Two bowls of cold mixed noodles were ready.
Hayashi handed one bowl to Touka.
Toka called Rikka over, and they began eating noodles.
Nakiri Erina looked at the cold mixed noodles with glowing eyes. She could even smell that this was Hayashi's special preparation method, slightly improved and different from the normal version.
So she immediately raised her hand.
"I'd like a bowl too, please."
"Sure."
Hayashi turned around to make another bowl.
There were plenty of ingredients, and cold mixed noodles were quite easy to make.
But in just these few minutes.
Nakiri Erina kept hearing slurping sounds from both sides.
The sounds made her mouth water and her heart itch.
She turned to look.
Touka was eating with puffed cheeks, her originally cool demeanor gone, transformed into a little glutton.
Noodles were being slurped into her mouth.
Then chew chew chew, and swallowed with satisfaction!
Erina could clearly see some mixed sauce splashing onto the bowl walls, then slowly sliding down!
The aroma of those cold mixed noodles was so wonderful!
Though clearly light in flavor, they smelled so fragrant!
"Gulp~"
Nakiri Erina couldn't help but swallow.
This was the first time she so desperately wanted to eat food from someone else's bowl - like a starving ghost!
How had she become like this?
It was all Hayashi's doing!
After Touka heard the "gulp" sound, she turned to glance at Erina.
"Mmm..."
Erina immediately blushed embarrassedly and turned away, explaining.
"I just haven't eaten anything all day, so I'm too hungry. That's all."
Touka smiled lightly without exposing her.
Facing Hayashi's cooking, this was too normal - she'd get used to it later.
So she lowered her head and continued eating.
So Erina's gaze turned toward the kitchen doorway.
"Please hurry up~~~"
At this moment.
What Erina most hoped for was to see a figure emerge from the kitchen doorway.
That would be the best news!
Before long.
Hayashi walked out of the kitchen carrying a bowl of cold mixed noodles.
"Wonderful!"
Erina happily clenched her fists, again surprising Touka.
Getting so excited seeing food come out.
This Totsuki Academy pearl, the God Tongue.
Seemed to have already been conquered by Hayashi-kun's cooking?
No, this was completely Hayashi-kun's shape already.
"Clack~"
Hayashi placed the cold mixed noodles in front of Erina.
Then picked up chopsticks to demonstrate how to mix the noodles for Nakiri Erina.
He held the chopsticks like stir-frying twice.
Letting the cold noodles fully blend with the sauce.
"Mix like this until everything's combined, then you can eat. Understand?"
Hayashi handed the chopsticks to Erina.
Erina immediately learned and started mixing.
Then seeing it was about right.
She opened her mouth and ate!
"Mmm~~~!"
The deliciousness at the moment of entry made Erina clamp her legs together, push out her chest, and tilt her head back.
The sauce's texture invaded her taste buds in an instant.
Salty, sweet, sauce, meat flavor - they could perfectly blend together.
Finally satisfying her mouth with the cold noodles.
She couldn't help but chew chew chew and swallow!
After that.
Only the first bite was her own eating.
The rest was all instinct!
Touka, Rikka, and Erina - three people at the bar counter continuously eating noodles.
On the other side.
Takatsuki Sen, Utaha, and Mai had already finished eating.
Hayashi acted as intermediary.
Bringing Takatsuki Sen to Utaha and Mai's table to chat together.
At the four-person table.
Hayashi looked at them and smiled.
"Two great authors and one big star - now it seems like only I'm an ordinary passerby."
Takatsuki Sen propped her chin with both hands and rolled her eyes at him.
"Are there such handsome passersby?"
"Hiss~~~" Hayashi pressed the corners of his mouth: "When you put it like that, I really have no way to deal with you."
Takatsuki Sen's timely response left Utaha and Mai unable to react.
After reacting, they realized the person across from them was much more mature than them!
Utaha curled her toes under her black stockings and looked at Takatsuki Sen.
"Takatsuki Sen-sensei, I heard earlier that you're about to publish a new book?"
"Yes." Takatsuki Sen waved at Utaha: "No need for the 'sensei' honorific, just call me by name."
Sensei was an honorific, not just for teaching teachers.
Things like manga, light novels, film and TV could all use the sensei title.
"Alright." Utaha nodded.
Takatsuki Sen looked at Hayashi before explaining.
"Originally the new book wasn't this one, but another theme. But since meeting Hayashi-kun, inspiration exploded, so I switched to this theme."
"What a coincidence, me too." Utaha showed surprise.
Both had inspiration because of Hayashi.
This made Utaha realize.
Could it be that the male and female protagonists in Takatsuki Sen's new book were also herself and Hayashi?
Just like Utaha's new work!
"This really is..." Utaha felt ominous.
