Pre-Translation Notes: The amount of katakana here was awful. Also I almost left “ikemen” untranslated because while “handsome” is a good sort of equal, I’m not sure if it carries the same sort of ‘oomph’ to it. I think I’ve mentioned it before that the better equivalent is ‘hunk’, but it sounds super clunky to have these characters say that. Any suggestions are appreciated and I’ll give it some thought. I try to reduce the amount of Japanese specific terms but for this one I really struggle to find a good one. I even consulted a friend of mine who natively speaks Japanese for this one, as the title more literally translates to something like “The standard choice of hot guys”, but in the adverbial sense. tl;dr this title made me anxious for translating this chapter.

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Misono Ren and Misono Shizuku.
According to the younger brother and older sister pair, the “Oshio Sota Remodelling Project” was extremely difficult.

“…….it’s good, isn’t it?”

Finishing changing clothes in the narrow dressing room, I said that while simultaneously opening the curtains.
On the opposite side of the curtains, is Ren sitting on a footstool and crossing his legs, next to an extremely confident and proud Shizuku-san.
Shizuku-san snorted and replied,

“I tried to match the German-made fisherman’s shirt with the white pants! The bucket hat with a navy stripe has an ideally sporty and marine feeling! How is it~”

……what kind of magic spell is this?

I didn’t understand the meaning of Shizuku-san’s words. but anyhow I tried to return an obedient expression……

“—the feeling that he’s wearing clothes isn’t there, you know. The silhouette is too big and it doesn’t fit with Sota’s slenderness. ”

Then, immediately Ren pointed out the faults.

What would you answer back to that? [T/N: Literally “As for you, to answer?” Hard to translate without the next sentence.]
For sure, I thought, “As for this, would it be better for a more built guy to wear this?”

Shizuku-san examined me unblinkingly and stared at me before saying “Certainly!” and clapping her hands together.
This time, Ren got up from his chair, and handed over a set of clothes he had seemingly matched beforehand.

“We’re taking turns, sis, you sit down and watch.”

“Fufu, let’s go ahead and see what you’ve got, little brother.”

Changing out who was sitting on the stool, Shizuku-san sat down and crossed her legs.
There’s no relief for me, even though I’m the one who’s changing clothes……?

Shortly after I voiced such doubts like that, the curtains were closed.
Reluctantly, I changed into the clothes Ren passed me.

“……good, right?”

It was said with anticipation, and then the curtains were opened.

“The paisley pattern on the open-necked shirt tucked underneath the grey slacks, the point being the dangling belt. The calm coloring is antique and adult, and it’s perfect for Sota’s slenderness. How is it?” [T/N Note: So the kanji for “dangling belt” can be read as “hanging belt” as well, which when I went to go look it up that fashion, ended up giving me some suicide prevention links. I was thoroughly confused for about a minute before it clicked.]

……so, what kind of magic spell is this?
Shizuku-san hummed an “Uuun.” in reply.

“You’re on the right track but as expected, if it’s for a high school student, there’s the feeling of trying to stand on your tiptoes, moreover with this coloring, it’s gloomy and isn’t it going to be hot? It’s summer, right? In fall, it would score 80 points.”

“Definitely, right.”

“Yes, yes” said the Misono siblings as they nodded their heads.
……what about what I’d like to wear?

“—as expected, adding a military style shirt can make the difference in how casual it is! This is the best! A French navy border shirt!”

“No, if you’re going to use military style, it has to be the bottoms! England style cargo shorts!”

“No, no, no! After all, for military style, boots are the best! Easy to match and excellent functionality! Italian sailor shoes!”

No no no, no no no, along with many words I have never heard before, noisily flow through the store with such volume that it drowns out the BGM playing.
In the middle of this, for some reason the person who is left behind is me, the person who is the one wearing these clothes.

It doesn’t mean that they’re taking me into consideration, it seems, as their argument goes in circles, when Ren suddenly turns his head towards me.

“Sota, what kind of style is good?!”

Ren says that, coming to touch on this subject.
Seeing this, Shizuku-san turns her attention this way.

How should I put this…
Because I was embarrassed, I scratched my cheek which made a baribari sound while I said,

“……as for me, I honestly don’t understand clothes, but this is a setting that I absolutely want to look good in.”

The noise up until now seemed like a lie, as the two people here kept their mouths closed.
Even the heavy bass of the BGM, which could be heard anywhere, was consumed by the silence.

“It’s embarrassing to say, but in sports and in my studies I’m average, I’m not good in chatting or in having fashion sense, well, not especially up until now, and because of that, it was fine, since I don’t want to be popular with women like Ren, but……”

Then, I finally say it.

