The sales clerk led Ayano Genya to the denim section, and it really opened his eyes. Old-school jeans and denim jackets were everywhere, almost too many to take in. In the end, with the clerk’s recommendation, he picked a light-colored denim outfit.

“You can go try it on first.”

“Mm.”

Holding the clothes, Ayano Genya quickly changed in the fitting room. Then, under the clerk’s guidance, he walked over to a full-length mirror. Looking at himself, he felt the overall effect was pretty good. It had a strong retro vibe.

The only regret was that the denim jacket felt a little tight around the shoulders. That was probably because he had quite a bit of muscle there, which made moving his arms inconvenient. While he was still looking in the mirror, a figure appeared in the lower right corner of the reflection and caught his attention.

It was a woman’s graceful silhouette. She seemed to have just come down from the second-floor stairs. Since the mirror faced the staircase, she had happened to enter the reflection. Because the woman in the corner of the mirror was dressed rather flamboyantly, she drew Ayano Genya’s gaze for a moment, and he ended up looking a few extra times.

“This jacket seems a little small. Do you have one slightly bigger?” Ayano Genya asked, pulling himself back and turning around.

“I’m sorry, I need to go check first.”

Ayano Genya followed the clerk back to the area where they had been picking clothes earlier, and completely forgot about the woman in the mirror.

“What do you think of this one?” the clerk asked, holding up another denim jacket in a darker color.

Since vintage clothes weren’t mass-produced, it was rare for one style to come in multiple sizes. This was completely within Ayano Genya’s expectations. If the clerk had actually pulled out the same jacket in a larger size, he might’ve started wondering whether this shop was artificially distressing regular clothes and passing them off as vintage.

Ayano Genya shook his head to show his dissatisfaction. He felt that light-colored jeans paired with a dark denim jacket looked kind of off and didn’t really match. After hearing his feedback, the clerk quickly brought over a light denim shirt and handed it to him.

“How about this one?” the young saleswoman asked kindly, showing no impatience at his requests. On top of that, when he had first entered the store, she had introduced him to a lot of vintage clothing knowledge. That gave Ayano Genya a pretty good impression of her.

What Ayano Genya didn’t know was that a large part of why the saleswoman was so patient and friendly with him was because he was handsome.

“This one’s pretty nice. I’ll go try it.”

Ayano Genya took the shirt and headed for the fitting room, only to see that someone had gotten there before him and gone in to change. What a shame. He had been beaten to it. Even though the vintage store was large, it only had one fitting room.

“Sorry, how about waiting a bit first?” the clerk suggested.

Ayano Genya didn’t answer directly. Instead, he lowered his head and glanced at the shirt in his hand, then found a corner with hardly anyone around. He planned to just change out here. He was a guy, after all, and he only needed to take off his top. There was no need to wait for the fitting room to free up.

“I’ll just change here. Turn around and wait a moment for me, okay?” Ayano Genya said to the clerk.

“Mm, o-okay,” the clerk replied, sounding a little surprised.

Ayano Genya waited for her to turn around, then changed very quickly. But when he turned his head back, the first thing he saw was a mature woman not far away staring at him with obvious interest, her eyes like a predator watching prey. Ayano Genya recognized her at a glance. The woman staring at him now was the same woman who had appeared in the mirror earlier.

He had no idea who she was. He quickly searched his memory and found no impression of her at all. She should’ve been a stranger. But he couldn’t understand why she was staring at him with such an aggressive gaze.

When he had been looking in the mirror earlier, he had already seen this woman come downstairs. By all logic, she should’ve left the store by now. But in reality, not only had she not left, she was still standing nearby and watching him. Ayano Genya didn’t even know whether she had been staring at him the whole time while he was changing.

Since she was only openly watching from the side, without doing anything excessive, and she wasn’t affecting him directly, he could only choose to ignore her for now.

“I’m done changing.”

Ayano Genya signaled that the clerk could turn back around. The two of them returned to the mirror and looked over the effect of the outfit together. This time, the fit was quite satisfying, and the shirt was more comfortable than the jacket. Overall, wearing this denim outfit gave Ayano Genya the air of an abstinent-type male god, making the saleswoman beside him almost unable to look away. Ayano Genya himself was also very satisfied, and under the clerk’s strong persuasion, he finally bought the outfit.

After deciding to buy it, Ayano Genya planned to look for another set of clothes, something loose and casual. Under the saleswoman’s recommendation, his second outfit went for a Japanese workwear style that most young people in Japan could accept. It gave off a lazy, slightly decadent feeling when worn, and Ayano Genya liked it a lot, even more than the first denim look.

After buying the two outfits, Ayano Genya noticed that the mature woman still hadn’t left. At some point, she had even sat down in a chair and was quietly watching him, making it hard for him to keep ignoring her.

Led by the clerk, Ayano Genya went to pay. Neither outfit was especially expensive, but together they still used up all the money he had earned over the past few days as a Chinese tutor. Just like that, Ayano Genya was poor again.

Looking at his wallet, now empty once more, Ayano Genya fell into thought. At this rate, when would he ever be able to afford a computer? When would he be able to attend prep classes for higher education? When would he be able to rent a bigger place and sleep in separate rooms from Mizuno Hina? If this vicious cycle kept going, his “study abroad after returning home” plan would sooner or later become nothing more than a daydream.

Although his current money-making speed was already pretty fast, it was still far from enough. After all, there were only a few months left until Japan’s general university entrance exams. And those planning to continue their education had basically been attending all kinds of cram schools since the start of the term. Every bit of time Ayano Genya delayed before joining prep classes meant falling further behind everyone else. If that kept up, getting into the University of Tokyo would become almost impossible.

So right now, Ayano Genya’s main goal was making money. He needed to earn more in the shortest time possible. Obviously, his part-time job as a Chinese tutor still didn’t meet his standards. If a job that saved time and paid extremely well were placed right in front of him, he probably wouldn’t even think before agreeing.

Of course, pies didn’t just fall from the sky. This kind of thing was something he could only imagine in his head to comfort himself.

“Thank you for coming!”

The moment Ayano Genya stepped out of the vintage store, that mature woman followed him out as well. He didn’t hurry to leave. Instead, he waited by the entrance to see what she would say.

“Hello, little brother. Tell me, do you want to make a lot of money?”

As the mature woman’s words drifted lightly into Ayano Genya’s ears, he could hardly believe that a pie from the sky had arrived this fast. The rich perfume on her body also drifted into his nose with the breeze. He had always hated strong perfume, but at this moment, he didn’t find it unpleasant in the slightest. Instead, it felt like a spring breeze washing over him.

Even that mature woman, dressed boldly and wearing heavy makeup, was starting to look in Ayano Genya’s eyes like an angel bringing the light of hope.

“I do!” Ayano Genya answered without hesitation.