Episode 14: Sora-san’s Proposal
“You’re… broke?”
“Yeah.”
Sora-san nodded like it was nothing, though honestly, it caught me off guard.
Her landmine-style fashion, her makeup, that glossy hair — Sora-san doesn’t look remotely like someone who’s broke.
“Single-mother household, and even my mom’s barely ever home. So I decided I’d earn my own money.”
Look, she said, showing me her phone. On the screen was an SNS account.
“An illustration account…?”
“Yeah. I keep it completely separate from my face-out account, so it doesn’t get any noise.”
Every illustration on the account was genuinely skilled, and each one had racked up a ton of likes. Almost ten thousand followers, even.
“My dream’s to become an illustrator. I want to properly study art, so I’ve wanted to go to an art college since I was little.”
“Since you were little…”
The goal itself — getting into art college — is impressive on its own, but honestly, the part that really struck me was “since I was little.”
I’ve never had a dream. Not back then, not now. I’ve just kind of… lived, day to day, without really aiming at anything.
“But art college costs a ridiculous amount. Tuition, sure, but prep schools are expensive too, and you need actual art supplies on top of that. …So I figured I’d earn money doing what I’m actually capable of, and decided to work at Sweet Stella.”
Sora-san finished her crepe, carefully balled up the wrapper, and threw it away.
Now that I think about it, Sora-san’s actions are always kind of elegant, despite the landmine-style look…
Maybe that’s part of why the “broke” reveal caught me so off guard.
“Ruri, you’ve got cream on your face.”
“Eh?”
Without warning, she wiped the corner of my mouth with her index finger.
Sora-san really doesn’t mind personal space at all…!
“I told you all that, but it’s not like I want you tiptoeing around me because I’m broke or whatever. Actually, that’d just annoy me.”
“I—I won’t! I mean, I’m broke myself right now too…!”
I jumped to my feet in a hurry, and Sora-san smiled, looking relieved.
“What I’m trying to say is, I hate the idea of giving up on something and blaming it on your circumstances. Complaining about it doesn’t change anything anyway.”
“…Th-that’s true.”
No amount of grieving is going to bring my parents back, or magically resurrect their company.
“So instead of excuses, I’d rather hear what you actually want to do. From you too, Ruri.”
“…Instead of excuses, what I actually want to do…”
“Forget the introvert stuff, the social-anxiety stuff — you wanted to try hard at the job, didn’t you?”
“Y-yes…!”
Whether I could actually pull it off or not, that’s what I wanted.
I want to be a maid who can make customers happy, just like Sora-san.
“I’ll teach you some tips for the job. Over bubble tea.”
Let’s head over, she said, taking my hand, and led me toward a bubble tea shop.
◆
“Ah, um, I’d like to take a photo… a photo with the bubble tea, please!”
“Sure, but is my phone okay?”
“…I can’t use my phone right now.”
“If there’s Wi-Fi around, you can still use social media and stuff, right?”
“…Ah!”
I’m an idiot.
I hadn’t even considered that until Sora-san pointed it out.
Even with my phone contract cut off, if there’s Wi-Fi, there’s still plenty I can do…!
“Are you an idiot, Ruri?”
“…M-my only redeeming quality is my face…”
“Wow, it’s almost refreshing how honest you are.”
Geez, Sora-san laughed, and pulled up a selfie app for me.
“I’ll send it to your Twitter account by DM. Post it however you want.”
“Ah, thank you so much… now I can get more likes. Plus, plus, I even get to show off that I hung out with a friend, guhehe…”
Every photo up until now had just been me, alone. People probably assumed I didn’t have any friends at all.
But as of today, that doubt’s officially put to rest.
“Alright, about the job tips.”
After the photo, Sora-san started talking shop while sipping her brown sugar milk bubble tea.
“Right now, you’re treating your customer-service self as just… you, right? The real you.”
“Um… yes.”
“My personal tip is to build a completely separate persona and treat the whole shift as pure ‘performance.’ There’s no way you can pull off that kind of service as your actual self.”
“Performance…”
“Depends on the person, though. Miyuki-san, for instance, is probably being basically herself the whole time. But you, Ruri — you’re not exactly the type who can smile and serve customers as your natural self, right?”
“Y-yeah.”
I do want to improve on the whole introvert, socially-anxious thing, but as things stand right now, that’s just… how I am.
“So you build a character completely from scratch, and commit to performing it. If you memorize a few stock lines ahead of time too, you won’t freeze up when something catches you off guard.”
“I see…”
“You’ve got a face worth showing off, so it’s a waste to just look nervous and hide it.”
“M-my face, worth showing off…”
“You really don’t let a single compliment about yourself slip by, huh.”
“W-well, not that much, hehe…”
I took notes on everything Sora-san said while she talked. My memory’s never been great, so things slip away fast if I don’t write them down.
“So, here’s my actual proposal.”
“A proposal?”
Sora-san smiled brightly and took my hand — this time, laced fingers, lovers’-style.
“Want to run a yuri act together, the two of us?”