Chapter 40: As If It Were Last Night
This guy, he definitely put on makeup again.
Natsume Mio’s skin was naturally exquisite and dewy. She applied a light blush to her cheeks, which complemented her rosy lips. For a fleeting moment, Sakamoto Ken felt as though this was the image of Makima he had in his mind.
Sakamoto Ken returned a smile and immediately shifted his gaze to the magazine rack.
“I’ll explain the magazine rack’s categorization.”
Sakamoto Ken picked up an entertainment magazine and moved it to the two rows above.
“This area is for entertainment magazines, and that area is for political news. The manga below also needs to be categorized: Shonen manga goes at the very front, followed by shoujo manga, then seinen manga on the very edge. As for the adult magazines over there…”
Sakamoto Ken spoke to himself as he walked over.
This area still needed tidying up in the store. In a few more years, convenience stores would be prohibited from selling these magazines, supposedly to provide a better viewing experience for tourists.
But in reality, the covers of seinen manga magazines were hardly less provocative than those in the farthest corner…
After walking a couple of steps, he noticed Natsume Mio still standing in the same spot.
Sakamoto Ken looked back and gave her a questioning look.
Natsume Mio suddenly snapped back to attention and quickly followed him.
This was the very corner of the entire convenience store, and behind a symbolic partition was the adult section.
The magazine covers were mostly of current, well-known actors. Sakamoto Ken recognized a few, but not all of them.
Actually, at first glance, the content wasn’t too explicit. While they appeared nude, the key areas were covered by artistic titles on the cover, and they were bound with rope, preventing them from being browsed in the store.
Natsume Mio stood somewhat timidly about two meters away from the magazine rack. She saw the gaudy covers and was glad she had foundation on; otherwise, her face would have turned noticeably red.
However, her ears, which weren’t covered by makeup, betrayed the girl’s inner thoughts.
Sakamoto Ken put the magazines back in their original places, which a customer had messed up, and said to Natsume Mio, “You don’t really need to worry about these. Miyamoto-san is mainly responsible for tidying the magazine rack in the latter half of the night.”
“But… the Store Manager said I should familiarize myself with it too,” Natsume Mio said softly.
“Tidying this section is simple; just put the same magazines together. If a magazine has a particularly provocative lower half on its cover, place it on the upper shelves, like this one.” Sakamoto Ken picked up an example and pointed to the lower part of the cover.
Natsume Mio’s eyes widened as she looked at the magazine cover, then followed Sakamoto Ken’s hand as he placed the magazine on the third shelf.
The magazine rack was designed so that the bottom shelf displayed the entire cover, while on every shelf above, the lower half was obscured by the magazines on the shelf below.
This way of arranging them was actually the Store Manager’s rule, while some stores would place the most provocative ones in the most visible positions.
Natsume Mio scanned the shelves and pointed to a shelf for all-ages content on the other side: “A Jian, wasn’t that one put in the wrong place?”
Sakamoto Ken turned his head to look. A magazine clearly belonging to this section had been placed in the seinen manga area by a customer.
Sakamoto Ken nodded and said, “Please bring it over for me.”
Natsume Mio walked over, picked up the magazine, and without looking at the details on the cover, turned her face away and handed it to Sakamoto Ken.
Sakamoto Ken took it and a soft “Oh?” escaped him.
“What’s wrong?” Natsume Mio looked at Sakamoto Ken with doubt.
“It’s news about Teacher Mikami,” Sakamoto Ken said, looking at a headline on the magazine.
The magazine headline read:
「SKE48 Team S member Kito Momona reportedly joining 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 the previous life, while in university, Sakamoto Ken accidentally clicked on a mysterious link sent by a classmate, and a folder with a capacity of 500GB appeared on his computer’s hard drive.
The classmates were excitedly discussing how these videos seemed to be from some mysterious country, with insertions like “Online Xinpu Jing” and “First Online 〇〇 Launched,” some even with Chinese subtitles.
He himself hadn’t watched much, but his friends had watched a lot, even buying several genuine DVDs.
This was indeed the time for Momona to switch careers, but no one could have predicted that Kito Momona, after retiring from an idol group, would become a global star under another stage name in another industry.
“Huh?” Natsume Mio noticed Sakamoto Ken’s contemplative expression. She pursed her lips and said, “You don’t actually know these celebrities, do you…?”
“No,” Sakamoto Ken said, placing the magazine in its corresponding spot.
He really shouldn’t know them.
At this point in time, the names Sakamoto Ken knew were only Asuka, Yoshizawa, and so on, as well as the legendary veteran, Teacher Sora.
“Oh…”
Natsume Mio felt that A Jian was lying. He definitely knew them and probably watched them every night.
In fact, it would be abnormal if he *didn’t* watch them.
After all, A Jian lived alone and single, and he would always have needs at night. Even girls… he… should… also…
“Natsume-san?”
“Huh?!”
Suddenly called by name by Sakamoto Ken, Natsume Mio gave a jolt. She had drifted off and was startled.
“Go get the plastic rope from the counter; the ropes on a few of these magazines were undone by customers,” Sakamoto Ken said, holding the few magazines he had picked out from the rack.
“Okay, okay, I’ll go get it!”
Natsume Mio bustled to the back of the cash register, took out a roll of plastic rope, and grabbed a pair of scissors as well.
“Can you tie it?” Sakamoto Ken asked.
“No!” Natsume Mio replied immediately.
“Didn’t you work part-time at Lawson?” Sakamoto Ken said.
“Ah… well, I wasn’t in charge of that kind of work,” Natsume Mio explained weakly.
Of course, she knew how to tie magazines. Not only had she done it at Lawson, but in that dream, she had also done it while working at this convenience store with A Jian.
But of course, she wanted A Jian to teach her again.
The two sat at a table in the dining area. Sakamoto Ken placed a magazine on the table, skillfully tied the rope around the four corners of the magazine, and then pulled the ends to the back of the magazine to tie a knot.
This minimized any obstruction to customers viewing the cover while preventing the inner pages from being flipped through.
Of course, it was only effective against honest people, not malicious ones; there were always customers who would secretly untie the rope, or even accidentally tear the pages.
Natsume Mio, holding another magazine, followed Sakamoto Ken’s actions.
She had to admit, this large area of colorful pictures was indeed very appealing to her senses, and even she found herself staring at them involuntarily.
However, she didn’t stop her actions, deliberately acting a bit unskillful, but the final result of her tying was still good.
After she finished tying the magazine in her hands, her gaze shifted back to Sakamoto Ken.
Sakamoto Ken’s hands moved swiftly, quickly tying another magazine, then standing it upright on the table. He tugged at the rope and tied a knot on the back of the magazine.
Natsume Mio inexplicably felt a tightness in her back, as if a force were pulling at her limbs and chest, binding her.
The girl bit her lips tightly, her legs pressed together, and her eyes welled up with moisture.
That sensation felt so familiar, so familiar…
It was these hands, and this method.
It felt like last night, still vivid in her memory.
