She looked very happy standing beside Xia Zhi beside him, but Xia Zhi was not as happy as she was.
"Come here to help buy things. If you don't help, forget about it. I will also take them to run and play together."
"What does it matter? Because the things you want to buy will be seen as soon as you enter the mall, and there is only one exit here. After you finish shopping, wouldn't it be good for us to go there and buy it? It would not be good if we buy it in advance.
Went to the mall."
They were all fallacies that Xia Zhi didn't know how to refute.
"By the way, what time is it now? Is it time to eat?"
"No. Let's go back to the store first."
Because the things they bought were taken away by Shiraishi Reika and the others, Natsuki and Tachibana Aya walked without any burden, and returned to the coffee shop in about ten minutes. When they opened the door, they saw that the business situation was almost sluggish today.
, there is no difference from usual times.
"Huh? Are you back so soon?"
"Isn't this too fast?" Seeing the store manager salting fish in front of the counter, Natsuki greeted him. As for Mayumi, Tachibana Aya had already gone to cause trouble, so she had better go and change it first.
The clothes are better.
After changing clothes and walking out of the staff room, the store manager had already walked out of the counter and was sitting on the chair in front of him.
"Why did you come out?"
"Now that you are back, I will almost go back. Xiaoyao and Sayuri are still waiting for me to have dinner."
"Isn't it too early?" The time now is just a little after five o'clock, not even a quarter past five. This is not the time to finish eating. Even if he walked back, it wouldn't take ten
In a few minutes, the store manager's house is not far from here.
"Let's not talk about it for now, how was your day?" The store manager suddenly became gossipy.
Of course Xia Zhi knew what he was referring to, but he didn't want to admit it, at least not in person, so he answered vaguely: "It's okay. It's no different from before."
"Here he comes again. He clearly knows what I asked."
"...I just went shopping, what else could happen."
"You really don't know how to live. The more times like this, the more you should work hard, right?"
"What's the effort?"
Xia Zhi was still not completely accustomed to the atmosphere where young people or people at this stage could say whatever they wanted, so he consciously walked to the position where he had been staying at the counter.
Tachibana Aya is still talking to Mayumi. She seems a little excited today, probably because she had a lot of fun in the mall before. Well, it’s not that she can’t understand it. After all, she doesn’t have much to do when she’s with him.
Can be played.
"Now that you're here, I'm going back."
"I know, let's go."
"Oh, by the way, it's the weekend starting tomorrow, so you don't have to come over for the next four days starting from tomorrow. You'll be busy with the school festival, right?"
"You can come over and stay for a while tonight..."
"Don't come here. We're going bankrupt and we won't pay you." The store manager waved his hand casually.
"It seems a bit awkward to say that you are bankrupt, right?"
"Then there is a slight problem with our store's capital turnover, so we specially allow you to take four days off."
"This seems a bit..."
"Where's all this nonsense!" The store manager glanced at Xia Zhi and said, "You don't have to come over anyway. If you do, I'll drive you back. Oh, by the way, don't forget to come over for dinner tomorrow night, I won't remind you.
Or do you want me to call you then or something?"
"No."
Natsuki also waved his hand. The store manager shrugged, said hello to Mayumi, Tachibana Aya and other customers in the store, and then left from the main entrance. The store was not popular, and only regular customers came, but now
It seems that this is not a bad thing, at least there is more human touch here than other stores I know.
Although... the income of this store can probably only sustain the store manager to the extent that he doesn't have to worry about the coffee shop not being able to open due to operating deficits, but this is actually enough. At least it can make his life very easy and he can still go
Do all other things, such as handing over all the work in the store to a kidnapped young man, letting him work four hours a day and only get two hours' salary, and use dinner to pay for two hours, etc.
laugh.
Although this is not bad, sometimes it still seems a little boring. Xia Zhi hopes that if he opens a coffee shop in the future, even if there are not too many customers, at least he hopes to have a lot of regular customers like here.
