Chapter 385 Affection Test
“Ding dong—”
“Welcome.”
Behind the counter of the Starbitchy Store, a fierce-looking black-haired boy sat bored in front of the cash register. The bell sound of a customer entering the store rang in his ears. Noyoru Yokota jolted and stood up, a standard smile appearing on his face as he looked at the person entering the store.
“Good afternoon.”
“Eh, Kazumi?!”
Before the prepared greeting could leave his mouth, the familiar skinny figure in front of him froze the boy’s expression mid-air, making him look like a comical sight at the young girl before him.
“Yeah, why are you so surprised?”
Kazumi glanced at Noyoru Yokota with a smile and walked familiarly to the side of the counter, tidying up a few untidy bags of potato chips, and said faintly.
“I thought you wouldn’t be coming at all during your vacation.”
Noyoru Yokota realized his gaffe, awkwardly rubbed his nose, and responded in his usual low and serious tone.
Compared to his situation, where even his house was rented to him at half price by Manager Masamori, Noyoru Yokota could understand Kazumi’s reason for taking leave during the holidays.
After all, for students, unless their lives were truly difficult to the point of not being able to go on, they would still prefer a holiday where they could have fun and play with their friends.
“I had to prepare for the school trip and the internship assessment, so I took leave. I happened to pass by, so I thought I’d stop by.”
Kazumi gently shook her head, casually moved the oden in front of her, and brought the already cooked skewers to the very front. As if recalling something, she lowered her head, took out a small package from her pocket, and handed it to Noyoru Yokota across the counter.
“Right, consider this a souvenir.”
“Hokkaido brittle candy… Kazumi, did you guys go to the seaside? How was it?”
Noyoru Yokota picked up the small package handed to him by the girl and didn’t feel embarrassed by such a small gift. He reached out, tore open the package, and put a piece into his mouth, feeling the hint of sweetness and nodding in agreement as he continued to ask.
“Yeah… it wasn’t great.”
Leaning against the wall behind the counter, Kazumi glanced at the street outside. The almost non-existent flow of people proved that there wouldn’t be any customers at this time. However, this was precisely the girl’s intention; she wasn’t the type of person who had the leisure to come to a convenience store to help out for free.
“Was it not fun there? Our school’s end-of-year event for all three years didn’t even go outside of Kyoto.”
Looking at Kazumi’s actions, Noyoru Yokota tacitly understood her intentions. After all, cash register work like this didn’t allow for playing with mobile phones, even though the owner of this store was his very good Uncle Masamori.
In the past, after the rush hour after school and work, they would each read their books or chat a few words to pass the time.
“There was a slight incident, but I don’t really like going out anyway.”
Shrugging her shoulders, the girl quickly gave her answer, playing with the small toy that came with the candy in front of her and said.
“I prefer staying at home too. The reason, you should know, haha.”
Listening to Kazumi’s words, a strange feeling flashed through Noyoru Yokota’s heart. Perhaps it was the discovery of their rare common ground, or perhaps knowing the reason why the girl hadn’t replied to his messages for the past few days, his expression even became a little more lively as he continued to ask.
“By the way, Kazumi, how are you preparing for your assessment?”
“It’s going okay. I’ve memorized the information you gave me before, but it still depends on my performance on the day.”
“Yeah, then you should work hard. I believe you can do it!”
Kazumi looked up, seeing Noyoru Yokota’s eager desire for her to pass the internship, and her cold face softened, displaying a faint, almost imperceptible smile.
In fact, her holiday internship and Noyoru Yokota’s work internship were two completely different matters. Noyoru Yokota had passed the assessment of the main hero of the Hero Agency, and after completing his internship, he could directly enter the agency’s hero work position.
As for her situation, it was more like a college student looking for vacation work to enrich her social experience during the holidays, just with a different name in this world of heroes.
Working for a month would accumulate experience for the agency in the future, and it would also make her internship resume look better. However, it was basically impossible to enter the agency to work based on this. If she were to compare this muscle agency to her previous life, it would be like an opportunity to assess a top 500 listed company’s holiday internship, and without the guarantee of a regular position.
Therefore, Noyoru Yokota was merely exercising a small privilege of a potential employee’s internal referral for an internship. There were not a hundred such interns a year, let alone working together, even staying would be a luxury.
Even Kazumi didn’t think about anything more. Relying on a friend’s relationship to get an internship assessment opportunity was understandable, and the girl only needed this internship to make her future graduation and work smoother.
Hmm, and it would also allow her to understand the internal workings of the Heroes Association better, which might be useful in the future.
However, Noyoru Yokota’s concern for her internship was as if she could become his colleague working together, or even a level higher.
This was also the reason why Kazumi happened to “pass by” the store this time. On one hand, her internship assessment was in a few days, so she wanted to see if she could get more useful information from Noyoru Yokota. On the other hand, it was…
Affection confirmation.
From their previous interactions, Kazumi could perceive the faint affection this underage boy had for her. But people change, and not everyone is a simpering fool who only wants to move themselves with their one-sided love. At least Noyoru Yokota was definitely not that kind of person.
Although the boy might have handled things irrationally in the past, his experiences, which were far richer than those of his peers, made his mindset relatively more mature. He was also more reserved about his feelings, even… insecure.
Kazumi, who had similar experiences, could see the gentle heart hidden beneath Noyoru Yokota’s fierce and unruly appearance. He would let down his guard and extend his hands for that glimmer of hope, but as soon as he experienced the slightest bit of hurt, he would immediately curl up like a hedgehog, using his sharp quills to deal with everything around him.
Kazumi was somewhat confident in such a young boy who had natural good feelings and no dating experience. However, her identity as someone who already had a boyfriend was indeed a hard sticking point, especially for someone with Noyoru Yokota’s personality.
Fortunately, the current performance, which was above the baseline of affection, proved that the other party had not discovered this yet.
“Well, I’m leaving now. I’ll contact you by text message later.”
Kazumi clapped her hands and stood up from the wall she was leaning against. She came over this time intending only to observe Noyoru Yokota’s situation and some internship matters to prepare for the subsequent plan.
“Kazumi Shimizu!”
And just as Kazumi waved her hand and headed towards the door, a shout came from behind her.
She turned her head with some confusion, only to see the tall boy standing straight, looking slightly awkward.
“Um… for the internship in a few days, do you want to go together?”
The girl tilted her head, her bangs falling over her ear from inertia, highlighting her fair and almost sickly neck. Her cold profile carried an aloof arrogance that seemed to dismiss everything, but it slowly melted away, revealing a trace of inexplicable joy. Her eyebrows and eyes visibly twitched a few times, finally forming a beautiful smile at the corner of her mouth.
“Okay.”
