Chapter 432

When I arrived at Renka's house right on time the next day, I found her brushing back her hair and tapping away on her Cell Phone.

Dressed in a short-sleeved t-shirt and jeans, Renka had slender, pale arms that looked incredibly sexy.

Just looking at her made me feel like I was developing a brand new fetish.

She soon spotted my car and gave a slight wave. As I pulled up in front of her, she opened the passenger door and offered a blunt greeting.

"Hey."

"Good morning. Sleep well?"

"Yeah. You?"

"Same here."

"Good."

"You aren't going to tell me to mind my own business today?"

"Shut up."

"Don't curse at me."

"Keep quiet."

"Much better. Shall we get going?"

"Do you know the way?"

"I put it in the GPS."

As we headed off toward the uncles' restaurant, I rested my hand on the center console. Renka's gaze immediately followed the movement.

I wondered what she was looking at, then realized she was probably expecting the candy I usually gave her.

I did have some, and I hadn't given her any yesterday... Should I pull it out now?

I'd gotten her into the habit, so I couldn't just withhold it. But I wasn't going to feed it to her myself.

I pulled my arm away from the console, gripped the steering wheel, and spoke.

"There's some candy in there. Go ahead and grab a piece."

"..."

Renka didn't react.

Since I usually fed it to her, being told to get it herself must have felt jarring.

But perhaps realizing I couldn't feed her while driving, she obediently opened the console, pulled out a Blueberry Candy, and tore off the wrapper.

"What time do they open?"

"I don't know. Sometime this morning, probably."

She didn't even put up a fuss about not eating it. Hearing her roll the hard candy against her cheek to answer my question was incredibly cute.

I had the sudden urge to slam on the brakes and kiss her.

"How are your uncles doing?"

"Fine."

"How's business? What have they been saying?"

"Doing well enough. They said customers are coming in on their own now, even without handing out flyers."

"Their food is great, so I figured they'd succeed. Do they still not have any part-timers, though? I thought they said they were going to hire someone."

"They did, but the person quit yesterday."

"So that's why they asked the President and me for help?"

"Right."

"Did the part-timer just quit out of nowhere?"

"No. They gave their notice a few weeks ago."

"Then they should have found a replacement in advance. What were they doing all this time?"

"You know how my uncles are. They never plan ahead."

True enough.

They weren't the type to just coast through life on autopilot, but while their ambitions were huge, they had absolutely no idea how to actually achieve them.

"We just need to help out a bit. It won't be hard work."

"They might be acquaintances, but we're still working. We can't just take it easy. We need to work hard. Anyway, it's been a while since we worked together."

"With my uncles?"

"No. With the President."

"Well... I guess. If you grope me every chance you get like you did when we worked part-time together, you're dead."

"That won't happen."

"...Alright then."

Her reply came after a brief pause, her voice a little quieter than before.

She always complained that she hated it, but now that I promised not to touch her, was she a little disappointed?

My response wasn't a deliberate part of my neglect play; I was just genuinely terrified that if I touched Renka, those fierce uncles of hers would bury me alive. But it seemed she had misunderstood my intentions.

Seeing no reason to clear up the misunderstanding right then, I focused quietly on the road as the car merged onto the highway.

We cruised along the quiet, empty road for a while, until—

"Did we really have to take the highway?"

As if wanting to break the heavy silence in the car, Renka tossed out the question.

"It's convenient."

"Yeah? Then I'll pay the toll."

"I have a toll card, so it pays automatically."

"I know. I'm saying I'll pay for it."

"Don't worry about it."

"I'm going to pay it, so just text me a picture of the toll charge later."

"I said it's fine. It's not like we're strangers."

"We should be even more thorough precisely because we aren't strangers. It's always best to be clear about money. Plus, I'm the one hitching a ride..."

"Can we drop the toll talk?"

"Stop being so weirdly stubborn about it."

"Enough."

"..."

Wearing a face full of clear dissatisfaction, Renka turned to look out the window.