The store, if possible, would be a little more lively than it is now. It doesn't seem good to just stop and stare.
Before Natsuki could stand for half a minute, Tachibana Aya on the other side was pushed back by Mayumi.
"Please don't interrupt my work!"
Then he pressed Tachibana Aya, who was more than half a head taller than him, on the chair.
"Natsuchi, please look at Tachibana-senpai and don't let her come over and disturb my work."
"oh."
Xia Zhi nodded.
"Huh? If I want to cause trouble, he can't stop me!"
Tachibana Aya expressed dissatisfaction with Xia Zhiping's flat affirmative response, and then was rendered speechless by his flat gaze.
"Well, I'll give you some face this time."
Seeing Tachibana Aya giving in and becoming quiet, Mayumi couldn't help but sigh: "What's the saying in China? One thing brings down another thing? It makes sense now."
"That's right." Xia Zhi obviously didn't want to dwell too much on this topic.
Tachibana Aya next to her smacked her lips in displeasure.
"Oh, we still need to order. Xia Zhi prepares a matcha cake, a strawberry cake and two apple juices."
"Hold on."
Xia Zhi started to move his hands, and his professional proficiency made him seem to be able to complete this set of actions with his eyes closed, although he did not actually close his eyes to do this set of operations.
Put the cake and juice on the dinner plate and handed it to Mayumi.
"Give."
"You're so skilled...Does this mean I can look forward to it when the coffee shop is on holiday next week?"
"It's okay if you think so. Remember to bring your friends over when the time comes."
Natsuki glanced at Tachibana Aya who was sitting next to her and watching the two of them: "When the time comes, catch her and come with us. Don't let her run away by herself."
???
"I don't want that! I just want to live a world of two with Mayumi!"
Tachibana Aya shouted, and in Mayumi's hesitant eyes, Natsuki said: "You don't have to worry about her, she listens to me."
"..."
"..."
"Okay." Mayumi had an expression on her face as if she had eaten special food for canines, and turned to look at Tachibana Aya: "Did you hear this, Tachibana-senpai? Don't run away early, otherwise I will file a complaint.
"
"That's too much!"
Tachibana Aya wailed "reluctantly", and Xia Zhi didn't care if she let her run over and cause trouble for him. Although he invited her, if he let her run around alone, Xia Zhi was sure that she would do something unexpected.
The place has created a big mess for Xia Zhi. With Li Huacai's ability, who can withstand it?
Let Mayumi go with her friends who she and Tachibana Aya also know. Although she is still not very reliable, it is quite normal if there are people she knows from school. As of today, she is in the mall
His performance was much more normal than usual. At least this afternoon, nothing happened that he needed to worry about.
It is also possible that her rhythm was suppressed by Ryoko Yamamoto, but judging from the truth that Natsuki knows, this possibility is really unlikely... Then it is only possible that Tachibana Aya is fully playing the role of her good student.
If she doesn't find someone to suppress her, Natsuki is afraid that she might end up having fun at the school festival. Finding Mayumi is actually quite appropriate, but considering that Mayumi is also a victim of Tachibana Aya's "nature", Natsuki feels that
Mayumi alone may not be able to handle her. On the one hand, it is to invite more people to make it more lively. On the other hand, it is also to make Tachibana Aya more "normal" outside. On the other hand, it is also to make her and the people in the school
As the friends interacted more, it became necessary for Mayumi to bring her and Tachibana Aya's mutual friends together.
As for Tachibana Aya, maybe she was the only one who came to the school festival and stayed in the coffee shop run by her class for several hours. If she really did such a terrible thing, then she would probably really do it.
His life was about to change from "mediocre" to "notorious", which for Xia Zhi should be regarded as an unbearable burden in life.
Mayumi walked away with the dinner plate, and Natsuki fell into a situation where there was nothing to do.
"Why can't I go by myself?"
Tachibana Aya asked.
"With your personality, do you think I would let you go alone?"
"What a good character I have!"
"When there are people around."
