The next day, everyone once again boarded the bus, each heading to their workplace for the special exam. Knowing that the work would be tough, they all went to bed early the previous night to recharge.
Not to mention the exhaustion and early sleep of members from other classes, even Yukio's class members didn't have it easy. After a full day of fun, they had no extra energy left for playing cards or the like in the evening and went to bed early.
When Yukio and his group arrived at Takahashi Yukata Shop, the third-year seniors smoothly went about their tasks. Meanwhile, Yukio's class members were still idle, wandering around aimlessly, waiting for Yukio to assign them tasks.
At this moment, Yukio, along with Ryuen, approached Takahashi. Takahashi had a deep impression of this student who had boldly led his entire class away the previous day.
Seeing Yukio coming, he immediately asked his assistant to prepare tea and personally greeted him, "This is Yukio-san, isn't it? Horikita-san has already spoken to me about you. You are always full of ideas. I apologize for any oversight on my part yesterday and hope you can forgive me."
Ryuen stood by, observing, and thought to himself that Yukio's guess on the bus yesterday was indeed correct. The school must have given Takahashi significant benefits.
Otherwise, why would a yukata shop owner be so polite to a student?
"No, it was my impulsiveness yesterday," Yukio responded with amusement, glossing over the events of the previous day in just a few words.
Everyone here was business-minded and knew how to act in their best interest, so everything was negotiable. Yukio felt confident about this, "Mr. Takahashi, since we all understand what happened yesterday, let's move on."
"I still need to secure some work for my classmates that can help increase your income a bit."
Takahashi was indifferent, thinking what ideas could a student possibly have? If it were Horikita, the student council president of Advanced Nurturing High School, he might believe it. But as for Yukio, who was only praised a few times by Horikita, Takahashi wasn't aware of his capabilities.
Of course, on the surface, Takahashi still appeared delighted, saying, "Oh? Is that so? Come, come, Yukio-san, have some tea and let's talk slowly."
Yukio took a sip of the tea brought by Takahashi's assistant before explaining his idea, "It's about sales. Our class excels at this kind of promotion."
"...Huh?" Takahashi was initially taken aback, then laughed internally. They were still students, thinking that simply promoting could increase revenue? How amusing. Nowadays, who doesn't know about marketing and promotion? But no matter how good they are at sales, how far could a bunch of students go?
Despite his internal amusement, Takahashi remained serious on the surface, "Ahem, this job is certainly possible, but there's something I need to inform you about, Yukio-san."
"Your school mentioned the rule about wages and points when they contacted us earlier. Do you understand what that means?"
Yukio understood Takahashi's implication. In this special exam, the points everyone could earn were actually based on certain benchmarks.
For example, at Takahashi Yukata Shop, the wages for sewing and sweeping were different. So, for students from Advanced Nurturing High School, those assisting with sewing would earn more points than those doing basic cleaning.
The school would be secretly grading the students, but the initial scores would be based on their wages. Additional points or deductions would then be made based on the students' performance.
Takahashi was reminding Yukio that while the sales job could be arranged, it came with lower base wages and higher commissions. This meant that even if Yukio's class took on this job, their initial scores would be low. However, if they did manage to bring in orders, the points could be very high.
"I understand, Mr. Takahashi. Please make the arrangements," Yukio agreed immediately, the confidence in his eyes making Takahashi momentarily unsure if this was youthful bravado or genuine assurance.
Takahashi quickly shook his head, dismissing the thought. Why worry about it? Whether Yukio was overly confident or genuinely capable, it didn't matter. Even if they didn't bring in any orders, having forty free salespeople was still beneficial, wasn't it?
So, the arrangement was quickly made, and soon enough, Yukio was seen boarding the bus with his classmates, once again leaving the yukata workshop early. Their class had stayed for less than 200 minutes.
"..." Takahashi watched the departing bus, the lingering smell of exhaust in the air, and found himself deep in thought.
There was a vague, inexplicable feeling within Takahashi. It seemed as if Yukio had deceived him.
He wondered if Yukio had requested this "daily running around" sales job simply to go out and play every day.
After all, the sales job indeed required frequent travel. What would a salesperson do staying in the workshop every day? They needed to go out and drum up business.
But handing such a job over to Yukio and his classmates couldn't help but make Takahashi overthink things.
However, what Takahashi didn't know was that Yukio wasn't going out to play; he merely wanted to earn points for the special exam.
On the bus, Ishizaki curiously looked at his leader, seeing Yukio engrossed in his phone, while Shiina diligently took notes: "Yukio-san, what's this?"
"These are the yukata shops you need to visit to make sales pitches." Yukio didn't look up, continuing to coordinate with Shiina, one reading and speaking, the other recording.
He was currently marking on the map all the yukata stores that hadn't placed orders with Takahashi's workshop. The task was to get these stores to place orders with Takahashi.
Luckily, President Horikita had given him the necessary information at the hotel the previous day. Otherwise, Yukio wouldn't have known which stores were collaborating with Takahashi's workshop and which weren't.
"Ah?" Ishizaki, much like Takahashi, had genuinely thought Yukio was using the sales job as an excuse to ensure they had a basic score while also giving them the opportunity to go out and have fun. Now realizing that his leader seemed serious about this, he was stunned.
Upon hearing they actually had to do sales, he immediately panicked a little: "Um, Yukio-san, fighting is no problem for me, I'll definitely be the first to rush in."
"But, as for sales and all that, not just me, but a lot of us aren't good at it."
"What's the rush?" Yukio quickly finished recording, instructed Shiina to take pictures, and uploaded the information about these shops to the class chatroom. Then he looked up at Ishizaki: "It's not like I'm actually making you go sell."
"I'm well aware of your abilities. Just follow my plan, do it like this and that, and so on."
The whole bus was left dumbfounded. Damn, is this even allowed? As expected of Yukio-san!
***
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