The guests in LeBlanc gradually increased, but it wasn't noisy.
They glanced at Iseri Nina, who was sleeping on the dining table, and then ignored her, spending money to order a cup of coffee, sitting in the shop for a while, playing on their phones, or reading newspapers. When they were satisfied, they got up and left on their own.
Kurusu Akira watched the shop door open and close, close and open, with batches of guests coming and going. But interestingly, even junior high school students who came with friends for coffee would tacitly lower their voices or even use messaging apps on their phones to communicate after seeing Iseri Nina sleeping by the door.
Sakura Sojiro was right; guests who patronized the coffee shop were simply using money to purchase a comfortable and pleasant experience for their time.
In this paid experience, they would become more gentle and considerate than they were in their daily work and lives.
Today was the last day of "reporting day," and young guests continuously visited this secluded and quiet shop.
Without homework or classes, and no club activities planned, middle school students with free time often explored the city with friends after leaving school.
Although LeBlanc was hidden deep, it was located near the junior high divisions of two high schools. The sheer number of junior high students participating in "city exploration" activities meant that the coffee shop would eventually be found.
Kurusu Akira, who had taken off his glasses due to the increased workload, felt nervous as he was surrounded by a group of girls.
Their gazes grew hotter and hotter. If this weren't a coffee shop, they might have already swarmed him to ask for his contact information—
Although they hadn't been bold enough to directly ask for contact information, the requests for photos or help with taking pictures were already written on their faces.
Sakura Sojiro saw the customers' attitude towards Kurusu Akira and thought that this boy would definitely be very popular at school.
He was good-looking, sensible, and had a cheerful and generous personality. It would be even better if his academic performance could be a little more outstanding.
There was no student more worry-free than him.
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but sigh.
Other people's children were about to have a fulfilling life at their new school, while his own daughter was still cooped up in her room, barely speaking to him on a daily basis.
Was the word "normie" used in this context? Sakura Sojiro felt that he was probably truly old; he couldn't quite grasp the specific meanings of many words from ten or twenty years ago.
"We've run out of beans," Kurusu Akira's voice suddenly rang in his ear.
All the roasted coffee beans in the shop had been used up.
Sakura Sojiro was a bit surprised. To cope with the double influx of customers from "reporting day + weekend," he had specifically prepared twice the usual amount of coffee beans.
Kurusu Akira pulled open the drawer; the banknotes and coins received today almost filled the entire drawer.
Sales exploded.
That was Sakura Sojiro's first reaction.
This time, he'd found a treasure... Sakura Sojiro looked at Kurusu Akira, who was standing behind the counter, smiling wryly as he dealt with the intense gazes of the female junior high students.
The standard for evaluating whether a barista is excellent is not how expensive a coffee he can sell, but how good he is at taking care of the customer's mood while they drink coffee.
Evidently, if Kurusu Akira's face didn't debut as an idol, he would be an unbeatable presence in the service industry.
The most important thing is his aura; he has a very special aura that makes people feel incredibly clean and transparent, and from that transparency, they can perceive a straightforward loneliness and indifference.
Women like this, and the older and higher in status they are, the more they like it.
Younger people would definitely like Kurusu Akira too.
Because when he takes off his glasses and stands there silently, he's a living, breathing template of a youth drama idol.
It's hard to imagine how much fervent adoration he would incite from women if he chose to debut as an idol...
Sakura Sojiro quickly banished such dangerous thoughts from his mind.
Going to school, then graduating and finding a normal job, is definitely better than being an idol.
After all, the world of fame and fortune is inherently a "place of contention," and the entertainment industry is the most fiercely competitive, brutal, and bloody among them, even capable of making people abandon all moral conscience and even ethical beliefs at the very bottom.
Every idol who appears glamorous and successful is walking on a dangerous tightrope; a slight misstep could lead to ruin and disgrace.
"Sorry, we're not selling coffee right now..." Kurusu Akira explained somewhat flusteredly to the new customers.
The new customers suddenly increased, and LeBlanc became a bit crowded.
Sakura Sojiro immediately stepped forward to help him out.
"Everyone! LeBlanc is closing now!"
"Huh, closing so early?"
"It's only just noon."
"..."
A group of girls who had just entered expressed their dissatisfaction. Of course, even their protests were in low voices, accompanied by gestures.
Sakura Sojiro had no choice but to bow and apologize to them, "I'm truly sorry, LeBlanc really can't continue operating right now."
The girls were greatly disappointed but also expressed understanding.
After all, LeBlanc's shop wasn't spacious, and its location was quite remote. After continuously serving guests for several hours, it was perfectly normal for all sorts of ingredient reserves to be depleted.
