Date Her Instead Vol. 5

Chapter Twelve: Love Me Tender

During the morning of the first day of the cultural festival, Michi's class was just as busy as they thought they would be. "Look at all of these customers!" one girl exclaimed. "It's great that they're coming, but at this rate we might get overrun!" another girl yelled. As it turned out, while they had expected to have plenty of people, the class was learning that just because they knew they'd have a lot of customers, that didn't really make it any easier to manage.

Currently, the room set-up was typical of what one would expect of a cultural festival maid cafe. The walls were decorated with pieces of art done by the art club, and some fixtures had been added (such as fake wood siding and shaping the cooking area to look like a bar) to make the room feel more like a real cafe. In the middle were plenty of tables covered by white cloths, and serving them were girls dressed in maid outfits and boys dressed in butler outfits.

Of course, one of the girls wearing said maid outfit was Michi. She was rotating between cooking and serving, but all the while she had an annoyed look on her face. "This is so stupid," she kept thinking. "Everybody keeps staring at me, especially the guys. I just wish they'd look somewhere else." It felt rather embarrassing for Michi to be seen wearing such clothes. "I'm sure they're all getting a kick out of seeing me like this."

She wasn't usually one to be self-conscious about her appearance, but that mindset could only carry Michi so far. Constantly having a bunch of people watching her while wearing very out-of-the-ordinary clothes was bringing Michi closer and closer to her limit. "Maybe I should just say I need to go help my club now. Then I'd be able to get out of this stupid outfit." However, looking around the room, it was obvious that would be impossible. They were way too busy. "...Plus, I'd feel bad just leaving them like this."

Unfortunately, checking the time showed that she still had a long way to go before the end of her shift. "This really sucks," she muttered to herself. "Um, Fukuhara-san?" one of the girls next to her said. "Could you try to look a little more happy? This is a festival after all." "Yeah, whatever," Michi huffed as she went to attend to one of her tables. "Who could be happy about a situation like this?" she thought.

For as much as Michi didn't want to be wearing a maid outfit, there was one reason in particular for why she was in such a foul mood. "That girl is going to show up here at some point, I just know it," she thought with a great annoyance. "She'll probably barge right in and be super loud, saying something like, 'Mi-chan, your master has come home. Please service me!' or some nonsense like that."

Dread was the only word that could describe the feeling Michi had. It was bad enough that everyone in the school and neighborhoods was seeing her like this, but if a certain gal did, Michi would want to die on the spot. "I'm sure she'll never shut up about it," Michi thought. "Ugh... why do I have to deal with this?"

"Ohhh Mi-chan! Your master has come back home! Please greet me properly~!"

And then, the dreaded moment arrived. With her back to the door, Michi slowly turned around. Standing at the entryway with a big smile on her face was Chiyo. "I'm waiting," she cooed. Next to the poor maid, another girl whispered to her, "We tried to just take her to a table, but she insisted on this." Letting out a long sigh, Michi shook her head. "It's fine. I knew she was coming anyways. Let's just get this over with."

Walking up to the gal, Michi stared at her. In return, Chiyo looked at her expectantly. "W-Wel..." Michi stuttered. "Mm? I can't hear you. Make sure you say it like, super loud and proud," Chiyo said. "Guh..." Michi let out. "W-Welcome... back miss..." "One more time," Chiyo smirked.

"WELCOME BACK MISS!" Michi yelled. She yelled so loud in fact that for a moment, the entire room went quiet. Realizing her mistake, Michi's face went beet-red from embarrassment. "Oh my God..." she groaned. "I feel like such an idiot." "It's okay Mi-chan. All that matters is your master's opinion," Chiyo said smugly. "My 'master' was the one who got me into this mess in the first place!" Michi shot back.