Being Hit On!

On his way to work at the Coffee Shop.

Natsume Chikage happened to run into Fujiwara Aoi, who also worked at the Coffee Shop.

But the moment he saw her clearly, Chikage froze in place.

Fujiwara Aoi still looked like an energetic, lively girl.

She had shoulder-length hair and wore a fresh light-green short-sleeved T-shirt, a Sports Watch on her wrist, and neat athletic shorts that revealed a pair of healthy, wheat-colored long legs. On her feet were lightweight white sneakers.

[Sports Watch]

[Quality: White]

[Effect: Increases the effectiveness of physical training by 15%]

[Description: The girl's day-and-night training is all for the ideal in her heart!]

[Synthesis Requirement: At least three pieces of equipment of the same type are required!]

Natsume Chikage was stunned. He had never expected Fujiwara Aoi to have a piece of special equipment on her.

He had never noticed it before.

No, this seemed to be the first time she had worn this Sports Watch here. No wonder.

But wasn't this equipment's effect way too powerful?!

It directly increased the effectiveness of physical training by 15%?

One had to know that there was a limit to how much a person could benefit from training.

Once you reached a certain point, it was already good enough if you could maintain your condition without declining, let alone improve further.

Yet with this equipment, any kind of physical training would become 15% more efficient!

Even for national athletes, improving their results by just 1% was incredibly difficult.

Who knew how many days and nights of hard training it took to overcome that threshold.

If an ordinary athlete wore this Sports Watch and trained for a long time, they could probably easily surpass Olympic records.

However, it seemed that only Natsume Chikage could see and use the special effects of these special pieces of equipment.

He thought of how Ruri's father had exercised too little, then suddenly gone bankrupt, causing his health to collapse and ultimately leading to his death.

That made him realize that he really needed to pay more attention to his own health.

This equipment's effect was so good. If he equipped it and worked out regularly, his body could recover from its subhealthy state and return to the physical peak of someone his age much faster.

The instant he saw the Sports Watch's effect, he truly wanted it badly!

Natsume Chikage focused slightly and sensed the panel in his mind.

Inside the panel.

The "Young Boy's Pain Diary" he had obtained yesterday had already been stored there.

Among the special equipment he knew of, this "Sports Watch" was already the third item.

If he obtained this, along with his sister's special equipment, he would gain 1 attribute point!

With that thought.

His eyes filled with desire as he looked at the Sports Watch!

Fujiwara Aoi looked a little shy. She had clearly noticed that Natsume Chikage's gaze had been fixed on her hand.

Natsume-kun had never looked at her hand like this before. What was going on with him today?

"Natsume-kun, why do you keep staring?" Fujiwara Aoi asked hesitantly.

Natsume Chikage snapped back to his senses.

He reacted quickly and immediately made something up. "I just noticed that you hadn't worn this Sports Watch before. I thought it looked nice and wanted to buy one for my sister too."

"Oh, so that's it!" Fujiwara Aoi said happily. "Bring your sister along next time, and I'll take you both to buy one. I have a membership card, so there's a discount on these Sports Watches!"

"That would be great," Natsume Chikage said with a laugh. But after thinking for a moment, he suddenly came up with an idea for getting the watch and asked, "About how much did this watch cost?"

Fujiwara Aoi blinked. "Around 60,000 yen."

Natsume Chikage's heart skipped a beat.

One Sports Watch cost as much as a month's rent for where he lived!

Could Fujiwara Aoi's family actually be pretty wealthy?

He had just been thinking that if it were cheap, he could give her another Sports Watch of equal value, then find some excuse to keep this one.

Now it seemed he would have to wait until he had extra money before doing that.

He only had around 40,000 yen in his wallet right now.

Next month's rent alone was 60,000 yen. With food, clothing, and other living expenses on top of that, where would he get the money to buy such an expensive watch?

No matter how much he wanted to do it, he would have to wait until he had money to spare.

"So... when are you planning to buy one, Natsume-kun?" Fujiwara Aoi blinked her lively eyes, full of curiosity.

"I'll wait until it gets closer to my sister's birthday. It's still early..." Natsume Chikage found an excuse.

"Mm-hmm, then it's a promise!" Fujiwara Aoi flashed an energetic smile.

A little later.

The two entered the Coffee Shop and changed into their uniforms.

When Fujiwara Aoi saw that only the manager, herself, and Natsume Chikage were in the shop, she felt a little happy.

"Looks like it'll just be the three of us in the morning. Still, I didn't expect us to get scheduled for the same morning shift today."

"What a coincidence."

Natsume Chikage had not expected that either.

"Indeed."

The male manager, Yamamoto Koji, coughed twice to draw their attention, then explained:

"It's not a coincidence. Since you two start school tomorrow, I put you on the morning shift today so you can go home early and get a good night's sleep."

"Well? Isn't your manager considerate?"

Natsume Chikage suddenly understood and gave him a thumbs-up.

"Manager, you're so thoughtful. Really thoughtful!"

Fujiwara Aoi gave him a thumbs-up as well and smiled.

"So that's why. Manager, you're such a good person!"

When Yamamoto Koji heard the words "such a good person," it was as if he recalled some unpleasant memory. His mouth twitched slightly.

"All right, enough. It's almost opening time. Go get things ready!"

Before long.

The shop had finished its pre-opening preparations.

When the front shutter was raised.

Natsume Chikage noticed that people were already waiting outside. He welcomed them in with a smile.

"Welcome."

The girls chatting noisily by the entrance froze the moment they saw Natsume Chikage smile. Then, one after another, they went from carefree and boisterous to quiet and shy.

One particularly bold girl even stepped forward to strike up a conversation. "Um... what time does your morning shift end here?"

"Hm? Do you want to work part-time here?" Natsume Chikage asked in confusion.

"Uh... ahem, my younger sister is interested. Could you tell me?"

"Around five in the afternoon."

"There are people waiting behind me, so talking with you here might affect your work... How about I add you on LINE, and my sister can talk to you later about applying for the job... what do you think?"

"My phone is in my work locker, and the manager is right here. How about I have him add you instead?"

Upon hearing that, Yamamoto Koji hurried over excitedly.

"What? Someone wants to work part-time? You're very welcome! I'll add you on LINE right now!"

Sweat appeared on the girl's forehead as she laughed awkwardly. "I just remembered that my sister is nearby. I'll have her come talk to you later, Manager..."

"All right..." Yamamoto Koji returned dejectedly. He secretly pulled out a small mirror to look at himself, then looked at Natsume Chikage, who was still being hit on by the other girls, and immediately felt miserable.

Fujiwara Aoi watched Natsume Chikage being hit on. She pursed her lips slightly, somewhat unhappy, then directly said to him:

"Natsume-kun, the manager asked you to get some coffee beans from the back."

Yamamoto Koji froze. When did I say that?