Ch.33.5 Behind the Scenes: Before the Crisis. A Devoted Colleague

3rd Person POV

Going back a few minutes...

The high school students' part-time jobs end at this time, and they each go to the changing room to get dressed.

As soon as it's over, Mahiro is the first to get changed and ready to go home. Mahiro loves her futon, so as soon as her job is over, she would usually hurry over to the changing room, gets changed in less than 30 seconds, and goes home.

It was the same today, and those who were leaving at the same time thought that Mahiro had already gone home.

However, the reality is different, and Mahiro is currently on the verge of reuniting with Miho and Mizuki.

Those who were unaware of this—especially Aristia—were thinking about something.

And that is,

(Today...today I'm definitely going home with Mahiro-kun!)

Is what is on their mind.

As you can see, Aristia likes Mahiro.

She absolutely loves her.

Perhaps because she has American blood, Aristia's way of expressing affection was very American.

In short, it's at the level where hugging is completely normal.

Of course, Mahiro had experienced that before, back when he was a boy. But, the opponent was Mahiro, an incredibly dense, oblivious, sleep-loving, and virtually shameless person. It didn't work. Not at all, in fact.

For example, let's say, as Mahiro mentioned in her monologue, she gave him a heart-shaped chocolate. For Aristia, it would be the most perfect Valentine's Day chocolate she'd ever made, and it would taste amazing. The decorations would be elaborate too. With something like this, even someone as dense as Mahiro would surely get the message! The words of the confession would be in a different language, though!

That's what she thought.

However, the reality was that this message simply didn't get across.

This is what it looked like at the time.

"Mahiro-kun, I'll give you this!"

"Mu? What is this ja, Tokino? Is this... chocolate?"

"Yes! Will you accept it?"

"Umu, of course ja. I have a sweet tooth, so I am truly grateful."

"It's fine, it's fine! So, will you open it and take a look?"

"Is that alright?"

"Yeah."

"Well then, let me open it. ...Hohou. 'Tis heart-shaped. You certainly have a fondness for cute things. To think you would go to the trouble of attacking me with something like that. Impressive ja."

"Wait, you see that shape and you don't feel anything...?"

"Hmm? Uuumu... I do not know. Sorry. I have always received heart-shaped chocolates. I guess this is the standard for obligation chocolates, right? So, heart shapes are a classic after all!"

He just nodded and laughed, saying things like that.

At that moment, Aristia thought:

(...A heroine who tries to win over a dense protagonist is pretty strong!)

Like that.

Someone with a normal way of thinking might reconsider and end the romance, realizing it was impossible, but Aristia, who has quite the heroine-like qualities, was instead fired up.

She is determined to win it no matter what! That's what she thought.

As a result, Aristia's approach intensified.

She would casually hug Mahiro while wearing light clothing (though it was just regular clothes with slightly thin fabric), and when she invited him to the pool, she would put her arms around his arms while wearing a swimsuit (bikini type), making approaches that would make any healthy high school boy fall for her instantly. She also gave him a present that she thought he would like for Christmas, and a present for his birthday as well.

Although she had tried various other tactics, Mahiro proved to be a formidable opponent.

They were all completely ineffective.

At this point, Aristia was beginning to suspect that Mahiro might be gay. Or perhaps, he simply wasn't interested.

Well, to be honest, these approaches, while seemingly ineffective on the surface, did have some degree of success.

That said, they weren't all that strong.

By the way, the reason why Aristia is so infatuated with Mahiro is... well, a lot has happened. It wasn't love at first sight.

◇◆◇

In truth, Aristia,　

She only started living in Japan a year ago.　

She's what you might call returnees from abroad.

Originally, she lived in Japan, but her parents, including her American father, had to move to America unexpectedly, and her mother and Aristia went with him.

Despite various challenges, the three returned to Japan last year after completing their business.

Because Aristia had moved to America when she was three years old, she didn't speak much Japanese.

She was informed that they would be returning to Japan when she was about in her third year of junior high school, and before that, she had learned the basics of Japanese on her own, with her mother teaching her.

As she herself said, she was relatively poor, so she couldn't go to school to learn Japanese.

And so, upon entering high school, Aristia returned to Japan.

Even though it's a public high school, the tuition fee is quite high.

Aristia's family is in some financial difficulty.

In fact, her parents had been struggling to make ends meet to pay for her high school tuition, and seeing this, Aristia felt deeply sorry and decided to take on a part-time job to earn some money for her education.

As soon as she made that decision, Aristia immediately put it into action, but because her studies had been solely through self-study and her mother's instruction, she was still not very familiar with Japanese.

