Evening, at Ichin's home.
Looking at the table full of delicious food before her, Haruno narrowed her eyes slightly, glancing toward Ichin, who was walking out of the kitchen with the last dish—a plate of crispy fried pork.
"Mmm~~"
With a graceful, teasing sway of her hips, Haruno walked over to him, laid her hand on Ichin's shoulder, and smiled mischievously.
"Offering a feast for no reason? You must be up to something. Come on, Ichin, tell me—what do you need my help with this time?"
Setting the dish on the table, Ichin chuckled. "Let's sit down and eat first. We can talk while we eat."
"Well~~ fine."
Once everyone sat down and poured their drinks, Haruno first picked up a piece of her favorite crispy pork, nodded in satisfaction, then looked curiously at Ichin.
"All right, spill it. If you don't say it soon, I won't even be able to enjoy my meal."
Hearing that, both Utaha and Yukino were already holding back their laughter.
Having spent so much time with Ichin, Haruno's personality had mellowed a bit, but her quick wit remained as sharp as ever—never giving Ichin a chance to butter her up unchallenged.
With no other choice, Ichin could only explain his plan about the new company office building.
"Oh, so that's what it is."
Haruno took a sip of juice, smiling as she recalled something.
Ichin had mentioned this before, but since the timing hadn't been right, it was left as just a passing thought.
Now, however, with the University of Tokyo about to host a job fair and Ichin's company needing to expand recruitment, the new office building had become a pressing matter.
In fact, Haruno had already helped Ichin look for an office back then, but none of the places she found were suitable, so she never brought it up again.
But now, it was time to put in some real effort to find a good location.
After all, both she and Yukino held shares in this company—it was their business too.
Once they had a proper new space and more people onboard, the company's reputation would naturally grow even further, which could only be good for its future development.
Although Haruno had already decided internally to help Ichin wholeheartedly, she wasn't about to miss the perfect chance to "shear some wool" off her little brother.
With a playful, devilish smile curling on her lips, she rested her chin on her hand and said, "I can help you, and I'll even give you the best deal possible—but, Ichin, you've got to show a little sincerity too, right?"
Before Ichin could say anything, Haruno pointed at the table full of food and smirked.
"This alone isn't enough, you know~"
Good grief—she saw right through him immediately.
Ichin sighed helplessly, then raised his right index finger.
"All right, how about this—I'll make you lunch for a month. On weekdays, I'll prepare your bento, and on off days, as long as you're in Tokyo, you can come over for dinner."
"Mmm~~ one month, huh?"
Haruno shook her head, spooned some mapo tofu into her bowl, and then raised three fingers.
"Three months. Three months of lunches—and I also want midnight snacks for the nights I come home late!"
"Two months!"
"Eighty days!"
"Sixty-five days! Final offer!"
"Deal. Sixty-five days it is."
Haruno agreed, satisfied. She had originally been aiming for about a month and a half, but now she'd wrangled an extra two weeks out of him—sixty-five days in total.
A clear win in her book!
"I'll take care of finding your new office building, Ichin. Leave it to your big sister!"
Seeing the smug, triumphant look on Haruno's face, Ichin couldn't help but purse his lips.
Her conditions were exactly what he'd expected. After all, Haruno wasn't the kind of person to demand money from him—their relationship didn't work that way. So naturally, her "payment" was going to be something food-related.
But sixty-five days... that was going to drain him dry. Just thinking about what dishes to make for the next day was enough to make his scalp go numb.
And sure enough—
As Ichin's gaze shifted toward Utaha, she said, "Since you're making lunch for Haruno-senpai, you can't forget about me and Yukino, right?"
Knew it.
Ichin didn't even dare to refuse; he immediately nodded. "Of course. I was planning to make for all of you anyway."
"Eh? I-I don't really need any…" Yukino started to protest.
But Haruno held down her sister's arm and grinned. "Come on, Yukino, just accept it. Your big sister's going to be working hard for this deal, you know! But if you're feeling guilty about it, you can come over in the evenings and help with dinner—that way you'll be easing Ichin's workload, right?"
"If you were willing to shave off a few days from the deal, that would actually ease my workload."
"That's absolutely impossible~~~"
And just like that, Ichin's life as a bento master began.
Every day, he had to plan the next day's lunch boxes. Since they were for his own family, he also had to ensure a balanced diet and account for everyone's different tastes.
The first month went smoothly enough, but as time went on, Ichin gradually started to run out of ideas. He began hunting everywhere for new recipes, even consulting his mom—and Utaha's mom—for advice.
Days passed one after another.
By late October, the University of Tokyo's autumn job fair officially began.
For this round of recruitment, the company had prepared openings for over a dozen positions, aiming to hire forty graduating students.
Of course, that was only the target number. If the actual qualified candidates didn't reach that figure, they'd just take however many met the standard.
Ichin didn't have to involve himself too much in the recruitment process. The company's HR department was more than capable. In addition, Umiko from the programming team had specially come back to help, the art team was led by Kō Yagami and Rin Toyama, and other positions had their respective leads in charge.
All Ichin had to do was quietly observe from behind the scenes—particularly focusing on a few key interviewees he was personally interested in.
After three days, the job fair came to an end.
Although they didn't fill all forty positions, the thirty-two interns they recruited were more than enough to make Ichin satisfied.
As long as they could adapt during their internship, there was a high chance they'd get a full-time offer afterward.
Of course, Ichin wasn't about to let these fourth-year seniors think they could just coast. The tasks he assigned them were going to be intense—bug fixes, network optimization, visual-effects tuning, and other challenges far more complex than anything they'd done in university. And there'd be no time for them to flip through textbooks.
Moreover, Ichin selected some of the most outstanding recruits and had Sakura Nene lead them in developing a new game project—Castle Crashers—following up on BattleBlock Theater.
That project had always been intended as a training assignment for newcomers, and now was the perfect time to test these near-graduates' abilities.
And just as Ichin expected, even with Nene guiding them, the interns still ran into plenty of issues.
Time flowed by, and before anyone realized it, December had arrived.
Titanfall—was released.
---
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