The next day, early morning.
"Even though it's a bit late..." Kikuri Hiroi said while wiping her hands with a paper towel, looking inexplicably proud for some reason, "actually, for breakfast, I'm a Japanese-style meal person."
"After eating the toasted bread and thick-cut bacon fried eggs in your plate so clean, don't you think you're being a bit thick-skinned by saying that?"
Asakura looked at her with eyes reserved for non-recyclable trash.
No, from the perspective of alcohol content, maybe she's combustible trash?
"...So should I pack it in a bag on Mondays and Thursdays?"
"The content of your muttering is so scary?!"
Kikuri Hiroi trembled.
"I say, don't you ever cook for yourself?" Asakura asked her.
"Shima... that's the drummer of my band, she once said the same to me."
"So how did you answer?" Asakura asked curiously.
" 'Hahaha, I don't care what the kitchen becomes like.' Just like that."
"That's already a threat."
Asakura complained, feeling pity in his heart for the drummer in her band for having such a leader.
"I still have some self-awareness, at least there's no problem as long as I don't get within three meters of the stove." Kikuri Hiroi said.
"That's already outside the kitchen." Asakura was helpless, he suddenly became curious whether the cooking skills of Yuigahama Yui or Kikuri Hiroi were more lethal.
"Safety first." Kikuri Hiroi gave Asakura a big thumbs up.
"A person who walks drunk on the street late at night is the least qualified to say those words."
"Don't worry, don't worry, I only look drunk, but I'm actually very clear-headed in my heart!"
"Every drunkard I've seen says that." Asakura tidied up the coffee table, "What are your plans for today?"
"Anyway, I'll go to STARRY for a free meal first."
"You just finished breakfast and you're thinking about that? Isn't it a bit too early?" Asakura tapped the plate in his hand.
"Well, after all, it's quite far from here to Shimokitazawa..."
"Far? I remember it's quite close?"
Asakura thought for a bit, the train lines in this island country are actually quite messy, and he isn't some railway otaku, so he didn't have a deep concept of train stations, he only remembered that taking the train from the nearby station to Shimokitazawa seemed to be only two or three stops away.
"Because I'm already used to carrying a bass and measuring the land with my two feet..."
"Is it for the sake of sentiment?! Why use such a poetic way of saying it? Just take a train at the very least!"
"Miss Hiroi, I..." Kikuri Hiroi showed a slightly humble smile, "can't even scrape together the money for the train anymore."
"..."
"So if possible, can you lend me some money?" Kikuri Hiroi opened her hands in a begging gesture.
"...You've definitely taken over Yamada Ryo's position, haven't you?"
In the end, because the way she wept bitterly was too shocking to the soul, Asakura, out of humanitarian sympathy, lent her a bit of train fare.
Usagi-ya.
"Boss-kun, is there something on your mind today?" Kawaragi Momoka asked Asakura curiously.
"Can you tell?" Asakura asked back.
"You've been sighing for half a day, it would be strange if I couldn't tell."
"Miss Kawaragi, what do you think of me as a person?"
"What do you mean by 'what'?" The part-time warrior, who was making preparations for the store's opening, didn't understand the boss's question.
"Specifically, your impression of me as a person."
"A pushover." Kawaragi Momoka said without any hesitation.
"As expected..." Asakura folded his arms and nodded in reflection, "I also feel like I've been a bit too soft-hearted lately, it seems I need to reflect properly..."
"However, if Boss-kun weren't a pushover, I wouldn't be here." Kawaragi Momoka continued.
"Is that a compliment?" Asakura looked at her with some surprise, "Could it be that Miss Kawaragi is also a 'tsun-tsun-tsun-tsun-tsundere' like Miss Ijichi and Miss Hoshino?"
"That's too many 'tsuns,' isn't it? By the way, is the Miss Hoshino Boss-kun mentioned the manager of that live house in Shimokitazawa?"
"Indeed, although she looks overbearing on the surface, Miss Kawaragi is surprisingly easy to get along with, so she should be a 'tsun-yan-yan-yan-yandere' instead."
"No matter which one it is, I don't like it, please use a more normal way to describe me."
"Hmm..." Asakura thought for a bit, "closet pervert."
"I'm quitting."
"Just kidding." Asakura hurried to reassure his only employee, "How's the store preparation going?"
He originally thought Kawaragi Momoka would say something like "it was ready long ago..." but instead, he found that her face showed a somewhat troubled expression.
"Well, how should I put it, actually, after I went back to the shop yesterday, something happened..."
"What is it?" Asakura asked, "Did Yamada Ryo borrow money from you?"
"That didn't happen... why would you ask that?" Kawaragi Momoka blinked, looking at Asakura in confusion.
"Because she's a bassist." Asakura, who had just been borrowed money by a certain bassist, said matter-of-factly.
"Do you have some kind of prejudice against bassists..."
"So what exactly happened?"
"Yesterday while I was packing things up to close the shop, I ran into a fan."
"What? Even the Meatball-ko is popular enough to have fans already?" Asakura was astonished.
"No, it's a fan from my previous band."
"Oh, I see."
"Why did your tone suddenly become so indifferent..."
"As long as fans don't affect business, there's no problem, whether they want an autograph or a photo, our shop hasn't forbidden it." Asakura said nonchalantly.
"The problem lies right here..." Kawaragi Momoka said, "after she found out I was working part-time here, she said she wanted to come here to work part-time as well."
That is to say, it would affect the operation of the shop.
"Let me ask first, is the other party a boy or a girl?" Asakura pondered for a moment before asking.
"It's a girl."
"Hmm, then she probably didn't come for Miss Kawaragi's body."
"Isn't the place you need to confirm a bit strange?"
"That's not the case, after all, Miss Kawaragi's body is also..." Asakura looked at her uneven... uneven and not very shapely chest, and his eyes drifted elsewhere, "is also full of charm... hmm, probably..."
"Why did your tone become so uncertain at the end? Even for me, the places that should have meat do have meat, it's just the type that looks thin in clothes!"
"I understand, I understand." Asakura showed a benevolent smile, making Kawaragi Momoka's teeth itch.
Immediately after, Asakura asked again: "Let me confirm once more, that girl wouldn't be some kind of bratty girl who explodes at the slightest touch, like a porcupine?"
"She doesn't look like it..." Kawaragi Momoka said, "she looks quite easy to get along with."