Because of that, she couldn't find a part-time job for a long time, and when she was at a loss as to what to do, she came across this store and saw a sign that said, "Part-time workers wanted! Walk-ins welcome! (No resume required!)" so she decided to go for an interview, thinking she had nothing to lose.

She was understandably surprised and a little scared when she first saw the manager, but once she realized he was a nice guy, she quickly smiled and, though clumsily, explained why she wanted to work there.

Aristia thought this place probably wouldn't work either, but she was completely wrong, as the manager agreed with a big smile.

The store manager said to Aristia, who had a look of both surprise and bewilderment on her face.

"You just need to learn Japanese! Actually, we recently got a lazy but caring high school boy working part-time, so you can ask him to teach you a lot of things! He's pretty smart! Plus, as long as you're cute, and someone who's lived abroad is a rare find! We don't really care about your language skills, so just think of us as friends! So, please take care of us from now on!"

Although he had a tough appearance, the manager was a very kind and generous person.

And just like that, the day she started my part-time job was decided, and then came her first day of work.

The store manager introduced Aristia and Mahiro to each other.

"Mu, so you are the returnee from abroad the manager was talking about? I am Ouka Mahiro ja, nice to meet you."

"I'm, Tokino C. Aristia. I-it's nice, to mee chu..." (TL: she spoke in broken JP)

"Fumu...I see. So, you are at least reasonably good at everyday conversation. The manager asked me to look after you, but...are you sure I am the right person? I hate to say it, but I do not believe I would be of much help, you know? My way of speaking is hardly what one would call normal."

Speaking of Mahiro at that time, he said something like that when they first met.

The reason is, well, typical of Mahiro.

Before meeting her, he thought it would be a hassle, but after actually meeting her and seeing her clumsy but earnest efforts, Mahiro began to worry, "Am I good enough for this?"

Mahiro thought he wasn't very good at teaching.

That was his intention when he made the statement, but.

"I-it's fine. Um, Ooka-san is fine."

Seeing Mahiro's troubled smile, Aristia seemed to have somehow seen through his true feelings and replied that Mahiro was fine.

To that, Mahiro smiled lightly and replied, "I see."

From then on, Mahiro took care of Aristia constantly.

Even objectively speaking, Aristia is quite a beautiful girl.

But with Mahiro, who was clueless about romance and less interested in it than the average high school boy, no mistakes ever happened.

If someone had ulterior motives, they would undoubtedly have lied and taken advantage of the situation.

However, such unscrupulous individuals are either immediately fired by the manager or not hired as part-time workers in the first place.

The store manager has always been good at seeing through people's true intentions, and showed no mercy to those who approached him with ulterior motives.

Rather, his predictions were so surprisingly accurate that those who knew the manager always wondered about it.

Thanks to Mahiro's constant supervision and Aristia's naturally studious nature, after six months, she had become fluent in Japanese, to the point where it was hard to believe she had started out like that.

Furthermore, although it's unclear if it was part of her studies, Aristia often read manga and light novels. According to her, it was "for studying!"

Well, in the end, she ended up becoming completely obsessed with Japanese subculture...

And that's what made her start thinking about Mahiro.

Even if Aristia was unfamiliar with Japan, she was still a young woman of marriageable age. (TL: 16 is (or was, I'm not sure) the age of consent for women in JP)

Of course, she understood that some people approached her with ulterior motives.

To be honest, she was a little confused when the manager told her that a male high school student would be assigned to take care of her. At the same time, she even became wary, wondering if he might have ulterior motives.

However, when she actually met the person, she found that he had absolutely no ulterior motives; on the contrary, he was very helpful and even kind enough to explain things to her.

However, she kept her vigilance at first, wondering if her might gradually reveal hai true nature.

However, Mahiro showed absolutely no such side. Or rather, she didn't sense it at all.

Relieved by this, Aristia opened up completely.

She asked the manager to schedule her shifts so that she could work with Mahiro as much as possible, and they worked together each time.

At first, she didn't realize the true nature of the feelings that had been slowly accumulating within her, but about six months later, on her birthday, she received a present from Mahiro.

That present is connected to the subculture I briefly mentioned earlier, namely manga.

Moreover, a shojo manga.

As you might expect, the content is a romance story.

And for some reason, Mahiro sent her the complete set of the manga.

The reason is simple:

"'Tis interesting!"

That was all.

Mahiro's tastes in manga and light novels are not limited to any particular genre; he's an omnivore. Therefore, he'll read anything as long as it's interesting, and he's fairly well-versed in shojo manga.

As a result, he gave her a book from his collection that was relatively easy to read and didn't have too many volumes.

