Chapter 10: Maid-Themed Café

Norika Harada actually ended up letting Quillan escort Miyuki Sakurai, which left Quillan with no room to refuse.

So Quillan had no choice but to agree. Hearing this, a satisfied smile broke across Miyuki’s blushing face, and she mentioned she would wait at the street corner while Quillan went to the hotel first to take care of his luggage.

Once the car door closed, Quillan began complaining to Norika: "Hey, why did you have to ask me to walk Miss Sakurai home?"

"Huh?" Norika gave a puzzled response and countered, "Isn’t this what you wanted, Student Quillan? A young and sunny boy like you ought to have a very good impression of a cute girl like Miyuki, so your teacher here is actually helping you out!"

Quillan was left completely speechless. What kind of logic was this?

As a homeroom teacher, how could Norika Harada say something like that—a teacher actively helping her student pursue a classmate and creating opportunities for them?

"Would you really be that kind-hearted?" Quillan saw right through Norika’s lie on the spot: "Don’t think I can’t tell—you could have easily driven ahead to wait for me at the hotel, so after I sent Miyuki off there wouldn’t have been all this hassle. But instead, you drove up to give both of us a ride. That was clearly because you suspected I had bad intentions toward Miyuki and came along to supervise, right? And now you claim you’re creating an opportunity for us to be alone together? Miss Harada, don’t you think your words are completely contradictory?"

"You’re the one who’s completely contradictory!" Norika obviously didn’t get the idiom and thought Quillan was insulting her. Flustered and annoyed, she blurted out her true thoughts: "Do you think that if I hadn’t suddenly remembered I needed to rush home to clean up that messy apartment of mine, I would ever entrust Miyuki’s safety to an impolite pervert like you?"

It turned out the reason Norika had suddenly changed her mind and allowed Quillan and Miyuki to be alone together was that she suddenly realized Quillan would be staying over at her place tonight, and her home...

Clearly, Norika wasn’t a particularly organized woman. If she was in such a hurry to race home and clean up, her place had to be an absolute disaster!

Quillan instantly caught on, and the look he gave Norika shifted into something rather intriguing.

Realizing she had accidentally let her secret slip, Norika felt extremely annoyed with herself...

If she didn’t still need Quillan’s help, she would have certainly kicked him out of the car and driven off right then and there.

Yet, thinking of her parents, Norika suppressed the urge. Under Quillan’s mockingly amused gaze, she braved through the embarrassment to help him retrieve his luggage. Finally, before leaving, she exchanged phone numbers with Quillan, promising to text him her address later.

Putting his phone away, Quillan found Miyuki, and the two walked side by side back toward the commercial district. As they walked, Quillan placed a call to Gavin’s cousin. Gavin’s cousin was named Ai Oda, and judging by her voice, she didn’t sound very old. Ai Oda was quite warm over the phone, telling Quillan he could come over to the café now to take a look around.

Gavin must have briefed Ai Oda in advance, and after getting her permission, Quillan couldn’t help but grow curious about the place where he would be working.

However, Quillan wasn’t nearly as thrilled as Miyuki, who kept talking on and on about how much she loved this job, how her family had initially refused to let her work part-time, and how much effort it had taken to finally get her parents’ permission.

It seemed that part-time jobs were a very common phenomenon among Japanese high school students. From Miyuki, Quillan also learned that students in Tokyo could actually earn a pretty decent income through part-time work, which allowed Quillan to breathe a sigh of relief.

Completing his studies without having to contact his family would be ideal!

Entering the commercial district, the two began searching for the shop. Miyuki didn’t seem in a rush for her own interview anymore, saying she wanted to see where Quillan would be working first. So she helped Quillan locate the café first, and by the middle of the commercial street, they finally spotted the sign for the Moe Jam Café. Miyuki excitedly pulled Quillan toward it, but as they reached the entrance, she froze on the spot.

"I-It’s actually a maid-themed café!"

Miyuki’s eyes widened as she stared at the greeter dressed in a maid uniform at the entrance, her feet glued to the ground.

The café appeared fairly large, standing three stories high. The storefront featured painted stained glass covered with cartoon girls in maid outfits. Since it was dusk, there were already quite a few customers inside. Aside from the patrons, two or three girls dressed in maid costumes were busily moving back and forth.

Quillan was dumbfounded as well. Seeing the scene inside the café, his immediate thought was...

Damn it, I got set up by Gavin again!

Not only was the school Gavin arranged an all-girls high school, but even the part-time job he recommended turned out like this...

It was actually a maid-themed café. What on earth was a grown man like Quillan supposed to do at a maid café?

He couldn’t even work as a waiter!

While Quillan and Miyuki stood there in shock, a beautiful woman with waist-length hair dressed in a maid outfit walked over. Her face looked somewhat familiar to Quillan, and just as he was trying to place her, she spoke up: "Are you Quillan? Hello, I’m Gavin’s cousin, Ai Oda. I’m so glad to meet you, Quillan!"

"Hello, Ai!" Quillan greeted Ai Oda as well. Now he finally understood why Ai Oda looked familiar—when Quillan used to hang out at Gavin’s place, he had seen Gavin’s mother, and Ai Oda shared a noticeable resemblance with her.

Ai Oda invited Quillan inside the café, asking as they walked, "Are you getting used to life in Japan, Quillan?"

"It’s pretty good!" Quillan nodded.

Then, Ai Oda caught sight of Miyuki next to Quillan, and her eyes lit up: "Kawaii... What an adorable little girl! Tell me... are you here for an interview too?"

"Eh?" Miyuki was a bit slow to react, perhaps overwhelmed by Ai Oda’s sudden enthusiasm.

Nervous and forgetting to explain, Miyuki simply leaned a bit closer to Quillan’s side.

Ai Oda looked the two of them over for a moment, then continued: "Or... could it be that you, sweet girl, are Quillan’s girlfriend and want to work together with him? Am I right?"

Miyuki hurriedly tried to clarify: "N-No, it’s not like that!"

"Is that so?" Ai Oda let out a warm laugh, looking at Miyuki with a face full of smiles: "You know, Quillan only has me as a relative here in Japan. Just now he called me ’sister’—so my cute little girl, you get what I mean, right?"