After an uncle who was actually only in his early thirties but looked like he was in his forties or fifties finished his speech, this workplace tour was declared a complete success.
Afterward, Hiratsuka Shizuka gathered everyone, said a few simple, clichéd things like 'be careful on the way back, don't play outside too late,' and then announced that the students could go their separate ways.
"What about you?" Mori Shinra asked, looking at Kawasaki Saki beside him.
"Part-time job," she said concisely, which was indeed in line with her character.
Perhaps feeling that this was too cold, she asked, "What are you planning to do?"
Shinra said in a deep voice, "Go home and play games."
Hearing this, she couldn't help but roll her eyes. She said irritably:
"See you!"
With that, she turned and walked towards the station without looking back.
Seeing someone who was a kindred spirit, Hikigaya felt a sense of gratification. He walked up, patted Shinra's shoulder, and proactively invited him, "Let's go. We can head back together."
Although his house wasn't as close as Yukinoshita's, it was only two streets away. The general direction was the same. If they took the train, Shinra would just get off one stop before him.
However, just as Shinra was about to agree, a golden figure blocked their path.
It was Miura Yumiko.
She was clearly hesitant. She twirled a golden strand of hair around her finger, her eyes darting away, and said in a casually feigned tone, "Um, we're going to Saizeriya later. Want to come?"
Hikigaya scratched his head. To be honest, he wasn't familiar with her and didn't understand why she was suddenly saying this. Just as he was about to refuse, he heard Shinra speak up:
"No thanks, I have things to do back home. You guys have fun."
Oh, so the invitation wasn't for me.
Hikigaya felt a mix of awkwardness and relief. Good thing he hadn't spoken up rashly, otherwise the embarrassing experiences of his middle school days would have likely repeated themselves.
Indeed, people never learn from history.
By the way, why would she suddenly invite him?
Is she trying to recruit him into the normie group?
He looked at Shinra's appearance again. He did look quite a bit like a normie.
However, Hikigaya remembered that she seemed to have been nearby just now and had probably heard him say he was going home to play games.
Rejecting the Queen of Flame with such a reason... watch out, she might blow up.
However, to his surprise, after hearing Shinra's words, she didn't get angry or put on a 'suit yourself' attitude to save face. Instead, she nodded very understandingly. "I see. Then be careful on your way."
What the hell? Hikigaya suspected he had misheard. He had never seen such a... docile (?) Miura Yumiko. Was this still the hot-tempered Queen of Flame from his impression?
Or was she actually Yuigahama, who had just gone to dye her hair blonde and he had mistaken her for Miura?
"Since Mori Shinra-san isn't coming, do you want to come, Hikki?"
Just as Hikigaya was suspecting the person before him was Yuigahama in disguise, the real Yuigahama extended an invitation to him.
He refused almost without thinking. "No thanks, I have things to do back home. You guys have fun."
"I see. Then you two be careful on your way."
See? I knew Yuigahama would say that.
Miura frowned upon hearing this. "You're just going home to play games, aren't you? It's rare for Yui to proactively invite a guy. How lame."
Hikigaya: ?
Wait, what the...
Shinra says he has things to do, and you say 'be careful on your way.' I say I have things to do, and you call me 'lame'.
Isn't that a double standard?
Hikigaya was having a hard time holding it together. Although he really wanted to question her, due to the huge gap in their social standing, he could only pretend not to have heard.
...
The train arrived at the station. Shinra said goodbye to Hikigaya and got off, planning to buy a few buns from the bakery at the station entrance for dinner.
As soon as he reached the bakery, he saw a familiar figure saying something to the staff. However, the staff behind the counter acted as if they hadn't heard anything and continued to busy themselves with their own tasks.
"Excuse me, I'd like a cream bun, a sandwich, and three hot dog buns. Please bag the cream bun separately, thank you," Shinra said to the staff.
The staff immediately reacted and handed over the prepared items according to his request.
After paying, Shinra handed the paper-bag-wrapped cream bun to the pretty girl beside him.
He said, "I almost didn't recognize you in your school uniform, Sakurajima-senpai."
Sakurajima Mai hesitated for a moment, then took the bun from his hand. "I'm so sorry that you couldn't recognize me because I wasn't wearing my bunny girl outfit."
"If an apology was all it took, what would be the point of the police?"
"You're right. I should call the police."
"In your current state, they probably wouldn't even pay attention to you if you did, would they?"
Sakurajima Mai was silent for a moment, then sighed. "Although I hate to admit it, that does seem to be the case."
Then, the celebrity took out four coins from her wallet, totaling 130 yen, and handed them to him.
This was the money for the cream bun.
Shinra accepted it without being polite, then asked, "Puberty Syndrome?"
"Isn't it obvious?"
"The word 'obvious' doesn't seem to fit you right now."
"The bad jokes can end now."
She then asked, "What are you doing here?"
He replied, "I live nearby. I mentioned it to you before. Didn't you even save it in your phone's memo?"
She said, "I've already deleted it."
He said, "Lying is ineffective on me."
She remembered that this guy seemed to have the ability to see others' emotions. In a sense, it did function as a lie detector.
She muttered, "What a troublesome ability."
"It's quite convenient for me. If you could master your ability, I feel it would be much more useful than mine. I can already think of three different use cases."
"Bathroom, changing room, a girl's bedroom?"
"...You've read that stuff too, Senpai?"
"O-of course. There's no rule that says only guys can read that sort of thing, right?"
"I see. So it's because you were looking for information about your own ability online, accidentally clicked on something, and even though you were terribly embarrassed, you had to pretend to be a mature adult... Ouch!"
Perhaps because he had hit a sore spot, or perhaps simply because she was annoyed by his deduction, in any case, Sakurajima Mai stomped hard on Mori Shinra's foot.