Ephemeral Ability Reflects the Heart

As it turned out, Hana was right.

For some reason, Chihiro, or "Chisato", who was on his first shift that day, had a much larger crowd than he had yesterday.

「Oh, is that Chisato-chan?」

「She sure is cute」

「Don’t you think she looks familiar?」

「Hmm, I think I’ve seen her somewhere before」

Apparently, this was the effect of the Miss Contest.

Chihiro, who was registered as a mysterious female student "Chisato" in the Miss Contest, made a strong impression on those who saw it. And the rumor seems to have spread by word of mouth.

How many of them are made up by Maisaka and other students of 1-C, he does not dare to consider.

He also does not consider how many of them are aware of his true identity.

Anyway.

The cafe was busy from the moment it opened, with curious students （mostly boys） who wanted to see the mystery maids in person, along with students who were looking for other maids such as Aika and Maria.

「Hey, where do you live?」

「Hey, do you want to go out somewhere sometime?」

「Tell me your e-mail address」

「I’m sorry, Master, but we don’t do that kind of thing」

Chihiro responds to all the men who try to make eyes at him in a casual manner. After all, he is a man inside, so he does not hesitate to treat the same gender with disdain.

However, he does accept photo shoots and normal conversation because it is part of his job.

It was also necessary for him to smile and pose, and to react to their not-so-funny stories.

「This is the third time I’ve been here since yesterday. I’ve only ordered juice every time」

「Thank you for visiting us again and again. We would be happy if you could order something from the food menu as well」

As he says this, Hana finally arrived as well.

Still, he did not have much time to talk with her, but he did agree to have his picture taken with her. However――

「Chisato-chan. Please throw me a kiss right there」

「Eh? N-no, my lady. That’s...」

「Is it no good?」

The air was so thick that he couldn’t resist.

He also had an appointment with Hana, so reluctantly, he endured his embarrassment and gave her a kiss.

Still, he was too shy to care whether his actions were cute or not.

Nevertheless, the guests who were present at the party were very excited.

「Thank you very much. I was able to get a good shot」

「I’m glad you like it」

Hana, with an unusually big smile on her face, replied with her soul on the verge of collapse.

「Yes. I will take good care of this video」

「Video?」

Chihiro had no choice but to ask her not to show it to others, even though he knew it was embarrassing to do so.

On the other side, Chihiro is also annoyed by a "bad bug" that tried to seduce Aika.

「Do you have a boyfriend, Aika?」

「From my view, I don’t think you have a boyfriend, you seem to be too shy. Don’t you?」

「Nope, I have a boyfriend. And I hope we can be together forever」

Howeve, Aika herself dealt with the man who was obviously trying to pick up on her, so Chihiro didn’t have to take a turn.

「Do you have any pictures?」

「No, but...oh, he bought this bracelet for me. We went out together and spent hours to find it」

「Oh...yeah」

「You really have a boyfriend, huh?」

And so, it goes.

By the end of the shift, he was quite exhausted.

Chihiro sat down on the floor when he arrived at the changing room, leaving the cafe in the hands of Riko and the others who had come in as replacements.

「...I’m tired」

「Thanks for your hard work, Izumi-kun」

「You were very popular. You really have a shot at the miss contest, don’t you?」

That’s what his classmates said to him.

Even they have heard about the miss content.

「I don’t really want to go for it...」

「Even so, it’s a popularity contest. Whether you win a prize or not depends on your popularity」

「It will be announced at 12:00 noon, right? So, you’ll know the results of the preliminary round when you work your next shift」

The deadline for voting in the preliminary round was 30 minutes before the announcement, or 11:30.

If Chihiro is among the top five, he will have to participate in the final round, which will be held around 15:00. The final round will be held at the same time as the preliminary round, and the top five will be chosen by the finalists. Fortunately or unfortunately, he has neither a shift at the maid cafe nor a shift at the student council, so his schedule is fine.

「Fufu. Shouldn’t you prepare for the performance, just in case?」

Aika smiles at Chihiro in a kind of happy way.