"Now my draft has already reached the point where the second female lead stock appears! She’s an introverted cute department head with a great figure~" Ise Yu Yuzhijin boasted, "Miss Morihara even praised me for my good character design and amazing drawing style~"
Shirakawa Sawahei: "..."
Goodness, has the lazy girl not given up on drawing the story about Shirakawa Sawahei and Hayakawa Kashi?
Cold little loli? Introverted cutie?
Is this something from the river?
This doesn’t make sense.
"With your kind of combination, are you going to combine Miss Hinata and yourself too?" Shirakawa Sawahei slyly teased, "A Minotaur Artist who likes pure love? Living in darkness, heart towards the light?"
"Ya! Shirakawa, you’re so strange! Clearly, Sister Yin and I are like water and fire, how could we appear together?"
"So what are you going to do? Aren’t you going to trade stocks?"
"Yeah, let these two girls trade first, Miss Morihara said we can decide on the third based on market reaction~ I think a lively cute sister-type girl might be very appealing~"
"What are her specialties?"
The lazy girl pondered for a long time and cautiously ventured, "Drawing... drawing doujinshi?"
"Besides finding character settings from your life, don’t you have any other inspirations?"
"What can I do, my life experience isn’t that complex... and I can’t lie... I’m totally a good baby..."
"As a mangaka, you’re bold to say such things." Shirakawa Sawahei retorted, "I think you’re just lazy."
"How mean~ So unfair! Shirakawa, can you come up with a better girl than this?"
"I can’t. But you’re still lazy."
Thinking about the lazy girl’s cooking skills, Shirakawa Sawahei said, "To help you overcome this bad habit, I’ve decided to find something for you to do in the future."
"Shira-Shirakawa... Why am I a little scared... You’re not going to make me practice weird things, are you..."
"I’ve decided to make you practice cooking."
"Then let me practice weird things instead!" The resolute Ise Yu made up her mind, turned her head and said, "I can’t do it, I can only make omelette rice, my goal is to perfect omelette rice, let every bowl of omelette rice shine with golden light like in Chinese Small Chef, delicious enough to make people cry..."
"Don’t use such bizarre goals as an excuse not to practice cooking. And that’s fried rice, not omelette rice."
Determined to enrich his dining table, Shirakawa Sawahei naturally couldn’t let Ise Yu slip away so easily, he thought for a moment, then began to coax, "If you learn a new dish and make it to my satisfaction, proving you don’t have the habit of slacking and procrastinating, I’ll allow you a certain amount of time to read doujinshi on the sofa and let your figures appear in my sight?"
"One dish for one hour?"
"Three days! No! Five days!"
"Deal!" The lazy girl clapped Shirakawa Sawahei’s hand and said, "No take-backs, Shirakawa, you’re a guy, a word spoken is a word that’s solid as a four-horse chariot!"
"Then it’s up to you how many dishes you can learn... Oh, remember to learn more Chinese dishes, it’ll earn you extra points."
The cute little Ise Yu happily got up from the sofa, tidied up her messy skirt, then seemed to think of something and asked, "By the way... Has Aunt Higashino left?"
"Ah, what a pity, I wanted to see her off with you... Shirakawa, why didn’t you agree..."
"I just felt that with you seeing her off, Aunt might misunderstand."
"Misunderstand what?"
"Misunderstand that I hang out with fools every day."
For several days afterward, the lazy girl worked diligently on learning new recipes during the days, fighting for her freedom. At night, she worked hard on her drafts. She seemed dependable without needing anyone to worry about her. If Shirakawa Sawahei hadn’t known her real nature, he might have been fooled by her.
He spent his days leisurely, commenting on her culinary skills, occasionally checking if her cooking skills had leveled up using pre-selection privileges for strategies, living quite comfortably.
One morning, as usual, Shirakawa Sawahei ordered the lazy girl coming downstairs to prepare lunch, but she looked at him quite strangely.
"Shirakawa... aren’t you ready yet?"
"Our planned beach trip is starting... don’t tell me you haven’t packed yet?"
He coughed lightly and changed the topic, "Have you packed your stuff?"
"Packed, swimsuit, sunglasses, sunscreen oil, sun-protective clothing... is there anything I’ve forgotten?"
"Think carefully again."
Shirakawa Sawahei gave the lazy girl a meaningful look, then got up to pack his things, leaving the cute little Ise Yu there tallying her stuff with a puzzled expression, unable to figure it out.
"Let’s go, it’s time to leave."
"Eh... Wa-wait a second! Shirakawa! What exactly did I forget to bring?"
"You didn’t forget anything."
Shirakawa, I’m sincerely a person, and you’re a cunning one too.
On the way, the cute little Ise Yu was quite upset as she chased after Shirakawa Sawahei, but even after catching up, there was nothing she could do about him. After all, she couldn’t beat him, and she didn’t dare to scold him, so she just sulked in secret.
Shirakawa is the most hateful! Unless you buy me flavored ice later, there’s absolutely no reason for me to forgive you!
The girl’s simple wish for reconciliation remained unfulfilled until they met up with Tsukimi and the others, from afar seeing Miss Tachibana, the little loli, and a certain cutie each holding a bag standing by the roadside, happily waving at him, with a rented car parked next to them.
"Shirakawa~ why are you so slow... we’ve been waiting for a long time... hurry and get in the car~"
"You rented this car?"
"Nope, we have Konatsuori to thank for this~ she said she knew someone who could rent a car for pick-up and drop-off, so we didn’t have to find vehicles ourselves! Hey~ Shirakawa, help me put it in."
Shirakawa Sawahei casually took the bag from the cutie and put it in the trunk, followed by those of Miss Tachibana and the lazy girl, and finally, the Black Hearted Little Girl’s.
While the others were getting in the car, Shirakawa Sawahei grabbed Asano Nazuki by the arm and whispered, "Is this your family’s driver?"
"If it’s not from my family, it’s from yours?" The little loli rolled her eyes and sulked, "At least say thank you to me!"
"Oh... your foot’s all better?"
"What, are you unhappy that my foot is better... Ouch... it hurts! Pretty boy! You dare to pinch my face!"
"You speak as if you’ve eaten dynamite, talk nicely."
"You!! Fine... alright, my foot’s almost better, I can walk now, just can’t do any strenuous exercise..."
"That’s more like it."
Shirakawa Sawahei let go of her, glanced at the little loli’s flat chest, and paused, "You’re prepared to wear a swimsuit to the beach?"
"You! What are you looking at! At least I have something there! Have you heard of hidden assets! Such ignorance!" The Black Hearted Lolita snapped indignantly, "Don’t think that just because Tsukimi Sakurazawa and Ise Yu Yuzhijin are bigger than me, they’re any more impressive! I’m telling you! Never underestimate a flat loli!"
"Aunt Ling likes me a lot! You better be careful in the future! I’ll tell on you if you mock me!"