For those who care, a detective who is in constant contact with the dead is a bit of a bad influence.
Fortunately, Suzuki Sonoko and Mouri Ran didn't care and agreed.
Even more fortunately, Ichijō Mirai is not a bad detective, but is an even worse one.
He relayed the customer's order to Ishida Eiko, and idly watched the dessert being made, "Have you had any male customers at the dessert store lately?"
Seriously, it is normal for male customers to appear in dessert shops, and the people who are following them will not be exposed. However, if you go to a ramen restaurant in Japan alone, you will attract a lot of attention.
Ishida Eiko remembered, "Ah, you know!"
With a sheepish expression, she averted her eyes and began to look at the sky, the ground, and the cake.
It's not the normal behavior of a dessert store owner who's a bit puzzled, but it's even less the behavior of a normal person who's spotted a stalker.
Ichijō Mirai: "?"
There was a story.
He raised his eyebrows with interest, "Do you have any male customers that left a deep impression on you? Tell me about it."
"Recently, I've had a lot of customers," Ishida Eiko said, carefully choosing her words, "because you've been showing up at a fairly regular time, about half an hour before and after your meal, and you've been helping out with the reception in the store after you've finished your meal."
She was careful with her words, "Occasionally, for the first two or three days, then rarely in the front room."
Much of the bakery is transparent, so you can sit inside and enjoy a leisurely afternoon tea, sipping your sweets and watching the crowds of people coming and going, while those outside catch a glimpse of the relaxed and tranquil interior amidst the rush.
Ishida Eiko says, looking out at the crowd outside, "So at mealtimes, there are a lot of people who come to the store."
"A lot of them are pretty young girls, but..."
She organized her words, "There are also children, elderly people with children at home, wealthy wives who are about my age but quite wealthy, and..."
"Some male customers."
There were people coming and going outside the dessert shop. It was not yet time to get off work, so there were fewer young couples on the street, but there were still some who passed by nearby. Some of them paid full attention to each other, some scattered their attention and looked around, and some noticed the dessert shop and subconsciously looked over a few more times.
One young woman spotted Ichijō Mirai and took a foothold on the sidewalk, her boyfriend followed, also took a foothold, and after repeated glances at the sweet store and her admiring girlfriend, he quickly retreated with his girlfriend.
This is normal.
Ishida Eiko breathed a sigh of relief, and then mentioned, "Some people want to entrust you a case because they heard that you are a detective."
Ichijō Mirai had no reputation, no reputation other than being handsome, but he was back from America.
Even though he had no reputation as a detective, many people came to visit him out of awe and immediately thought, "You must be a great detective!"
"Some people come here with their girlfriends to buy desserts," Ishida Eiko said, gradually lowering her voice, "and some people... uh, because their girlfriends like you."
Huh?
Ichijō Mirai smiles and raises an eyebrow, eager to hear, "Want a fight?"
He shrugged rather helplessly, "So the guests are so diverse, it's been hard on Auntie."
"It's a date," Ishida Eiko's voice dropped to a whisper, "not a fight."
Oh, so it's not a fight, it's a date...what?
...'
Ichijō Mirai: "?"
Ishida Eiko once again looked at the sky and the ground and the cake, "The male customer that I remember the most was a customer who looked to be in his late twenties, had long hair, a knit cap on his head, his eyes were a little thickened on the lower lids, and was stylishly dressed and quite handsome."
"He, uh, he's been here a couple of times, first to squat on you near the dinnertime, and then, because he was delayed in seeing you, he spent the whole day in the dessert store a couple of days ago."
"I remember one time you went into the kitchen right after he left."
"Good thing you didn't run into each other!"
She recounted the customer's outrageous behavior, "When he came in, he just sat in the corner and waited, but since the other day, he's been waiting all over the place, probably anxious to see you, and he's been asking me about your height, your weight, your nationality, your friends, your lovers, your sweethearts, your aspirations and occupations, your savings, and all that kind of stuff."
"I had a good impression of him, but I didn't know he'd ask about it, and then..."
"You were so busy, you couldn't even eat, you basically came out in the middle of the night to open the fridge for dinner," Ishida Eiko explains, "and I never got a chance to talk to you about it."
First I didn't get a chance to say it, then I didn't dare to say it.
Because, "Last time, he was asking me about you again, and when I got in the way, he said he didn't mean any harm, that you didn't have to avoid him, and that he only kept coming over because you looked like one of his girlfriend's ex-boyfriends."
"He said his girlfriend likes you!"
"He says he likes his girlfriend a lot, and even though you're not nice and don't seem like a good person, he likes you a lot because his girlfriend likes you!"
"He wants to ask you if you can develop a relationship with him and his girlfriend, talk as friends and get to know each other better!"
In each sentence, Ishida Eiko puts an exclamation point, vividly expressing her own dumbfounded-ness as a middle-aged person in the face of today's youth.
Ichijō Mirai: "?"
Ichijō Mirai: "..."
He thought briefly, then briefly again, and briefly again, but the gears in his brain got stuck and he couldn't utter a single word.
[After so many years of ups and downs, what kind of situations have I not encountered?.jpg]
[I'm sorry I haven't seen this before.jpg]
[Can you guys with niche
Ichijō Mirai is silent.
This silence was the silence of a normal person, and Ichijō Mirai realized that he was still a normal person who couldn't withstand the big waves.
He said sincerely: "You have worked so hard, Auntie."
No wonder his expression was so strange when he heard the keyword, he shouldn't have looked into it.
The guests are so diverse!
Ishida Eiko could only offer an extremely feeble excuse, "We Japanese are not usually like this."
"Well, although there are indeed many strange social tacit understandings in daily life, such as people who don't participate in club activities are weird, people who get off work on time are weird, people who go to ramen restaurants alone are weird, and people who go alone without friends are even weirder, but, but couples are not alone, two people are enough, um..."
She gave up explaining and took out a business card from the drawer. "The guest left a business card before leaving. Hand or trash can?"
Should I take the card, or throw it in the trash?
Ichijō Mirai was silent for a few seconds, and struggled to organize his words, "Let's put it aside for now."
Although it was outrageous... it was really too outrageous. They didn't look like stalkers at all. They looked more like ordinary hooligans! There were multiple people doing it!
And Ishida Eiko didn't say 'blond and brown-skinned'.
Just in case, Ichijō Mirai glanced at the business card from afar, pretending perfunctorily that he'd seen it, then immediately averted his eyes so as not to be contaminated, and asked the unfortunately contaminated Ishida Eiko, "That gentleman isn't a blond, is he? What's his name?"
Ishida Eiko replied, "Not a blond, but a brunet, with a fairer complexion, but not quite white."
She looked down at the card, "The gentleman's name is..."
"