The moment he walked into the kitchen, he noticed Yukinoshita's helpless expression. She was holding her temple with one hand, not sure how to even comment on the dish in front of her.
Yukinoshita: "Strange. The steps weren't wrong, but the result came out completely different. Where exactly is the problem?"
Hayama: "Maybe not everyone can make things taste as perfect as you do…"
Yukinoshita sighed again: "I don't understand…"
Yuigahama stood there with an awkward smile: "Ehehe…"
Miura casually picked up a cookie and took a bite. Her face changed instantly: "Hey, this isn't bad at all! Compared to before, this is a huge improvement."
Even if Yuigahama's cookies weren't as delicious as Yukinoshita's, after a whole afternoon of practice, she really had made noticeable progress.
Hachiman also walked over, tasted one of the cookies, and gave a small nod:
"At least outside of school, handmade stuff like this would count as pretty good. Compared to other shops, it definitely has an edge."
Miura: "Uh, Hikigaya, the one you just ate was Yukinoshita's."
Hachiman froze, and so did Yukinoshita. She didn't mind people eating her cooking, but… wasn't his reaction a little too normal?
Noticing her eyes on him for the first time, Hachiman felt a little awkward too. He quickly picked up one of Yuigahama's cookies and took a bite.
"It's… not bad."
"Hikki…"
Feeling Yuigahama's slightly hurt look, Hachiman quickly added:
"I mean, it's actually pretty good."
"Really?"
"Yeah… it should be true."
"That 'should be' part makes it sound way less convincing…"
Even so, a faint smile appeared on Yuigahama's face. Even though the shop was already starting to lose money, and even though her cooking still wasn't being recognized, she still treated everyone around her with kindness. Maybe that was Yuigahama's real strength.
As for Hachiman, he truly believed that as long as things stayed at this level, combined with some simple business tricks, it wouldn't be hard to keep the shop going—since the shopping street already had plenty of foot traffic.
From the very beginning, Hachiman knew it was unrealistic to expect someone with no real cooking background to master advanced skills in just a short time. If Yukinoshita hadn't come along, he never planned on starting with cookies anyway. For a shop on a busy street, attracting customers was the most important thing—taste was secondary.
Of course, another reason was that Hachiman never thought he could actually teach anyone. He wasn't good at handmade crafts in the first place. At the end of the day, he was just an ordinary student of Totsuki.
So, this was enough.
While the others were still stuck worrying, Hachiman lowered his head and quietly said:
"Actually, we don't have to start from here."
Miura: "Hikigaya, what do you mean?"
Yuigahama: "Hikki, I don't really get it either..."
Yukinoshita's gaze shifted toward him again, though she didn't say anything.
"What I mean is, as long as the shop gets established and becomes known as a handmade goods store, then we'll naturally attract more customers. So..."
He explained everything he had just done outside and how he used the Instagram account to post updates. As long as they kept running it, customers would keep increasing, and the store's name would spread.
"So right now, this shouldn't be the thing we're stuck on."
Hearing Hachiman's words, everyone fell silent. But he could feel it—both Miura and Yuigahama were sending him looks filled with... gratitude.
Her face bloomed into another warm smile: "Hikki..."
Miura crossed her arms and said with a bit of pride: "Bringing you here really was the right call..."
But Yukinoshita, who had stayed quiet until now, lifted her head and fixed her sharp eyes straight on Hachiman. That piercing look seemed like it could see right through him.
Being stared at like that, Hachiman couldn't keep eye contact for long. He turned his head away, pretending not to care, and went on:
"This way, everything can be solved."
"Really solved?" Yukinoshita's eyes never left him. Her voice was cold, almost like an accusation.
The room fell silent again.
"This is nothing more than running away. If the shop's main product—the cookies—don't have a flavor that stands out, then this way of making money will collapse sooner or later."
"For any shop, taste is the only way to last."
Even though she wasn't close to anyone here, and this was their first real meeting, she still spoke with such strong feelings. It left Hachiman, who had just suggested the idea, stunned for a moment.
Maybe realizing she had lost control, Yukinoshita lightly grabbed her arm and softly said:
"Sorry, I got carried away. I'll go outside for a break."
No one reached out to stop her. No one said a word. They just watched as she hurried out of the room.
Almost without realizing it, Hachiman kept his eyes on the spot where she had left.
He didn't know why, but inside him rose a long-lost feeling he couldn't shake off—because the person who had just passed him seemed so much like himself.
Unable to lie, unable to accept fakeness, unable to act against what they truly believed in. That's why they always stayed like this—distant, cold, and alone.
'If it's someone like that, maybe...'
"Hikigaya, what you suggested sounds good. Let's start trying it tomorrow." Miura's words pulled him out of his thoughts, dragging him back to reality.
Hearing Miura, Yuigahama also nodded in agreement. Hayama, seeing how things turned out, smiled and said: "Now that the cookies taste better and we have a new plan, maybe we'll finally get out of this mess."
Hachiman: "Yuigahama, you can try adding a bit of green tea flavor to your cookies. That might make them more unique."
That should be enough. As long as the shop stopped losing money, it could keep going in this world.
Still... he couldn't forget Yukinoshita's words.
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