30 Chapter 28 : Fucking Fans
A/N: Thanks for the stones, keep 'em coming today fam, it's a long chapter (2.8k). And I think it's a very cute one too.
Anyway next chapter Tuesday, sigh, tomorrow I'll have to go to the uni just for Spanish smh. Imagine being a teacher or whatver and still not being able to do a proper schedule.
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The preparations for the school festival were slowly coming together.
Outside, the whole playground was rearranged with wooden stands, and inside, the school's hallways and interior were decorated too.
Basically there was a predefined road people were forced to go through. From the entrance gate, where stands were already erected, they had to zigzag their way throughout the whole playground.
The teachers thought of this to make people spend more, indeed if they wanted to reach the school, they had a long walk, and therefore, they may be tempted by the stalls around them more easily.
That's why the stalls for street food or outside games, like fishing the ducks, were all outside.
They also were the cheapest.
In the school, there were only cafes, maid cafes, cosplay restaurants, but also clubs who wanted to recruit new members.
Every student had to tell their homeroom teacher what kind of stall they wanted to do, with who, and finally where they wanted to place it, since the spots were limited.
Kurai went to tell Ms. Ishikawa about their idea for cotton candy, and she readily agreed. He also negotiated with her to have a place in the beginning, near the gate entrance. Which he successfully got too.
Although they weren't the only ones selling cotton candies, since Kurai asked for one of the entrance spot, him and Rumi had an advantage: every single person would need to walk in front of their stand, and by smelling the sweet aroma escaping from the machine, they would be tempted to buy cotton candies.
At least that's what Kurai theorized.
Which led him to the current day, day of the festival, a few hours before.
"...And that's why the entrance gate spot is the best." Kurai explained it to Rumi.
"...And it's where we'll have the most exposure…" She completed his sentence.
"Yes! That's exactly why I don't understand what's so bad about it!"
Both now reaching their spot, they stopped walking, "Look I just don't wanna ruin our chances, aight?"
*Bonk*
Near instantly, Kurai karate-chopped Rumi's head.
"Kyaa!"
"*Sigh* didn't I tell you a few days ago to stop being so pessimistic?" He could see a stealthy smile at the corner of her lips while she was rubbing the spot he hit.
Kurai shook his head. 'This bunny.'
*Coughed*
Rumi coughed to avoid getting herself embarrassed again, she didn't know how many times she felt embarrassment when it came to him those last few days.
She thought that he'll stop for the day after embarrassing her earlier with their matching costume. Rumi looked down at herself and couldn't help but curse Kurai's shamelessness in her mind.
She was wearing a frilly pink dress, given to her by Kurai. To be honest she didn't know where he got this but it looked amazing. (A/N: Rumi doesn't know but his mom is a clothes designer… (from chap 5 or 6))
Although, instead of the frills, there were small pink cotton candies. This dress was too girly for her! She didn't mind it showing her legs because the uniform already does it too, but this colour! It wasn't something she used to wear!
Rumi just shook her head, Kurai told her she was absolutely amazing too, 'It's not why I'm wearing this!' Her wandering thoughts made her blush and she couldn't help but look at Kurai's working back.
He too was wearing pink matching clothes, but for male, so it was a suit for him. 'He's cute too...Ahem.'
Rumi caught herself 'slacking' again.
"Anywayyy…" She tried to divert the topic.
Settling her red eyes on the machine Kurai was pushing, she asked about it, "So where did you find this? Rumi beckoned with her chin.
"Oh this? I struck a deal with a showman from a fair not far from here."
"Huh? How so?" She tilted her head cutely.
"It's like this…" Kurai started explaining.
He was actually training one day, although he didn't tell her this, when he saw a fair not far.
Since his curiosity was picked he approached them, and that's where he saw the cotton candy machine.
Obviously a fair wouldn't be a fair without cotton candy.
So Kurai decided to approach them and met the showman of the fair, who was also its director.
At the time, Kurai didn't have enough money to rent the machine for a day, so he decided to strike a deal with him.
Thanks to his cute looks and manipulative words, he made the man agree to giving him the machine in advance, and Kurai will give him the money after the festival ends, by taking a margin from the total profits they'll make that day.
That's also why the man agreed, he could actually foresee that the school festival would be a success, so Kurai too, will have plenty of earnings.
"Ohoh!" Rumi opened her mouth big.
"That's actually smart… coming from you." She added the last part after seeing his cheeky smile.
"Oi!"
"Hihihi!" Rumi masked her mouth with her hands while she laughed at him.
"Anyway, did you bring the sticks?" Kurai interrupted her fun.
"Yeah, yeah, it's in the bag!" She showed him the bag she was holding.
"Good! Now we're set, we just need to place the machine at the right place to connect the wires to the plug."
Indeed, that was one of the first reasons Kurai decided to sell cotton candies.
It was one of the street foods which didn't require a lot of raw materials.