“—because it’s the girl I like, I wonder if I want to look good enough so I’m not embarrassed to walk next to her…”

I have a feeling I am talking about something awkward, but that’s how I honestly feel.

—the unreachable flower who everyone envied, Sato Koharu.

It could be good, it could be folly.
I want to be equal to her, even if it’s for an instant as short as releasing the shutter of a camera.
I wanted to become a man who doesn’t feel uncomfortable in a single photo of a scene where she and I walk side by side—that’s my one, only wish.

The Misono siblings, for a short while, vacantly held their mouths open as if they had frozen in place. [T/N: Raw uses something more literal to “harden/solidify” but so “froze in place” seemed like a good alternative.]
Did I say something that drew them in that much, or did I say something that sounded that bad?
At the time when I started to think that.

“Sis, do you have a shirt? A beige one?”

“I do, after, what about a white tanktop and denim pants?”

“That’s right, a bright blue, one that’s tight and made in Britain.”

“What about the military bag, it doesn’t have a good vibe.”

“There’s a satchel bag I haven’t used.”

“Okaaay.”

Suddenly, the time that was stopped started up, as the Misono siblings ran through the store restlessly.
Then, for the bewildered me, the two who until just a little while ago had violently argued with each other, passed ideas off to one another, and briskly gathered up miscellaneous clothes from the store’s interior.
Just like that, I was handed a complete set of coordinated clothes.

“Eh, this is……?”

“The truth is, as a second-hand store employee, I want Sota-kun to awaken to the merits of second-hand clothing, however…… this time in consideration for Sota-kun’s manly energy, I’ll drop the humor so I can earn your forgiveness!”

“Well, if you choose to say something so handsome to that extent, I’ll pick seriously, since this time I was just having fun.”

“……As expected, the two of you are playing with me.”

“Don’t say anything troublesome, just change clothes!”

Shaaaa went the curtains as they were vigorously closed.
There were a few things I wasn’t satisfied with, although I changed into the “coordination” they had prepared, then—I opened the curtains.
Between the two a sound of “Oo—……” is made.

“It’s safely arranged, hm.”

“It’s the standard choice for handsome guys, isn’t it?”

“Don’t get mad.”

“It’s a little boring, right?”

“I’m stuck on how to say it……”

I felt something subtle when I saw that the two’s comments are obviously not as passionate as one would expect until a bit ago.
……However, for me who was disinterested in fashion, my impressions, well, this was considerably neat and good, wasn’t it?

From the light beige short sleeve shirt, the white tank-top only barely peeked through.
The brightened blue jeans indeed made a fresh, summer impression.
As for the satchel? It’s something like a small pouch and the dark blue sneakers also have a sporty and good feeling, you know, but in the end that’s an amateur’s opinion, well……

Well, anyway, this is what my best friend and his sister recommended to me.
It can’t be a bad thing.

“Ren and Shizuku-san, thank you very much. As for this, I’ll buy it.”

“Yes, thank you for your purchase! As for this price~~~here!”

Shizuku-san held out a hand calculator which presented the amount of money.
——I was surprised.
It didn’t go that high, as was cheaper than my expectations.

“I, is it okay to have a complete set of clothes be this cheap? I thought that these used clothes had to be expensive……”

Really, that was my one fear.
Some time ago, I checked the prices of the clothes Ren and Shizuku-san were wearing, and for a high school student it was a very heavy blow.
However, this is more than what I expected.

“That’s well, almost everything in this house is dad’s, directly purchased from overseas, so the price is of course, expensive but I’m not a demon! I know the lonely circumstances of high school students! So we picked cheap ones!” [T/N: This is Shizuku talking, but in the raw she addresses herself as “onee-san”, sort of in a “general older woman”, but that doesn’t translate well into English so I just went with I.]

“And then that satchel, it’s one of my hand-me-downs, and since I can’t use it anymore, it’s free.”

“And then, you have the evening 20% discount, right! As for the remaining money, use as much of it on your date to show off!”

Nahahahaha, cheerily laughed Shizuku-san.

An evening discount……?

While I held my doubts, honest feelings of gratitude gathered in my chest.

“……Thank you very much, I’ll do my best.”

I bowed my head to the siblings, for reducing the price of the clothes I bought.
Then, from Shizuku-san, I received the price tag for the clothes I was wearing.

“Ku,kushu!”

Even though it’s summer, my nose is weirdly itchy and I sneeze.
While I was wondering what it was, Ren for some reason says “Ahhhh” with a know it all look.

“Sota, this is your first time in a second hand store, so you might feel a bit bad because it’s dusty.” [T/N: Literally this sentence was “you were killed because it’s dusty” for trivia.]

“Ah, in the end there’s a lot of vintage items, so it can’t be helped, you know—”

“……kushuu!”