She shook her head and said firmly and diligently: "If a great author like Takatsuki Sen can publish books so quickly, it seems I need to work harder too!"
Takatsuki Sen nodded without disparaging or boasting about herself.
Instead, she extended her hand to Utaha: "Let's work hard together to let more people see the stories we want to express."
Utaha was slightly surprised, then nodded: "Yes!"
Mai watched the two.
Feeling like Utaha was immediately softened.
Though this also showed that Takatsuki Sen was a very nice person, it equally showed she was very capable and charming, able to resolve potential conflicts like this.
Watching the two chat.
Mai looked at Hayashi and talked about her recent situation.
"That ability control - I seem to have grasped the trick. Now I can make some people not ignore my existence, but they still can't remember who I am."
Can't remember who she is, but can be recognized as a person rather than ignored.
"That's quite fast." Hayashi gave a thumbs up: "As long as you've gotten started, through practice you'll eventually be able to control it freely."
"Yes!" Mai thought so too.
But Mai looked at the two authors chatting.
She also thought of her former profession and fell into hesitation and contemplation.
Seeing this, Hayashi asked.
"After you can live normally, do you have any plans?"
"Of course." Mai nodded: "First, get into a good university. As for career, I'll see. The entertainment industry is a bit too..."
Mai didn't finish but Hayashi knew.
The entertainment industry relied too much on connections.
Without connections, you either don't get famous or face harassment.
During Japan's golden period, which celebrities didn't suffer persecution? Even globally it was like this - Korean chaebols also played dirty.
The celebrity entertainment industry was too dark.
Mai used to be a child star, so she passed through safely. But just reaching high school, they wanted her to shoot sexy swimsuit sets, and this was even arranged by her mother...
Once that door opened, what came after naturally went without saying.
So Mai didn't want to go back.
But regarding career.
If she didn't return to the entertainment industry, what else could she do later?
It wasn't that she couldn't do other things, it's just that she was most familiar with the entertainment industry.
"Hmm..."
Thinking about this, Hayashi also felt it wouldn't be good for Mai to return to the entertainment industry.
Moreover, the entertainment industry was gradually declining with the arrival of the short video era, with movie box office revenues hitting new lows.
Wait, short videos?
Hayashi had a flash of inspiration and suggested to Mai.
"How about trying self-media? Not only is it free, but the content is also flexible."
After hearing this, Mai's eyes lit up: "Like being a streamer?"
"That's up to you. You can choose never to stream, or stream occasionally. Streaming should be simple for you."
"Of course, but for self-media, what type of videos should I upload?"
"Food broadcasts? Store reviews? Daily life? Fashion? Travel?" Hayashi counted on his fingers, then looked at Mai's face and waved his hand.
"Forget it, with your looks and figure, as long as you appear on camera, whatever you film will be popular. If you dare wear that day's bunny cough cough, anyway you're not just randomly starting an account."
In the short video era, although it was an era of compressed video content.
There was one thing that never changed.
That was the content creator themselves.
As long as girls were good-looking, that was a trump card.
Then with some slightly interesting content, as long as it was rich and could showcase themselves.
That was a king card.
Playing both together was a royal flush - whatever they did would be popular.
Short videos were inherently a face-based era.
With Mai's figure and face.
Wouldn't she dominate the internet?
"Geez~, really, it's not as exaggerated as you say~" Mai blushed at Hayashi's words.
She waved her hand, rolled her eyes at Hayashi, and made a gesture of sealing her mouth.
Meaning he almost let slip about the bunny girl outfit.
"Just stating facts." Hayashi took a sip of lemon tea: "You can start by making an account, verify yourself, usually film daily life, miscellaneous stuff, try various things."
"Finally find the type that suits you, then do that. It might not necessarily be better than being a celebrity, but it will definitely be much more relaxed and free."
Mai nodded in agreement.
Her primary goal was still to study hard and get into a good university.
If she really wanted to become a celebrity immediately, that would be after university, which was still far away.
But she could start an account even tonight.
Just treat it like posting on social media.
Mai was very interested in this self-media idea.
So she began chatting with Hayashi in detail.
Mai: "What platform do you think would be good? YouTube?"
Hayashi shook his head: "No, TikTok is fine. If you want to go bigger, you can also try Twitter."
Mai asked again: "Then let's start with TikTok. Do I need any equipment?"
Hayashi thought: "Hmm... depends on how deep you want to go. Low-end is just a phone for photos and videos, mid-range is an action camera like DJI's Pocket 3, high-end would be professional cameras."
Mai considered portability and professionalism, chose the middle ground: "Then DJI's Pocket 3 it is."
With a phone, no matter what, it would only be average at best, usable.
Professional cameras were too heavy, and subsequent importing, editing, and video making would be very troublesome.
