"This is the new Rabbit House employee, Shiina Mahiru."

When Asakura introduced Shiina Mahiru to Kawaragi Momoka, the latter was pretense-wiping a table.

"Boss, where did you trick... I mean, recruit this little lady from?" Kawaragi Momoka had a look of pure shock on her face.

Her boss’s ability to trick young girls was simply too strong; he seemed to abduct a new one every few days. Moreover, his taste was incredibly high; almost every girl who came to work part-time could be called a beautiful girl—someone quite stunning in the eyes of ordinary people.

Since it was a consensual arrangement, she didn’t have much right to criticize, but Momoka couldn’t help but sigh from the bottom of her heart.

"As expected, boss, you should really just come and learn rock and roll with me..."

"How did we circle back to this topic again?" Asakura looked at the admiring Momoka with a baffled expression. "Forget it. The only instruments I can play are the Erhu and the Suona."

"Do you have to know how to play an instrument to work here?"

Shiina Mahiru, who was already very nervous, glanced at the guitar case by Momoka’s feet—clearly, before Asakura and the others arrived, this "hard-working" employee had been maintaining her guitar. She uneasily bit her lip and said, "I... I only know a little piano..."

"A keyboardist? Those are quite popular in bands lately," Momoka said, rubbing her smooth chin. "That’s the ’Succubus’ role."

"Su-Succubus?" Shiina Mahiru, thinking of something unknown, turned bright red and looked completely flustered.

"Don’t worry about it. It’s just that interpersonal entanglements tend to happen easily among rock band members," Momoka said with a wave of her hand.

"Especially drummers and keyboardists. Since most people who want to play in a band prefer the flashy guitar—or at least the bass—those two positions are very rare. Therefore, talented people are highly sought after. Once that ’sought after’ process involves a bit of adolescent hormones, it’s easy for personal feelings to get blurred... the Suspension Bridge Effect... although it’s not exactly that, the general principle is similar."

The Suspension Bridge Effect refers to when two people are alone in a dangerous place (like a suspension bridge); because their heart rate increases, they instinctively believe they have developed feelings for the other person.

Similarly, someone might initially place a high level of importance on a keyboardist or drummer just because of the band (mainly to prevent them from being headhunted), but over time, this attention can be misconstrued as affection, eventually blurring band matters with personal emotions.

"Was your band like that too?" Asakura asked gossipingly.

"Nothing of the sort. My leaving the band was entirely due to differing musical philosophies," Momoka shook her head frankly. "Even if those guys (Diamond Dust) sang ’VOID’ right in front of me one day, I wouldn’t break down."

Despite her words, Momoka—well, she could still be called a young girl, right?—still had a flicker of loneliness on her face. The atmosphere turned slightly somber.

"’VOID’? I’ve heard it before; it’s a truly excellent song."

Suddenly, Shiina Mahiru clasped her hands together, her eyes shining with intellectual light as she said to Momoka, "Senior, sugoi (you’re amazing)."

"Senior?" Momoka was stunned.

"Because you are my senior at work... is it wrong to call you that?" Mahiru asked. "Or should I use a more respectful title..."

"No need for that... it’s not that being called that makes my skin crawl or anything." Momoka looked awkward, but anyone who knew her could tell she was just embarrassed.

"You can call her Manager Momoka." Asakura gave Mahiru a thumbs up, though it wasn’t clear what exactly he was praising her for.

"Asakura-kun, aren’t you the manager?" the girl asked in confusion.

"No," Asakura smoothed his hair back with his hand, speaking in a tone like some behind-the-scenes big boss, "I am the one who stands above the shop! You should call me ’The Boss’!"

"He’s just an absentee owner... well, I wanted to say that, but actually, the desserts in the shop are all brought in by the boss, and the members, including me, were all ’snatched’ by him. So in a sense, he’s right." Momoka shrugged at Mahiru’s speechless expression.

"I see. Asakura-kun is quite amazing." Mahiru nodded as she processed this.

Although Asakura had claimed back at her house that his transition from struggling for survival to his current state was purely due to "inheriting an estate," clearly, without the necessary skill, one would just become a passive landlord or sell the place for cash. The girl’s curiosity grew: he looked about the same age as her, so what had he gone through to become so mature and capable?

"So, is Shiina working part-time like Kita and the others?"

As the manager of Rabbit House, Momoka focused on the important matters after the small talk. "If so, I’ll need to adjust the roster."

"No, this child is full-time for the summer break," Asakura said, shaking his head.

"Eh? Full-time?"

Momoka, who had just taken out a ballpoint pen, was clearly surprised. She looked at Mahiru. "That will be very hard work, you know? And full-time means spending a lot of time in the shop every day... did your parents agree?"

"My parents... are currently hospitalized due to an accident," Mahiru said softly.

"...I’m sorry." Momoka’s expression froze as she realized she had stepped on a landmine. She glanced at Asakura, desperately seeking help, but Asakura seemed to have suddenly developed a fascination with the shop’s display fridge, completely ignoring her plea.

"It’s alright. What’s happened has happened; now I can only do what I am able to do," Mahiru said seriously.

Hearing this, Momoka looked at Mahiru with a serious expression once more.

"Shiina... can I call you Mahiru?"

"Ah, of course."

"Mahiru, you are truly strong. If it were me, I might have been completely devastated."

"That’s not the case. I was depressed for a long time at first, but after accepting reality, I found that human adaptability is quite powerful." Mahiru shook her head. "I just realized that I don’t have the spare time for self-pitying despair, that’s all."