My girlfriend is actually myself.

Chapter 24: I'm shipping this couple!

In Tokyo's 23 wards, the wealthiest people usually live in the three central wards: Minato Ward, Chiyo Ward, and Shibuya Ward.

The Tsukimiya family owns properties in three areas. The house in Chiyo Ward is the oldest, the high-rise building in Shibuya Ward is the most eye-catching, and the villa in Minato Ward is the smallest, which does not reflect the Tsukimiya family's heritage at all, but Tsukimiya Aoi loves this villa the most.

It's better to be small, as it doesn't require too many people to manage it, and besides, this is where my daughter, Moon Palace Liuli, usually lives.

There is only one servant in the villa, Chihaya Asakura, a close friend who grew up with Aoi Tsukimiya.

The Tsukimiya family purchased this villa twenty years ago, originally for the Tsukimiya family matriarch, Tsukimiya Aoi's mother. Three years ago, after Tsukimiya Ruri disappeared, the old lady couldn't withstand the blow, and her health deteriorated. She now lives in a nursing home.

Besides her mother, Tsukimiya Aoi also has some distant relatives, some members of the Tsukimiya family's collateral branches. For the past three years, these relatives have been trying to curry favor with her, wanting to adopt their children of childbearing age into her family, but she has refused them all.

She has only one daughter, and will always have only one.

As night deepened, she submerged herself in the bathtub filled with rose petals, enveloping her weary body in the warm water and feeling the tranquility of the night.

The phone on the shelf next to her beeped, and it took her a while to raise her arm and pick it up.

The person who sent the message was a distant relative, and also one of the candidates for adoption. Some bored fellows among the collateral relatives had ranked all the adoption candidates, and this person was at the bottom of the list.

Tsukimiya Aoi frowned. What gave this last adoptive child the courage to bother her now?

Looks like I'll have to delete her today too.

Before deleting the message, she opened the chat window and looked at the message the other person had sent. The content of the message would determine whether the other person and their family would face punishment.

The chat interface displayed a photograph. Tsukimiya Aoi clicked on it, looking at the man and woman in the picture. The man was a teenager with short black hair; aside from being somewhat handsome, he wasn't particularly special. The woman was a young girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, and her appearance…

Tsukimiya Aoi suddenly sat up, splashing water onto the ground with a crisp sound.

Rose petals clung to her shoulders, slowly sliding down to her chest, trembling violently with each breath.

After a long while, Tsukimiya Aoi swiped her phone, brought up the keyboard, swiped it open again, and dialed a number directly.

"Where is this photo from?" Her solemn voice echoed in the bathroom.

……

Lured by the promise of double pay, Shiraishi Saku and Yukimiya Natsune went to the convenience store together after school on Monday.

Yuko Takahashi and Natsumi Yukimiya were about the same height. Confident, she gave Natsumi Yukimiya her employee uniform, only to later discover, with embarrassment, that Natsumi Yukimiya's zipper couldn't be zipped up.

Yukimiya Natsune could only wear Shiraishi Saku's employee uniform, which Shiraishi Saku borrowed from another employee in the store.

Yuko Takahashi was devastated and grieved alone, while Saku Shiraishi and Natsumi Yukimiya were busy with work.

The significantly increased customer traffic and steadily rising sales soothed Yuko Takahashi's mood. She carried a notebook and typed in the dining area of ​​the store, turning her head to observe her two employees during her breaks.

She looked up more and more often. At first, she would only glance at them occasionally, but after noticing a pattern, the frequency of her looking up increased dramatically. Finally, she closed her notebook and stared at the two of them.

To use a trendy term, she feels like she's now shipping couples, and she, who used to scoff at idol dramas, has suddenly come to understand how idol drama audiences feel.

She'd seen plenty of high school students, plenty of couples, and plenty of loving high school couples, but never one who seemed to get along as well as the other two.

Their posture, their expressions towards customers, their scanning habits, and their gestures when giving change were all eerily synchronized.

