After taking the photo, she opened the album again, confirmed there were no issues, and quickly left the scene.
While walking, she admired the masterpiece on her phone, then decisively sent it to Ueno Naoka.
"Image"
"How is it? Does it look good?"
The photo she sent was still a selfie of her and Miyamura Tsunayoshi's standee.
Thinking about how that woman would frantically question her later, she couldn't help but burst out laughing.
As expected, just a few minutes later, her phone was bombarded with messages from the other party.
"!!!???"
"Where is this!???"
"Where did you see it??"
"Speak up!!"
Kawai slowly scrolled through the dozen or so messages she had sent, unable to suppress the smile at the corner of her mouth.
Meanwhile, Naoka on the other end of the phone clicked on the image. She wanted to save it, but seeing Kawai's dazzling face next to it...
Her hand hesitated to press the save button.
Furthermore, seeing that the messages she sent were marked as read but she was taking her time to reply, she guessed the other party was doing it on purpose.
Naoka took a deep breath to calm her emotions, and after a moment of thought, she deduced the location of the standee.
Putting her hand back in her pocket, she walked toward the direction of Class 2, Year 1.
---
"I'm only away from you for a moment, and you're already flirting with other wild women everywhere!" As Tsuna walked forward, Shouko grabbed his wrist and complained.
"Ah... it hurts..."
Shouko raised her hand to cover her head where she had been flicked, looking teary-eyed.
"What do you mean flirting with other women?" Tsuna withdrew his hand, feeling a bit speechless. "That's our sixth-grade classmate. I just happened to run into her and was drumming up business for our class, okay?"
"Oh..." Shouko rubbed her head and nodded pitifully.
"Have the equipment and tools been checked?" Tsuna reached out to help her rub it.
"Yes." Shouko ignored the other students in the hallway, leading him to the two standees. "Now we just wait to open. Tsuna, remember to come and help me later. Otherwise, if it's too busy, I'm afraid I won't be able to handle it and will mess things up."
"It won't be that bad. There shouldn't be too many people then." Tsuna looked at her, taking out her phone, taking pictures left and right, feeling slightly helpless.
The real person on the standee was standing right next to her, but she didn't photograph him; she insisted on photographing the standee...
And she took so many pictures. Isn't the standee the same? No matter how many pictures you take, doesn't it still look the same?
"Tsuna, stand next to your standee. I want to take some pictures." Shouko said without looking up, admiring the pictures on her phone.
Seeing that he wasn't moving and had a resistant expression, Shouko directly used her killer move: "One five-minute massage coupon."
Anyway, she owed him over ten coupons in total, so one more wouldn't make a difference...
Only then did Tsuna walk over and stand next to the standee.
"Smile, don't keep a straight face." Shouko held up her phone, aimed it at him and the standee, and advised.
"Alright, alright..." Only then did Tsuna force a smile.
Shouko didn't mind, and at the same time, she didn't forget to encourage him: "Okay, okay, keep it up, Tsuna."
Sorry, even if her Tsuna's smile was forced, he still looked good!
Shouko, who had taken several pictures in a row, was still not satisfied. Just then, Takagi happened to approach, and Shouko immediately took her hand and pleaded:
"Takagi-chan, can you help me take some pictures?"
"Okay, sure." Takagi took her phone without hesitation.
"Thank you, love you."
Shouko quickly walked between the two Tsunas, put one arm around his, and made a peace sign with the other hand towards the camera.
"Okay, they look great." Takagi took several pictures from different angles. After confirming there were no issues, she returned the phone to her.
"Thank you!" Shouko took the phone and started looking through the pictures she had taken.
"We're about to open. Shouko, Takagi-chan, shall we go to the changing room to change?" Just then, Ajitani walked out of the classroom.
"Mhm mhm!"
"Let's go."
Shouko said something to Tsuna next to her and then went downstairs with the two of them to the changing room where they usually changed for gym class.
Ajitani and Takagi were in maid outfits, while Shouko wore casual clothes she rarely wore and an apron. She was mainly afraid of getting the smell of oil and smoke on her clothes when making omurice.
After all, after the Maid and Butler Cafe closed, she still wanted to go and explore the School Festival with Tsuna. How could she possibly follow him around smelling of oil and smoke?
"Miyamura, let's go too."
"Okay."
The two of them also had to go change into butler outfits, one because of the butler position, and the other for the same reason as Shouko.
"Are our clothes different?"
After changing in the changing room, Nishikata kept looking at the butler outfit Tsuna was wearing.
"They're the same, aren't they? Didn't the Class Monitor rent them uniformly?" Tsuna smoothed out his clothes. This outfit, putting everything else aside, was quite fitting.
"It's fine, let's hurry up and go upstairs." Seeing that the other party didn't understand what he meant, Nishikata withdrew his gaze and urged him.
"Let's go. We'll start operating in just over ten minutes." Tsuna nodded, checked the time, and followed the other party's steps.
"Wow!"
"Letting Miyamura help in the back kitchen was really the worst decision."
"Miyamura, are our clothes really the same style?"
"Class Monitor, are you sure you rented the same style?"
"Maybe it's a problem with your faces and figures..." Ajitani stated a blunt truth, and the atmosphere suddenly quieted down.
Following that was the burst of laughter from most of the girls present. The complaining boys wished they could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.
"Clap clap clap...!" Ajitani clapped her hands, stopping the small interlude.
"Alright everyone, now go back to your respective posts. We'll start operating in five minutes."
"Snap out of it, Shouko, we need to go to the back kitchen." Just then, a female voice rang out next to the absorbed Shouko's ear.
"Oh... oh... oh..., okay!" Shouko quickly nodded and followed the girl's steps, walking toward the back.
At that time, when Tsuna took pictures of that standee, although she and Ajitani were also there, when it came to taking pictures of him, he temporarily asked them to leave.
So she didn't see it, and how could the standee outside possibly compare to the attractiveness of this living, breathing Tsuna?
---
Sunlight like scattered gold climbed diagonally up the window frame, the lace edges of the maid outfits vaguely visible behind the fluttering white sheer curtains.
The boys were fumbling to adjust their black ties, and unopened cookie bags were still hidden under their vests;
The girls stood on tiptoes to pin cherry blossom hair accessories onto their companions' temples, and when the lace aprons were lifted by the morning breeze, they revealed cat paw doodles with ink that hadn't dried yet on the hems of their skirts.
Ajitani, with her twin tails, lifted her skirt and twirled. The silver tray reflected the flowing clouds, casting flickering light spots on the wall.
Someone's bow hairpin was stuck on the curtain track. As the wind swept past, the entire classroom gently swayed along with the rustling sound of the skirts.
As the last minute of the countdown ended, the maids and butlers in the cafe all looked towards the entrance, their hearts in their throats.