Chapter 40: As If It Were Last Night

This girl, she must have put on makeup again.

Natsume Mio’s skin was already very delicate and supple. She had applied a light blush to her cheeks, which contrasted with her rosy lips. For a moment, Sakamoto Ken felt as if this was the image of Makima he had in his mind.

Sakamoto Ken responded with a smile and immediately shifted his gaze to the magazine rack.

“Let me tell you about the classification of the magazine rack.”

Sakamoto Ken picked up an entertainment magazine and moved it to the upper two rows.

“This is the entertainment magazine area, that’s the political news area, and the manga below also needs to be classified. Shonen manga is placed at the very front, followed by shojo manga. Seinen manga should be placed at the very edge, and as for the gentlemen’s magazines over there…”

Sakamoto Ken said to himself and walked over.

This area of the store still needed to be organized. In a few years, convenience stores would be banned from selling these magazines, supposedly to give tourists a better impression.

But in reality, the covers of seinen manga magazines were no less explosive than these in the corner…

After taking two steps, he found that Natsume Mio was still standing in the same spot.

Sakamoto Ken looked back and gave her a questioning look.

Natsume Mio seemed to snap out of it and quickly followed.

This was the most remote corner of the entire convenience store. Behind a symbolic partition was the gentlemen’s section.

The magazine covers were basically all currently active, famous actresses. Sakamoto Ken recognized a few, but not all of them.

In fact, at first glance, the level of exposure wasn’t too great. Although they seemed to be wearing nothing, the key parts were covered by the artistic title text on the cover. Moreover, they were tied with string and couldn’t be flipped through in the store.

Natsume Mio stood timidly two meters away from the magazine rack. She saw the gaudy covers on it. Fortunately, she had foundation on her face, otherwise the blush would definitely be particularly obvious.

However, her ears, which the makeup didn’t cover, had already exposed the girl’s inner thoughts.

Sakamoto Ken put the magazines that customers had misplaced back in their original positions, while saying to Natsume Mio, “Actually, you don’t have to worry about these. Organizing the magazine rack is mainly the responsibility of Miyamoto-san who works the late-night shift.”

“But… Manager-san said I should get familiar with it too,” Natsume Mio said in a low voice.

“Organizing this area is very simple. Just put the same magazines together. If the lower half of the cover is particularly revealing, put it on the upper shelves, like this one.” Sakamoto Ken picked up an example and pointed to the lower side of the cover.

Natsume Mio’s eyes widened as she looked at the magazine cover, and then her gaze followed Sakamoto Ken’s hand as he placed the magazine on the third shelf.

The magazine rack was designed this way. The bottom shelf could display the entire cover, while for each shelf above, the lower half was covered by the magazine on the shelf below it.

Placing them like this was actually Manager-san’s rule, while some stores would put the most revealing ones in the most conspicuous position.

Natsume Mio’s gaze swept over, and she pointed to the all-ages shelf on the other side, “Ken, is that one in the wrong place?”

Sakamoto Ken turned his head to look. A magazine that clearly belonged here had been placed in the seinen manga area by a customer.

Sakamoto Ken nodded and said, “Help me get it.”

Natsume Mio walked over, picked up the magazine, and without looking at the details on the cover, turned her face away and handed the magazine to Sakamoto Ken.

Sakamoto Ken took it and looked at it, letting out a light “huh.”

“What’s wrong?” Natsume Mio looked at Sakamoto Ken in confusion.

“It’s actually news about Mikami-sensei,” Sakamoto Ken said, looking at a headline on the magazine.

The magazine headline read:

「SKE48 Team S Member Kito Momona Rumored to Join MUTEKI!」

It felt like a lifetime ago.

Going back ten years, in this year, the teacher was only 22 years old, in her prime.

In his previous life, during university, Sakamoto Ken accidentally clicked on a string of mysterious code sent to him by a classmate, and then a folder with a capacity of up to 500GB appeared on his computer’s hard drive.

What was talked about among classmates was that these videos seemed to come from a certain mysterious country, and would insert things like “New Lisboa Online,” “The first online 〇〇 is live,” and some even had Chinese subtitles.

He himself hadn’t watched much, but his friends had watched a lot, and had even bought several genuine DVDs.

Now was indeed the time for Momona to change careers, but no one could have predicted that Kito Momona, after retiring from the girl group, would become a global star in another industry under another stage name.

“Eh?” Natsume Mio noticed Sakamoto Ken’s nostalgic expression, pouted, and said, “You don’t actually know these stars, do you…”

“I don’t,” Sakamoto Ken put the magazine in its corresponding position.

He really shouldn’t know.

At this point in time, the only names Sakamoto Ken knew were Asuka, Yoshizawa, and so on, as well as the legendary senior, Sora-sensei.

“Oh…”

Natsume Mio felt that Ken was lying. He definitely knew them, and maybe even watched them every night.

Actually, if he didn’t watch them, wouldn’t that be abnormal?

After all, Ken lived alone. He would always have needs at night. Even girls would… he… should… also…

“Natsume-san?”

“Eh?!”

Suddenly being called by Sakamoto Ken, Natsume Mio shuddered. She had been daydreaming and was startled.

“Go to the counter and get some plastic string. The strings on a few of these have been opened by customers.” Sakamoto Ken took out the few books he had just picked from the shelf and stacked them together.

“Oh, oh, I’ll go get it right away!”

Natsume Mio rushed behind the cash register, took out a roll of plastic string, and also grabbed a pair of scissors.

“Do you know how to tie them?” Sakamoto Ken asked.

“No!” Natsume Mio answered immediately.

“Didn’t you work part-time at Lawson?” Sakamoto Ken said.

“Ah… um, I wasn’t in charge of that kind of work,” Natsume Mio explained lamely.

Of course she knew how to tie magazines. Not to mention she had done it at Lawson, she had also done it in that dream when she worked part-time at this convenience store with Ken.

But of course, she had to have Ken teach her again.

The two sat at a table in the dining area. Sakamoto Ken placed a magazine on the table and skillfully tied the four corners of the magazine with string, then pulled the end of the string to the back of the magazine and tied a knot.

This way, it would affect the customer’s view of the cover as little as possible, while also preventing the inner pages from being opened.

Of course, it only protected against gentlemen, not villains. There would always be customers who would secretly pull the string open, and sometimes even accidentally tear the pages.

Natsume Mio held another magazine next to him and followed Sakamoto Ken’s movements.

It had to be said that this large expanse of flowery white was indeed very attractive to the eye, and even she couldn’t help but stare at it.

But her hands didn’t stop moving. She deliberately appeared less skilled, but the final tying effect was still very good.

However, after she had tied the magazine in her hand, her gaze moved to Sakamoto Ken’s side.

Sakamoto Ken’s hands flew, quickly tying another magazine. Then he stood the magazine on the table, pulled the string, and tied a knot on the back of the magazine.

Natsume Mio inexplicably felt a tightness in her back, as if a force was pulling on her limbs and chest, binding her.

The girl bit her lip tightly, her legs pressed together, and her eyes rippled with moisture.

That feeling, so familiar, so familiar…

It was also these hands, and also this technique.

As if it were last night, still vivid before her eyes.

(End of Chapter)