"As thanks, I'll share half with you, Togawa."
Kazami Haru skillfully split the chocolate conch bread in his hands into two equal halves. Having eaten this kind of snack often, he didn't even spill a drop of the chocolate filling while dividing it.
His technique could only be described as masterful.
Before Togawa Sakiko could even react, one half of the chocolate bread was already shoved into her hand.
"I don't need it. This is just to apologize for last ti—"
"Didn't you just say it was leftovers?"
That one sentence from Kazami Haru made Sakiko freeze. She couldn't find a good way to refute it right away.
Taking a slow breath, she responded calmly, "We're on the clock now. Kazami-senpai, you should take work a bit more seriously."
"How am I not being serious? I barely ate anything this morning. If I don't eat now and faint while carrying trays later, what then?"
"If I accidentally break sothing in the shop, I can't afford to pay for it."
Looking at Kazami's dead-serious "twisted logic," the icy facade of Togawa Sakiko wavered, her expression turning a little conflicted.
In truth, to save on food expenses, she rarely ate until full—maybe 60–70% at most. With work in the afternoon, she often had to push through on willpower alone.
So his "twisted logic" wasn't entirely wrong.
If not eating enough led to a mistake at work, that would be the real loss.
In the end, she sighed softly and accepted the chocolate bread, taking a small bite. The rich and sweet taste of chocolate burst in her mouth.
So sweet. Maybe a bit too sweet.
He really likes sothing this sugary? It's practically a child's taste.
Still, indulging in sothing sweet once in a while isn't so bad.
"Togawa... should we 'do it' today?"
Kazami Haru made a vague hand gesture to Sakiko. His expression didn't change, and the movent was a bit abstract, yet Sakiko sohow instantly understood what he ant.
Like last ti—they were going to the supermarket to snatch up the discounted bento als, weren't they?
"..."
She felt a little tempted.
She had spent more than she could afford on that pricey chocolate conch bread just to make up for her apology. It could've easily covered two als...
With payday still a bit off, her budget was getting tighter and tighter, almost suffocating her.
To save on electricity, she didn't even dare turn on the lights. For days, she'd been eating natto rice and bean sprouts from the supermarket. Just slling them now made her nauseous.
Even the dress she was wearing had faded from too many washes. Her skincare products were the cheapest she could find.
The pressure she was under wasn't small.
But she couldn't bring herself to accept too much help from Kazami Haru either.
"Even if you don't go, Togawa, I'm going regardless," he said. "I'm not about to go eat wild grass by the roadside."
Kazami Haru clearly understood how tightly Sakiko had wrapped herself up.
It was like she'd made indifference and rejection into a spiky armor, covering her vulnerable heart. Her pride was imnse, yet it ca with a twisted inferiority complex.
She feared others seeing her weakness.
Haru only wanted to help in ways that wouldn't step on her pride—doing too much would backfire.
"...Fine. Please take with you, Kazami-senpai."
She eventually gave in to the pressure of reality.
Her pride had always made it hard to accept help. She wanted to carry everything on her own shoulders.
But Kazami Haru was just a part-ti worker too, soone living by the sa principle: survive through working, a commonality between them.
What Sakiko feared most was being looked at with pity or sympathy. It would shatter her pride.
That's why she had cut off her friendships, she didn't want to be seen that way.
But Haru never looked at her with those eyes.
Because he was just like her, struggling to survive on his own.
Perhaps he was the only one who could stand on equal ground with her.
After work—
Just like last ti, Sakiko was in charge of catching the discounted bentos being tossed out, while Haru dove into the surging crowd alone to secure the goods with sheer force.
To avoid spending money on expensive plastic bags at the convenience store, Sakiko deftly pulled out a cloth tote bag from her purse.
Once both bentos were safely packed inside, she let out a relieved sigh—dinner was secured.
"I almost got elbowed by so old guy when I grabbed the second bento. Good thing I've been practicing dodging for two and a half years."
"Really? You're not hurt, are you?"
Sakiko frowned. She didn't want anyone getting hurt because of her.
"Even if I got hit by a car right now, I probably wouldn't die. No need to worry."
"I wasn't worried."
Despite his usual unreliable tone, she could tell Kazami wasn't injured. And with so of the pressure off, even the walk ho felt lighter.
Her relationship with Kazami Haru was starting to warm up.
Unlike the total silence last ti, they were actually having small conversations now.
"Togawa, you don't know how to cook?"
"...That's true."
How could she? Just last year, she had been a high-class young lady at Tsukinomori Academy. Her delicate fingers were ant for playing elegant music, not this. Now she had to do everything herself, even support a useless, freeloading father.
"Can't be helped with you..."
Sakiko's face flushed at Kazami's subtle expression. She snapped back, slightly irritated, "I've been learning how to cook too... and does Kazami-senpai even know how to cook?"
"I do."
"...Are you joking?"
She looked at his unchanging expression with disbelief. He didn't look like soone who could cook at all.
"I'm serious. It's a skill I had to grind for survival."
That was a lie.
In truth, even he hadn't known how to cook until recently—his cooking skills were borrowed from a simulation, copied from Anon.
"If you don't believe , I'll make you a bento next ti. But you'll have to pay, of course."
Seeing his slightly smug face, Sakiko felt a flicker of competitiveness.
She actually wanted to try his cooking, just to see what kind of food Kazami Haru could make.
Walking shoulder to shoulder, neither of them noticed the girl standing around the corner.
She was wearing a Tsukinomori Academy uniform, holding two bags. Her face was blank as she stared at the two fading into the distance, her grip on the bags tightening unconsciously.
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