Starting Tokyo Life From Inheriting A Shopping Street-Chapter 121

Shuichi let out a sigh. "Sooner or later I’m going to get dragged down with you and suffer the consequences of your reputation. If someone finds out, let’s see how you keep playing the part of the cold, aloof student council president."

"If they find out, then so be it..." Tsuki urged him on.

Shuichi crouched down, just about to do something, when out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly noticed a figure appear on the balcony to his right.

He froze instantly, his body stiffening slightly. Meanwhile, Tsuki remained completely unaware and continued urging him, "Master?"

Shuichi slowly turned his head and locked eyes with the figure. Even with his strong mental fortitude, he found it difficult to keep his composure at that moment.

Still, he managed. He forced a polite smile and kept his tone relatively steady. "Good morning, Kitagawa-san."

Ichika curiously looked back and forth between the boy and the girl, then nodded with a gentle smile, replying just as naturally, "Good morning, Chiba-kun. It seems I may have interrupted something."

"Ah, not at all! Actually... she was kind of looking forward to, uh... this kind of situation. So your timing is actually... mm, perfect, Kitagawa-san."

Shuichi discreetly pinched Tsuki on the butt — Are you crazy?! Great, now they really have been caught!

Tsuki wasn’t blind or deaf; she had noticed Ichika by now. But instead of feeling regret or embarrassment, the situation only made her feel even more thrilled and excited.

So much so that her legs were starting to go weak.

After Shuichi pinched her butt, Tsuki couldn’t hold back and let out a soft, sultry gasp.

A subtle look of curiosity flickered in Ichika’s eyes. Her gaze lingered for a moment on Tsuki’s flushed, excited face, and there was a faint hint of surprise at the fervor and thrill she saw in her expression.

"There’s still some work to do at the flower shop. I’ll excuse myself for now," She said with a nod, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with Chiba’s explanation, then turned and quietly walked off the balcony.

Shuichi watched her retreating back, feeling a headache coming on. Things were just starting to make progress... just last night, Ichika had finally begun to show signs of a growing attachment.

And now this.

Sigh...

But then again, it wasn’t completely unexpected. Ever since that incident on the train, he’d had a feeling he was already on a path of no return.

Fortunately, Ichika wasn’t the gossiping type, and she didn’t seem particularly interested in anything outside the flower shop. So the incident probably wouldn’t spread. His reputation had narrowly been preserved.

As for Sumire Nagase, she might catch wind of it, but that wasn’t much of a problem—she already knew a bit anyway.

The only real loss was Kitagawa’s sense of belonging. Any hope of building that up again was probably gone. From now on, the honest, straightforward route was likely out of the question. She might even get spooked enough to cancel their arrangement and bail altogether.

After the thrill wore off, Tsuki gradually regained her senses and started to realize that yeah... maybe this situation wasn’t great. Not that she minded—it actually still had her kind of excited.

She just felt a little bad for Shuichi.

"Um... sorry, Chiba-kun. Should I go explain things to that onee-san?" Tsuki said, sounding genuinely apologetic.

Shuichi gave her a sharp smack on the butt, clearly annoyed. "Chiba-kun? Call me Master!"

"...Master..."

"In the end, we couldn’t dodge it. Now my reputation really is toast." Shuichi let out a long sigh.

Tsuki asked cautiously, "Then... should we still keep going? Is it really okay?"

"We can’t let you drag anyone else into this mess. I’ll just handle it myself," Shuichi muttered, lowering his head as he went back to the task he’d been trying to finish earlier.

At this point, what else could they do? First things first—grab something to eat.

"Mm..." Tsuki felt a strange lingering sensation on the back of her thighs, and for a moment, she couldn’t help but feel an urge to sing out loud.

But considering they had just been caught, she had no choice but to hold it in with twice the effort—lest someone else stumbled upon them again.

...

After wasting quite a bit of time, the two of them finally got themselves together and headed downstairs for breakfast.

Mrs. Akiyama greeted them with a cheerful smile as they walked in together through the front door, then brought out breakfast and set it down in front of them.

"Today’s breakfast is packed with protein again—you two need to properly replenish yourselves... Oh? Chiba-kun, why do you suddenly look so much more handsome? Is it just me?"

Mrs. Akiyama blinked curiously at the boy, clearly noticing something different. The change in his vibe was just a bit too striking.

"Thank you for the meal, ma’am. Maybe it’s just the new hairstyle," Shuichi offered a vague explanation, keeping it simple. He was still mentally reeling from the whole "Kitagawa-caught-us" incident and had no space left for small talk.

"By the way, Mom," Tsuki suddenly fired off, "do you want to finally explain what that whole ’Ramen Awards’ thing was about?"

"Eh? Ramen Awards? I don’t know what you’re talking about, Tsuki-cha.," Mrs. Akiyama said as her gaze started darting around. She pretended to be busy wiping the table like her life depended on it.

"My little sister already told me everything. You really gonna keep pretending?"

"That little traitor! No more snacks for her!" Mrs. Akiyama huffed, puffing out her cheeks in mock outrage.

"Snacks? There are snacks? Where?" An, who had been stumbling down the stairs while rubbing her sleepy eyes, perked right up at the mention of the magic word.

Her big, curious eyes scanned the room, briefly passing over Shuichi without pausing—after all, Chiba-kun suddenly looked more handsome or whatever couldn’t possibly be more important than food.

"There are no snacks," Mrs. Akiyama said with an exaggerated pout, turning her head away. "From now on, no more snacks for An-chan. That’s what traitors get for betraying their mama."

