Chapter 14

On the day of Sunflower Live

Subaru: Welcome, everyone... ☆

Both a T-shirt and towel? Thanks for your patronage!

Makoto: A bromide and picture frame set? Thank you so much~ ♪

Yes? Oh, the shirts and the handkerchiefs were made by us, yeah. The sunflowers really give it a summery feel, you think? Fufu, then it was worth all the effort we put into them!

You’d like to buy both of them? Thank you very much! We’ll be performing in Sunflower Live soon too, so please check it out if you get a chance ♪

Hokuto: Fufu, we’re off to a good start. If we keep up a steady flow of customers, we’ll definitely sell out.

But...

Subaru: What’s up? Is there a problem?

Hokuto: Not exactly, but it’s better you see for yourself. Look over there.

Subaru: Hm? Oh—it’s Hibiki-senpai! And Natsume!

Hokuto: Sakasaki told me before that he was asked to help that masked pervert... I guess it was preparation for today.

Subaru: Ooh, Hibiki-senpai’s booth is selling cotton candy!

Wow, soooo cool! He’s making cotton candy faster than the eye can see, and then Natsume’s sprinkling on the toppings!

I’ve never even seen cotton candy like that before~ ♪ I’ll ask Natsume to make some for us later!

Hokuto: You realize we’re competing with them, right? This is no time to get excited over that.

Hmm... There’s a hot-air balloon flying around near the booth, but it’s a different color from the one I usually see so I didn’t think it belonged to the masked pervert.

But only he would come up with such a gaudy stunt like flying a balloon around. I bet he even bought that balloon just for this event.

And the surprise of the balloon coupled with the attractive cotton candy brought a considerable crowd rushing to his booth.

Some of the customers who were in line for our booth ended up drifting over there, too.

Subaru: Urgh... They have so many customers, we might actually lose!

Mao: Cotton candy is pretty cheap to make, too. They’ve gotta be turning a nice profit.

Hokuto: Really? How did you know that, Isara?

Mao: Oh, it’s ‘cause the President and them had a cotton candy booth for the school festival, and they just kinda told me about it. Even though I never asked.

Oops, another customer. Welcome~ Huh? Is this the line for the cotton candy?

No no no way. This is the line for Trickstar merch, and the line for cotton candy is... umm...

Ah. Probably right behind that girl wearing a straw hat.

No, I can’t be more specific, sorry. Good luck getting that cotton candy safe and sound.

Ugh... It might be because there’s no one to manage the lines, but there are people getting into our line by mistake.

I’ll go ask Hibiki-senpai if I can go ahead and wrangle these lines.

I know it’s basically helping out the enemy, but the customers would be disappointed if they got in line thinking it was for cotton candy, only to be wrong.

Subaru: Aw, man. You’re way too soft, Sally. But I do agree with you!

Hokke, can I go with him? If it’d cause trouble to leave you alone though, I’ll stay.

Hokuto: No, the masked pervert’s stall is hindering the foot traffic. It’d be time-consuming to redirect the line, so I don’t mind.

Subaru: Then I’ll see you later! We’ll leave the booth in your hands for a little bit!

Wataru: Amazing! Welcome, welcome to my cotton candy booth... ☆

The customer is god! And I shall so my utmost to serve you~ ♪

...Oh? Well, if it isn’t Akehoshi Subaru-kun and Isara Mao-kun from Trickstar! What a delight~ Have you come to play?

Mao: No, not exactly. You just have a really big line, and people are getting it mixed up with our line.

So I came to ask if we could get the lines all situated.

Wataru: Ohoho, what an auspicious offer. However, that would only serve to our benefit, no?

Mao: Yeah, we know.

But if people are lining up for your cotton candy and they don’t get it, they’ll be disappointed.

I don’t wanna see that happen...

I’m also thinking that maybe if I can do this for you, you’ll go easy on me if we end up losing.

Well no, that’s not true. It’s just something I came up with now.

Wataru: Hmm, I see. It is the polite thing to do to return a favor with a favor. Then, I’ll slip in a good word for Trickstar’s booth while our customers buy cotton candy.

Subaru: Seriously? That’s awesome! Thanks, Hibiki-senpai!

I get so fired up when I get something out of it! Okay okay, let’s get these lines in order~ ♪

A few minutes later

Izumi: Yuu-kun~ Onii-chan came to play ♪

Makoto: Eugh—Izumi-san! You’re busy with that shoot for Knights today, right? So you really didn’t have to come visit me?

Izumi: If it’s to see my adorable Yuu-kun, I’d come running no matter how busy I am.

Ritsu: Who cares about that, where’s Maa~kun? Why isn’t he here?

Makoto: Oh, Isara-kun’s off with...

Subaru: Heyyy, sorry about the wait! We got the lines figured out, so we came back~!

Makoto: Speak of the devil... Welcome back, guys.

We have just as many customers as we did at first, so the two of us couldn’t handle it all by ourselves. Good thing you guys are here now.

Ritsu: Maa~kun.

Mao: Ritsu... So you came over, too.

Ritsu: Yep. ...Sorry I was so hard on you before.

Mao: Nah, it was my fault. I should be thanking you for riding my ass about it.

I ended up talking to Subaru and Hokuto about it, and now we’re all united to dominate the merch sales.

We made the shirts, hankies, and picture frames ourselves. We put a lot of work into it, so if you like them you could buy some. It’d make me happy.

Ritsu: Sure. I want this bromide of you with the frame. If I put it up at home, I’ll get to see your face every day... ♪

Izumi: Oh, great idea! Yuu-kun, lemme get one of your bromides and a frame too!

Makoto: Urgh, I don’t really wanna sell to you, Izumi-san, but you are a customer... Just please don’t use it for anything weird, okay?

Izumi: What do you take me for? I’m just going to put it under my pillow so I can see you in my dreams every single night.

And then you’ll be the first one I say good morning to when I wake up ♪

Makoto: Cut it out! Why don’t you realize how weird that kinda thing is?!

Hokuto: Guys, stop chatting with the customers. I’m no god, so I can’t deal with more than one person at a time.^[1]

Mao: Sorry, sorry. Don’t worry, I’ll go back to helping the customers. And Ritsu, I hope you’ll come watch our live if you can ♪

Makoto: (Fufu, we’ve got a steady stream of customers. The ones who came earlier even said they saw our pics on social media and came to check us out.)

(I’m glad we got to post our pics all together.)

(The internet is my domain, so I’m gonna do whatever I can to help everyone this way from here on out!)

jp proofing: Mai
eng proofing: Findermao