Yanami held her fork and looked at the plate in front of her with somewhat lonely and empty eyes.
The plate, which had been filled with pasta and meatballs just a moment ago, was now empty, with only the bright red sauce remaining to show that something had once existed there.
"It's too little, not enough to eat." The girl put down her fork and lamented.
"That's just because your appetite is too hearty—although I really want to say that, this is the only time I quite agree with your opinion, Yanami."
Asakura nodded in agreement.
Probably because as a cat cafe, the value-added services were all on those cat-related products, the food this shop provided to customers was actually somewhat... it couldn't even be called perfunctory, but the quantity was indeed very small.
Taking the meatball pasta Yanami ordered as an example, the price was almost the same as the meatball pasta at the family restaurant Saizeriya, but in reality, the amount of pasta was only a bit more than half of Saizeriya's, and there were only two meatballs.
Perhaps for girls with smaller appetites, such a quantity was barely acceptable, but for boys, it was definitely a meager amount, let alone for Yanami, whose appetite was stronger than that of ordinary boys.
"Do you want to endure it for a bit, and we can go to a family restaurant later?" Yukino made a somewhat hesitant suggestion.
It was clear that she was quite reluctant to give up the opportunity to openly pet cats here, but her kind nature still made her decide to accommodate Yanami for a bit.
"No way, if the fast lasts too long, it will be judged as two meals..." Yanami immediately shook her head and said: "Then Miss Yanami would lose big time!"
It seemed that even though not much time had passed since she obtained the magic [Crowd], she had already figured out the rules regarding food quite clearly.
"Then how about ordering another portion?" Asakura asked.
"Ugh, although it's not impossible... but the pocket money is a bit..." A distressed look appeared on the girl's face.
Speaking of which, this fellow was the type who, having just received ten thousand yen in pocket money from her grandmother, could spend half of it on the tram on the way home.
It was estimated that she planned every day how to use her pocket money to get the maximum return (meaning food).
"Rather, it's only the beginning of the month right now, has your pocket money already fallen into such a dire state...?" Asakura couldn't help but complain.
"It's because it's the beginning of the month that the pressure is high! Many delicious shops launch monthly limited set meals every month- considering the freshness of ingredients, you can only enjoy the best flavor if you go at the beginning of the month! Asakura-kun, you definitely won't understand!"
"I suppose so, I'm the type who can survive even on instant noodles." Asakura said casually: "Since I'm the one who brought you here, I'll treat you this time."
"Really? Give me another one!"
"Only the pasta and one more dish from just now."
"Tch, stingy." The girl pouted and said.
"Say what you want, Mr. Asakura's family has no surplus grain either." Asakura didn't care about her mocking attack at all.
In fact, because the Rabbit House opened last month and was active in the shopping district, Rabbit Team attracted a large number of loyal fans- this month, Asakura finally had some spare money in his hands.
However, first, he had to pay the three people working in his own shop, second, Asakura was also quite scared of being poor and always had to keep some money for emergencies, and third, the budget for the Magic Club was really not high, and later club activities might require him to pay out of his own pocket for some club fees, so there was no harm in being meticulous.
If he really let Yanami eat freely, Asakura's wallet would truly be unable to handle it...
"Yukinoshita, do you want to eat? I can treat you to your portion too."
Since they were already here, Asakura didn't plan to be biased and turned to ask Yukino beside him.
"No need, I'll just drink coffee."
Yukino shook her head, not wanting to take advantage of this.
"Drinking coffee at this time, you're really not afraid of being unable to sleep." Asakura complained.
"It's just cheap instant coffee, the effect isn't strong enough to reach that level." Yukino said noncommittally as she picked up her cup.
"Ah!"
Yanami suddenly made a sound and poked Yukinoshita's hand, causing the coffee in her cup to almost splash on her.
The cat that was originally by Yukinoshita's side was startled and disappeared with a 'whoosh' as if it were on springs.
The other cats were frightened by that cat's movement, as if triggering a chain reaction, they also started to flee- the scene in the cat cafe suddenly became chaotic enough to be described as soldiers in a panic.
Fortunately, most of the cats in the cat cafe were of the better-tempered and bolder type, so this kind of chaos didn't last too long, and they calmed down after a while of soothing from the cat cafe waiters.
"So what exactly happened?" Yukino looked at the cats who didn't seem to want to get close to her for a short while, let out a helpless sigh, and questioned Yanami.
"I found food that might be quite cost-effective!" Yanami said happily.
"..."
Yukino covered her forehead with one hand, her face written with exhaustion.
"Is that so? Let me see."
Asakura was quite interested in what Yanami had found and leaned over, but when he saw the picture on that page of the menu in the girl's hand, his expression became strange: "Are you sure you want to order this?"
"This price is very cost-effective, right?" The girl looked at Asakura with eyes that seemed to be claiming credit.
"Although it is indeed cost-effective..." Asakura sighed heavily, "but isn't this a couples' set meal?"
"Actually, I wouldn't mind ordering a parent-child set meal, I quite want the little flag on the omurice." The girl said with a giggle: "It's just that the portion of the kids' meal in the parent-child set seems a bit small, so my first choice is still the couples' set meal!"
Asakura rubbed his temples with a headache: "I'm not eating that."
The girl immediately tilted her head, her expression looking even more excited: "I'll eat two portions!"
Forget it, just order it.
Asakura, who didn't want to argue with her any further, called the waiter and ordered the couples' set meal.
The waiter looked at Asakura, then at the two girls opposite him, and said with some uncertainty: "Even if there are three people, the dishes in the couples' set meal only come in two portions, you know?"
"Why are you taking a love triangle as the premise?!"
"Besides, the couples' set meal is quite a bargain... ahem, it's a loss-leader advancement, so we need a little bit of proof." That waiter said.
"It's not going to be something like a kiss in front of you, right?" Asakura squinted his eyes.
"How could that be? That's a plot that only appears in TV dramas. In reality, you only need to hold hands with fingers interlaced..." the waiter demonstrated with their own left and right hands, "Something like ten seconds of that will do."
That seems okay.
Asakura nodded and reached out his hand toward Yanami: "Come on."
"Eh? Ehhhh—!"
"Eh my foot, aren't you the one who wanted to eat it!"