Planning for the Culture Festival

Yuta gulped and turned around. “Is there anything else I can help you with…?”

Ichinose narrowed her eyes. “We never finished our order.”

“Oh, is that so? My apologies…” He cleared his throat and tried to relax. “So, what else would you like to have?”

She sat down and crossed her legs and arms. “Two orders of gyoza and an extra bowl of rice.”

He wrote down the rest of the order. “Anything else?”

“That’ll be all.”

“Your meal will be ready shortly.” He returned to the kitchen, grumbling. “Why couldn’t they tell me the full order before I placed it in the kitchen?” Surrounded by the steam produced by his mother’s cooking, he places a slip of paper in front of her with the rest of the girls’ order. “They didn’t tell me the full order until I got back with the waters.”

His mother was frying an assortment of vegetables. “They didn’t? That’s unfortunate. That’s no problem, though. I can still get everything prepared at a similar time.”

“That’s a relief.” The sound of new customers returned his attention to his duty. “I’ll go serve the new customers.”

After Ichinose and her friends finished their meal, they left without causing any trouble, to Yuta’s relief. He was positive that they were going to give him a hard time.

…

The next day, Yuta sat in his seat, waiting for school to begin. He stared out the window, lost in thought. His classmates surely thought his behavior today was off. Usually, he was studying out of a textbook before and during class. What they didn’t know is that he was reviewing math equations in his head.

Shiori sat across the room, reading the next volume of the manga she had previously shown Yuta.

The voices of students filled Yuta’s ears, making it difficult for him to focus. He glanced over to Shiori and noticed Kurosawa approaching her desk. ‘Looks like Kurosawa is still trying to be her friend. That’s good, I guess. As long as she’s not pushing Shiori out of her comfort zone.’

Mr. Sawajima steps into the room and waits for the bell to sound before speaking. “As you all know, the culture festival is only a couple weeks away. Most clubs have already started making preparations for it. Since the event is approaching quickly, we must decide on our class’s activity for it. Does anyone have any ideas?”

One girl stood and raised her hand. “We can do a wrestling match!”

Another student got out of his seat. “No, a game show!”

“An eating contest!”

“We could put on a play!”

Mr. Sawajima wrote down all the ideas on the board. “Anything else?”

Hitomura got up and pushed his glances up with a smirk. “Amateurs…”

The class turned to stare at him.

“Those ideas aren’t good enough… What we need…” he struck a pose with an arm pointing straight up, “is a maid and butler cafe!”

Silence filled the room. Yuta rolled his eyes.

Hitomura glanced around the class. “Think about it. Not only will we attract a large number of guys who want to see the girls in a maid outfit… but there will also be a bunch of girls coming to see guys all dressed up and ready to serve them. We’ll be sure to draw the biggest crowd!”

The teacher sighed and added Hitomura’s idea to the list on the board.

“Girls, just imagine hot guys calling you Mistress. That is what we will have here.”

At his suggestion, most of the girls imagined it. Blush rose to their faces, and they suddenly started advocating for Hitomura’s idea, fangirling over the idea.

Kurosawa clicked her tongue in annoyance.

Shiori occasionally glanced up from her manga, but most of the time she ignored what was happening in the classroom.

“Are those all the ideas you have, class?” Mr. Sawajima looked around, ensuring that everyone that wanted to pitch in already did. “Then let’s start the vote.”

One by one, he called out each idea. The students would raise their hands for the event they wanted to do, but they could only vote once.

When the maid and butler cafe was called out, the majority of the class raised their hands. The guys obviously wanted to see the girls in maid outfits. More specifically, they wanted to see Kurosawa in one. The girls thought being served by hot guys was a dream come true. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t be the ones being served, and most of the guys in class were not overly attractive.

And so, the class decided on setting up a maid and butler cafe for the culture festival. Yuta let out a long sigh. ‘At least I can make the food instead of serving it…’

A picture of Shiori in a maid outfit flashed into his mind. The thought took him by surprise, and he quickly dismissed it.

The voices of many students talking excitedly about the event filled the room.

Mr. Sawajima cleared his throat and clapped to get the students’ attention. “Since our activity has been decided, we should assign roles. We’ll need servers, cooks, decorators, and someone to prepare the menu.”

Yuta raised his hand, desiring to take the role of menu designer. Unfortunately, a girl in the front of the class shot up and claimed the role before he could.

“Who wants to cook?” Several students raised their hands, Yuta included. To his dismay, the teacher did not select him. He, along with a couple other students, disappointedly put their hands down.

Desperate not to be a butler, he tried for the role of decorator, but again he was ignored. Most of the guys voiced their complaints when Kurosawa was chosen as a decorator but were silenced by her glare.

Shiori never raised her hand. Her mind was too focused on her manga to do so.

“All the rest of you will be servers. Do remember that this is a school activity. Keep things appropriate.”

Yuta’s head dropped to the desk. “Why do I have to be a butler…”

Hitomura gave him a thumbs up from his seat. “Don’t worry, Yuta! You’ll be able to see Ozaki in a maid outfit!”

“I don’t–” Yuta stopped himself, finding it pointless to argue with Hitomura. ‘At least he still respects Shiori’s wish for him to not call her by her given name…’