Ijichi Seika lazily waved her hand with half-lidded eyes: "Alright, since we've decided you'll help, come change into your work clothes first!"
A moment later.
Kita Ikuyo, now in a maid outfit, made a dazzling entrance.
Maid-outfit version Kita Ikuyo →
"Why does big sis have a maid outfit?"
Ijichi Seika: "Don't worry about it, don't worry about it."
(I'll try to come to this shop as little as possible from now on.)
Ijichi Seika beckoned to Saiki: "Saiki kid, there's work clothes for you too. Hurry and change."
[I don't need any work clothes. I'm just making coffee jelly and cake. I'm definitely not wearing a maid outfit.]
Ijichi Seika covered her mouth with one hand and snickered: "It's not a maid outfit. Come on over."
Saiki looked at Ijichi Seika's strange expression and turned his head away.
[No thanks. It looks suspicious. I have a bad feeling you're up to no good.]
Ijichi Seika stepped forward, forcibly turned Saiki's head back to face her, and looked down at him: "Come on～"
A moment later…
[Why is it a butler outfit?]
Saiki was wearing a white dress shirt with a butler-style black long coat and trousers, complete with gloves, and his glasses had been swapped for white-framed ones hanging from a chain around his neck.
Ijichi Seika: "Doesn't it look good? Seems pretty fitting on you."
[It's a little uncomfortable!]
Ijichi Nijika: "Oh～ Kusuo-kun, it really suits you. You look so handsome."
Yamada Ryo: "Very good."
[Then let's just go with this for now.]
"Wait…"
Ijichi Seika nodded in satisfaction and instructed: "Today you'll stand at the drink counter and serve customers."
[Ha?]
"You've got some looks on you, kid. Come help us serve the female customers. Come on, give us a smile, a smile."
Ijichi Seika tugged at the corners of Saiki's mouth, pulling them upward into a forced smile, then let go. His mouth immediately returned to its original position.
[I can't smile…]
(Actually, I've already put on a polite smile.)
"Alright, time to get to work!"
"Oh!"
"Yes."
"Okay…"
Saiki and Gotoh Hitori stood together at the drink counter.
Gotoh Hitori asked: "Saiki, you haven't worked part-time before, right? Is this your first time doing something like serving customers?"
[Yeah… it is.]
"Really? Got it."
Gotoh Hitori secretly glanced at Saiki and began imagining:
In Gotoh Hitori's mind, on Saiki's first day as a server at the counter when a customer comes to order a drink.
Saiki, nervous and dazed, stammers
"Y-y-yes… c-coming right up."
While preparing the drink, he nervously spills it, drops and breaks the glass, and keeps apologizing: "Sorry, sorry, sorry!"
Just as Saiki kneels on the ground, overwhelmed by loneliness and embarrassment.
Gotoh Hitori quickly prepares the drink properly, hands it to the customer, cleans up for Saiki, pats his head, and comforts him: "It's okay, take it slow."
Saiki looks up at Gotoh Hitori like she's his savior and an angel, hugs her tightly with tears in his eyes, and says gratefully
"Thank you so much, thank you, Hitori-sama…"
...
"Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehe!"
In reality, Gotoh Hitori was staring at Saiki with a goofy grin.
Saiki simply stared expressionlessly at the person in front of him who had just created this ridiculous mental scenario.
(Yare yare daze, who's that person in your head? I don't know him.)
Ijichi Nijika: "Is Bocchi-chan okay? What's wrong?"
[She's fine. She just took the wrong medicine. She'll calm down in a bit.]
...
"Excuse me, one cup of Kahlúa please."
A customer had already come to order.
Gotoh Hitori [Okay, as the senior I'll demonstrate in front of Saiki first. With my veteran experience and service attitude.]
After steeling herself, Gotoh Hitori faced the customer.
The next second, her expression management failed again as she greeted the customer.
"Kahlúa, Kahlúa right? O-okay…"
"Um, where is it again? Oh, in the back."
Gotoh Hitori turned around and immediately did the classic stumble—left foot tripping over right foot—and fell flat.
...
(Where's all that talk about passing on experience? Senpai!)
The scene fell silent. Gotoh Hitori tried her best to maintain her expression and not look too embarrassed, but the moment she turned and saw Saiki, her composure instantly shattered.
From Saiki's standing angle, in Gotoh Hitori's eyes, he looked like he was mocking her incompetence.
Wah (ʘ̥∧ʘ̥) Gotoh Hitori [Even you're mocking me.]
(I didn't, though?)
Saiki reached out with both hands, lifted Gotoh Hitori up, set her down properly, and even brushed the dust off her. Then he took out the Kahlúa, poured a cup, and handed it to the customer at the counter.
▼_▼ [Please enjoy.]
Gotoh Hitori [Ah, I failed. Even Saiki, who's doing the front counter for the first time, is teaching me a lesson… no…]
(Shut up.)
Ijichi Nijika: "Not bad, Kusuo-kun, but you still need to keep a smile when facing customers. Don't overdo it, but no dead-fish eyes either."
[I am smiling.]
Ijichi Seika: "Liar, where's the smile? You need to have a smile on your face. Paired with that butler outfit, it'll give customers the feeling of being served by a lady of the house. Otherwise why would we have you wear this?"
[So that was your plan all along. This kind of service isn't standard for this shop, is it?]
Ijichi Seika whispered like a devil: "If you can smile properly at the customers, I'll give you a reward. Want to know what it is?"
[Don't you have things to do? Whatever reward you're offering definitely isn't anything good.]
"The reward is… a handmade dessert cake from me personally."
Saiki: …
(See? I told you there was no real reward. Can anything made by this shop owner even be eaten? Even dogs wouldn't touch it.)
But of course Saiki couldn't say that out loud.
[No thanks. I don't like sweets.]
Ijichi Nijika: "Don't like sweets…"
Gotoh Hitori looked at Saiki with eyes that basically said: Do you even believe what you're saying?
Ijichi Seika raised an eyebrow slightly at Saiki's words: "You're looking down on me, aren't you? You're probably thinking in your head that I can't make anything tasty, or that even dogs wouldn't eat it."
(Do you have to spell it out like that?)
[I already told you, I've been keeping a smile the whole time.]
"Where?"
(Yare yare daze. I can pull off a professional fake smile, but when I showed it to them during the performance earlier, they said it was too fake. And at the front counter, as long as you don't scowl, customers don't really care if you're smiling or not…)
Another female customer walked up: "One cola please."
[Sure.]
Saiki turned around, fiddled for a moment, took out a cup of cola, and handed it to the customer. His expression didn't seem to change much.
[Please enjoy.]
"Oh."
The customer took the cola, gave Saiki a complicated look, and walked away.
Ijichi Seika patted Saiki on the back: "See? Where's the smile?"
[Right here, this is me smiling.]
Saiki pointed at the corner of his mouth. Everyone squinted to look.
Saiki's mouth was "slightly" turned up—"slightly" being extremely slight.
Ijichi Nijika: "Ant smile, huh."
Gotoh Hitori [I didn't know Saiki had something he wasn't good at.]
"That doesn't even count as a smile."
Ijichi Nijika waved at Kita Ikuyo, who was still in her maid outfit cleaning: "Come demonstrate for him."
Kita Ikuyo: "Sure."
Kita Ikuyo stood at the front just as two customers arrived.