Chapter 28: Kondo Yuika
"Um..." The girl hesitated, pointing toward the sign on the door. "Are you still looking for a shop assistant?"
"I am. Things have been quite hectic lately."
Akishin smiled as he took in her appearance. She had semi-long black hair, neat bangs, thin eyebrows, and a delicate heart-shaped face with expressive, large black eyes.
She was, objectively, very pretty.
She was also wearing the Sobu High uniform. That made sense, given it was the closest school, though Akishin couldn't place which class she belonged to.
"You're from Sobu High! Which grade?"
Akishin asked while unlocking the door. The girl seemed incredibly nervous—was this her first time looking for a part-time job? Or was he just that intimidating?
His Charisma stat was stuck like a bad case of constipation. It was genuinely irritating.
"Um, excuse me." The girl finally remembered to introduce herself. "My name is Kondo Yuika. I'm a first-year, Class F, at Sobu High. I saw your flyer today by chance."
"Class 1-F." Akishin swung the door open, pulled back the curtains, and gestured for her to enter. "Unfortunately, I don't teach that class."
"Eh?"
Kondo Yuika froze. What did he mean by that?
Akishin glanced back over his shoulder. "Sorry, I forgot to mention it. I'm actually a teacher at Sobu High. I just started a few days ago, but you've probably heard the rumors—the new Mandarin teacher."
"Ah!"
Kondo Yuika's mouth fell open, her eyes wide. She never imagined the shop owner she was applying to would be a teacher—let alone the one everyone had been gossiping about lately.
"Hello, Chishima-sensei!" Yuika immediately bowed.
Japanese people and their bowing, Akishin thought.
"We're off-campus, so leave the 'Sensei' at the gate. More importantly, this is my shop. If you work here, you call me 'Boss'."
Akishin gestured for her to sit before heading to the kitchen to fetch tea leaves. He brewed two cups and handed one to her. Yuika accepted it with a polite thank you, setting it on the table beside her.
Akishin sat across from her, holding his own cup. "I'll just call you Kondo-kun. Are you sure you want to work here?"
Getting down to business, Yuika's expression turned formal. She nodded. "Yes."
Akishin took a sip of tea. "Just you? I don't mean anything by it, but it's a bit dangerous for a girl to work alone at night. It's usually better to have a friend."
"Actually, a friend came with me," Yuika said, though she looked a bit sheepish. "But since the shop wasn't open yet, I told her to go home. She just left."
She had been incredibly nervous at first, mostly because Akishin gave off an inexplicable vibe of danger. She'd almost turned tail and run. But part-time jobs with flexible hours were hard to find. Knowing he was a teacher at her school made her feel significantly safer.
Akishin nodded. He'd been at the club for over half an hour; they must have been waiting quite a while. "Sorry about that. I got held up with some business."
"No, no! I'm the one who intruded!"
"Let's get back to the point." Akishin set his tea down. "Kondo-kun, do you have any experience working in an izakaya?"
"I do," Yuika said quickly. "My family back home runs one."
Akishin's eyes lit up. Score.
If her family ran a shop, she'd be more than capable—certainly better than an amateur like him.
"The hours are 5:00 PM to 10:00 PM. The first hour is for prep, we open the doors at 6:00, and we close up at 10:00. Pay is daily, 1,000 yen an hour, plus one meal. It gets busy, and it's tiring. If you want to quit, I need at least two days' notice. Can you handle that?"
Average hourly wages for an izakaya usually ranged from 800 to 1,500 yen. Akishin's offer was a solid mid-range, with room for raises if business stayed good. At five hours a day, that was 5,000 yen a day—about 150,000 yen a month.
Yuika didn't accept immediately. Instead, she asked, "Are there other waitresses?"
"Not for now. You're the first."
"Will you be looking for more?"
She was worried about handling the rush alone. Being tired was fine, but ignoring customers was a recipe for disaster and verbal abuse. She had seen how packed this place got.
"I'll be looking. I had someone else in mind, but they couldn't make it. Depending on how busy we get, I'll likely hire one or two more." That 'someone else' was Hachiman, but after today... ugh.
"In that case... could I bring my friend along?"
"Sure."
Yuika let out a sigh of relief and immediately pulled out her phone to call her friend. Then she stood up and bowed again. "Thank you so much, Chishima-sensei!"
"Boss!" Akishin corrected with a grin. "This is an izakaya."
"Right," Yuika nodded, a small smile forming. "In that case, Boss, you can just call me by my name."
"Alright, Yuika."
Akishin eyed her height, then asked about her friend's. He stepped out to a nearby shop to grab two sets of black uniforms and aprons—unisex styles, since most high schoolers hadn't reached "peak development" yet anyway.
"Memorize the menu first. As for the rest... taking orders and serving should be second nature to you, so I won't lecture you on it. I'll be in the kitchen. If you're confused, just yell."
After letting Yuika change in the restroom, Akishin handed her his hand-written menu and pointed to the chalkboard on the wall listing the specials.
He also handed over the cash handling duties. Previously, he'd just left a box by the counter for an "honor system" payment method. It had resulted in a lot of complaints and, predictably, a recurring shortage of cash.
Yuika looked at the prices and nearly choked. Even the simplest clear soup was triple the price of a normal shop. Is the food really that special?
She peered into the open kitchen. Akishin was busy prep-ing. The ingredients in the fridge he'd opened looked... normal. Totally ordinary.
She shook her head to clear her doubts and focused on the menu. She needed this job to stay in school in Chiba.
Fifteen minutes later, the broth began to boil. A rich, heavenly aroma filled Chishimaya. Yuika's stomach gave a treacherous growl. She'd only had a piece of bread for lunch and was starving.
But she couldn't say anything. No boss wants an employee who eats before they work. She tried to ignore it.
Akishin looked up and caught her eye. Five minutes later, he slid a bowl of noodles in front of her, topped with thick, succulent slices of beef.
Yuika blinked, her face flushing crimson. "Boss, um... I already ate."
Akishin chuckled. "Even if you have, consider this a welcome gift. You probably think the prices are crazy, but once you taste it, you'll understand why."
Without waiting for a reply, he went back to his work.
Five minutes later, Yuika's friend arrived. Her name was Sakurai Kaiko—her classmate and childhood best friend, also with izakaya experience.
Kaiko was shorter, about 150 cm, with cherry-blossom pink short hair and airy bangs. She was a bundle of energy, wearing a wide, beaming smile. She was just as pretty as Yuika.
"Whoa! So the Boss really is that famous new teacher everyone's talking about!" Kaiko exclaimed, equally shocked. "Boss, if you're a teacher at Sobu High, why open a shop?"
"Just a hobby!"
Akishin smiled and handed a bowl of noodles to Kaiko as well.
Kaiko didn't hesitate. She dug in with gusto, her eyes lighting up instantly. She showered Akishin with loud, enthusiastic praise for his cooking.
Yuika's face was still a bit red, but she had already finished her entire bowl of beef noodles. It was... incredible. No wonder it was so expensive.
Quality like this justified the price.
With Kaiko there, Yuika happily helped her friend change, and the two of them began memorizing the menu together.
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