Chapter 622
She is, for the time being, a very hardworking, goal-oriented, and trusted high school girl...
"Honestly, this is the first time I've ever seen such an empty and boring girl like you! You're so dull!"
"White teeth, white teeth, white teeth..." She started to panic; the person in front of her seemed to be acting strangely.
Just as Sakayori Iroha was contemplating whether to run away and call the police, he dramatically pulled out a banknote and slammed it on the table. "Check, please!"
"Huh? Oh, oh..."
She carefully took the crisp 10,000 yen bill, then hurried to the cashier to give him his change.
She looked up and quickly called out, "Guest! There's change!"
Himemiya Chihaya was about to leave the coffee shop, stopped and turned to ask, "Do you know where I was a few months ago?"
"... I don't know, could it be in Kyoto?" She guessed a place at random.
"It's in America —you know what I mean?"
"..."
He flicked his index and middle fingers together. "Consider the extra as a tip, thank you for listening to all my nonsense."
"Eh, eh eh..."
Startled once again, she quickly calculated her change, took the coins from the machine, and chased after him, saying, "Mr. Hinomiya! We don't have any such policy in our store! Please take it back!"
Although she was moving very fast, by the time she walked out of the shop, the other person was already gone.
"This is troublesome... What should I do?" She clutched the loose change in her hand, looking distressed.
"We'll have to put it aside for now and ask the manager later."
Although she is indeed very poor now, even poorer than a certain blue-haired guy was before, so poor that she has to think twice before buying an extra energy Drinks, she has no intention of accepting this "ill-gotten gain".
No, although the store doesn't have any rules regarding employee tipping, it's still not a good idea, right?
Never mind, none of that matters! The important thing is that she can finally go home!
After hanging up the "CLOSE" sign and turning off some of the lights, she dashed towards the back changing room.
Three to five minutes later, she locked the shop door, picked up the packaged employee tacos, and prepared to head back to her dilapidated apartment, which cost 38,000 yen a month and was a 15-minute walk away, or a 10-minute run away.
The tacos served at the restaurant were delicious, and while they were indeed tasty, the fact that they were free was the key to their appeal.
If she doesn't eat this, she'll have to eat homemade nutritional meals that cost an average of 120 yen per meal—and naturally, don't expect much in terms of taste, except for nutrition.
Just as she was about to speed up and try to make up for the time wasted by Himemiya Chihaya and get back to the apartment five minutes earlier, she froze on the spot.
"..."
Himemiya Chihaya, carrying a bag, appeared before her again as if she hadn't noticed anything and handed her the bag. "These are some homemade snacks. Would you like to take them home and try them?"
"No, how can that be!" Recovering from her stiff state, Sakayori Iroha quickly waved her hand, her body moving before her brain could react, humbly refusing.
"Don't worry about it. I'll come back as a guest later. Consider this my apology for tonight. I'm sorry for the trouble I caused you."
"..." So he knew he wasn't acting normally tonight...
Even so, we can't accept customers...
"This is my conscience! If you, Sakayori, don't accept this, I might not be able to come here openly in the future! Please do!" He pushed the bag with a serious expression.
"Then... then I shall respectfully accept your offer..." She silently moved her throat.
He just said it was a snack, right?
When was the last time I had dessert...? Even if individual cooking skills differ, the most basic sweetness should still be guaranteed, right?
"Oh, but I really have to give you your change back, okay? Our shop doesn't have that policy." She took the bag and said casually.
"Really? Then let's settle the bill together with the next meal. We'll skip today; Miss Sakayori needs to go home too, right?"
"Ah, um, that works too..."
"See you next time~"
She said "See you next time..." with a hint of reluctance.
He waved his hand and walked along the path in the residential area into a dark side street.
As she watched his figure disappear, Sakayori Iroha suddenly thought of a question.
"Where did he get those snacks from? That doesn't look like a place where you can park a car..."
Unable to come up with a solution, she quickly abandoned the idea. Forget it, there are too many possibilities; she couldn't figure it out anyway.
Chapter 563 Strange Scenes in the Rented Room
She put the received items into her cloth bag and then got back on track. To prevent the meals and snacks inside from getting damaged, she abandoned her plan to run back.
"Well, given my current critical condition, I really don't want to run anymore..."
"After you get back, before you start studying, you should take a shower and relax first."
"..."
"..."
"A lack of will, hope, and dreams..."
"Maybe that's really the case, but right now, I'm already doing my best to maintain this fragile sense of security..."
For some reason, her mother's distant, lecturing voice echoed in her ears once again.
--Showing off is just an excuse for lazy people; I'll only talk about what I can do.
Recalling the two years she had somehow managed to persevere, her eyes filled with helpless tears, and her teeth clenched as she bit her red lips, which twitched.
"Ugh... I'm about to collapse!"
"If I had known, I wouldn't have insisted so much and would have just accepted the tip... enough to splurge a little!"
Even after deducting meal expenses, she still had several thousand yen left, enough for her to eat many meals...
She only earns about 100,000 yen a month working part-time. After deducting rent, utilities, and internet fees, she has very little left.
She also has to save on tuition, miscellaneous fees, image fees, and accident insurance premiums, leaving her with enough money to eat lavishly—you can count it on your fingers.
