All the books were sold out.
Hikigaya and Juke sat together, counting their earnings.
"How much?" Juke leaned in, clutching his arm with a smile. The satisfaction of earning money through her own efforts was obvious on her face.
"Uh…" Hikigaya tried to pull his arm free but failed. After pressing the calculator on his phone for a while, he finally said, "A total of 35,900 personal points. After subtracting the expenses for our outfits, we probably earned around 25,000 points."
After all, Juke also spent money on her work clothes. Hikigaya had already deducted her expenses.
"Why so little?" Juke pouted, looking genuinely disappointed. "I thought we made a lot. This isn't even better than a regular part-time job."
"Well, making money wasn't the main goal anyway," Hikigaya sighed. "And honestly, 25,000 points is a decent amount. I sold a little over 300 copies, and you sold the rest, so you get 5,000 points."
He handed her the transfer. Technically, her outfit cost more than that, but the extra 400 points Fujimaki-senpai had given him made up the difference. He couldn't be bothered to calculate the details.
"Stingy." Juke complained, but she quickly brightened up and suggested, "I'm hungry! To celebrate my first successful part-time job, let's go eat something! Using the money we earned, of course."
Hikigaya was about to refuse, but his own hunger betrayed him. Even though he had mostly been sitting, they had been busy for two days straight. A treat didn't sound too bad.
"Alright. What do you want to eat?" Hikigaya asked.
"Eh?" Juke looked mildly offended. "You're the president, right? Shouldn't you be the one to decide? If it were up to me, I'd pick something super expensive!"
"Forget it, then," Hikigaya rejected her idea immediately.
This girl really did seem like she wanted to celebrate something, though he had no idea what.
"Wait a second…" Hikigaya suddenly realized something. "You're not trying to test my taste, are you?"
Some girls judged a guy's worth by the kinds of restaurants they frequented. He could easily imagine Juke being that type.
"Huh?" Juke looked mildly annoyed. "I said it's a celebration, not a test. And besides, seeing how carelessly you bought clothes, what kind of taste could you possibly have?"
Hikigaya had no comeback for that. She already knew he had no fashion sense.
"Fine, how about Thalia?" Hikigaya suggested.
"Ugh, gross," Juke made a face of pure disdain.
Thalia was a well-known affordable restaurant with a branch at Gaoyu Cheng. It wasn't exactly popular with girls who preferred fancy places.
"Forget it. Whatever, let's go to Thalia," Juke said with a resigned sigh.
"Alright, let's go."
"Oh, wait, I need to change clothes first."
"Huh? Why go through the trouble?" Hikigaya asked, annoyed by the hassle.
"What if someone sees me dressed like this? And you have to change, too."
He glanced at his blue work uniform. Yeah, if someone like Shibata saw him like this, it would be embarrassing.
"Fine." Hikigaya took off his jacket, revealing a plain white T-shirt underneath. "This is good enough."
"Ugh, seriously?" Juke sighed. "Whatever. But I have only underwear underneath, so I actually need to change."
"Ah… Oh…" Hikigaya's face turned slightly red.
This girl always said things that made his brain short-circuit.
"What?" Juke grinned mischievously, leaning in with a wicked smile. "Curious?"
"No! Just go change, already. I'll wait for you at Thalia," Hikigaya snapped.
He was getting really tired of her teasing.
"Nope! I'll just change in the restroom here," Juke said as she walked into the supermarket bathroom with her uniform shopping bag.
Hikigaya sighed and packed up their things, handing them over to the convenience store clerk. To his surprise, he had to pay the clerk 2,000 personal points for borrowing the table. Well, a social animal's gotta do what a social animal's gotta do.
A few minutes later, Juke emerged from the restroom wearing a burgundy uniform and a white pleated skirt, holding the shopping bag.
"Hey, Hikigaya, help me with this," she demanded.
"Why should I?" he grumbled.
"Just take it. You didn't help me at all during this whole thing, so make yourself useful."
"Fine…" Hikigaya reluctantly took the shopping bag from her.
"Let's go."
The two made their way to Thalia.
"Hikigaya, aren't you even going to check what's in the bag?" Juke asked with a teasing smile.
"What's there to check?" Hikigaya looked at the bag and noticed a pair of black translucent stockings mixed with the blue uniform. "What is this nonsense?"
Juke pouted. "Wow, you're so cold. And here I thought you'd react better."
She then leaned in close, her breath brushing against his ear. "But seriously, my panties are in there. Wanna take a peek?"
"Wha—?!" Hikigaya's face turned beet red, and Juke burst into laughter.
"I-I said… You shouldn't make jokes like that with boys! It's dangerous!" Hikigaya stammered.
They finally arrived at Thalia and found a good spot. Hikigaya ordered cheese and meat sauce baked rice, chicken rolls with salted chicken, while Juke ordered black pepper beef fillet pasta.
"You really eat a lot," Juke said, watching him chow down.
"It's normal," Hikigaya responded between bites. "You're always with Ichinose and the others, right? Don't they eat a lot too?"
"They eat like they're at some health retreat or something. Even Shibata, who's a sports guy, acts like a rabbit," Juke scoffed.
"That's just them pretending," Hikigaya said smugly.
"Right? But why didn't you eat this much last time at Pallet?"
Hikigaya hesitated. "That place felt more like a café. It didn't seem like a place to eat so much."
"Uh-huh…" Juke looked at her food, her cheeks slightly pink.
After eating, they both stood up.
"I'm heading back," Hikigaya said, ready to make his exit.
"Wait!" Juke's voice was filled with panic. "It's already eight. You can't just leave a girl to walk back alone at night!"
"It's a school. You'll be fine." Hikigaya sighed but ended up sitting back down. "Just a little while longer."
"Yay!" Juke giggled, eyes sparkling with joy.
This girl was such a pain. And yet, Hikigaya found himself agreeing to her antics every single time.
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