Just wooden sticks, and flavoured sugar, the latter was already prepared in the machine while Rumi brought the sticks.
Well... There was electricity too, to turn-on the machine, but it was paid by the school, so Kurai didn't count it.
Roughly, he calculated around 80 yen of profit per cotton candy sold.
Knowing that they'll sell it at 100 yen, they had a 80% profit margin.
One kilo of sugar was around 100 yen and to make one cotton candy, they only needed one spoon of sugar, while the wooden sticks were cheap too, since Rumi bought them in a batch.
They also had to give money to the man who lent them the machine, hence the profit margin being lower.
Plugging the wires, Kurai turned back to Rumi, "Say, how much more money do you need for the trip?"
"Ummm… Around 25 000 yens." She put her finger on her chin. (A/N: roughly 200 euros)
But then Rumi hurriedly shook her arms, "But don't worry! It's not a problem at all. My mom can pay the rest, you don't have to inconvenience yourself so much!"
Shooting her a sharp glare Kurai said, "Do you want me to bonk you again, lil' bunny?"
Which shutted Rumi's mouth down.
"Look, aren't we friends?"
Looking down, she meekly nodded.
"So why are you doubting me?"
Slowly raising her head and looking at him, Rumi had her mouth open but didn't know what to say. "It's…."
Or more like she hesitated.
"You know what nevermind…" Kurai shrugged, and stood up.
"But, whether you want it or not, we'll raise more than 40 000 yens, you'll see." He came behind her.
Rumi looked back at him gratefully, "Than...Kyayaaa!" Before she could even thank him, Kurai circled his arm around her neck and rubbed his fist on her hair.
He was rubbing fast on her hair, so fast that the small bunny girl became teary eyed.
"Ayaya! Why AHH! Ar... ayay! You doing this! Arrg! Bastard!"
Stopping for a second, "Because we don't need 'thanks' between friends, and also what you said previously." He told her before resuming again. 'Or more like, what you didn't say.'
Fortunately, for the bunny girl she was saved by a passer, who was in fact a teacher and looked at Kurai weirdly, therefore the latter had to stop, to Rumi's greatest joy.
"Ahem, let's finish the preparations, Rumi, the festival starts in an hour." He told her innocently.
The little rabbit was still rearranging her white hair, now all over the place, "Hmph, do it alone! Bastard!" She still had her eyes red.
"Well… Alright, it's not much anyway." He shrugged, 'Maybe I went too far?'
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Now that Rumi and Kurai prepared everything they wore some matching pink aprons over their, again, matching costume. It was pink like cotton candy. Though this time, he even decided to put on some bunny ears like Rumi.
To the greatest amazement of the small bunny, who unfortunately had to avoid his gaze to well... Avoid nose bleeding, thankfully for her, the festival just started.
People were slowly coming and a crowd could already be seen forming.
Rumi had a little blushed while she was smiling, looking at the passers-by tand trying to catch their attention, "Why did you even put some bunny ears, Kurai…?"
"I wanted to look cute like you… Ouch" He was hit by Rumi.
"Be serious!" She reddened a bit.
"Alright, it's to attract more customers, particularly other kids, we can influence them more easily and make them use their parents' purchasing power."
He continued, "Oh and by the way… Relax, stop smiling creepily, see how you're making them afraid? We'll attract more customers soon, we just need to wait for the machine to heat up more."
Relaxing her jaw muscles, she glared at him, "At least I'm cuter than you, hmph!"
'Oh that's for sure.' Kurai raised his eyebrow.
Putting his hand over the machine, he started feeling the heat rising, "Anyway… It should be good now, gimme a stick, I'll start."
Rumi was already prepared, but Kurai saw her hands lightly shivering.
"Are you scared of other people's gaze?"
She deepened her glare at him, "I'm not scared of anything, stupid!"
"Oh yeah? Heh. Then why are you hiding your hands behind your back?" Kurai chuckled at her antics, he didn't even need to look.
"T-this, ya know…"
Kurai interrupted her, "Where there is preparation, there is no fear, so chill out, alright?"
"Now that we're here, let's give it our all, or else we won't be able to pay for the machine…"
Balling her fists, Rumi resolutely nodded along with him, not wanting to waste his efforts.
Seeing that Kurai was glad, "Oh, I wanted to pat your head to comfort you… Guess I don't need to anymore."
Rumi looked at him, she didn't know why her mind was so divided on this matter, a part of her wanted to get that warm feeling back, while the other half didn't.
"L-later!" She murmured meekly, quickly putting the stick on his hand, seeing their first customer approaching.
Kurai only smiled at her and served the customer.
'Why am I feeling shy now?' She asked herself while working.
"Stick."
Still in her thoughts, she gave the next stick to Kurai, slowly a line was forming in front of their stall. The passers-by started to smell the sweet aroma coming out of the machine, and thus were attracted, well more precisely their children did.
