Busy First Day

The week of the actual festival finally came rolling around and I dressed up immediately. We were told to get to school an hour early to prepare for the opening so we didn't have time for breakfast. We got in the car and went straight to school. There were students rushing in the school one after another and me and Tochaki-san did the same. We didn't think anyone would notice us two getting out of the same car in this frantic time and sure enough, no one noticed. I went to my class and Kanjiro was already there. He was wearing an apron and a chef's hat. Many other students were also wearing a waiter's outfit which was just a white shirt with black pants. The girls were wearing a black skirt instead of a black pants.

"Come on, get into this outfit."

"I didn't know we were getting outfits? How much money did we spend on this?"

"Remember the part-time job I work for? I was explaining how excited I was for the school festival and decided to give us a few sets of outfits for servers/waiters. Everyone in our class are only just knowing about this but no one complained since we didn't spend any money on it. I do, however, have to return the clothes after this week, so make sure it's clean!"

"Alright."

I rushed to the boys changing room and changed into the outfit. I came back and it was 7:58. I looked at the window and there was a swarm of people of all ages waiting at the entrance. Once I heard the 8:00 bell, the gate to the school opened and the festival began.

"Three chocolate cupcakes for table 4!"

"Two Creme caramel here at table 8!"

"Three medium Fraps for table 3!"

Orders after orders are coming out one after another. I was outside the classroom advertising for our shop and there was a good amount of people lining up. We decided to give out samples of our pastries while they wait to keep them in our line. Even from outside the classroom, I knew the cooks inside were working non-stop.

"We need backup!"

"Go find the other four bakers and let them know the situation."

Tamaki-san rushed out the door to look for the other cooks. She was looking for the other bakes. There aren't enough bakers to get out the drinks and pastries fast enough. A few seconds later, Tamaki-san and the rest of the bakers rushed inside the classroom. After a few more minutes, the line was moving much faster as we had more manpower getting food out. This continued for a couple hours until noon when our line disappeared and there were only a few people in our shop.

"Good work back there, must have been a madhouse cooking so much food."

Kanjiro was taking a break and I switched out with another boy who now will take over for the rest of the day.

"Yea, I came to school really early to even prepare some food. I didn't think they would all be gone within 5 minutes after we opened! I had to make another batch ASAP."

"Yea, sounds chaotic in the kitchen, you're gonna have to deal with 4 more days of this."

"Yea, I'm coming to school even earlier tomorrow to whip up some more cupcakes."

"Good idea."

Another class was selling Takoyaki, we decided to buy some for a snack and decided that we would go look around the school. While we were waiting in line, I saw someone familiar making Takoyaki in the classroom. Her crimson eyes were all fired up for the incredible amount of people outside the classroom. It was Suiha-san. We waited for our turn and we ordered twelve takoyaki for me and Kanjiro. We paid for the food and when Suiha-san gave us our food, she finally looked at us.

"Oh, I didn't know you guys were here."

"We just finished our shift, some other people in our classroom are taking over right now."

"Oh I see. Well, enjoy the food, there are still people in line."

"Alright, good luck."

We left Suiha-san to deal with the people behind us and headed towards the cafeteria to eat our food.

"I didn't know Suiha-san knew how to cook."

"Well me neither, she looked really experienced as well."

If I recall correctly, she was flipping the takoyaki really fast. Although the line was incredibly long when we first got there, we didn't have to wait more than five minutes until it was our turn.

"Yea, she works really fast."

"In addition to being the smartest student in our grade, she was an excellent cook. I wonder what else she couldn't do."

"You ever gonna get her a chance?"

"Yea, I might really fall for her if she can be friendly with everyone else."

"I thought she already got that fixed."

"Well, remember how she invited me to hangout after the test you did average on?"

"Yea, did something happen?"

"Yea, I didn't tell you this because I forgot but she got really mad at a male student for forcing a female student to pay for something she didn't want and threw hands at him. The male student got really injured."

"Oh damn, but the male student kind of deserved it."

"That's true, I was also mad that the male student forced someone else to pay but Suiha didn't have to fight. I mean, she could have used a more aggressive tone, which in this case would actually be alright, than getting physical."

"So you're scared of her uncontrollable attitude huh?"

"Yea, she apologized to everyone at the end, especially to the boy she hit, but I don't know if everyone is convinced she changed."

"Just give her some time, I'm sure she will eventually be someone you feel like she deserves."

"Well she better hurry before another maiden takes my heart!"

What a player. Just choose one already.

We finished our takoyaki and walked around the school to look for something fun. There was a haunted house in a year two classroom but decided to skip it today since the line was really long. Now that I think about it, I ignored it initially but there is this line that wraps around the whole first year floor and even came to the second year floor. Me and Kanjiro got curious and checked it out and when we found the source of the line, it was obvious. The line was coming out of Tochaki-san's classroom who was doing a maid cafe and the majority of the line consisted of males so it made sense. We took a peek inside and it was filled with people. Me and Kanjiro decided to look for the end of the line and walked upstairs. I only expected the line to be at the stairs but as it turns out, the line was not only through the second year floor, but went up to the third year floor as well. I was flabbergasted at how popular their cafe was and so was Kanjiro. Two or three maids were giving out tickets to some of the people at the start of the line and told everyone else that it would be impossible to get through everyone and told them kindly to leave. There was disappointments in some people's faces but they couldn't do anything about it. The festival also lasts a week so many weren't too worried as they could just come back another day. While the maids were returning back to the classroom, I called out to one.

"Hey, how many maids are working as of right now?"

The maid turned around.

"Uhh, there are 18 in total. Every girl in our class became one but works on different hours."

