Chapter 21: So Sweet!

“Makima-san, what type of guy do you like?”

“I like people like you, Denji-kun.”

“I… also like you, Makima-san…”

It’s a pity Ken won’t say that last line from the second chapter to me.

Even though Ken has never been in a relationship, the interactions between the male and female leads in his manga make him seem very experienced in love.

Denji-kun and Makima-san are just too sweet!

Natsume Mio was still savoring the contents of the second chapter.

After all, with only two chapters updated each week, she finished them in a flash and could only read them over and over again.

Working at the convenience store, the thought that she would see Ken again in the evening and even get to work with him for an hour made Natsume Mio’s mood much brighter.

Convenience stores were an important sales channel for magazines. It was Sunday now, and the new issue of Weekly Shonen JUMP would be released tomorrow, but the store still had a few old copies that hadn’t sold.

Natsume Mio placed these few copies of JUMP in the most conspicuous position on the bookshelf. If they didn’t sell today, they would have to be returned.

The magazines in the store were sold on a consignment basis, which was equivalent to borrowing magazines from the publisher to sell.

If they weren’t sold by the end of the week, they had to be returned to the publisher. The staff delivering the new issue would take the unsold copies from the previous week along with them.

Because of the resale price maintenance system, the returned old magazines would not be sold at a discount but would be sent directly to a paper mill to be destroyed, dissolved, and remade into pulp to print the next issue.

Cheap magazines like these were not shrink-wrapped when they were stocked, but to prevent customers from flipping through them constantly, the store would tie up the most popular ones with plastic string.

In reality, it was easy to untie. If one had the nerve, they could also stand in the store and flip through it until they finished reading.

Occasionally, elementary school students would do this, but older people would still buy the magazine under the watchful eye of the store clerk.

After all, a copy of Weekly JUMP was only 260 yen, just the price of two bottles of Coke.

The elderly manager of this store would specially leave one copy out for customers to browse. On the day a new issue was released, there would always be several elementary school students crowded together, flipping through it after school.

Natsume Mio hadn’t read this week’s JUMP yet, so she casually flipped through it while tidying up.

The first dozen or so pages of each JUMP issue were usually for promoting new serializations and advertisements for various merchandise and events. This issue had half a page dedicated to promoting the JUMP+ platform.

Natsume Mio could tell at a glance that the screenshot of the phone page used the color page from Miss Sniper, and Pantyhose!.

Although it wasn’t specifically emphasized, just having the image appear was a form of exposure.

Why this manga? Didn’t she just start serializing on the web this week?

It was Sunday now, and the magazine was released on Monday. The layout would have started on the Friday of the week before last.

At that time, she hadn’t even started publishing yet!

So, JUMP had been preparing to promote her work so far in advance.

That girl, what’s her background…

Natsume Mio had read her work. The art was detailed, but it was far inferior to Ken’s Chainsaw Man.

Hmph… if these promotional resources were given to Ken, Ken would definitely be a hit by now.

In that case, Ken could release a tankōbon, earn more manuscript fees, and wouldn’t have to worry about his livelihood.

Then he could move out of that terrible apartment and rent a nice one with good soundproofing, so even if they were really loud in the room, the neighbors next door wouldn’t hear.

I’m so sick of the days when we had to go to a love hotel…

Ah… no, no…

A sweet smile of reminiscence appeared on Natsume Mio’s face as she muttered softly, “Really, I’m taking things from my dream as reality again.”

The whole afternoon passed. Natsume Mio waited with great anticipation, and finally, through the glass wall of the convenience store, she saw that familiar figure.

She quickly went to the store entrance to greet him.

“Ken~ You’re finally here,” Natsume Mio’s lips curved into a perfectly cute arc, revealing two shallow dimples on her cheeks.

When Sakamoto Ken saw Natsume Mio, he was momentarily dazed, not quite reacting. After all, the Makima hairstyle paired with her face was just too similar.

Of course, Makima had pink hair, but Sakamoto Ken hadn’t published Makima’s color page yet. Looking at the manga alone, one could only tell that she had light-colored hair.

When the color page comes out, she won’t immediately go and dye her hair, will she?

Is she going to cosplay Makima for me?

In his previous life, he had Mio cosplay many characters. She was a voice actress and could imitate the characters’ tones of voice, but he had never had her try Makima…

Sakamoto Ken first deliberately made eye contact with her for two seconds, then responded with a smile and stepped into the store.

It was still 6:30 PM. Sakamoto Ken had come to the store early with the intention of having a free dinner first.

He greeted the manager, and the elderly manager let Sakamoto Ken choose a bento from the bento section at will.

It wasn’t time for the nighttime discount yet, so Sakamoto Ken didn’t pick an expensive one, just a 396-yen curry rice.

At this moment, Natsume Mio had already gone behind the counter in advance, looking at Sakamoto Ken with a beaming smile.

The way Ken looked at me just now, there must be a hint of liking in it!

“Ken, I’ll heat it up for you~” She reached out to take the bento and put it in the microwave.

A minute later, with a “ding,” Natsume Mio handed over the steaming hot bento, conveniently placing disposable chopsticks and a spoon on top of the bento box.

“Thanks,” Sakamoto Ken said, taking the bento and turning to walk towards the store’s dining area.

Natsume Mio’s gaze followed Sakamoto Ken until he disappeared behind a shelf.

It was dinner time now, and there were more customers in the store. She had to get busy checking out other customers.

Although she couldn’t see him right now, just knowing that Ken was in the same store as her made her feel particularly at ease.

It felt like the repetitive tasks of scanning, giving change, and heating food were no longer so tedious.

On the other side, Sakamoto Ken was eating his curry rice while opening Twitter on his phone.

In this era, the Twitter logo was still that blue bird, not yet changed to a black X.

He was logged into his alternate account named “Meguro Ward’s Most Devoted,” and the notification icon showed a red dot.

He had previously left a comment under Haruna’s tweet: 「Is this really Sangatsu Haru-sensei from JUMP+? I’ve read your work, it’s awesome!」

Now she had replied in the comments.

Sangatsu Haru: 「@Meguro Ward’s Most Devoted, that’s right, I’m the author of Miss Sniper, and Pantyhose! myself~ Devoted-san, you’re my first fan to follow me, thanks for the support!!!」

Sakamoto Ken put down his spoon and freed his hands to type.

Meguro Ward’s Most Devoted: 「Sangatsu Haru-sensei, I saw in the JUMP+ comment section that you said you were going to draw a short extra about the dream from Lady Benzaiten. When will it be published? I really want to see it.」

Not even ten seconds passed before a reply popped up.

Sangatsu Haru: 「Soon, soon, I’m drawing it now. Don’t worry, I won’t flake!」

…

Mikazuki Haruna pouted, regretting that she had impulsively mentioned the dream from Lady Benzaiten when she saw a supportive reader in the JUMP+ comment section.

I just said it casually, why did this person take it so seriously?

Do you really believe a deity sent me a dream to make me draw this manga?

If she had posted it on Twitter, it would have been fine. She could have just deleted it and pretended nothing happened. But the problem was, comments on JUMP+ couldn’t be deleted at all.

She didn’t want to share the things from that dream with her readers.

In her sketchbook, there were several sketches she had drawn from her memories of the dream scenes.

But these were her exclusive memories, things she had experienced with that boy named Sakamoto Ken.

Although the end was a bit infuriating, there were still many memories of infatuation, self-forgetfulness, comfort, and climax during the process.

Unless she could really find this Sakamoto Ken and talk to him face-to-face, it was better to keep it as her biggest secret.

(End of Chapter)