As an aside, the book that was given to her at that time was a work that would fetch a fair price, but Mahiro gave it to her without hesitation.

As Aristia read her first shojo manga with sparkling eyes, she realized that she was in love with Mahiro.

Well, yeah. They've worked together for quite a while, and he's even closer to her than her friends from school. And he was a guy.

He was lazy and had an odd way of speaking, but he was still kind-hearted.

Even in Japan, a country with relatively little racial discrimination, people naturally tend to distance themselves from someone who has difficulty communicating. In that respect, Aristia didn't have too many problems, but even so, few people actively tried to talk to her.

Amidst all that, Mahiro spoke to her quite openly and naturally.

He listened carefully to what Aristia had to say and gave a proper reply.

It may seem like an obvious thing, but it made Aristia very happy.

It's perhaps only natural that she would become attached to him.

She went to America before she was old enough to remember, spent over 13 years living there, and then returned here. It was practically a completely unfamiliar place, and spending time in such a place was very stressful.

Even basic conversations became difficult, and in the worst-case scenario, she might have become withdrawn and depressed.

However, thanks to Mahiro's presence, such a situation never occurred, and she learned to speak smoothly.

So, thinking it was probably okay now, Mahiro gave her a manga as a birthday present.

As a result, that led to her realizing her feelings of love.

◇◆◇

And that brings us to the present.

They did all sorts of things, like going to a heated swimming pool, giving her chocolates, and going out together, but Mahiro kept thinking they were just friends, so she didn't notice anything.

As a struggling student, she didn't have many opportunities to go out and have fun, which only added to the damage to Aristia's life.

It's pitiful.

Or rather, why hasn't she noticed, even though it's so clear? This was the thought of those who also work part-time or full-time at "Yūai."

"Even the most oblivious and dense idiot would notice after something like that."

They thought.

However, she doesn't notice.

This led to all sorts of speculation: was she suffering from a mental illness, did she have some past trauma related to love, was she simply an idiot who couldn't read the room, or did she just have a huge fetish for incredibly muscular, macho men? The latter two speculations stemmed from the jealousy and envy of the men because she was the object of affection of the half-Japanese beauty, Aristia.

However, there was no one in this shop who harbored resentment out of jealousy. Everyone, despite their jealousy, was rooting for Aristia's love.

That's because there were quite a few women who were in love with Mahiro.

However, all of them eventually withdrew.

Well... with someone this insensitive and dense, most people would probably back off.

Considering that, Miho and Aristia are strong. They have the heroine attributes.

As for Mizuki... well, she simply had such a strong lo**con tendency that she went overboard and ended up making her sign a marriage certificate, so she was the least troublesome of them all.

However, even Mahiro wouldn't marry just anyone; she absolutely wouldn't agree to marry someone unless there was at least a minimum level of romantic feeling involved. She has an iron will when it comes to that.

And so, for that reason, the men supported Aristia's pure love.

Incidentally, the tickets she got when they went to the heated swimming pool were actually donations from those nosy men—no, women.

It seems that romantic entanglements in the workplace are something that no one finds endlessly fascinating.

Now that we've covered a lot about Aristia's past, let's move on to the present.

(So, for now, let's go home together...and then, if possible, I'll confess my feelings...!)

After changing her clothes, Aristia was burning with passion.

She clenched my fist tightly and thought to herself, "Today's the day."

Mahiro usually leaves early, but today she was determined to catch up! After making sure Mahiro had gone inside, Aristia also went in and changed.

Perhaps it was some kind of girlish power at work, but despite being a girl, she managed to change her clothes perfectly in 40 seconds.

So fast.

Incidentally, the fact that Mahiro became a girl didn't mean that her romantic feelings for her disappeared at all; in fact, she was happy because it meant she had fallen in love with her for who she is.

She is devoted and single-minded.

And so, determined to confess her feelings no matter what, she stepped out from the back to the front—

"How many people have been coming here today?"

"According to the manager, this is the highest number of customers we've ever had at this time of day."

"Wow, it looks like a lot of customers have come in."

"Thanks to that, we ended up having to call in our off-duty colleagues."

"Let's eat quickly too. We need to order something."

"Umu."

I overheard that conversation.

Judging from the voices in the conversation that the other party was a girl, Aristia felt as if her sixth sense was sounding an alarm, and hurried towards the location.

And--

"Mahiro-kun, um, who are those two over there...?"

She dropped her bag with a thud, asking the question with a bewildered expression.

"T-Tokino..."

Seeing Aristia acting so drastically differently from her usual cheerful self, Mahiro felt a mysterious sense of anxiety and her cheeks twitched.

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