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He could have sworn he’d left it right here.
Naveen was standing behind the lobby’s reception desk - one without his iconic white jacket neatly folded on the table. He had taken it off temporarily to use the bathroom in the room behind the desk, only to return to it having vanished from its place.
He peered over the edge of the desk to see if it had somehow fallen over, but alas, it was not there either. He walked out from behind the reception to get a scan of the general lobby area, but still, it was nowhere to be seen.
Did somebody take my jacket? Naveen thought to himself. It was the only logical explanation for its sudden disappearance, since he was certain he didn’t leave it anywhere else. But who would have taken it in the time he was gone?
Turns out he didn’t have to look too far to find the culprit.
One look over to the lobby’s lounge area was all it took for Naveen to find his jacket. It was being worn by a certain dancer of the group.
Said dancer was posing in front of the new stand-up mirror with her phone in hand, likely taking photos of herself in his getup.
As soon as he noticed this, Naveen’s face burst with redness. Now, Naveen was well aware that couples sharing each others’ clothes is a fairly normal thing. He’d read enough cheesy romance manga to know that much. Even then, he couldn’t help but feel a recipe of emotions upon having this happen to himself; disbelief, embarrassment, enchantment…
The longer he watched Lida modelling for herself with his jacket, the more he moved towards her, albeit slowly and quietly so as to not scare her out of her state of mind. This wasn’t even a conscious decision; it was as if Lida herself was some kind of mental force that beckoned Naveen closer.
Sadly, Naveen’s shoes had other plans, as one accidental skid across the wooden floor was enough noise to alert the girl of his presence.
“GAH!” Lida yelped with a jump, immediately whipping around to the source of the noise. She met Naveen’s gaze by accident, matching his tomato expression with one of her own. “O-oh, h-hey Naveen! Wow, didn’t see you there…”
“I-I can tell…” Naveen replied sarcastically in an attempt to hide how flustered he was, though the red on his face exposed all of his true emotions in the moment. “N-Nice jacket you got there…”
Lida froze momentarily, before swiftly moving to remove the jacket from her body. “O-oh! Yeah, right, s-sorry about that! I-I’ll take it off-”
“N-no, it’s okay!” Naveen cut her off almost too quickly - before she could even remove a single sleeve. “I-it looks…”
Although Naveen initially stopped her because he thought it was gosh-dang adorable, now that he was a lot closer to her and had the opportunity to observe the entire outfit… he started to realise that the jacket wasn’t a bad fit for Lida.
She was wearing her usual outfit underneath his jacket - just without her signature oversized, blue hoodie. Mentally, Naveen always associated Lida with the color blue - largely due to that hoodie, thus it’s absence made Naveen realise that Lida has a lot more orange in her usual outfit than he thought. The stripe in her leggings, her hair clips, ear piercings, even the pattern on her shirt was kind of orange. As a result, the orange accents on his own jacket didn’t feel too out of place on Lida, even if they were a darker shade of orange.
On Naveen, the jacket was on the longer and baggier side, but due to Lida’s larger size in comparison to himself, it almost seemed to be a better fit for her. The jacket didn’t reach as low, nor was it as loose around the waist. Sure, it was white on white, but matching colors between top and bottom wasn’t an uncommon combination. In fact, it kind of fits with Lida’s sportier, energetic vibe, at least in his opinion.
”It looks good on you…” Naveen complimented, a hand having made its way to his chin while he was seriously critiquing the outfit.
“Huh?! Really?!” Lida responded, flustered, but also clearly happy, as evident by the blushing smile.
“Yeah, actually. It works surprisingly well with the rest of your usual outfit.”
She turned to face the mirror again, now taking the opportunity to fully observe the outfit fusion. Though she didn’t admit it out loud, fashion synergy didn’t even cross Lida’s mind when she saw Naveen’s jacket alone on the reception desk; she just wanted to wear it because it was his.
“Huh... now that you mention it, I can see the vision.” she said in agreement, rotating her body to see herself from different angles. “It’s a really nice jacket, after all.”
“Custom made, so I’m glad to hear that.” Naveen proudly proclaimed, earning a giggle out of his girlfriend.
Naveen almost didn’t want to take his jacket back now, seeing how much the girl has taken a liking to it, not to mention how absolutely captivating she looked in it. He didn’t know if it was a selfish or perverted desire of his, but he wouldn’t mind seeing this more often…
…so he made a suggestion.
