CH 8.4

While eating, I explained the plan.

「That will certainly solve the money issue. As expected of Kazu. I have no objection」

「I agree!」

「Heh, you think about your class」

Since the girls have agreed, all that was left to do was to put it into action.

Fortunately, the store was just getting empty.

「Excuse me.」

I called out to a woman in her late twenties who was passing by with a nameplate on her chest that read “Manager Sawamura”.

「Yes, do you have an order?」

「No, these girls want to work here part time and I was wondering if you could interview them.」

「In that case, please call me later.」

It was a natural response.

However, that is not how it works.

The usual route might lead to separate interviews.

「I would like to speak with you for a few minutes now. I won’t take up too much of your time. Just speak with the four of us together.」

The manager looked around the store. Confirming that it was almost empty and that several customers were paying attention to us, she nodded reluctantly.

「I understand. Please pay your bill.」

Okay, we’ve passed the first hurdle.

-0-

「Sit down」

The four of us were ushered into an office of about six tatami mats.

The manager sat down in front of the office desk and offered me a pipe chair she had brought from another room.

「Excuse me」

Yui and I bowed and sat down.

Hatori and Watanabe followed suit.

「We are only looking for girls right now, okay?」

This was the first thing she said with a stern look on her face.

This was in the days when there was still such a thing called pressure interviews.

This was before there was a talk that the people who came for interviews might also become customers or that bad rumors would spread on SNS.

This manager probably didn’t have any bad intentions.

She didn’t show it on the surface but she looked very tired.

「It doesn’t matter. I only want you to hire these two. I think they are visually perfect. Watanabe here is the class president and has a good eye for detail. Shiratori was raised well and has been trained in all aspects of etiquette. She doesn’t misbehave and is physically strong.」

After saying that, I showed the manager the two student ID cards I had kept in advance.

「I will bring you their resumes later. How about it? I’m sure they will be of great help to the store.」

「Are you some kind of salary man who’s pretending to be a high school student or something? But you look so young……」

「I’m only 17 years old desu yo. I just want to contribute to the sales of this store.」

「What’s your point?」

For the first time, the manager’s face turned serious.

It’s not that she’s joking before.

「I heard that this store’s sales are the lowest in the Yuri Miller chain. I suppose there are some location issues but I thought you might want to reel them in.」

「How did you know all of that?」

I asked Yui to look into it until after school.

Yuri Miller has five stores that are easily accessible from the school.

Among them, I dared to go for the one with the lowest sales.

「I have some contacts.」

「Are you really a high school student…..?」

「If you hire the two of them and do us a few favors, we will make a small contribution to the store’s sales.」

「Contribution……your food every day doesn’t add up too much, does it? Is that what you mean?」

I thought she was going to take me seriously but she’s still underestimating me.

Well, I’m a high school student after all.

It could be said that if we are somewhat underestimated, we can expect them to be more sympathetic and willing to cooperate with us, some pitiful children.

「Before that, please listen to our favors.」

I had two conditions.

The first was to lend Hatori one of their uniforms so that she can copy Yuri Miller’s uniform.

The second was to use Yuri Miller’s name in our school festival. In other words, a collaboration.

「I might consider secretly lending you a uniform but I’d have to ask the headquarters about using the name.」

「I’m sure you have to. There, we can simply ask them to set up a negotiating position.」

「We have a hotline with the head office but I don’t think they’ll listen to every high school student’s call. 」

「What if this store’s sales double in two weeks? It would be a good thing for the company and it would also improve its image as a company that cares about the local community.」

「With a condition like that, they might at least listen to you but, do you have a plan?」

Once those words are said, it means we’ve won.

Once we have their interest, all we have to do is produce results.