I make another successive sneeze.
Making showy sneezing noises had a feeling of being a little rude, so I muffled my voice, but it didn’t stop.

“For now, you should get some air outside, since my sister and I will be talking.”

“……my bad. Then, for today, sincerely, thank you very much for everything.”

“Yep, until the next time you come—! Rainy days have a 30% discount, and thunderstorms have a 50% discount—!” [T/N: Yo, I wish I knew a store that gave 50% off on thunderstorms.]

……isn’t that overdoing it on discounts?

That’s what I thought, as I left “MOON”.
It had already become dark outside.

---

This chapter was not actually that long but all of the katakana and clothing shenanigans were a real pain, haha. Thank goodness these chapters are back to their usual length instead of being godforsakenly long.

Next chapter is of course, something parallel to this but on the Sato side of things.

Not a lot to say for this chapter, other than Oshio stepping up and saying what he wanted was pretty cool. Anyways, expect the next chapter on the 11th of December since the normal schedule hasn’t changed, as I released this one early in order to account for the holiday.

For everyone who’s celebrating it at the time this goes, I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving! Thanks again for reading, and see you all next time!

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Previous Chapter

Table of Contents

Next Chapter

Pre-Chapter Notes: The kanji is basically the same as the last chapter for the title, except swapping out “man” with “woman”. Today we also get to meet a character who even though they’ve never met, I will ship her and Ren until the end of time.

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A girl’s appearance is valuable, throwing it away recklessly isn’t a good thing.
There is never a time you can let go of it, you must religiously hold onto it.

These words that I am thankful for aren’t from a famous celebrity—it isn’t someone like that, they the words of my mother, Kitou Kiyomi. [T/N Note: I’m fairly certain this is just an alternative reading of her last name, it’s there in the furigana (helping kanji), but the kanji is the same as ‘Sato’.]
By the way, I once unconsciously blurted out 「Hey, mom, you’re a vain person, aren’t you?」, and was strongly slapped in the face.
Rather than because it hurt, I was almost crying because I was surprised that my head made a surprisingly good sound.
I dislike violence.

Well, I shouldered my teary eyes, and moreover my mother was in a bad mood, but it was still a good word.
A girl’s appearance is valuable, there isn’t any kind of time you can let go of it.
—If that’s the case, this is the time, after all.

I made a rare phone call that night.
Out of all my rare relationships, only one is close to my age, my cousin Sudou Rinka.

「Ah, hello hello? How are you, Koharu…」

I yelled faster than the girl on the other side of the phone.

「—I want to shopping with you for clothes you wear on a date!」

「Y-you’re lying!」

Rinka-chan’s voice could be heard from a distance.
Apparently, I had put my smartphone away. [T/N: Slightly confusing, but probably is just a joke that you could hear her even without the phone.]

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

Sudou Rinka was the daughter of my mother’s younger sister—in short, she’s my cousin.

Her bangs were cut evenly over the eyebrows and her hair was tied up neatly in a ponytail, almost like a doll.
Her features were very young and really had the feeling of 「middle school student」, however this girl had a strong-willed gaze and a calmness for her age, and I think to myself 「She’s more mature than me, isn’t she?」, in a moment of delusion.
By the way, this year she’s a 15 year old third year junior high school student, that is, two years younger than me.

「Is Koharu’s boyfriend a hot guy?」

After school, Rinka-chan, who is walking next to me, suddenly asks something like that, so I…

「Hm?」

I didn’t raise my voice in a manner unbecoming of a high school girl.
After a delay, the word 「boyfriend」 reentered my ears and my face became red. [T/N: Sato actually says “the two characters of boyfriend”, referencing how boyfriend is written with two kanji characters. However, saying that above translation is clunky.]

「B-boyfriend…… Oshio-kun and I aren’t like that yet…..!」

「Heeeh, so he’s called Oshio?」

「Ah—」

「Also, ‘not like that yet’, what’s with that? If you’re a high school student and say things like that, someone will easily take him, Koharu, because of a misunderstanding.」

「~~~~~~~!」

I bite my lip and glare at her.
But Rinka-chan smugly pretended not to notice.

Unlike me, Rinka-chan is easy-going, says everything on her mind, and is imposing.
However, my hesitant feeling might possibly be tiresome to her.
Even if I’m two years older, it’s always unkind.

……And I’m supposed to be two years older!

「So? In the end, is he a hot guy? How is he?」

「……」

I strongly keep my mouth shut and don’t respond.
It was a pitiful story, because I was confident that if I had a verbal match with Rinka-chan, I would lose 100 times.
It absolutely doesn’t mean 「I can’t say such an embarrassing thing」, it absolutely……

「If you don’t have self-confidence in your answer, inside it means you don’t think he’s cool, you know.」

「——Oshio-kun is good looking, you got it!?」

「You’re lying.」

I responded to the provocation so fast it surprised even myself.
Then, Rinka-chan, who was frowning, immediately extended her hand this way.

