The Scene Right Before the Culture Festival

Running a café for the culture festival required a lot of time and labor, but

things were proceeding much better than Amane had imagined they would.

They'd gotten someone to loan them the costumes, and that had probably been

the biggest hurdle.

After overcoming that major obstacle, they had to figure out the interior

design and decide on what they were going to serve to customers. Utilizing the

desks and chairs in the classroom, they had managed to make the space look

quite nice, so that was no problem. But their concerns about what food and

drinks they were going to serve was more difficult. The culture festival lasted

for two days, so they would have to skillfully anticipate and prepare enough

food to last while also being careful about sanitation.

However, it was not going to be that difficult. After considering the food

safety angle, and the problem of labor, the class had decided to purchase large

amounts of premade food that they would then serve.

The class was putting on a café staffed by maids and butlers. The main draw

was basically going to be enjoying the appearance of the staff and the overall

atmosphere, so they felt compelled to compromise on the refreshments, which

was the right call.

Once they considered the number of classes on standby that had applied to

use the home economics room, their decision to offer premade food was set.

"Well, we're kind of going all out on the drinks, though."

Itsuki, their festival chairman, made this declaration with a cheerful wink and

a playful smile. He was clearly in high spirits as he slapped a bag full of ground

coffee beans.

For the coffee, Itsuki had relied on a special connection. A specialist shop had

agreed to sell him the coffee for a bargain price.

Really, it was better to grind them as needed, but as one might expect, that

wouldn't be possible given the labor and facilities at a snack bar run by high

school students. So they had ended up doing it in advance. The tea leaves for

brewing the tea had also been fully prepared, and when it came to their other

menu offerings, they were all ready to go.

"This came together better than I expected," Chitose mumbled quietly while

looking around at the classroom. It was in the final stages of decoration.

The interior of their café was fundamentally a school classroom, so there was

a limit to what they could do, but the tablecloths and cushions they used to

disguise the desks, combined with the little decorations they had left on the

tops of the lockers, produced the right atmosphere.

By no means would anyone mistake it for a real café, but it was perfectly

sufficient for a student exhibition. After all, the main attraction would be the

students wearing their costumes.

"It sure did. I think we've managed to do enough."

"I think you're right. It looks totally different with the curtains and the little

decorations."

"Everyone did a really good job. This looks right."

Pointing at the extravagant curtains with their decorative gold cords that they

had borrowed from the drama club, Chitose mumbled quietly, "We'll be in

trouble if we get them dirty, though."

They hadn't set up too many seats right next to the curtains, but on the off

chance that they got dirty, it would probably be expensive to have them

professionally cleaned.

"Well, I think we've done enough here. All we have to do now is hope that

customers come by."

"…I have a feeling we're gonna be slammed during the time slot when Miss

Shiina is working as a maid," Itsuki said. "In fact, we'll probably get packed with

people trying to see her."

"My girlfriend isn't a piece of bait," Amane replied. "Besides, the other girls

also look great in their costumes, so I think it's rude to say everyone will be

coming just for Mahiru."

Although Amane was only interested in Mahiru, looking at things objectively,

all of the girls wearing the maid costumes were good-looking, and their outfits

suited them well. Sure, even if he hadn't been biased, Mahiru was particularly

adorable, and she did stand out from the crowd, but she certainly wasn't the

only one who looked good.

"Itsuki, I think you'd do well to follow the example of what Amane just said."

"Ow, owww, you're cute, too, Chi!"

"It sounds so shallow! If you don't give me more compliments, your penalty is

to treat me to the afternoon tea course at the place I told you about earlier."

"But that place is so expensive!"

"I've heard they really do have one butler per table, so you can watch and

learn!"

"The cost of that lesson is too high, in more ways than one!"

Leaving his two friends arguing happily and planning out the details of their

date, Amane turned to Mahiru, who was sitting quietly beside him.

For some reason, Mahiru was wearing a complicated expression on her face.

"Mahiru?"

"…Amane, do you think…d-do you think that I'm the cutest girl here?"

"What's this all of a sudden? Are you worried because I complimented the

other girls just now? …I don't know how to answer such an obvious question. In

my eyes, you're the best-looking. And the cutest."

"O-okay."

To Amane, it was a given that Mahiru was special. But she still seemed to be

worried about it. She was apparently feeling a little bit jealous.

When Amane praised Mahiru directly, in a low voice, those few words

seemed to be enough for her to understand his feelings because her lips spread

into a broad smile, and she looked very happy.

They were in school, so she couldn't cling to him, but she bashfully grabbed a

little handful of his sleeve. Even that gesture drew some attention from the

other students, so this time it was Amane who found himself harboring

complicated feelings in his heart because of how adorable his girlfriend was.

…She's going to attract even more looks on the actual day, huh?

At the moment, they were only getting unenthusiastic looks from their

classmates, which wasn't so bad.

The real problem would be the actual culture festival.

Amane was expecting that they would have to deal with people giving her

rude looks; people who had no manners at all.

I'll try not to be apart from her, as best I can.

Feeling privately grateful that Itsuki and the others had assigned them the

same shift for exactly that reason, he looked back and forth between Mahiru,

who was wearing a bashful smile on her face, and Itsuki and Chitose, who

looked like they were getting along well even as they argued. Watching them

made him break into a little smile.