Chapter 272 First Time, Maid Cafe

After leaving the table tennis area, Shimizu Mi and Sakurai Haruka followed Ichinose Shiki to the bowling area next door.

The table tennis area and bowling area are both on the first floor, separated by a wall. Next to it is what seems to be the badminton area.

Sports such as billiards are set up in the area on the second floor.

"Has Mr. Shimizu ever played bowling before?"

Speaking of bowling, although Shimizu had seen it on TV before, he had never actually experienced it because he never had the opportunity to go to such a place.

"In that case, why don't you try it first, Mr. Shimizu?"

Ichinose Shiki picked up a pink bowling ball from the shelf next to her and handed it to her.

It looked a little girly, but that thought quickly dissipated when Shimizu took the bowling ball and felt the weight on it.

Qingshuijian picked up the ball and weighed it, feeling that it was about ten kilograms.

However, judging from the other balls on the shelf, this seemed to be of medium weight; the heaviest even had sixteen pounds written on it.

Of course, the heavier the bowling ball, the better. It is best to choose the appropriate ball according to your height, weight and strength level.

The one that Ichinose Shiki picked for Shimizu Mi is not too heavy, it's just right.

Because the opportunity is rare, I'd better give it a try.

Shimizu looked at the electronic screen hanging on the wall beside him, which taught newcomers the correct ball holding posture and movements.

The first step is usually to insert the middle and ring fingers into the two finger holes of the bowling ball, with the thumb naturally fitting into the larger third finger hole.

During the process, Shimizu adjusted the position of his fingers to ensure that his hand could naturally wrap around the ball, neither too tight nor too loose, to ensure that the ball would not slip or get out of control during the pitching process.

Although the explanation in the video is very complicated, it is all out of safety considerations. After all, if a ball of this weight accidentally slips out of your hand when you throw it, its potential impact force cannot be ignored and it is likely to bring greater risks.

After making sure he had the ball in his hand, Shimizu walked to the selected bowling lane and stood behind the serving line.

Shimizu looked closely at the neatly arranged bowling pins at the end of the lane, adjusted his stance, with his feet shoulder-width apart and his toes slightly pointing in the direction of the target, while thinking about the angle and strength of the pitch.

After simulating the pitching action in his mind, Shimizu took a deep breath, and after a slight run-up, he swung his non-pitching arm backwards, while at the same time swinging his right arm holding the bowling ball forward, exerting force suddenly and pushing the ball from back to front.

At the moment of pitching, Shimizu maintained his body balance and let the bowling ball fly towards the target along the predetermined trajectory.

When the bowling ball hit the first bottle, Qingshuijian immediately heard a crisp collision sound, and then the bottles in the back row began to fall down.

Because there is a screen at the top of the end of the fairway in this store that displays electronic scores, there is no need to walk over and count the results of knocking down the bottles yourself.

There are ten bowling balls in total, and the screen of Shimizu's lane shows eight points, which means that Shimizu just knocked down eight bottles at once.

"Ah, I almost got it all."

Ichinose Shiki sighed with some regret.

It was just as she said, the other two remaining bottles were also shaking slightly, and they were just about to be knocked down.

"Mr. Shimizu might be unexpectedly talented in this area."

In response to such praise from Ichinose Shiki, Shimizu Mi wanted to say that he deserved the award, but...

"So, Mr. Shimizu, do you want to let the person with the lowest score take the punishment?"

By the way, wouldn't it be a bit cunning to make such a suggestion after waiting for others to throw the ball and figure out the score?

"…What order do you want to give?"

I don't know what she is planning.

"Well... I haven't thought about it yet."

"I won't compare."

Shimizu Mi didn't want to punish girls like her, nor did she want to be punished by girls, so she refused very straightforwardly.

"What about Miss Sakurai?"

Ichinose Shiki looked at Sakurai Haruka beside her.

"I've already won, why should I compete again?"

It can be seen that Sakurai Haruka is very satisfied with her victory just now. At this moment, she is blowing air on her hands next to a machine that blows out air like a dryer.

That is to dry your hands to avoid slipping when pitching.

After making these preparations, Sakurai Haruka picked up a fifteen-pound bowling ball from the shelf and walked to the lane on the left side of Shimizu with ease.