For 2 hours, they sold their cotton candies at a normal rate, although Kurai wasn't very happy about the results.
"It's not enough…"
Rumi looked at him worriedly, it wasn't that she was worried about the money, because her mom could give her the rest of the sum.
She just didn't want his efforts to be wasted, "What do you want me to do?"
She knew that she wasn't cut out for all the thinking stuff, so she was ready to give him a hand in any other laborious task.
"Go look for a sign, there should be some in stock in the classroom, oh! And a pen."
She looked at him weirdly but nonetheless sped up toward the school.
She came back after 5 mins, opposite to what she expected. He wasn't overwhelmed by the crowd at all, and was handling people very well.
"Here, Kurai!" She showed him the stuff that he asked.
"Good, now write 'Second cotton candy bought = 50 Yen', this should do."
"Huh? Are you sure? Wouldn't we be losing money like this?!"
"Ummm… Tell me what you would do if you were a client seeing this." He said, serving another client.
"The offer looks kinda dumb so I'll use it to my advantage an buy 2!" She bobbed her head up and down, feeling proud of her thinking.
"Exactly that's what most of the people will think."
"Then?" Rumi tilted her head, she didn't really get where was getting at.
Kurai chuckled, "Heh."
"How many did they buy in the end?"
Rumi hesitated, the question sounded dumb, even for her, "2?"
"Yep, so now tell me, who benefited the most? Us or them? They came for one but after seeing the panel, they paid more. While we got to sell more and thus were paid more too." He concluded, making the bunny girl's eyes go wide when she realized the trick.
After 2 more hours, half the day was gone, and even though the sales were increasing…
"It's still not enough…" Kurai sighed.
Rumi, next to him acquiesced too, "If only we had something to attract customers…" She said while eyeing the maid cafes inside the school.
Just when Kurai was about to sigh again, a mother and her small daughter approached them.
The mother bowed first, "Excuse me, but can you take a picture with my daughter, you look very cute!"
"Huh? Me? Not her?" Kurai was shocked. Normally people should ask cute girls for photos, not males, he thought.
"Yes, no problem." In the end, he relented and the small girl had a big smile on her face all the time.
Going back to Rumi, he found her sulking, "Ooh, don't tell me you're disappointed because people think that I'm cuter than you? Ahaha!"
She turned the other way, her back facing him, "Shut up, attention-grabber!"
Though, instead of laughing at her antics, Kurai was hit by a genius idea, "Eureka!" Even the bunny girl turned back at his outburst.
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"Second in the rankings of the biggest profit…With 30 000 yen earned... The maid cafe from class 5-A and Ms. Ishikawa!"
The crowd, composed of students, teachers and other people applauded.
The festival was now finished and the principal was announcing the results.
"Now, ladies and gentlemens, teachers, and students, the first place…"
He intentionally paused, "... Is for Kurai-kun and Rumi-chan's stand of cotton candy! Devancing the second by 10 000 more yen!"
Albeit the loud cheering a small voice could be heard, "Youhou! We were the best!"
Under the excitement, Rumi even threw herself at Kurai and hugged him, the latter only smiled and rubbed her back. "See, I told you my idea was great…"
"Sometimes my genius is… It's almost frightening."
Rumi pulled back, still not noticing the closeness, "Yes, but I didn't like it, hmph!"
"Oh why?" Kurai approached her face, the tip of his nose close to boopiing her cute little one.
Immediately, Rumi pulled back with a heavy blush adorning her cheeks, "Stupid pervert! You did that on purpose!"
"Nah, I'm not attracted to little girls." Kurai instantly dismissed her.
Somehow Rumi felt even more hurt, "Asshole!" This time she hit his shoulder with all her force and started leaving.
"Oi, don't run away, we still gotta pack everything!" And the little bunny came back stomping her feet, glaring at him.
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A few hours earlier.
The genius idea that birthed in Kurai's mind came after Rumi's comment on the maid and that photo he took with the little girl.
'I'll sell…*Cough* Use my body!' That's how it clicked for him back then.
So he decided to attract little girls with his bunny ears and attractive looks. By standing in the front of the stall with a sign 'Free photos if you buy cotton candy.'.
Even though Rumi didn't like the fact that he got so close to so many girls, she was too busy making cotton candies to bash him. That's why she said that she didn't like it after the award ceremony.
Kurai's idea was so good that little girls with their parents were making a row just to take a photo with him. Thus they were forced to buy a cotton candy, or two depending on their hunger.
That's how they rose to the first rank in the last few hours of the festival.
It worked so well that Kurai had to end it earlier than expected, some girls were fan-girling so much over him that they re-entered the line, some even started to shove each other, or to argue about who was before or not…
Honestly, they became too much for him at that point. It broke his expectations. So he stopped it.
...Unfortunately, he'll come to know only years later that a fan club about him was created that day.
Although, it may have already been crushed, or not, by a certain wild rabbit…
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