Although Japan had top camera equipment, for personal self-media, considering everything comprehensively, gimbal action cameras were unbeatable.
Calculating everything, only DJI's Pocket 3 was most suitable.
One person could create complete self-media content.
The two continued chatting about other content.
Sitting face to face.
They almost completely ignored Takatsuki Sen and Kasumigaoka Utaha beside them.
When the two had chatted enough.
Looking to the side.
Hayashi and Mai were chatting enthusiastically.
Both leaning forward to talk, Mai full of excitement, almost standing up to speak.
Seeing this, Takatsuki Sen smiled somewhat indulgently.
Thinking to herself, this was the charm of the man she had set her sights on - handling little girls with ease.
If he could handle non-human beings, how could he not handle ordinary girls?
Utaha looked at Hayashi.
Then looked at Mai.
"?"
She felt something was off.
This Mai girl was indeed also a potential rival!
"Hmph~"
Utaha wouldn't do anything obvious.
But under the table.
She took off her shoes and extended her small foot wrapped in black stockings.
Found Hayashi's calf.
Gripped with her big toe and the toe next to it, pinching hard.
"Hiss~~~" Hayashi raised an eyebrow and sucked in a breath.
Mai, who was chatting enthusiastically with him, was startled: "What's wrong?"
"Nothing..." Hayashi glanced at Utaha without showing any emotion.
No matter how he thought about it, it had to be Utaha.
Who else could it be?
Nice job.
Just as he looked over, Utaha turned her head away to continue chatting with Takatsuki Sen, pretending she knew nothing.
Did she even need to pretend?
At this time, Mai was full of enthusiasm, didn't notice these things, and continued chatting.
"If I do food broadcasts, I might accidentally get fat, how dangerous..."
"Mm mm." Hayashi nodded, supporting his forehead with one hand.
After Utaha pinched with her toes.
She continued scraping upward.
Now she had reached his knee.
Going further up would be trouble.
His gun was right there in his pants!
On the other side.
With Takatsuki Sen's powerful perception.
She immediately noticed Utaha's movements and Hayashi's reaction.
Without looking.
She had already guessed what was happening.
Looking at Utaha with slight surprise, not expecting this girl to be so bold today.
"If little girls are doing this, then I can't admit defeat either..."
Suddenly, this thought was born in Takatsuki Sen's mind.
She took off her shoes.
And joined the battle.
When Hayashi felt two different sensations.
He was truly stunned.
"!?"
Hayashi supported his forehead with one hand, secretly glancing at both women.
Just happened to make eye contact with both who were pretending to chat but actually absent-mindedly stealing glances at him.
For a moment.
Everyone simultaneously looked away.
"..."
Hayashi's fists clenched.
Who could endure such provocation when it was already very itchy?
But he still had to chat with Mai on the surface.
It was just getting harder and harder to chat.
Like ants were crawling all over his body!
Utaha and Takatsuki Sen together.
Both seemed to know of each other's existence, so they exchanged glances, smiled slightly, and both were being mischievous!
Teasing at his calves, teasing at his knees.
Hayashi could endure all of this.
But suddenly.
Seeing that Hayashi could still endure, still chatting enthusiastically with Mai.
The two talking endlessly, as if unaffected.
So Utaha and Takatsuki Sen suddenly moved upward together, wanting to tickle his thighs.
Finally both touched the forbidden zone simultaneously.
"!?"
Hayashi froze.
Takatsuki Sen and Utaha also froze.
Utaha didn't even know what it was and deliberately pressed it before suddenly understanding and withdrawing her foot!
"Mmm..."
Even Takatsuki Sen couldn't quite maintain her composure.
She smiled slightly, but still poked it once before withdrawing.
"Hiss..."
Hayashi took a long breath, slightly adjusted his sitting position.
And glared at them.
Utaha embarrassedly lowered her head, covering her face with her hair.
Her face was red as blood, even her ears were flushed and rosy.
Takatsuki Sen calmly lowered her head to drink her coffee.
Facing Hayashi's scrutiny.
She even gave him a slightly provocative look.
Hayashi gave her a "just you wait" expression.
Then turned back to finish chatting with Mai.
Seeing the conversation ending.
Utaha hurriedly took Mai and left after paying the bill.
"See you next time, and Sen-nee, let's exchange contact information."
"Mm."
Mai, Utaha, and Takatsuki Sen all exchanged contact information.
Then paid the bill and left together.
Hayashi stood at the door, watching them leave.
"All of you just wait. Getting me riled up without letting me land - it won't be long before you'll have hell to pay."
These three had already suffered badly in Hayashi's mind, and it would soon become reality.
As she was leaving, Takatsuki Sen turned back and blew Hayashi a kiss.
Hayashi responded with his pinky finger.
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