「……Eh? What’s with your hand?」

「Photo, you have one, don’t you? Show me.」

「How…」

Again, a strange sound left me.
I’m a high school girl, I’m a high school girl…

「Th, the fact is that’s a little embarrassing, however—」

From the thin crack in my small mouth, mumbling came out.
A photo of Oshio-kun…… I have it, and yet I only have one.

However, this attitude from me, while also not having a photo of just him, was pretentious, or so I thought. [T/N: I added “of just him” for clarity as the raw text makes it sound like Sato doesn’t have a picture at all, though she has the picture with the two of them.]
Rinka-chan let out a 「Ha~~~~……」

「……Koharu, are you really a high school girl? Show me that much, at least.」

「A, after all, that photograph, Oshio-kun is really handsome but I’m also in the photo……? It’s not much, so I…… can’t give it to you……?」

「You cheeky—!」

「Ah!? Aaaaah!?」

My smartphone was quickly taken from my eyesight into the palm of her hand.
I reflexively tried to take my smartphone back, but with the nimble movements of someone who was active in the basketball club, she dodged, and I, having slow reflexes, fell forward.
Then while I was narrowly missing falling onto my face and calming the loud beating of my heart, Rinka-chan, with experienced hands, used my smartphone and opened the aforementioned picture.

That night, in front of “cafe tutuji”, where Oshio-kun and I took a photo, of a boy and girl being alone. [T/N: In the raw, Sato uses the term “tsuushotto”, or “two shot”, which is a photo of two people with the implication it’s a guy and girl alone, and tried to incorporate this into the translation.]

「Oh? This is the photo, isn’t it…… haha, Koharu, what kind of face is this, gihihi.」

「A———————————————ah!!!?」

「You’re noisy…… heeeeh, I see, this kind of guy, huh? Certainly Koharu likes him, I don’t like gentle-looking guys, but—」

Rinka-chan returns my smartphone.
I’m embarrassed to the point of death, although I accept it and try to hide my immediately reddened face with it.

「Uu……I wish you would disappear……」

「You were exaggerating, he’s a normal good looking guy, what do you need to hide?」

「……」

In addition to teasing to this extent, how happy I am on the inside to hear he’s called handsome.
Right after, Rinka-chan suddenly looks this way over her shoulder.

「Just now, I was a little happy he was called handsome.」

「Eh, how……」

「My mouth was breaking out into a grin.」

……I hate Rinka-chan after all! 
As Rinka-chan stepped on the grounds of my heart, she let out a 「But」 in an usually serious tone.

「Koharu, your face is uselessly good, so I’m a bit worried.」

「Eh……?」

「You might be being tricked, or he’s aiming for your body, your status, that sort of thing.」

「O-, Oshio-kun isn’t that kind of person, you know?!」

「You don’t know anything, Koharu, because until now you’ve never known anything about love, especially that kind of handsome guy, they’re more cunning than girls.」 [T/N: Personally I think Ren and Rinka are a match made in heaven, they deserve each other.]

「That’s not true……」

Even if I’m unclear with how I word it, of course I don’t have doubts about Oshio-kun.
This is because she’s poking at my complex of how I’m a second year high school student with no love experience.

I wondered if Rinka-chan also understood, but she only sighed with a 「Haa……」

「Well, I don’t know if it’s true or not, but it’s better to be aware of your lack of love experience since you’re currently in an unrequited love and sometimes it’s too late to notice.」

「……」

I unconsciously kept my mouth shut.
I was overwhelmed, but furthermore I was very thankful for her words and was impressed.
By some chance, isn’t that it?
That practically speaking, Rinka-chan was more of an adult than me.

「Rinka-chan…」

「Stop calling me in that unpleasant sounding way, more importantly, look, we’ve arrived at my recommendation.」

Saying that, Rinka-chan came to a stop.
I saw, mixed there with the other houses, a completely conspicuous red painted store.
The signboard read “Europe Used Clothing MOON”.

Europe… Used Clothing……?
At the sound of the name, I shuddered.

「Ri, riri, Rinka-chan? I, um, imagined a store with a lighter feel, but……?!」

For the me who does not fuss regularly about clothes, a used clothes store is a high hurdle for me to jump over.
After all, isn’t it a used clothes store?
With frazzled hair, a rampantly growing mustache, earrings and a necklace and a tattoo on a frightening shop keeper, loudly talking with someone, something like that……!

