Early Summer Schemes — The Maid's Dilemma
Hayasaka Ai.
Seven years old.
At least, that's how long she's been carrying the weight of adulthood on her young shoulders. Though still just a blooming girl in her teens, she had long since learned what it meant to bear responsibility.
Tonight, she was deep in thought, struggling over a new "mission" given to her by a certain spoiled young lady—
Her task: invite Hara Kei out this weekend.
Not only that, but she had to make it seem like a coincidental encounter—a setup to create an opportunity between him and Yukinoshita Yukino, ultimately manufacturing the fact of their first date.
All so she could demonstrate her "competence" to that mischievous elder sister, Yukinoshita Haruno.
Still… Haruno-san was really going out of her way to push her own sister and Hara Kei together, wasn't she?
Did she really think that highly of him?
Or maybe she'd already seen through her sister's heart—and guessed that Yukinoshita Yukino harbored feelings for Hara Kei?
Even if that were true, wasn't this a bit too fast? It almost felt like she was afraid someone else would beat Yukino to the punch.
Those thoughts streaked across Ai's mind like meteors—brilliant, brief, and gone in an instant. She brushed them aside. There were far more pressing problems at hand.
Sitting at her desk in her bedroom, Hayasaka Ai stared down at the clutter of scattered papers and open notes. Among them lay something particularly eye-catching—a pink-toned shoujo manga radiating suspiciously fluffy energy.
It was the most popular series of the moment, a romantic classic adored by girls her age.
During rare moments when her busy maid duties allowed her to breathe, Ai would use these comics to decompress a little—to dream, to laugh, to escape.
But trying to apply what was written in them to real-life male behavior…
If she'd been in her usual, rational state, she'd probably have advised whoever tried that to go see a doctor.
And yet—here she was, flipping through those pages for guidance.
That alone said plenty about her current situation.
She was desperate.
With a faint, irritated sigh, Ai bit the end of her pen and twirled a lock of her silky blonde hair between her fingers.
The soft, glossy touch that usually soothed her nerves did nothing for her tonight.
Her mind was dominated by a single thought:
"Seriously… this Hara Kei guy is way too hard to handle."
Any other boy would have jumped at the idea of going shopping with her—wagging his metaphorical tail like a happy puppy.
But Hara Kei?
If her understanding of her classmate was correct, he'd just stare at her blankly, expression reading, 'Who even are you?', before curtly turning her down.
She'd simulated the conversation in her head countless times, trying different excuses and setups each time. And every time, she hit the same wall—
That damn face of his.
The moment she imagined it, Ai could feel her blood pressure rising.
With a soft groan, she rubbed her temples, trying to calm herself down.
Outside, the moon had climbed high.
If she only lifted her head, she could see the delicate crescent hanging between drifting clouds—thin and elegant, like a silver hook scratching faintly at the sky.
If she were a poet, perhaps inspiration would have struck her then.
But Hayasaka Ai was no poet.
Her stomach grumbled instead.
She'd already washed up and changed for bed. Eating a late-night snack now would be terrible for her health—worse still for her figure.
And Ai was nothing if not disciplined. She wouldn't become a slave to hunger.
Still… when she looked at that crescent moon, its curved shape oddly reminded her of freshly peeled shrimp in a sushi roll.
Wait. When was the last time she'd had good sushi?
Oh—right.
That had been because of Hara Kei.
He'd been searching for a high-end sushi place called Ensha Sushi Aoki, and she'd helped him out back then—mainly to keep him quiet about her "transformation contest" debacle.
...Come to think of it, maybe that could work.
The spark of an idea lit up her eyes.
She slipped her pale feet into a pair of slippers and padded softly across the wooden floor—pat, pat, pat.
From her cabinet, she pulled out a small, thick booklet.
Unlike Hara Kei, who was an outsider, Ai was a Tokyo native through and through.
As Shinomiya Kaguya's personal maid, she was the de facto manager of the Shinomiya estate—responsible for ensuring that guests received nothing short of perfection.
And the key to entertaining guests properly, even in the modern age, still boiled down to two things: food and fun.
That was why the book in her hands contained detailed evaluations and reviews of restaurants, cafes, and entertainment venues across Tokyo—compiled from the Shinomiya family's private information network. Updated monthly, no less.
As she flipped through the pages, Ai's eyes gleamed.
"If I plan around this… it might just work!"
Clutching the booklet, she returned to her desk, grabbed her pen again, and began scribbling furiously.
She would handpick locations that were small, delicious, and unique—places that exuded charm while keeping crowds away.
Ideally, they'd be remote—far enough that, without her, Hara Kei would get hopelessly lost even with GPS. That way, he'd have no choice but to stick with her.
By the time she was done, an elaborate itinerary had taken shape before her eyes.
Ai looked over the result of her labor and nodded, deeply satisfied.
She placed the completed plan carefully on her desk, then, utterly spent, collapsed face-first onto her bed and burrowed under the covers.
As she drifted toward sleep, a peculiar thought floated through her mind—
"If I'm the one going with him to all these places… does that mean I'm the one on a date with Hara Kei?"
Fortunately for her, before embarrassment could set her cheeks ablaze, the god of sleep arrived on time—pulling the golden-haired maid gently into her dreams.
The "date" scheduled for Saturday would, if all went well, become the first official outing between Hara Kei and Yukinoshita Yukino.
And yet—before that happened—there would be another "date."
The first date between Hayasaka Ai and Hara Kei.
And when all of this came to light…
Just what would Yukinoshita Haruno, the very mastermind who'd orchestrated everything to help her sister escape the tangled web of a potential love triangle, feel then?