What was I going to do with this slave of mine, who only listened when I spoke to her harshly?

Would it be better if she became perfectly submissive? I absolutely refused that idea.

Renka needed to have a bit of a prickly edge. Just a little prickly, not the full-on screeching she'd been doing lately.

"Is that our Ken?"

I parked the car in the Parking Lot out back and headed inside, where the uncles—looking exactly the same as always—welcomed me.

Those shaved heads and terrifying glares hadn't changed a bit. I could usually adapt to just about anything, but these uncles were a little much.

"What's with the friendly tone?"

"Is it a crime to be friendly?"

"No, it just makes me nervous."

"What's there to be nervous about?"

"Never mind."

"Boring. We'll pay you a good day's wage, so do a good job like last time."

"What wage? Don't worry about it."

"You always have to be crystal clear when it comes to money."

He was saying the exact same thing as Renka.

It was a perfectly reasonable rule, of course... but hearing it from the uncles made it sound like a loan shark threatening a defaulter.

"Alright, I understand."

"What do you mean 'alright'? Just say 'understood' and 'thank you'. We left your uniform in the Changing Room, so go get changed."

"Are we starting already? I thought you didn't open until later this morning."

"Are you trying to slack off? You're getting paid for this."

"So that's why you offered to pay me. So you could legally work me to the bone."

"You caught us."

After exchanging a few more trivial jokes with the older and younger uncles, I opened the door to the Changing Room.

And inside— "Wh-what the...? Hey...! Why are you..."

I found Renka standing there with her t-shirt off. My eyes went wide as she jumped in shock.

When did she even get in here?

She must have slipped in quietly while the uncles and I were greeting each other.

I stood frozen for a moment with my hand on the knob before I quickly spun around and apologized.

"I'm sorry."

I immediately shut the door and sat down on a chair next to the Changing Room entrance to wait.

It wasn't long before the door opened again. Renka had finished changing into a blue uniform with a cute red fish riding white waves across the chest—the exact kind of thing you'd expect to see at a Sushi Restaurant. She called out to me.

"Hey."

"Yeah."

"Come here for a second."

I quietly stepped into the Changing Room. Renka was standing there with her arms crossed, scowling up at me.

Just as she was about to speak, I beat her to the punch.

"Is that the new uniform?"

"Yeah."

"It actually looks pretty refreshing. It would've fit perfectly if the restaurant was by the ocean. That's the only shame."

"We can talk about the uniform later... What is wrong with you?"

"It was an accident."

"No... I don't mean that..."

She was probably wondering why I was suddenly acting like a perfect gentleman when I usually had no problem watching her change, having even seen her totally naked before.

But apologizing for accidentally walking in on someone of the opposite sex changing was the completely normal thing to do.

Meaning she had absolutely no grounds to snap at me.

I was being a bit petty, sure, but her reactions were just too much fun to watch.

With that in mind, I gave her the answer she was fishing for.

"I figured the President wouldn't like it."

"Even so... why are you suddenly acting like this?"

"I just told you. Because the President hates it. Don't you remember complaining every time I did stuff like that?"

"So, you're saying you won't do it anymore?"

"Yeah."

"This is ridiculous."

"It's not ridiculous. If anything, you should be praising me."

"Right. Thanks a lot for that."

Renka delivered the sarcastic remark, pushed past me, and walked out of the Changing Room.

I could feel the tension rising. I couldn't help but wonder how we were going to survive the shift if she was already acting like this.

And I still had so much more I wanted to try out on her.

I changed into my own uniform and stepped out. Finding no sign of Renka in the restaurant, I glanced around and asked the younger uncle.

"Where did the President go?"

"Renka? She just stepped out to buy something."

"Yeah? Did she go to the Convenience Store?"

"The Convenience Store is the only place open at this hour, so... I imagine so. There's one just around the corner. Why don't you go check?"

"Don't you need help getting the restaurant ready?"

"Nah. Go mess around until ten, then come back."

