Laid-Back Life in Tokyo: I Really Didn't Want to Work Hard-Chapter 882 - 520: A Love Named Hanabi Continues On

Chapter 882: Chapter 520: A Love Named Hanabi Continues On

The days seemed to have returned to the usual routine.

As a maid at the maid café, Hanamaru Hanabi received the freshly made coffee at the bar and delivered it to the guests to warm their hearts and stomachs.

Hanabi-chan has always been a meticulous girl, and her nearly perfect appearance has garnered her quite a bit of praise from the customers.

Even though Black Hanabi wouldn’t spare them a glance, the guests still frequent the café because of her.

Sigh, after all, people are such creatures obsessed with appearances.

"You’ve been looking really busy lately?" Towa Rina, having finished her tasks and holding the Norwegian Forest Cat she previously bought at the cat shop, approached the bar to inquire of Uesugi Sakura.

"Why don’t you have time to come by the café and have a look?"

"Sigh," even Uesugi Sakura couldn’t help but sigh, "A lot has been happening recently, almost exhausting me, but things are getting better now."

Towa Rina glanced at him, showing a completely disbelieving expression: "I think you’ve been slacking off and just don’t want to work at the café?"

"No way, I have an agreement with Manager Yanagi. At least I have to help her train a few baristas before I retire."

"So, you are thinking about retirement?"

"Totally not," Uesugi Sakura flipping through a book he got from the café’s bookshelf, replied, "If the café isn’t busy, I find the work quite relaxing - brewing coffee, listening to music, and occasionally glancing at the middle-aged style little maids on the computer."

"Oh, if Hanami were here, I’d like to see if you dare to look around!"

Uesugi Sakura smiled at the corner of his mouth, only joking verbally.

If Black Hanabi saw him having any intimate interaction with other women, nothing to say, he would inevitably face a "strong expression of love" when he returned home.

"You’ve been coming less recently, and the café has gotten quite busy again, Kobayashi can’t handle it alone."

Uesugi Sakura: "What’s the Manager Yanagi’s plan?"

Towa Rina, looking at the cat in her arms, said: "To recruit a new barista, what else could we do?"

"And the requirements?"

"There are no specific requirements, just someone willing to learn. Even high school graduates can work here."

"Well, Manager Yanagi does have a kind heart."

"Of course," Towa Rina stroked the cat’s head, "Manager Yanagi has always been a responsible person."

Ding Ling~

The wind chime at the café entrance sounded.

A pair of left blue and right pink sneakers stepped inside.

The girl wore a bean-green winter coat and a pure white pleated mini-skirt.

With her right hand in her pocket and her left hand carrying a travel suitcase, her actions lifted the hem of her white skirt slightly as she stepped into the café with her black stockings-clad slender legs.

"Welcome!"

As the receptionist, Uesugi Sakura almost said these words reflexively when he heard the bell.

But after he put down the pen in his hand, closed the book, and looked up to the door at the girl studying her surroundings with eyes akin to a cat’s, he suddenly froze.

"Yuuki?"

It seems she heard a familiar voice, and Hanamaru Yuuki instinctively looked toward the bar, slightly surprised.

Pulling her suitcase along, she quickly reached the bar’s front and looked up and down at the person behind the counter with a puzzled look.

"What are you doing here?"

Uesugi Sakura responded instinctively: "Of course, I’m here because... wait, shouldn’t I be asking you that question? You look like you just got off a plane."

"Yeah, I just got off the plane," Hanamaru Yuuki pulled her suitcase aside. She wore a rather stylish coat, her hair cut in a neat and clean shoulder-length style similar to Hanabi’s, "It’s almost New Year’s, and my mom called me back. Just as well, nothing’s going on in England, so I came home about a week or two early."

"...Then how did you end up here?"

"The taxi I was in suddenly broke down on the roadside, seemed like an engine problem. So I had to get out, find another taxi while walking; shortly after, I saw this café and thought I should come in for a break as I was tired of walking."

"Ah, I see..." Uesugi Sakura roughly pieced together the situation.

Yes, it was almost New Year’s, so Hanamaru Yuuki indeed should be back.

"You know this guest?" Towa Rina, petting the lazy forest cat in her arms, looked at Uesugi Sakura with doubt.

Uesugi Sakura promptly gestured towards Hanamaru Yuuki as if introducing her: "Hanamaru Yuuki, my wife’s cousin, a year younger than Hanabi, probably just turned 17, right?"

"Pretty much." Hanamaru Yuuki replied, when Uesugi Sakura introduced her, she confidently placed her hands on her hips with a cute little proud look.

"She’s quite the pretty girl too, kind of looks like Hanami." Towa Rina complimented her politely.

"That’s right! I look a lot like my sister... wait," Hanamaru Yuuki seemingly realized something, "Hanami? Shouldn’t you mean Hanabi sister? Hanami is..."

Hanamaru Yuuki stopped mid-sentence, as she suddenly noticed the secretive glance Uesugi Sakura was shooting her way.

"What about Hanami?" Towa Rina looked at Hanamaru Yuuki, then at Uesugi Sakura, "Aren’t Hanami and Hanabi-chan twins?"

Twins?!

Hanamaru Yuuki sneakily glanced at Uesugi Sakura behind the bar, maintaining an unchanged expression, thinking, Brother-in-law, what game are you playing now? What do you mean by twins?