「Koharu, it’s not that way, one more further down.」

「Eh……?」

When Rinka-chan told me to look at it, certainly next to the red painted store, there was an overall whitish and beautiful store there.
The storefront had a flowerbed, and at this time of year was in a lovely full bloom, and a signboard reading “hidamari” was written in a nice pop typeface.
Its atmosphere somewhat resembled “cafe tutuji”.
I was deeply relieved.

「Thank goodness……」

「“MOON” is fundamentally a men’s store, and since it’s extremely hit or miss, I also don’t go there.」

「Does Rinka-chan always buy such fashionable clothes in a place like this……?」

「I’m a middle school student, you know? If I always buy second-hand clothes, my wallet would be empty, so I usually go to Pannies or H&N, but—」 [T/N: Nice anime-off-brand name.]

Going as far as to say that, Rinka-chan looks me straight in the eye and then says.

「—Koharu, this time, you’re really serious, aren’t you?」

「Yes!」

At the strong nod from me, Rinka-chan unintentionally laughed as opened the door of “hidamari”.
The sweet smell of the flower field tickled the tip of my nose, and I exhaled.

Even though it was already evening, the space here was full of a morning feeling.

In the store’s interior was a flowing and calm bossa nova, with plenty of warm indirect lighting.
Antique clocks with a sense of unity, dolls from other countries, and then modest accessories, and so on, somehow made me feel a sense of familiarity.
Mornings held a characteristic of 「the exhilaration of the start of one day」, and it was locked up in a place like this.

Thus, I was captivated by this sight, and then a voice spoke.

「—Welcome, Rinka-chan」

If you trace the source of the voice, the direction was deeper inside the store, where in an armchair sitting down and scanning over a magazine was a woman.

She was a very pretty young woman.
She had soft and curly cream-colored hair, and a soft smiling face.
She was wearing a tight white top, light yellow wide pants, with her attire being calming.

「……who is this?」

Rinka-chan, pointed to me who was standing still on the spot, and said.

「That’s my older cousin, Koharu. Mayo-san, quick, I want you to look for Koharu’s best clothes, because this time she has a date she can’t lose.」

「……E, a, yes! That’s right! I’m Sato Koharu!」

I, who was tense and nervous, made an incoherent greeting.
However, “Mayo”, the young woman who had called out before, didn’t seem to mind, clapped her hands and said kindly.

「My, my, that’s very serious, isn’t it—I’m Nezu Mayo from “hidamari”, I’ll do my best and coordinate, so let’s do our best! Yappie!」 [T/N: This is getting out of hand, now there are two of them.]

Yappie……?
I didn’t understand the meaning of the word, but for now I’ll pretend it’s the motto of the shopkeeper, and I earnestly and hesitantly responded with a 「Ya, yappie……」

---

I swear these chapters are getting longer and I am not a fan lmao

Man though, Rinka and Ren should pair up with each other. They really do deserve one another. Not much to say for this chapter, as it was slightly easier than last one.

With the next chapter scheduled to fall the day after Thanksgiving, I’m somewhat unsure of whether or not we’ll have a chapter posted (I do have the next one done, though, as part of my buffer strategy). It is a day after a holiday, so I might be off drinking or hung over instead of putting a chapter up. I’ll try to plan for it, but there is a bit of manual effort involved as whenever a chapter goes up I do have to go in and set all of the links to point to the right location on the site (even if it only takes like 5 minutes lol). If there isn’t a chapter in two weeks, assume the normal schedule is still holding, so the next one will come on the 11th of December, which means amusingly a chapter will supposedly drop on Christmas.

Best case, instead of dropping them on the holidays, I’ll drop them on the Wednesday of that week (in this case, the 25th of November). Anyways, that’s about all for logistics. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you guys all next time!

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Previous Chapter

Table of Contents

Next Chapter

Pre-Chapter Notes: I swear this title will make sense. Also, I’m trying a new way of doing translation notes this chapter, let me know if you like it better or would prefer the old way of doing it.

Translator: Toasty
Proofreading: Toasty

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Saturday.

As the time turned to 5pm, I finally closed the cafe for the day.

「Alright, let’s tidy up and finish…… Dad, is there any black tea?」

I take off my apron while asking, not getting a reply. Though strangely, when I think about it, my dad who’s always in the kitchen has a strong abdominal body.

……?

Is there… is there a meaning to this?

Ah… I guess it’s fine, first of all, he’s probably getting ready.

I start to make the black tea.

—Since that day with Sato-san at 「Tea Pearl」, it’s been five days. Since then, Sato-san and I haven’t spoke once.

As if that day in “My Struggle”¹ was a lie, at school Sato-san behaved in the same was as before, “Salt-God Sato-san”. 

A person whose hand didn’t reach out, a flower above everyone else.

Naturally, I am also alone.