Throughout the morning, on an online forum that Kurusu Akira couldn't temporarily see, a post titled "Yongen-Jaya Exploration: Idol-Level Handsome Service Boy Appears at Coffee Shop!" quickly became a trending topic, prominently displayed at the very top of the forum.
The post first introduced the location of the "LeBlanc" coffee shop and its menu.
Following that were over a dozen photos of Kurusu Akira from the front, side, and back.
Kurusu Akira, without his glasses, in the unique atmosphere of the coffee shop, combined with the filters of a mobile photography app, resulted in a truly devastatingly handsome effect.
[Sweet Wine: Wow, he's a handsome man!!]
[I'm Really Not a Flashblade Sugar Daddy: Upstairs, stop drooling.]
[orz: Damn it, I'm so envious, I really want to go see him right away!]
[orz: But I'm too far from Setagaya Ward, I can't go at all! (Blushing emoji)]
[Nanami's One True Fan: So, this isn't really a set for a youth campus movie, is it?!]
[...]
Even though the sign outside LeBlanc's door was flipped to the "Closed" side, curious students continued to gather nearby.
As the remaining customers gradually left the coffee shop, Kurusu Akira and Sakura Sojiro began cleaning the shop.
Sakura Sojiro held a wet sponge mop, scraping it back and forth across the floor. The footmarks, whether deep or shallow, were ground into a puddle of grayish-black sewage, no longer distinguishable.
Of course, no one wanted to distinguish these footprints.
Just like the dishes Kurusu Akira was rinsing with hot water.
Before he sprayed them with cleaner, the haphazardly distributed oil stains could be hallucinated into various patterns, but in the end, they just became a large mass of foam crowded at the sink's drain.
Accompanied by the whooshing sound of sewage rushing into the drainpipe, Sakura Sojiro placed the washed mop in the corner of the restroom, then walked over to Kurusu Akira's side.
"We seem to have gotten into trouble."
"There are way too many guests today," Kurusu Akira chimed in with a complaint. "I almost sprained my wrist just grinding coffee beans."
Sakura Sojiro found it strange: "We've never had so many customers before."
Kurusu Akira placed a clean plate into the display cabinet: "Maybe someone uploaded my photo to a forum?"
Clearly, Kurusu Akira was well aware of his own good looks.
But he wasn't smug about it; instead, he found it a bit troublesome.
Privacy leakage was a very dangerous thing.
Sakura Sojiro noticed his concern and walked to the sink to help wash dishes, "I'll give you a bonus today."
"What a simple and unadorned way to comfort someone."
Kurusu Akira said this, but he was actually no longer too bothered by his photo being uploaded to the internet.
Even if bad things happened around him, there would always be a way to solve them.
The troubles in life were like this, endless and ubiquitous, but as long as one woke up after a sleep, they would all fade and disappear, eventually becoming a monotonous memory.
Just like a diary, looking back at it the next day, it's either a sigh of regret or a relieved smile; it's ultimately hard to stir up the same emotions in one's heart again.
Iseri Nina woke up groggily.
She dreamed that she had awakened a superpower similar to a "Stand" from "Jojo's bizarre adventure," and then returned to the day she was bullied in school. Amidst the battle cry of "Ora Ora," she beat all the guys who tried to bully her until their heads bled, and finally, they knelt on the ground, crying and begging for mercy, saying, "Iseri-sama, we will never bully classmates again."
And she, having accomplished her mission, laughed and left the classroom under the respectful and adoring gazes of everyone, leaving behind a mysterious campus legend.
"Stop giggling, wipe your drool." Kurusu Akira, who was wiping oil stains on the adjacent dining table, tossed a pack of tissues to Iseri Nina.
Only then did the girl notice a small puddle of clear liquid that had accumulated on her tabletop at some point...
A blush quickly spread from her cheeks to her earlobes.
Iseri Nina quickly looked left and right, and upon realizing there were no customers in the shop, she secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
She haphazardly pulled out a few tissues and began to wipe the drool from the table.
When sleeping face down on the table, if one's face was turned to the side, resting on an arm or the tabletop, it was indeed easy to cause such an undignified situation.
Sakura Sojiro had already taken off his apron. "It's noon already. I'll drive you two to school later. I remember there are a few good family restaurants near Shujin; let's have lunch there together."
Iseri Nina couldn't think of a better suggestion.
She didn't know what to say, but having just woken up, she felt a bit awkward saying nothing at all.
Her muddled thoughts churned for a long time, finally fumbling out a nonsensical, "I want to eat chili pickles and yogurt."
Family restaurants in Tokyo would definitely have chili pickles and yogurt.
Kurusu Akira walked over, picked up the tissues she had used to wipe her drool from her table, somewhat distastefully threw them into the trash bag, and then re-wiped the tabletop with a wrung-out rag.