"Ahem, yes," Hanamaru Yuuki smartly responded, "I was trying to say, Brother-in-law probably just celebrated his birthday not long ago, and Hanami-chan also recently celebrated his birthday, hahaha... ahem, yes, that’s it."

Towa Rina felt something odd about the answer.

But the relationship between Uesugi Sakura and Hanamaru Hanami is equally strange — it was not seldom seen taking chances at the bicycle parking area downstairs to steal kisses.

Ah, the world is really going downhill.

Little sisters-in-law and elder brothers-in-law... Even though she could understand some of Hanamaru Hanami’s thoughts, after all, her brother-in-law is so handsome, knows how to make coffee, is considerate, works out, and has a manly charm.

And she herself is a twin with her sister, there’s not much difference, so why can her sister have him and not me?!

— This is what Hanamaru Hanami imagined, holding this kind of thought.

"Um... can I hold it?" Hanamaru Yuuki pointed to the Norwegian Forest Cat in Towa Rina’s arms.

"Oh, no problem, take it. It’s meant to serve the customers." Towa Rina smiled and handed the pretty Norwegian Forest Cat to Hanamaru Yuuki to hold.

"Thank you."

"No problem."

"Towa!" Todaka Keichiro poked his head out from the kitchen, "We’re almost out of beef."

"Then I’ll get busy first." Towa Rina said to Uesugi Sakura and Hanamaru Yuuki.

Uesugi Sakura: "Alright."

After Towa Rina went out to get beef, Uesugi Sakura turned his gaze back to the girl in front of him who looked similar to Hanamaru Hanabi.

"Since Hanabi and I left... Are you getting used to living alone in the UK?"

"Well, how should I say this," Hanamaru Yuuki scratched the belly of the cat in her arms and sighed for some reason, "If you could stay with me, that would definitely be the best. That house is so big, I really can’t get used to living alone... No students from Japan at school, I have few topics to talk about with them, and I’ve been working hard every day. Recently, I’ve made some small achievements."

"Well, congratulations."

"Congratulate what? Brother-in-law, if you take my sister away, she’d definitely be better than me. Although I also know that’s not really what my sister wants, in her heart, you’re always the most important."

Uesugi Sakura surely knew this.

But hearing it from someone else’s mouth, the feeling was completely different.

"Anyway," Hanamaru Yuuki raised her face with a bright smile, "I still want to congratulate you and my sister on your marriage. It’s really a shame I couldn’t attend her wedding."

Hearing that long-lost voice, Uesugi Sakura still felt some nostalgia. The days in the UK were not very long, nor very happy, but those memories always left a deep impression on him.

The girl who gradually drifted away on the airplane...

The girl who fell asleep waiting for him at the airport when she heard he was coming...

The girl who was supposed to spend three years there but her heart wavered as soon as she was called back home.

"Where is sister?" Hanamaru Yuuki asked Uesugi Sakura at the bar, holding the cat. "And what was the staff talking about, a twin sister Hanami-chan? Are you hiding something from my sister?"

"Well..." Uesugi Sakura really had a hard time explaining clearly!

Seeing him stammering, Hanamaru Yuuki frowned, "Brother-in-law, hurry up and explain! Or I’ll tell Aunt Meiko when I get home!"

Uesugi Sakura didn’t know how to explain the existence of the dark Hanabi to her. Dark Hanabi just didn’t want anyone else besides herself to know about her, not even their parents.

Forget it, I’d better let Hanabi-chan explain to Yuuki.

He glanced into the shop and noticed Hanamaru Hanabi was asking a newly arrived customer for their order.

He pointed over and said, "Look, your sister is over there, you can ask her."

"Sister’s here too?"

Hanamaru Yuuki followed his finger and indeed saw Hanamaru Hanabi, her sister.

Just that Hanamaru Hanabi was wearing a little maid outfit, making her not recognize her immediately.

Before Hanamaru Yuuki could walk over, Hanamaru Hanabi soon came out with an order, holding a marker pen.

"Sakura-kun, Xidamo Courtesan Coffee, medium, less sweet."

"Sister." Hanamaru Yuuki waved at her with a smile.

"Eh—"

Hanamaru Hanabi looked up, showing surprise, and blinked at her smile, "Yuuki? How come you’re back?"

"It’s the New Year, so I came back."

"Yuuki-chan, you seem to have grown prettier."

"Haha, sister, you’re the one!"

The two girls talked like old friends catching up.

Although Hanamaru Yuuki was the younger sister, she was quite a bit taller than Hanamaru Hanabi, having grown fast over the past year.

"How do you like it in the UK? Are those teachers who taught us still there?"

"Yeah, they’re all still there. Life in the UK is pretty good, but it gets boring being alone, so I like to wander around."

Uesugi Sakura listened to them chatting as he placed the Xidamo Courtesan Coffee ordered by the customer on the bar.

Hanamaru Yuuki laughed and said, "Who would have thought, brother-in-law ended up as a barista."

"Well, my time in the UK wasn’t wasted."

Hanamaru Yuuki: "So, the usual?"

"Blue Mountain?" Uesugi Sakura tried to guess.

"Who would’ve thought brother-in-law’s memory is quite good! That’s it then." As Hanamaru Hanabi took the coffee to the customers, Hanamaru Yuuki frowned and said to Uesugi Sakura, "About the twin Hanami, I’ll be sure to ask sister about it later."

"Haha..." Uesugi Sakura chuckled, "Sure, ask away."