I don’t know why that happened.

But, I’m certain that it was the end of our final conversation, I think.

「—th, this time on Saturday, I’m going out to eat rolled ice cream! I wonder if Oshio-kun wants to come along!」

I recalled the words she frantically spit out.

What was the right way for me to answer?

Even if she’s alone, by chance, it doesn’t mean the ability to take photos will disappear.

I, who refused Sato-san’s invitation, maybe caused Sato-san to greatly change the way she thought of me.

The girl who behaved as “Salt-God Sato-san” at school, over the weekend would continue to take many pictures while visiting fashionable cafes.

Her photograph sense from here on was the beginning of her struggles, but it should improve over time as she takes more of them.

Thus, sooner or later, those photographs would be uploaded to Minsta. They would be seen by our classmates, and Sato-san would be recognized for them, and so she would make friends……

Look, there isn’t a problem.

……Thus, the only person with a problem is me.

「……」

I think while the tea is boiling.

Sato-san is cute.²

Features that one could talk about me, the face she would make when she laughs, an unexpectedly childish side of her, and all sorts of small things like that, just about everything is cute.

“Salt-God Sato-san” was a dishonor, if only it would die, she would make a lot of friends, and be very popular with the opposite sex.

Ikemen³ from the basketball club and baseball club would be confessing to her.

I woke up from my imagination with a crushing feeling in my chest.

I’m such an idiot.⁴

While thinking things like that, from my pocket I took out my smartphone, started up Minsta, and opened the page I saw hundreds of times.

—that’s Sato Koharu’s Minsta account, registered that night.

0 followers, number of images posted: 0.

The profile picture isn’t set, as it’s a brand new account.

……She certainly didn’t know, right?

Minsta has a function with Mine, when you open an account, it sends a notification to Mine friends.

Today as well, the amount of pictures was 0 and was not moving.

「……haha.」

I was so cowardly, I thought, a dry laugh escaping from me.

It’s impossible that I’m relieved that no image was posted today…

It can’t be helped, it can’t be helped.

I made that kind of excuse as I made my black tea, then went to my father under the terrace.

「Your muscles are crying.」

My dad, seated in a garden chair, said something excessively vague.

「Ha?」

Unconsciously, I gave my response.

What are you saying, you muscle daruma?⁵

「The muscles… come again?」

「Your muscles are crying, is what I said.」

「Now I really don’t understand the meaning.」

In a truly elegant manner, my dad puts his teacup to his mouth.

…Oi, don’t drink, and answer me.

「Sota… ever since your mother went ahead, with one hand I’ve protected this “cafe tutuji” and you, as both of them are irreplaceable to me.」

「That is…… honestly, I’m grateful, but why now?」

「There’s nothing I don’t know about this cafe or you, Sota.」

「So, what are you…」

「Sota, for the sake of me and “cafe tutuji”, are you giving up the girl you like?」

「……」

I tightly held my tongue.

In comparison to any other words, it was a confirmation above all else.

「……why?」

「Fufu, when I saw your face I understood, up until now I’ve been looking at pancakes next to Sota’s face, you know?」

Even if there was a lie there, put your son first.

「It can’t be helped.」

There’s no use keeping up appearances to my dad, so I start talking.

「……”cafe tutuji” has a good amount of customers, but it doesn’t mean we have the leeway to hire a part-timer, I know that.」 

After all, from when I was born, I always grew up in “cafe tutuji”. It was easy to understand even without a concrete number. 

「Dad, you didn’t force me, but, for example, if I, on the weekend with a girl who’s been on my mind, went on a date…… dad would be troubled, I understood that, so…」

—and so, that was the reason I rejected Sato-san’s invitation. “cafe tutuji” didn’t have the leeway to hire a part-timer. For this reason, I was extremely busy on weekends, and wouldn’t leave my dad alone to tend the store.

I didn’t want to blame “cafe tutuji”, so I didn’t tell Sato-san.

「It’s only that, so it can’t be helped, “cafe tutuji” is an important place to me, and while the advertisement on Minsta is putting us on the right track, I can’t just go.」

That was the true meaning.

Of course I like Sato-san.

But above all else, this is a place I must absolutely protect and can’t do without.

Dad rolled the black tea in his mouth while he quietly listened. Then, for a moment, he swallowed, and slowly opened his mouth—

「……during my college years, I belonged to a sweets research society……」

「Eh? You suddenly started saying something, but—」

「Stop, and listen!」

I was given a sharp rebuke, so I started listening.

Dad cleared his throat before speaking.

「The Sweets Research Society was four guys, consisting of a small number of people who thought alike, in those days we were a slave to calories.」

……What an incredible club.