"Eh?! Sis! You promised not to rat me out! You’re such a liar!" An whirled toward Tsuki, puffing up in righteous outrage.

Tsuki just rolled her eyes and couldn’t be bothered to deal with her dumb little sister. "Anyway, since Mom went ahead and signed up for the Ramen Awards, that means no more slacking off.

"All those bad little habits you’ve been too lazy to fix? Time to get serious and clean them up. Also, the shop needs some proper decoration. An-chan, that’s your job too—do it properly."

"And as for the rest of the prep work, I’ll put together a checklist. You two just follow it step by step, no excuses."

Mrs. Akiyama And An’s faces immediately drooped, sighing in perfect sync like two sulking grade schoolers.

Shuichi spoke up, trying to steer things back on track. "Right, didn’t you say you were switching to limited handmade ramen? Has that change been made yet? Once it’s done, things should be a lot easier, right? Then you’ll have more energy to prepare for the Ramen Awards."

"Ah... we haven’t started that yet. Mostly because... well, something kind of weird happened." Mrs. Akiyama said, her expression turning a little awkward.

"What weird thing?" Tsuki asked, frowning.

Mrs. Akiyama shrank her neck a little, nervously tapping her index fingers together like a kid caught doing something naughty.

"It’s just... I tried using some ramen I bought from the noodle workshop, and... it felt like... maybe... possibly..."

"Spit it out. We’re on a tight schedule this morning." Tsuki cut in, already exasperated.

"Oh, come on, why so harsh? I’m the mom here, you know," Mrs. Akiyama puffed out her cheeks in protest, clearly a little offended. "Anyway... long story short, I think the store-bought noodles might actually taste... a teeny bit better than my handmade ones."

Shuichi stared at the tiny gap Mrs. Akiyama made with her fingers, silently wondering if she was measuring the space needed to fit an entire universe in there.

"Huh? You’re saying it tastes better than your handmade noodles?" Tsuki blinked in surprise.

"There’s probably some mistake somewhere," Mrs. Akiyama replied quickly, completely refusing to entertain the idea that she might just be... not great at it. She nodded solemnly, like a scientist delivering a neutral hypothesis.

"Can you make it now? Use the noodles from the workshop—make two bowls. Chiba-kun and I will try them and compare. If they really are better than the handmade ones, then there’s no point in doing limited handmade ramen at all." Tsuki said, cool-headed as always.

"Huh? Why just two bowls? Make three! I want to try too!" An slapped the table, puffing her cheeks in protest. How could anyone talk about food and leave her out of it?

"Traitor An-chan doesn’t get any." Mrs. Akiyama said, wrinkling her nose at her youngest, before flipping her head with flair and marching off to the kitchen like a drama queen.

An nearly burst into tears. "I knew I should’ve stayed in bed..."

An immediately scrunched up her little face, pouting, "Mom’s so mean! And you’re a big liar, sis!"

"I’ll just have a couple of bites, and you can have the rest." Shuichi said, half-amused and half-exasperated.

An’s mood flipped like a switch, and she immediately brightened up, "Chiba-kun is the best~!"

"Heartless brat," Tsuki muttered, rolling her eyes at her sister.

Since the noodles and tonkotsu broth were already prepared, Mrs. Akiyama worked quickly. In just a few minutes, she brought over two bowls of ramen, each piled high with char siu and an assortment of toppings.

Shuichi picked up his bowl, took a whiff, and immediately felt his appetite spike. The rich aroma made his mouth water.

Meanwhile, An happily ate her own delicious breakfast, though every so often she would glance over at Shuichi, her eyes wide with anticipation, as if she were afraid he might suddenly change his mind.

Shuichi took a sip of the soup, comparing it to the handmade one from earlier. He didn’t notice any significant difference at first.

Next, he sampled the char siu and other toppings—just as delicious.

Finally, he tried a bite of the noodles, and suddenly, his eyes sharpened. "This..."

"Yeah, it’s definitely a bit better than the handmade one." Tsuki chimed in from the side.

Shuichi nodded in agreement. Tsuki might have only noticed a subtle difference, but for someone like him, who exaggerated every flavor in his mind, even the smallest difference stood out clearly.

The noodles bought from the noodle workshop were clearly much better than Mrs. Akiyama’s handmade ones.

"So... does this mean we can just switch to using the noodles from the workshop from now on?" Mrs. Akiyama didn’t seem upset at all. In fact, she was almost unable to contain her joy.

No more handmade noodles!

It was such a relief!

Tsuki let out a long sigh, feeling completely drained. Clenching her teeth, she muttered, "Tomorrow, you’re going to follow Granny Mutsuki’s method properly again. If it still doesn’t taste better than the machine-made noodles, then fine, we’ll use the workshop noodles from now on."

"Mm-hmm, mm-hmm!" Mrs. Akiyama agreed eagerly, thrilled by the fact that her daughter had given her the green light to slack off.

"Just so we’re clear, you’re not allowed to half-ass it. If you do, you’ll be in for some trouble. I’ll tell Granny Mutsuki everything."

Tsuki warned her mother firmly. She knew her mom too well—while she might be clumsy in other ways, when it came to slacking off, her creativity knew no bounds.

"Bad Tsuki-chan..." Mrs. Akiyama pouted and muttered under her breath.

"I can hear you, you know." Tsuki replied flatly, her expression as unimpressed as ever.

.

.

.

.

You can read advance Chapters and view R-18 images of the characters on pat reon page.

pat reon.com/GreenBlue17

200 Power Stones for 1 extra Chapter.

5 New reviews for 1 extra Chapter.