To say she was truly broke wouldn't be accurate. Aside from the monthly living expenses she received from her grandfather, she had managed to save up 100,000 yuan as an emergency reserve.
But she wouldn't know how to use the former; if she did, she'd rather just go home and admit defeat to her mother. The latter—
"For an ordinary, poor high school girl who comes to the capital alone to make a living, it's not surprising that something unexpected happens; she must save some money for emergencies."
After sighing weakly at the moon, she continued walking towards her apartment.
As for why she came to Tokyo but didn't go to Tokyo Metropolis, instead choosing a smaller city within its jurisdiction, isn't the answer obvious? Rent in Tokyo Metropolis is so expensive, how could she possibly afford it?
This is similar to why many office workers choose apartments in Kawasaki to catch the trains in the morning and evening.
"Fortunately, now there's another way to make money through 'Moonlit Sight,' so my allowance will probably be a little more manageable in the future."
However, it's only enough to earn a little pocket money.
She stepped onto the outdoor metal staircase of the apartment building, arrived at the second floor of the small, run-down apartment, and unlocked the door to go home.
"Phew~~~"
She placed her bag on the low table, wobbled over to the desk, sat down, and let out a long sigh.
Although it's a place with almost no redeeming qualities, the feeling of coming home is still relaxing.
"Oh, right..."
As she opened her tablet and skillfully accessed Tsukimi Yachiyo's live stream channel, she took out the snacks she had just received as a gift from her bag.
"Snacks, snacks... Oh! How beautiful! Damn! How long has it been since I've seen such a tempting view!"
But as a high school girl living alone, she still maintained a basic level of caution. "It shouldn't be poisonous..."
Being wary of food offered by strangers is something even kindergarten children know.
Staring at the transparent plastic container lid overflowing with creamy white filling, her caution wavered drastically.
"Just one bite, to test for poison... If it's just one bite, even if it's poisonous, there's still time to get to the hospital."
Moreover, although she didn't want to say it, her colleague had a point. Someone as good-looking as her wouldn't risk their future to deliberately harm a plain-looking girl like her.
But clearly, she underestimated the power of what she held.
"So delicious!!!" With one bite, her tear ducts were reflexively activated.
The bitterness that had just filled my body was instantly enveloped by a sense of happiness, a harmony of sugar, aroma, and soft, chewy texture—making the bitterness even more pronounced and clear.
"What's going on? Am I hallucinating? How can it taste so good?"
"Even if it's free, even if it uses high-end seasonings, how can it taste so good? It's even better than the dessert shops that Roka and Jinji took me to!"
"And it's so delicious, it's a delicacy I haven't had in so long, my body is almost overflowing with happiness... so why can't I stop crying?"
She slumped helplessly onto the table, feeling as if her taste buds were being ravaged.
"Devil's food... How can I possibly eat this dry pancake now..."
After forcibly stopping herself from eating it with superhuman willpower, a thought suddenly popped into her mind.
What makes the food so delicious, besides her superb skills, outstanding ingredients, and her incredibly discerning palate, seems to be something dangerous—
"Could it be that they really drugged her?"
"..."
"..."
"Ah! Never mind! Even if it really was drugged! I don't have the courage to abandon it or throw it away..."
"And since it just tastes delicious and doesn't have any other effects, it should be fine... probably."
She forcibly shifted her attention to the live stream she had been listening to from the very beginning, multitasking as she listened.
From the tablet, Tsukimi Yachiyo's playful and youthful voice came through:
"Did everyone have a good time tonight? Ah! Yachiyo had a great time too!"
"..."
"No matter how busy you are with your studies or work, please remember to eat three meals a day on time and take care of your health!"
"..."
"However, I heard something today that makes Yachiyo a little worried~ I'd like to remind all of Yachiyo's fans!"
"..."
"I've heard that there's a super handsome, long-haired aristocratic young man in Tokyo who likes to use aliases to make unwanted advances towards cute young high school girls. Everyone should be careful and take precautions!"
"..."
"That's true~ Big cities are really scary~"
"..."
Sakayori Iroha raised her head, and the image of Himemiya Chihaya's stunning beauty flashed through her mind, but she didn't pay it any mind.
"What's going on? Yachiyo likes this kind of gossip too?" she couldn't help but complain.
"There are too many flaws... Since he's a super handsome aristocratic young master, he should be very, very popular, right? Why would he use an alias to deliberately approach young high school girls?"
"Even if he was scammed, it's hard to say who suffered the loss. It's more believable that he was a naive young master who was deceived by an experienced woman from the Minato Ward."
"Forget it, it has nothing to do with me anyway, and I'm not cute... I'll just remind Roka tomorrow. A super stylish single beauty like her is the one we should be wary of."
After waiting for a while and feeling no unusual reaction in her body, she picked up the unfinished snack and savored it again with a blissful expression.
"Although it's a bit wasteful in terms of calories, I can't help it, it's just too delicious~ I can't stop eating it..."
"I really owe Mr. Hinomiya a huge favor. I'll give the rest to Roka and the others to take tomorrow."
"Ugh! Just thinking about it makes me want to cry... No, no, no, this is for my only two best friends, this level of investment is nothing at all, sob sob sob..."
"..."
In the cramped rented room, the increasingly helpless voice of the anchor on the tablet and the JK's suppressed sobs so as not to disturb the neighbors created a bizarre musical scene.