“...I-if you want, you can take the jacket with you to dance…”
“R-really?!” Lida spun around. Her face lit up after hearing that suggestion, something that didn’t go unnoticed by the boy.
“Yeah, I have other ones. I’ll survive.” Naveen explained, turning around to hide the increasing redness on his face. “Plus, it’s still a bit cold outside, and I think that jacket will keep you warmer than your usual one, which will lower the risk of you getting sick-”
Oof! Naveen grunted softly as he took on the full impact of Lida charging into him for a hug. A strong one at that. The force caused him to tumble backwards, nearly falling over had it not been for his calves going into overtime to support both of their weights.
“Yay! Thank you so much, Naveen!” the girl cheered before pecking the boy’s face a multitude of times.
As overwhelmed as Naveen was from Lida’s sudden onslaught of affection, he couldn’t help but share in Lida’s happiness. What started as overstimulation slowly shifted into a calm warmth as he let himself melt into Lida’s embrace, his arms moving to return the hug as his own show of love.
“...Hehe… just as long as you take care of it.” he replied, trying to play it cool.
“Of course!” Lida smiled, having momentarily stopped her kissing advances to face Naveen. Their faces were in very close proximity, noses nearly brushing against each other, yet neither felt any awkwardness in this moment.
A cheeky smile crept onto Lida’s face. “Though, I’d be careful about lending me your clothes from here on out. Otherwise, they may become ‘our’ clothes.” she teased, her voice in this moment alluring in a way that not even Canari’s could match. Blasphemous, I know.
Naveen matched Lida’s energy with a smug smile of his own. “If it looks good on you, I don’t mind sharing…”
“Well aren’t you a sweet talker…” Lida retorted, both giving a gentle laugh as they looked into each other’s eyes for a brief moment.
There was a flicker of the eyes from both of them, darting from the other’s pupils to the other’s lips. It was a signal, and both knew what it entailed. Their eyes closed as their mouths parted slowly, allowing their lips to gently slot between each other. The initial contact sent a jolt through their bodies, but even that settled into something more mellow. No force was used to strengthen the kiss, nor was it necessary. They were exactly where they wanted to be; in each other’s arms, feeling each other’s warmth.
In this moment, both Lida and Naveen felt they couldn’t possibly be more in love with the other.
The kiss ended after an appropriate time, allowing them to stay connected at the forehead and tip of the nose without panting for breath. They stood in each other’s embrace for as long as Lida’s phone allowed them to, with the device suddenly chiming and vibrating within the girl’s pocket.
Lida’s eyes widened as she grabbed her phone out of her pocket with one hand. The chiming in question was her dance alarm - one that had been snoozed as she was taking photos of herself in the mirror.
“Oh shoot! I gotta go!” she panicked, leaving one last peck on Naveen’s lips before jumping out of his embrace. She scooped up her belongings in one swift motion as she darted to the door while waving back to her boyfriend. “Bye Naveen! And thanks again!”
“Stay safe! And have fun!” Naveen waved back as he watched the door close in front of him, once again leaving him alone in the hotel. He chuckled to himself, satisfied with the outcome of… whatever that was. But now came the question of what he should wear now that Lida has his signature jacket. This was something to ponder in the elevator and his room, the latter housing boxes worth of options to sift through.
As he turned toward the elevator, however, the door opened once again, not long after it had just closed. Lida’s head popped through.
Naveen raised an eyebrow in confusion. Did she forget something? He thought initially. Technically, he wasn’t wrong; she did forget something, but she didn’t forget what he was thinking of.
“Oh, and I love you~” she cooed.
Lida watched Naveen’s burst of redness and embarrassment as she awaited his response. He didn’t expect another impromptu advance of affection.
“I-I l-love you too, Lida.” he managed to squeak out.
Satisfied with the response, she exited with another big grin and chuckle, closing the door behind her once more.
For as much as these two progressed as a couple, those words still managed to make Naveen weak. And likely always will…
A few hours later…
Naveen was doomscrolling in his bedroom when a post from Lida appeared on his social media feed. Upon opening the post, he found himself red in the face again upon seeing the mirror photos Lida took of herself in his jacket posted on the internet (with Naveen tagged) for all of the world to see. “It’s OUR jacket now XD”, the caption read. There were already a good dozen comments on the post, only adding further fuel to Naveen’s embarrassment.
But the very least, Naveen can rest easy knowing that the world now knows that Lida’s taken.