"At least give me some flyers to hand out, then."

"Get out of here."

"Earlier you were accusing me of slacking off, but now you're kicking me out?"

"Are you going to leave on your own, or..."

"I'll leave on my own."

The uncles were purposely giving me time to go on a mini-date with Renka.

They were probably only acting like this because they didn't know about the other girls around me yet.

If I tried to declare a harem right here and now, would they actually bury me alive?

I'd need to stack up their affection level as high as possible before dropping that bomb... but building affection with middle-aged men felt incredibly awkward.

Since they didn't even have wives or girlfriends, breaking them into defeated masochists was impossible...

At this rate, the uncles might end up being my greatest enemies.

With those thoughts in mind, I stepped out of the restaurant and into the cool breeze.

I was just walking along, debating whether or not I should actually go look for Renka, when I saw her walking out of a tiny shop nearby that was wafting a deliciously savory scent.

She was carrying a tiny black plastic bag.

Spotting me, she looked flustered for a split second before raising her chin defiantly and marching right up to me.

"What are you doing out here?"

"Shut up."

"Why are you swearing at me?"

"Hey."

"Yeah?"

"Eat this."

She rummaged through the little bag before pressing something into my hand.

A gentle warmth radiated into my palm.

It felt smooth to the touch, like it had been wrapped in plastic cling film.

"What is this?"

"Just eat it."

The item she had given me was a small, dark-colored rice cake.

It was Isobeyaki—a grilled sticky rice cake brushed with soy sauce and wrapped in seaweed.

She must have found a rice cake shop that opened early.

"Is this what you went out to buy?"

"Yeah. So eat it."

"I mean... I'll eat it, but why are you trying to force-feed it to me?"

"Because it only tastes good if you eat it right away while it's still warm. Hurry up and eat it while I'm watching."

Her stance made it clear that she wouldn't budge an inch until I shoved the thing into my mouth.

Dealing with my slightly colder attitude had clearly sparked a reaction in her.

The side of her I used to know was finally peeking through again, even if just a little bit.

Staring into those kitten-like eyes and seeing the faint blush on her cheeks—embarrassed that she was actually taking care of me—there wasn't a single man alive who could turn down this rice cake.

I'd call a truce for now.

I stared intently at Renka, savoring the fact that my training was finally taking effect. When my gaze became too much for her and she snapped, asking what I was staring at, I simply handed the rice cake back to her.

Then, in a gentle voice, I spoke.

"Could you unwrap the plastic for me?"

"...Are you a toddler?"

"Come on, I've been feeding the President candy all this time."

"I ate it myself today...!"

"You did today, sure. But not before."

"Hah... Are you seriously going to be like this?"

"Alright, alright. I'm sorry."

I laid the disappointment on thick and reached out to take the rice cake back. Grinding her teeth, Renka snatched it away and angrily tore off the plastic wrap.

Letting out a long, defeated sigh through her nose, she held the rice cake up to my lips.

"Here."

Ah... she was already so damn lovable. Did I really need to keep up this neglect play?

No. I couldn't go soft now. If I fell for this, Renka would go right back to being a prickly tsundere every single day.

I just had to hold out until she became a little more soft and affectionate than she was right now.

Steeling my resolve, I opened my mouth, and Renka slipped the rice cake past my lips with her thumb and index finger.

Whether it was dusted with a little sugar or just naturally sweet, the rice cake had a delicious sweet-and-salty flavor that paired perfectly with the savory roasted seaweed.

Thinking about how perfectly that flavor described my relationship with Renka, I chewed happily, a wide grin spreading across my face.

"It's delicious."

"Don't talk with your mouth full."

"I won't."

"I just said don't talk. Why are you still talking?"

"I said I got it."

"I said stop talking. Stop it. Don't open your mouth again. If you open it, you're dead."

My heart ached.

It ached in the best possible way.

Once this little game of ours was finally over, I was going to love her so fiercely that she'd be begging for forgiveness, crying out 'Master, please stop...' all on her own.