.

  “Hey, go to the bathroom and wet your hair a bit.”

  “Huh? Why, or what?”

  “For the mousse. It doesn’t work on dry hair.”

  (I just found that out, that and the fact that it’s a mousse.)

  Jeff did what she asked. He went to the bathroom, trying to look as little as possible at anything around him. He wet his hair and then dried it, but not completely, before returning to the sofa.

  Alejandra had already taken off her whole private-investigator outfit, revealing a white-and-yellow striped T-shirt along with light blue jeans.

  She had also taken everything out of the bags and now had the mousse in her hand, ready to apply it. She squirted a generous amount into her palm, rubbed her hands together, and began applying it to Jeff’s hair.

  Jeff felt a bit strange; it was the first time someone had styled his hair—aside from his mother. But after a while, that feeling was replaced by a strange sense of calm.

  They stayed like that for a few more minutes, until Alejandra said, “Alright, we have to wait for it to dry to see the result. For now, let’s continue with some cream.”

  Alejandra then took the cream from the small table in front of them and began applying it to Jeff’s face.

  After a few moments, Jeff started to feel bored, so he spoke up.

  “Oy… you’re like, I don’t know… into fashion, right?”

  “Wow, how did you figure that out?” Alejandra asked sarcastically. “Was it the sketches of clothes, or the mannequin standing right in the middle of my living room?”

  “Hey, give me a chance, I’m not very good at talking to girls.”

  “I’d already noticed that. And answering your question, I like fashion so much that I decided to study fashion.”

  “That major exists at our university?”

  “Yes. Didn’t you ever look at the list of majors at our university?”

  “Uh, well… I’m kind of out of touch with university life.”

  “…You’re a student. How can you be out of touch?” Alejandra asked, a little confused, but with a small smile. “Because, you are a student, right?”

  “No, not really. I’m just someone who likes pretending to be a student and sleeping in classes.”

  Alejandra laughed a little at Jeff’s comment.

  “Wow… so which major do you sneak into just to sleep?"

  Jeff stayed silent for a moment before answering. “…Programming,” he replied without much enthusiasm.

  “Programming, huh? Sounds like you don’t like it.”

  “That’s because I don’t. My parents encouraged me to study it.”

  “Encouraged, or forced?”

  “…Forced.”

  “And why didn’t you resist? If I were you, I’d fight to do what I like.”

  “That’s my problem… I don’t have anything specific that I’d like to study or do as a career.”

  “Really?” Alejandra asked, putting the cream away. “Wow, that’s… sad. But is there something you like to do? Something outside of studying or working?”

  Jeff looked at the ceiling for a moment before answering. “Yeah, I think something that interests me is the truth help.”

  “Real help? Oh, you mean your ideology. Turn toward me, I’ll put on a bit of makeup.”

  Jeff did as he was told and turned toward Alejandra.

  “That’s right. It’s a topic I loved when I discovered it—helping people without looking for any benefit for oneself, but helping simply for the sake of helping.”

  Alejandra looked surprised as Jeff explained his ideology, showing that he truly cared about it.

  “Wow, that’s incredible,” Alejandra commented, somewhat impressed.

  “Thanks.”

  A small silence formed in the room, so Jeff tried to fill it.

  “Well… going back to your passion, why do you study fashion?”

  “Well, because I like it.”

  “Uh-huh… and why do you like it?”

  “Do I need a specific reason to say that I like it?”

  “Well, yes, that’s how things work. Everything has a cause and a purpose—it’s the law of things. Nothing exists just for the sake of existing.”

  “Well, you’re kind of right… I like fashion because ever since I was little, I’ve loved the idea of making my own clothes and setting a style different from everyone else.”

  “So you’ve liked standing out since you were a kid.”

  “That’s a rude way to put it, but yes—I like being different. And I want to express that through clothing: to make a difference, to search for styles and create fascination in people when they see them, showing that clothing can be a work of art and also something usable in everyday life.”

  “Ha, you really are passionate about fashion.”

  “Yeah, I guess I am… and done, we’re finished. Let me give you a mirror so you can see the result.”

  Alejandra picked up a small mirror from the little table and handed it to Jeff. When he took it and looked at his face, he could see that any mark or imperfection he had before had vanished as if by magic. On top of that, his hair now had a completely different style.

  “Wow, is that really me? I didn’t know I was such a heartthrob.”

  “Don’t exaggerate. But yeah, you do look a bit better than before. Now remember, you have to come here every morning so I can apply all the products.”

  “Huh? Every morning? What do you mean? Doesn’t this last for a whole week?”

  “Are you kidding? These products have to be applied every day for them to work, and you also have to use the other products so your hair and skin don’t get damaged by the other products.”

  Jeff could only stare, slightly horrified at the idea that he had to apply all those products just to be handsome for a single day.

  After that, Jeff left her apartment, saying goodbye to Alejandra, and then went into his own.

  “Phew… that was a long day.”

  “Indeed, Master.”

  “Ahhh— huh? Oh, I forgot you existed. Hey, why didn’t you talk almost all day?”

  “I didn’t want to bother you, Master, while you were with your friend,” Esfer replied cheerfully.

  “What’s wrong with you? She’s not my friend. She’s just my accomplice to catch her stalker, that’s all.”

  “Really? I didn’t know you could have fun and laugh with just a simple accomplice.”

  “Ugh, don’t start, Esfer,” Jeff said as he walked over to the couch and sat down.

  “Tomorrow’s going to be a long day… like always.”