Especially when giving change. For example, right now, in front of Yukimiya Natsune, a customer handed over a 1000 yen bill and needed 600 yen in change. Yukimiya Natsune took a 500 yen coin, and Shiraishi Saku took a 100 yen coin. They placed them together on the cashier's counter, completing the change-giving combo.

When Yuko Takahashi saw this, the customer, who had been all smiles, was caught off guard and his smile froze. After a couple of seconds of stunned silence, he reluctantly took back his change.

This is not an isolated case, and the two men's combination of giving change was not intentional—they both had customers waiting in front of them and didn't have time to collude.

They seemed to be watching each other constantly, like a single entity, a pair of companions with a telepathic connection.

When they were serving oden, they used all four hands to grab all the ingredients in a second. When they poured the broth over the ingredients and handed them to the customers, the customers were stunned for a moment.

When serving coffee, Shiraishi Saku places the paper cup, presses the button, and then turns to attend to other matters. Just as the coffee is about to overflow the paper cup, Yukimiya Natsune turns around, turns off the coffee machine, and serves the coffee to the customer.

They didn't exchange a single word, not even a single glance! Language and facial expressions, invented by humans for communication, were completely superfluous to them!

This series of actions left Takahashi Yuko stunned, and the guests were also quite surprised.

Yuko Takahashi noticed that one of their fellow customers had noticed their tacit understanding and deliberately lined up in two separate queues, one ordering oden and the other coffee, along with a bunch of other items that required scanning, in an attempt to make things difficult for them and interrupt their smooth operation.

The two accepted the challenge and completed it exceptionally well. They no longer divided the work among themselves, but rather cooperated step by step. Yukimiya Natsumi took over the oden when she was halfway through filling the coffee, and Shiraishi Saku took over the coffee when he was halfway through filling the oden.

Needless to say, the change-giving process was seamless. Even though the two customers deliberately gave him a large bill, they quickly and cooperatively gave him the change. Yukimiya Natsune was in charge of the bills, and Shiraishi Saku was in charge of the coins. The boy held a pile of coins in each of his hands, and the girl held a bill in each of his hands. He then handed the coins to the two customers. The two customers counted them in disbelief—it was correct.

Gasps of amazement rippled through the line of guests, and some even clapped.

Yuko Takahashi crossed her arms, wondering how many times these two had been shameless enough to develop such amazing chemistry! Did they just hang out together whenever they had free time?

Even she, who loves to gossip, couldn't bring herself to nitpick when faced with such a couple.

It's a pity that these two are both quiet types, unlike Asakura Airi who came before and could chat with her.

Thinking of this, she took out her phone and checked Asakura Airi's LINE account. There were no messages, so the girl was probably still busy with club activities.

Once night falls, you can start harassing them... and then you can share your life with them.

After putting down her phone, Yuko Takahashi continued to fantasize about the two of them.

Amidst the busy work of the two and the flow of customers, a black sedan stopped outside the glass wall next to the cashier. The driver, dressed in a suit, got out and opened the back door with his white-gloved hand.

The convenience store's sensor door opened, and a figure in high heels, carrying a red handbag, walked to the back of the line.

The customers talking ahead glanced back and fell silent in astonishment. The convenience store's lights, which were usually bright, suddenly seemed dim because the woman entering looked far more radiant.

If Airi Asakura is a Tokyo beauty, then the women walking in now are at the level of Tokyo socialites.

Regardless of her makeup, clothing, or accessories, she didn't look like someone who would appear in a convenience store on the street, but rather like the focus of attention at a business or political banquet.

The customers in front of her made way for her, but the woman didn't stand on ceremony. Her high heels clicked as she walked to the cashier and ordered a coffee.

Yukimiya Natsune handed it to her, and she took it, pressing down a ten-thousand-yuan banknote.

"No need to look anymore." She held her coffee, walked past the shop, got into the car, and the driver in a suit gently closed the door, started the car, and disappeared around the corner.