Chapter 43

It was the morning of a usual Thursday, Sakurako had been safely dropped at school by her family's car, she caught the attention of all the students passing by, and she began helping the student council with their usual business, just another usual day for her.

But today was special, after all since it was a Thursday, it meant that Ichiro would be working at the cafe, meaning that Sakurako could go there to have his coffee… Not that she needed to only visit him on Tuesdays and Thursdays to have his coffee, though.

"…"

*Opens the student council door* "Ah! Sacchan, you're here. Perfect!"

"?"

Himari who had just entered the room, approached Sakurako's desk, and when she was right in front of her she spoke again.

"I need you to remember that tomorrow, after school, I'll visit Yama High to discuss about the sports festival with their student council president, and I want you to come with me"

"Okay, anything else?"

"No, just that"

"Got it, also here, for you"

Sakurako picked a stack of documents and handed it to Himari, who could only make an annoyed face at having to deal with more of the usual paperwork assigned to the student council. After some minutes, the school would ring, to signal the students that today's lessons were about to start, so the two quickly wrapped up the documents they had in hand and quickly left for their classrooms.

After School

"Ah! Sakurako-san, welcome!"

"… I'm here"

Ichiro who greeted Sakurako right as she passed through the front door of the cafe, made Sakurako momentarily stand still before she responded to his welcome. With short steps, Sakurako approached Ichiro and hugged him as she buried her face on his chest, while he also hugged her back.

"Did you have a good day at school?"

"Nn *Nods*"

"That's great. Then, I'll start preparing your coffee, so you can just sit at your usual table"

"Okay…"

With a small and shy voice, Sakurako agreed to Ichiro's suggestion, so she let go of him and went to sit at her favorite spot as she waited for him to come back. While waiting, she noticed Hitori cleaning the empty tables while making the face of someone who was at her wit's end.

Then as Sakurako continued to wait, and with it, to doze off, she suddenly heard the sound of the door's bell ringing, quickly followed by the sound of three girly voices speaking, with one of them sobbing. Because of that, Sakurako drowsily looked in the direction of the voices.

There she saw three girls one of them was rather short in comparison to the other two and she wore glasses and had short straight dark green hair. While the one beside her was as tall as the third girl and different from the glasses girl, she had a more gyaru style and had long orange hair with a sidetail on her right side. And finally, the last girl was the tallest one of the three, and was also the most beautiful and handsome of the three, even though she had a crying face right now, and her hair was long silver grey hair tied in a ponytail by a purple ribbon.

The trio sat down at the table right behind Sakurako, so she was able to overhear their conversation, although she wasn't paying attention to it, thanks to her drowsiness, which was making their words enter one ear and leave the other.

"Sakurako-san, here's you coffee"

"! Ah, Thank you, Ichiro-san"

"You're welcome"

Sakurako gently picked up the mug and took a sip of the coffee, which in turn made her drowsy face, become a delighted drowsy face. As for Ichiro, for as much as he wanted to watch Sakurako's drowsy face, he still had to do his part-time work, so he went to the table right next to Sakurako.

"Welcome, dear customers. Here's our menu, and if you need anything just raise your hand, and I'll come right away"

"Ah! Thank you!"

The orange-haired girl thanked Ichiro, as she passed the other two menus to the green and silver-haired girls, without anything else to say or do for them yet, Ichiro went towards Hitori who appeared to be on the verge of collapsing, after seeing the three girls enter the cafe.

A few minutes later

After dragging an unconscious Hitori to the break room, Ichiro saw the orange-haired girl raising her hand to get his attention as soon as she saw him, with a nod, to show that he had noticed it, he picked a notepad and went towards her table, in doing so, he passed by Sakurako, who was now awake after drinking her coffee, doing some of her homework with a serious yet still blank expression, which looked very cute to him.

"How may I help you all?"

"Yes, I would like this one… What was the one you wanted, Ayano-chan?"

"This one" *Points at her beverage of choice*

"Got it, this one for her, and for the sobbing girl over here, you can get this one"

*Scribbling their orders* "Got it, I'll be back soon with your drinks"

"Thank you"

With their orders taken, Ichiro went behind the counter and began preparing the ingredients for each of their drinks. As he began preparing the drinks, Ichiro also took a few glances at the girls, especially the silver-haired one, as he had a feeling that he had heard about her before, or at least someone very similar to her.

After a few minutes, he finished preparing all of the ordered drinks and then brought them to the girls.

"Here are your orders"

"Thank you"

"Thank you!"

"P-Phank you… Uuuuuhhh…"

The three girls thanked him, in a very different tone, but Ichiro simply kept his usual friendly, and suspicious smile, after bringing their orders, Ichiro then went to Sakurako's table, as she continued to diligently do her studies.

"Would you like another coffee, Sakurako-san?"

"Hm? Ah… Yes, I would like to"

"Got it, oh! And would like some of my coffee cookies as well?"

"… Yes"

Sakurako at hearing Ichiro's suggestion, remembered about that time when her parents brought her those same cookies made by Ichiro to her, which caused her cheeks to turn slightly pink as she nodded and accepted his offer. Seeing her being cute as usual, made Ichiro's smile get bigger.

"Very well, I'll come back shortly"

"Nn *Nods*"

Just like before, Ichiro finished brewing Sakurako's second coffee, as well as heating the coffee cookies that he had prepared beforehand since he expected her visit today. With both done, he returned to her table to hand both items to her, as he did so, the girls on the table behind Sakurako began to talk with each other.

"… Are you feeling better, Yu-chan?"

"*Sniif* Yes…"

"Do you mind telling us what happened?"

"No…"

"Then can you tell us?"

"*Nods*… T-Ta… T-Take… Uuuuhh… T-Takeru… *Sniff* H-he… H-he… H-he's been i-ignoring m-meee… Uuuuuuuhhh…"

"!"

Just as Ichiro put down the cookies on Sakurako's table, Ichiro heard the silver-haired girl, who was called by her friend as Yu-chan, mentioning the name Takeru, causing Ichiro's eyes to glint as he stealthily looked in her direction.

"…" <Oh-ho? Is this girl an acquaintance of Takkun? Or perhaps it's another Takeru? I need to find out so that can make sure Takkun is not going straight into a landmine. Yes… This for Takkun's sake, and messing with him when he comes back the summer vacation>

Approving his absolutely and certainly pure motives, Ichiro went back to behind the counter and made sure to pay extra attention to the conversation of the girls. Because he was a great cousin, who definitely wouldn't mess with a tsundere like Takeru for getting a beautiful girlfriend.