I had a sudden urge to make a tsukkomi⁶ comment, but my dad was in Serious Mode, so I didn’t.

「However, your dad was in his third year when he had a turning point, when a person named 「Muscle Lord」 who had been exiled from the American Football club wanted to join.」

「With that nickname, they were exiled?」

「Secretly, they mixed protein in their drinks.」

What?

「As their name suggests, Muscle Lord was so fascinated by muscles… they had fallen to the muscle side because of their strange attachment to them.」⁷

Where is the muscles side, and where is it connected from?⁸

「Their excessive and radical thoughts about the display of muscles drove away the American Football club from Muscle Lord, who escaped to the relatively peaceful Sweets Research Society.」

「And what happened to you, dad?」

「We accepted them, since if you put a pancake with similar pancakes, it would be like a brother, was the reason.」

Don’t say it like it was rice from the same pot.

「…..so? This muscle guy?」

At this question, my dad smiled.

「Protein went in our pancakes.」

「They’re already a psychopath.」

Finally, I was able to make a retort. I couldn’t help it.

「Then, we became fatter and fatter due to the overdose of protein, so we went on a harsh muscle training program and diet, and soon enough we noticed, all the members of this club have bodies as Muscle Lord expected.」

「……those muscles, that kind of origin is a joke……」

I don’t need to be aware of such a thing.

「Well, we who were angry at being tricked by Muscle Lord fought…… ah, and after this and that, eventually we were able to come to a reconciliation.」

「I think that ‘this and that’ must be something important, but…」

「No, it wasn’t something important, we just became aware that muscles were a good thing, and Muscle Lord eventually converted and no longer forced unwanted muscles.」

「Ah… Muscle-Psychopath-san, never regain your heart.」

「Well… Muscle Lord was your mom, you know.」

……

…………

………………Haaaa!!?

「My mother was Muscle Lord?!」

An excessively devastating feeling passed through me in a moment.

Eh… hold on a second… that’s a lie, isn’t it!?

My mother, who was smiling gracefully in her portrait, was Muscle Lord!?

「My story got interrupted, you know…… ah, what was it… No, the derailing is so shocking that I can’t remember what I was talking about… that’s right, Sota’s muscles are crying, is what I said.」

「That’s it……?」

Tilting his head, my dad turned his head towards me with a gentle smile.

「Sota, when your muscles grow for the first time, they hurt, just like your father and mother.」

「Eh……?」

Up until now, I looked back at my dad quietly.

「People… when people come into contact with each other, they hurt each other, and it’s painful. But, muscles accept it, and after this, they grow happily, you know? So, if your muscles are crying, it’s a time when they could lose an opportunity to get hurt.」

「……」

I see, that style of talking where you have something to take away from it. But, even if I told you about that kind of thing…

「It can’t be helped, that’s the reality of—」

「It can be helped!」⁹

Dad yells, snapping his fingers.

Immediately after, somehow, from the garden bushes several rustling noises are heard, and from the bushes three muscled darumas appeared.

At this strange situation, my body unconsciously moved back.

「Dowaaah!? What, what, what?! Who are these suspicious people?!」

「They aren’t suspicious people! They’re your father’s friends from the research society!」

「Ehhh!? That’s impossible!」

「It’s true! It’s everyone from the Sweets Research Society!」

「That stupid story earlier was foreshadowing!?」

When I shouted, they all struck a pose, appealing with their muscles as if to affirm it.

No, what’s with this situation?! You can’t be serious—

「……the truth is, I made a request, that only on the weekends they would help with the cafe.」

「Eh……? Wh… what……!?」

I continued to press for an answer to my bewilderment; my dad just turned to me and smiled sweetly.

「—I think it’s decided, because I want Sota, a child who wants to get hurt, to do what he wants to do… it would disqualify me as a father to take away the opportunity to get hurt, or rather—」

While saying something like that, dad stood up from his chair. To me, his son, he quietly bowed my head and said—

「—up until now, I am truly grateful. It’s thanks to Sota that we’ve been able to get by somehow. But now, please entrust it to your father, so Sota can do as he likes.」

「Ah…..」

It was thoroughly straightforward thank you.

At that time, the weight on my shoulders felt as if it was disappearing like smoke.

Surely, God is watching, isn’t that right?

My phone in my pocket buzzed.

「…..」

I took it into my hand, and on the display was—

「Sato Koharu has posted a picture.」

—I need to prepare myself.

「……Father! I’m going to borrow the bicycle for a bit!」¹⁰

As soon as I said that, I ran to the bike in front of the store and mounted it.

Then, moving quickly to cut through the wind, I began to pedal.

—shaking off “cafe tutuji”, to go to Sato-san—

「—persevere, Sato! Your father will always be there to help you!」

The evening sunset made it a little hard to see, but from far behind me, I hear the call of my dad; however, I didn’t turn back.