----------------
It was already mealtime.
The afternoon sunlight streamed through the corridor's glass windows, laying flat in neat squares on the floor, bending up against the base of the walls, where the walls were a pale blue like the early spring sky. The sunlight there turned into a misty green, and then, just before disappearing, became a faint purplish-red.
Two figures, one tall and one short, swayed through the sunlight.
Kurusu Akira looked down, fiddling with his phone, intensely searching for forum posts about himself.
Iseri Nina hugged her newly received school uniform and textbooks, following somewhat reservedly behind Kurusu Akira.
Shujin High School's uniform used the same blazer base as most middle schools, with the difference being bright red buttons and a school emblem printed on the handkerchief pocket sewn on the left chest. The lower body featured red and black checkered trousers.
The girls' uniform replaced the trousers with a checkered short skirt.
She was assigned to the same class as Kurusu Akira.
Upon hearing this news, Iseri Nina felt a strange sense of quiet delight.
But the emotion that immediately followed was more of unease and shyness.
She had a considerable psychological complex regarding Kurusu Akira, who seemed to be a "normie among normies," standing at the top of the school's social hierarchy.
After all, it was because she had a dispute with a "super normie" friend last year that the conflict escalated step by step, ultimately leading her to leave her hometown and come to Tokyo alone.
Kurusu Akira, walking ahead, suddenly stopped at the entrance of a classroom.
"2-D" was written on the plastic sign outside the classroom door.
Iseri Nina hesitated for a moment, then followed Kurusu Akira into the classroom.
Since it was "Reporting Day" and around lunchtime, the classroom was completely empty.
Kurusu Akira pointed to the empty seat next to him, "Do you want to be my deskmate?"
Nina nodded almost without thinking, and by the time she realized it, Kurusu Akira had already sat down and was waving to her.
Nina instinctively took a step and obediently walked over.
By the time she reacted again, she was already standing next to Kurusu Akira's desk.
She was always like this; her body reacted faster than her thoughts.
"Try sitting here… How is it? Can you see the blackboard clearly?"
"I can see it clearly. But, we just met, didn't we?" Nina was bewildered by Kurusu Akira's enthusiasm.
She wasn't actually against Kurusu Akira's kindness; in fact, she was delighted to be cared for by someone.
She was just… a little uneasy.
Kurusu Akira rummaged through his drawer for a few textbooks. "Sakura told me to take good care of you."
After saying that, he stood up with the textbooks. "I'm going to the office now to ask the teacher about the scope of the additional entrance exam next Wednesday. Do you want to come with me?"
Nina quickly nodded, then imitated him, holding a few textbooks and standing up.
She was not good at dealing with completely unfamiliar environments.
If this high school were compared to a bottomless pool, then Nina felt like she was a poor victim who had accidentally fallen into the center of the pool, always in danger of being submerged by an undercurrent.
And Kurusu Akira was the only lifeline she could see and grasp now.
In her eyes, Kurusu Akira should be a "kindred spirit" similar to her, both pitiful people forced to enter this completely unfamiliar pool.
After leaving the classroom, Nina felt that the atmosphere of walking side by side without saying a word was too awkward, so she couldn't help but ask him, "If it's just the entrance exam, it shouldn't require special attention, right?"
Kurusu Akira explained without hesitation, "Shujin has a scholarship that requires getting an 'A' in all exam subjects within one semester of enrollment to apply. Coincidentally, as 'transfer students,' we meet this 'enrollment' standard."
"Scholarship?"
"Yes, it's a full 100,000 yen."
"But school is starting soon, and it's our first time taking classes in Tokyo. We probably won't be able to pass the entrance exam smoothly, will we?"
"Can't pass?" Kurusu Akira looked at her with some dissatisfaction. Due to the height difference, this action appeared "condescending."
"Since it's your first time with Tokyo courses, just go to tutoring during the holidays and get used to Tokyo high school teaching methods in the shortest time possible.
There won't be much homework in the first week of school, extracurricular time will be ample, and clubs haven't started recruiting yet. You just need to make use of every break, and try to squeeze out entertainment and rest time as much as possible, preferably by directly reducing sleep…"
Rambling on, a burning, nameless fire seemed to ignite in the boy's eyes.
Nina realized she was terribly wrong.
Kurusu Akira was not a so-called kindred spirit to her at all, nor was he the "lifeline" she could grasp in the pool.
He was an alligator that had migrated from afar to hunt in this pool.
This kind of survival-like learning attitude and planning was something Nina had never seen before.
There were still four days until the entrance exam, and a transfer student from a rural high school to Tokyo frankly stated that he would study all subjects to an "A" level…
Was this really not just daydreaming?
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