"18 maids? That means if half of you work the morning shift and the other half works the afternoon shift, there are 9 maids still working at all times. Why is it so crowded then?"

The maid signed and decided to explain to us the situation. Apparently, when it's a customer(s) turn, they get to pick the available maid that is currently working during the hour. The reason it was so crowded was because customers wanted Tochaki-san to be the maid that serves them and since she is a singular person, some customers had to wait until she was available.

"Doesn't that show some favoritism for some specific maids? Those who don't get picked often might even be discouraged."

"That wasn't a problem. Most of the girls got picked at least 30 times today so no girls felt left out. But the problem is that compared to those girls, Kinai-san was picked over 60 times today. We stopped counting after 60 so it was probably even more than that."

"I see, that indeed is a problem."

"We are gonna have to change some rules tomorrow so that customers can only pick the maid currently available. Not the one that is already taken."

"Yea good idea. It's kind of absurd that something like this has happened."

"Yea, since Kinai-san had the afternoon shift today, our morning hours were pretty normal with a good amount of people waiting in line but not too many. Once it was afternoon, I guess Kinai-san came out of the restroom dressed as a maid and some people must have seen her and followed her to our classroom. Then our lines became incredibly long and we didn't know how to compensate the customers for the long wait time."

"Wow that's kind of creepy…"

"That's the school's cheerful idol for ya. I don't know whether I should consider our class lucky or not."

"Works both ways, anyways, you have to get back to the classroom. See you later."

"Alright, bye."

The maid ran back to the classroom. We decided to speak one last time and saw Tochaki-san serving customers. Me and Kanjiro both admired her hard work before leaving back to our own classroom.

The day finally ended and everyone who came to the festival left. We cleaned up our classroom and bit before leaving school. As always, I waited until the majority of the people left before meeting with Tochaki-san and surprise surprise, she wasn't there. She must have been too tired so I decided to go to her classroom instead.

I walked to her classroom and found Tochaki-san laying her head down sleeping. She must have worked really hard today. I took out my phone and called Tokita-san, telling him her daughter was overworked today from the festival and told him to just leave our dinner at the table. Tokita-san laughed and said to get back before the curfew. I ended our call and sat on a desk and waited for Tochaki-san to wake up.

"Good work today Tochaki-san."

I slowly patted her head as she slept soundly.

I waited for about two hours until I heard a noise. I turned my head towards Tochaki-san and she finally opened her eyes. There was now no one at school other than the two of us. It was already dark outside. She looked around and immediately became frantic. I patted her head and tried to calm her down a bit.

'Don't worry, I'm here waiting for you."

"Juni-kun?"

"Yea, wanna go home now?"

She looked at her phone and saw the time.

"I'm sorry for keeping you waiting!"

"It's fine, you overworked yourself today didn't you? You deserve some rest."

"I was tired but I didn't think I would fall asleep…"

"I told you it's fine. You should also change out of your maid outfit."

She must have been so tired to the point that after today ended, she immediately fell asleep on a table.

"O-oh yea, give me a second."

She ran out of the classroom and a couple minutes later, she came back in her school uniform. SHe put the maid outfit on a table and we left.

As we were walking home, I realized Tochaki-san was walking slower than usual.

"Are you alright?"

"Yea I'm fine, I'm just still a bit tired."

She says she is fine but from my point of view, she was running out of breath. I looked at her eyes and she couldn't even keep them awake. I asked her again but she said she was fine. What a stubborn girl. I had to do something.

"Tochaki-san."

"Yes? J-j-Juni-kun?!"

I picked her up like one of those princes carrying a princess in his arms like in a movie. Her face immediately became red and embarrassed.

"Just rest for now. You look tired and you have a long day tomorrow as well."

"Ye-yea! But this is too much!"

"It's the least I can do after watching you work in your classroom."

"You saw me?"

"Yea, your classroom had an incredibly long line and most of the customers were just there to see you. You didn't even realize that yourself?"

"No, when a customer picked me I just did whatever I was practiced to do…"

She must not have completely understood how her own maid cafe works. I decided to explain it to her and when she understood it, her face became even redder.

"So every time I was finished with a customer I was immediately picked since they all wanted me to serve them?!"

"Yea, you had a rough day today."

"And here I thought all of us girls were treated equally…"

"Don't worry, I heard from one of your classmates that they are changing some rules tomorrow. If a maid isn't available or is currently working with another customer, the people either have to choose one that's available or they must leave."

"Oh I see, that's good then… Juni-kun, if you don't mind, could you visit our class tomorrow?"

"Yea sure, but why?"

"I want to serve you in my maid outfit. I want to pay you back for today."

"You really don't have to. I was just doing it because otherwise, my heart won't feel comfortable leaving you to walk home after working so hard."

"Please accept my offer. It's the least I can do."

She was looking at me with hopeful eyes. Her cute face couldn't let me deny her request so I reluctantly accepted her offer.

"Alright! Thank you!"

"But I'm gonna wear the same outfit I wore when we went to the aquarium during break. I don't want other people to figure out it's me. I don't want to deal with the drama that comes after it."

'Yes that's fine. Afterall, we can keep it as our little secret!"

"Yea yea, now please just get some sleep while I carry you home."

"Alright then, thank you Juni-kun."

She closed her eyes and immediately fell asleep. We finally reached home after a few minutes of walking. Tokita-san opened the door and saw me carrying her daughter. He must have known what happened and smiled. He told me her room door wasn't locked and I could just put her in bed. I nodded my head and went to her room. I opened the door and placed her in her bed. Covered her in her blanket and patted her head one last time before heading for the door.

"Juni-kun…I… lo…y…"

She whispered something I couldn't really hear. She must have been sleeping. I smiled and closed the door behind me before also falling asleep in my own room.