There was no running start, but he just stood behind the serving area, simply estimated the direction and distance, then swung his arms and threw the bowling ball towards the lane in front.

At the moment of pitching, Shimizu noticed the subtle turn of Sakurai Haruka's wrist, which seemed to be to make the bowling ball produce a certain rotation while rolling.

The bowling ball flew towards the target along a perfect trajectory. After knocking down the first bottle, it seemed to trigger a series of chain reactions, and all the bottles behind it fell down one after another.

In this case, you don't need to look at the scoreboard above to know Sakurai Haruka's score.

All ten hits!

Sakurai Haruka's skills are so good that she can be considered a professional player. Even Shimizu Mi has to admit her talent in this sport.

After that, the three of them continued to play for nearly half an hour, and soon the two-hour ticket time was almost up.

"I didn't expect Miss Sakurai to be so good at it."

"Nothing, it's just that I used to fight myself when I was unhappy."

Even so, Qingshuijian felt that it would be impossible to get it right almost every time.

Judging from the results just now, the first place is of course Sakurai Haruka, who hit the target thirteen times out of fifteen pitches, while Shimizu Mi and Ichinose Shiki are far behind her.

"Well, Mr. Shimizu just got all the answers right seven times, so it's seven points. My scores are one, two, three, and four... Mr. Shimizu, what time is it now?"

Although Qing Shuijian vaguely felt that there was something fishy going on, he still glanced at the clock on the wall.

"It's exactly eleven o'clock."

"Is that so? Ah, my score is eleven, twelve..."

"Your score is six."

After Shimizu Mizuki exposed Ichinose Shiki's little trick, she deliberately winked at him, but it was of no use.

"Mr. Shimizu is too honest to be moved by this."

Shimizu Mi felt that rather than saying that he was honest, it would be better to say that if Ichinose Shiki wanted to bribe him, the benefits he offered were too little.

It's just a wink. Think about a certain football team, who spent tens of millions to buy a winning number.

However, Shimizu Mi had not agreed to compete with Ichinose Shiki from the beginning, so it didn't matter whether he won or lost.

……

After moderate exercise, I feel hungry.

Because the bar would open at six o'clock in the evening, Qingshui Mi only had a quick bite after school and was now starving.

After walking out of the gym, Ichinose Shiki walked up to Shimizumi.

"Are you hungry, Mr. Shimizu?"

"Yeah, a little bit." "Then let's go get something to eat. I know there's a really good restaurant nearby. I went there once after get off work, and I've been wanting to go there again."

It is located near the city center, where many large shopping malls are located, and most of the restaurants are naturally concentrated here.

However, in Shimizumi's impression, most of the current female high school students tend to prefer to go to more fashionable Western restaurants such as Italian restaurants.

It’s not that there’s anything wrong with it, but the costs in this type of restaurant are generally higher.

Although Ichinose Shiki will treat the rest of the dinner because of the defeat in the match with Sakurai Haruka just now, it would still feel a bit uncomfortable to go to some place that is too expensive, even if it is not spending my own money.

Ichinose Shiki led the way while telling everyone to just follow her.

About two streets later, Shimizu found herself in front of a shining sign that read "Maid Cafe, Angel Inside".

This sign is decorated with flashing neon lights, and next to it stands another sign with a picture of a girl wearing animal ears and saying "Meow! Welcome back woof~" waving to attract customers.

Shimizu could tell from Sakurai Haruka's puzzled expression that she was wondering, "What is this?"

Although it was said before that the location of the dinner party would be decided by Ichinose Shiki, I didn't expect it to be a place like this.

In fact, Shimizu was also puzzled.

What's going on? It's meowing and woofing. Is it a cat or a dog?
What’s more, the sign outside the store actually directly reads “Angel Inside”, which makes it hard not to wonder if it is intentional to make customers associate something strange.

"So there's a maid cafe here..."

Sakurai Haruka lives in an apartment nearby, but she had no idea there was such a store.

Having said that, such shops are actually quite common in Tokyo. On the streets alone, you can see high school girls wearing fancy clothes handing out maid cafe flyers.

Of course, Shimizu had never been to such a place before, so he had no idea what it was like inside.

