COTE Year 2 Reimagined

Volume 7:Part 10

Kushida and I made our way back to the café and immediately noticed how crowded it got. The line outside was almost double what it was before I left.

Horikita was forced to serve as a maid to help with the crowd, but it still wasn't enough. We needed at least two more maids to help.

"Ayanokoji-kun. Took you long enough."

Horikita decided to scold me instead of appreciating my efforts.

"Forget that what will we do now? We need at least two more maids to deal with this crowd."

It seems Kushida came to the same conclusion I did. This was a huge opportunity for us. If we don't serve the people waiting right now, they'll leave, and we'll lose out on the profit.

"What about Satsuki? She wanted to be a maid at first, but you told her to work in the back."

Ike stepped into our conversation and recommended Shinohara. She originally wanted to be a maid, but Horikita decided her skills would be better suited to helping in the back as we already had enough maids.

Horikita started thinking and nodded.

"That's a good idea, Ike-kun. Grab a costume and help Shinohara-san."

Ike nodded at her and ran off.

"That won't be enough. We need one more."

Kushida interrupted, and Horikita looked irritated.

"If only Hasebe-san were here..."

Haruka was nowhere to be found during the festival.

"She's probably going to drop out. Akito is definitely doing the same."

Horikita now gave me a shocked expression.

"Wait, what? What makes you say that? If they both drop out, we'll lose 600 class points..."

Horikita was even more worried now.

"It's likely that Haruka wanted to drop out from the start but decided to wait so she could see the festival that she and Airi were so excited to attend. After the festival is over, she'll have no reason to stay."

Kushida glared at me in annoyance, probably because I knew and hid this from her, or rather I simply didn't mention it.

"I'll take care of it."

Horikita looked somewhat relieved and nodded at me. Kushida glanced in my direction for a moment to see if I needed her help, but I shook my head.

I texted Nagumo once more and located where Haruka was through his information. I made my way there and saw her sitting on a bench with Akito standing next to her. I set down the box I was carrying and called out to her.

"Did you enjoy the festival?"

She looked at me when she heard my voice but she didn't look surprised in the slightest.

"It wasn't bad. I'm sure I would've had fun if Airi was here."

Akito looked worried when he saw me. He probably didn't want me and Haruka to butt heads.

"So you've made up your mind? You're dropping out?"

Haruka clenched her fist and nodded. The fact that I saw through her plan probably reminded her of how much I was hiding from them, and that upset her.

"Kiyotaka... how did you?"

Before I could respond, Haruka stood up and started walking towards me while holding a piece of paper in her hand.