Xia Zhi suddenly remembered someone, a certain big brother who only became extremely reliable when his younger brother was present. If he remembered correctly, it seemed to be called... Dino, the vaulting Dino.
.It is indeed similar in a sense.
"By the way. It's the weekend tomorrow, what should I do with lunch and dinner tomorrow?"
Tachibana Aya's question reminded Natsuki that this was indeed the case.
"You have nothing to do tomorrow, right?"
"No. If you want to take me out to play, that's fine."
"Don't think about it, I don't have time." Xia Zhi shattered her fantasy without wavering.
"Then what do you want to do?"
"I asked before. It doesn't take a lot to prepare for the coffee shop. It only takes one afternoon, so I can have lunch and then go there, and you can come over at noon. As for dinner... let's wait until I get back from school.
"
Although there is not much that needs to be done, Xia Zhi has never done it and cannot estimate the time well. Even if there are more things that need to be done or something goes wrong and the time is slightly insufficient, Xia Zhi can still give Tachibana Aya a call.
The phone told her to go find something to eat.
"Hmm..." Tachibana Aya hummed for a while: "Okay, let's decide like this first. By the way, where is my breakfast?"
"...You can go to the convenience store to buy bread for breakfast. I'm not free in the morning."
Xia Zhi wanted to sleep until ten o'clock and then start preparing lunch. Such a day would be quite fulfilling.
"Anyway, you have to have lunch before coming over, and then let me have breakfast."
"I just don't want to get up. I want to sleep until ten o'clock."
"...If you sleep until then, you will turn into a pig. Have you seen Spirited Away?"
"Of course I have seen it, but it was too magical and obviously not enough persuasive material."
"...Then you let me go to your house for lunch, then go back, and then let me come over to play in the evening?"
"Strictly speaking, I'm not planning on letting you come over to play at night...and, do you think I do? Think about what your kitchen looks like."
As the owner of the right to use the room, Aya Tachibana knows better than Natsuki what the condition of the kitchen in her apartment is. She hummed for a while: "Then I will clean the kitchen when I go back?"
"Forget it, how do you think your cleaning ability is compared to your cooking ability?"
"...You are prejudiced!"
"This is a fact."
Natsuki pressed Tachibana Aya who wanted to continue talking. It was still business hours. If it was too noisy, even regular customers would be unhappy. Although Miss Nishikawa, who was sitting near the counter, didn't seem to care about this.
"What time is it now?"
"I don't know, it should be around five o'clock in the afternoon. After all, it doesn't take much time to go shopping."
"Really...I feel like it's already very late. Oh, look..."
"If it's the same as last night, forget it."
"……whispering sound."
It's true...
"Anyway, please give me a matcha cake first. Can you get a discount?"
"Twenty percent off?"
"Are you a devil? You will lose my lovely self if you do this."
"Maekei, five hundred yen."
Natsuki stretched out his hand to Tachibana Aya, and Tachibana Aya took out a thousand yen directly from his pocket: "By the way, give me another cup of coffee, with more milk."
"You want so much, do you want to have dinner later?"
"That's not much."
"I won't give you any juice, and I'll eat less cake."
Xia Zhi put the cake on the plate and handed it to her.
???
Tachibana Aya looked at the cake which was a little too small.
"It doesn't matter if you don't give me the juice, even if the cake is so small, are you still a human being?"
"Don't eat too much." Xia Zhi found another seven hundred yen for her.
"Are you my mother?" Tachibana Aya used a small fork to cut the cake to vent her anger.
"I don't think your mother ever cared about you like this."
Although Natsuki actually knows nothing about Tachibana Aya's family situation, judging from Tachibana Aya's current situation, there shouldn't be much error in her guess. Probably.
"I'm rich! Is there anyone like you who shuts out business?"
"This is a special opinion given by our store to you, you can be happy with it."
"..." Tachibana Aya didn't look very happy.
With something to eat, Tachibana Aya became a lot quieter.