---

Translation Notes:

1. Oshio literally says 「マイン騒動」/「Mein Struggle」, so while I was tempted to translate it into “Mein Kampf”, I held off on that. Still caught me off guard as it was pretty funny. Not sure if he was actually referencing Mein Kampf though.
2. OH REALLY, YOU SAY THIS NOW, OSHIO.
3. Ikemen, or tl;dr “tall handsome guys”
4. Baka mitai~ Actually no it didn’t say that, but I wish it did.
5. These are round, traditional Japanese dolls modeled after the founder of the Zen tradition of Buddhism.
6. Tsukkomi is the “straight man” of the two man manzai comedy duo, the other being the boke. Basically, Oshio wants to make a snarky comment to the silliness of his dad’s story.
7. So this guy added extra protein into the football players drinks so they’d grow additional muscle for their fetish, WTF talk about dedication
8. Pretty sure this is Oshio just internally snarking about “where the muscle side” is.
9. Literally, in this case 「it isn’t that it can’t be helped」. I was trying to come up with a clever translation but settled for something simple.
10. I opted for “father” as Sota was using more polite language here, so I used it rather than “dad” like in his internal monologues.

Dang this chapter was long. For comparison, Chapter 10 was 4 pages. This was 7.5.
Also, do you guys prefer it that I put translator notes in the middle like last time, or at the end where I enumerate them? I tried the former last time, and the latter this time. Let me know which one you thought was better going forward.

Either way, after this one, I’m going to try to shoot for a kind of 2-3 week cadence per chapter. Essentially, expect the next chapter around October 2nd. While the chapters are short (NOT this one though), this one was probably a solid 8-12 hours of effort; last chapter was about 5 hours. I have other IRL stuff to do, so this is mostly done during my free time, but I did want to regularly put out chapters in order to stop myself from slacking. Second, do you guys have a time preference for when chapters come out? We’re still early on in my translation shenanigans so let’s try to hammer down a goal time for myself.

Hopefully that’s a fast enough pace for you guys, haha. I don’t think I’m going to take any more projects on until I get more comfortable with my Japanese grammar parsing or I find another WN that I enjoy but was dropped; vocab isn’t too much of an issue since I can look up kanji and have started kind of recognizing them (especially with Wanikani too) but it is pretty rough trying to parse out grammar especially when some of the sentences are agonizingly long.

Anyways, see you all next time. Hopefully the post chapter notes start getting shorter, too.

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Table of Contents

Next Chapter

Description (Taken from NovelUpdates):

Sato Koharu is a pretty girl that everyone can recognize.

But her attitude with anyone is so bitter that she got nicknamed “salt-god Sato-san.” Anyone who tried to get close to her got emotionally injured in a brutal way.

Though for some reason, I was able to save Sato-san from pick-up bois where I was working at. Which made her like me, and thus I became a friend of “salt-god Sato-san.”

In front of everyone, she is a salt-god, but in front of me, she is so sweet. This is a high school life story between Sato-san and I.

This Web Novel translation originally was being translated by Nono No Sancutary. As it hasn’t been updated in over a year and there’s a comment saying it’s on hiatus, I decided to pick it up.

Table of Contents

Volume 1

• 1st Piece: [Salty Sato-san] (Nono No Sanctuary)
• 2nd Piece: [Minstragramer Oshio-kun] (Nono No Sanctuary)
• 3rd Piece [First Love] (Nono No Sanctuary)
• 4th Piece [Two Shot] (Nono No Sanctuary)
• 5th Piece [Konpeito From That Day] (Nono No Sanctuary)
• 6th Piece [Classroom] (Nono No Sanctuary)
• 7th Piece [Friend Request] (Nono No Sanctuary)
• 8th Piece [Tapioca Milk Tea] (Nono No Sanctuary)
• 9th Piece [Tapioca Challenge] (Nono No Sanctuary)
• 10th Piece [As For Today, Thank You]
• 11th Piece [Your Muscles are Crying]
• 12th Piece [In the Same Frame As You]
• 13th Piece [The Second Time of First Love]

Volume 2

• 14th Piece [A Man’s Appearance]
• 15th Piece [A Woman’s Appearance]
• 16th Piece [Standardly Handsome]
• 17th Piece [Even While Dreaming, I See For The First Time]
• 18th Piece [Matching]
• 19th Piece [Ordinary Unrequited Love]
• 20th Piece [The Story of Unrequited Love]
• 21st Piece [Moonlight]
• 22nd Piece [MINE]
• 23rd Piece [6 Minutes]
• 24th Piece [Against the Rules]
• 25th Piece [「For Me, Sato-San Is」]