"Maid cafe...why do we have to come to a place like this?"

Sakurai Haruka read the words on the sign several times, but couldn't understand them anyway.

"Of course we come to eat, and Mr. Shimizu is hungry."

"Why this kind of store?"

"Didn't Ms. Sakurai tell me before that I could choose for myself?"

At the stadium, after winning the game, Sakurai Haruka did casually say that she didn't care.

"Anyway, let's go in first. It's starting to get a little cold outside."

Anyway, Qingshui saw the three of them walk into the store.

……

"Master, welcome back!"

With this greeting that was different from that in other restaurants, Qingshui and the other two were led to the back row of the store where they sat at tables for four, two facing each other.

When Ichinose Shiki sat down opposite Shimizu Miki and Sakurai Haruka, a senior sister with cat ears on her head, who looked like a part-time college student, brought the menu.

"Master, please let me know if you have anything to say."

Shimizu looked at the menu and found that even the menu here was different from that of ordinary restaurants.

The menu of this maid cafe is full of handwritten names of dishes with a strong girlish style, such as "Heart Omelet Rice" and "White Lover Curry Rice".

Although it is not machine printed, the font is quite good.

At the bottom of the menu, there are additional services available, such as rock-paper-scissors, group photos, and board games.

Qingshuijian took a quick look at the menu and found that the prices were actually quite reasonable. The price of each dish was similar to that of ordinary restaurants.

The only thing that puzzled him was why he had to pay for playing rock-paper-scissors with the maid? Was this still the bubble economy era?
Forget it, since it was his first time here, Shimizu decided to leave these confusing things to Ichinose Shiki to decide.

Shimizu looked at Ichinose Shiki beside her, and saw her happily pressing the service bell on the table, and the cat-eared sister from before came over again.

"Master, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."

"I want a latte and an omelette rice... Where are Mr. Shimizu and Ms. Sakurai?"

As she said this, she handed over the drink menu.

“Everything in this store is delicious, so please don’t worry.”

After reading both pages of the menu from beginning to end, Shimizu finally chose a sandwich for safety.

As for drinks, Shimizu Mi ordered a cappuccino just like Sakurai Haruka.

However, after placing the order, the maid with cat ears on her head still stood beside Shimizumi and looked at him.

"Is there anything else...?" Qing Shuijian asked in confusion.

"If you wish, we can draw a cat or something like that on your cappuccino. Is that possible?"

"Uh... no need."

Even though Shimizu refused the extra service offered by the maid, she did not show any displeasure and still said to him with a beautiful smile, "Okay, Master, please wait a moment."

As expected of a professional, his every move is neat and capable, and he is full of energy. The smile on his face makes customers feel very comfortable.

Of course, there are also maids whose movements are quite clumsy.

For example, a maid at the next table was holding a tray with shaking hands, her eyes fixed on the cups on the tray, and she was staggering all the way.

"What do you think of this place, Mr. Shimizu?"

Ichinose Shiki, who was sitting opposite, asked with a smile.

Come to think of it, from the moment she stepped into the store just now, Ichinose Shiki was a little different than usual and looked very happy.

Because this kind of store usually gives people the impression that it is for men, but I didn't expect that she, as a girl, would also be interested in it.

"As a man, Mr. Shimizu will surely understand, right?"

"what?"

"For example, a girl who usually acts arrogant secretly works in a maid cafe, and then says "Meow meow meow, welcome back, Master... Hey, why are you here?" Isn't this a fateful development?"

"I don't understand what you mean..."

This kind of plot usually only appears in anime, right? Could it be that she has watched too many anime of that type?

At this time, the cat-eared sister came over with a tray and placed three cups of coffee on their respective tables.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting, Master."

Ichinose Shiki took the mug of coffee and said thank you.

Then, Shimizu realized something.

Before this, Ichinose Shiki had always worn a mask because, like Shimizu Mi, she worked part-time in a bar. It is understandable that she did this whether she wanted to protect her privacy or did not want to be harassed by customers.

But it is impossible to say that I am not curious about her appearance at all.

And now that they are going to eat together, Ichinose Shiki naturally needs to take off her mask...

(End of this chapter)