9. Robust, Active, and Healthy
9. Robust, Active, and Healthy
"I was going to close the convenience store soon anyway, and I was planning on going to sleep myself. Wouldn't it be better to sleep here? A bed is better than a library chair or a bench, right?"
"That's... true, but just lying on Nuna's bed is...."
"You sit on the edge of my bed whenever I'm resting, annoying me. Now you're going to say something like that...?"
...He's really getting hung up on the most useless things.
I thought he might say it's a problem considering I just opened the convenience store.
I didn't expect it to be about this.
He's always been a kid who approaches me so comfortably.
I naturally assumed he'd just accept it....
"Forget it. Just lie down here. There's nothing here besides an apron anyway."
"......."
"Got it?"
"...Yes, Nuna."
Even so, whenever I kept talking to him like this, Noah would just quietly nod and accept it.
I didn't know he'd be shy in a situation like this, considering he's a kid who visits whenever he's bored and comes into the breakroom whenever he wants.
Is he still just a kid after all?
Come to think of it, at 17... he's at an age where he knows a sense of shame, and aside from his usual cheeky attitude, he was a kid who knew how to draw the line to some extent.
It wasn't hard to understand why he was worried about being a nuisance.
This wasn't just a regular room, it was a room located inside a store, so that must be why.
"For now, there's only a bed... and a bed? A pillow, and a lantern. If you get thirsty, just take whatever is in there and drink it. Eat something like a cup noodle for breakfast, too."
"...That feels like too much of a nuisance."
"You're a nuisance all the time anyway. Doesn't matter, right?"
"......I guess that's true."
"Yeah, you're just a 17-year-old kid at most, it's fine to get some help from an adult. What's the big deal?"
I feel this sometimes, but it's quite frustrating to see kids who are much younger than me trying to take responsibility for useless things and trying not to be a nuisance.
Of course, there were times when I was like that too.
Trying to act like an adult, trying to take responsibility—everyone does that at least once, but....
Hearing this from a kid 11 years younger than me is just funny.
I started getting ready to go home while giving him that answer.
I flipped the open sign on the store door, turned off the lights one by one, and.......
"Ah, do you want to clean up a bit? Here, just wipe the floor with a wet mop. I was planning on doing it, but you're the one sleeping here, right? Just clean inside the convenience store. I'll handle the inventory tomorrow. How about it?"
Since I hadn't finished cleaning yet.
I decided to leave it to that 17-year-old kid who was unnecessarily exercising his sense of responsibility.
...I was a bit worried he might break a glass bottle or something.
But he's a sturdy kid, right?
Believing he'd handle it well on his own, I spoke to him and....
"Yaaawn......."
I'm walking slowly through the night streets alone like this.
I'd already left him with everything I needed to, and if I stayed there, it would just be a hindrance, and I figured it would be annoying for him too.
I intentionally let him rest comfortably like this.
He'll clean up well on his own, and if he gets thirsty, he'll know how to take out some water and drink it.
There aren't any toothbrushes or toothpaste... but I hoped he'd just let that slide, thinking of it as unavoidable and unfortunate.
Honestly, I provided a place to stay, that's enough, right?
It would be shameless to ask for more than that here.
Yeah, yeah, he won't think much of it.
He treats me so comfortably usually, but he's not a bad kid, after all.
"The weather is hot...."
That said, I wonder how long this summer is going to last.
At least it's nighttime now, so I can endure it in my own way, but....
"...Is it a good thing I don't have any days where I get off work during the day?"
If I seriously had a day where I got off work during the day, I felt like I'd have to freeze a whole bottle of water and carry it around to be okay.
I've actually tried it before, so I think it would be quite good.
But it takes about 30 minutes to get home, so freezing water is a bit of a hassle in itself.
"Tsk tsk. Summer vacation needs to pass quickly so I can rest comfortably."
As expected, I think I like winter the best.
...Well, I'm a Snow Woman, after all?
Naturally, that would be the case.
It would be even stranger if a Snow Woman liked summer more than winter.
"Still, it's a relief... that my body doesn't melt."
When I first found out I was a Snow Woman, I was seriously worried.
But... after finding out that I was just a quasi-human race that was amazing in terms of magic and had a few characteristics, I was really relieved.
And that was already..........
"...20 years and more, huh?"
I'm forced to admit that I've aged.
Not just my mental age, but my body too.
Thanks to Mana and the characteristics of the Snow Woman race, I'm healthy and young in my own way, but....
"...28 is old, what can you do."
Because that's a part I can't refute.
I just sighed heavily and headed home.
"......He'll sleep well on his own, right?"
Naturally, very naturally, the pillow and blanket were just the ones I used.
I hope he doesn't ruin the rest of his exams because he couldn't sleep properly.
Maybe because the pillow is too soft, so it's uncomfortable.
Or because the blanket is unnecessarily thin, so it's uncomfortable.
"......He'll figure it out."
Still, it's better than sleeping on a chair or a bench.
Noah isn't a complete idiot, so I thought he'd handle it well and erased those worries from my mind.
After Skadi, the owner of the convenience store and a 28-year-old clearly heading toward the age of an ajumma, left work, Noah started by cleaning.
Aside from the fact that he approached Skadi familiarly.
Since he was going to use the place where the store owner rested for the night, he thought he should do his due diligence.
She had told him to, after all.
"Mopping, is this how you do it......?"
Even though he's an academy student from a commoner background.
He wasn't the type to clean very hard at home, so the 17-year-old boy fell into a bit of trouble.
He soaked the mop in the bathroom, wrung it out properly with the spin dryer, and cleaned the inside of the convenience store diligently and scrubbed it hard, but he wasn't very good at it.
Even though he did quite well, he tilted his head alone and fell into thought.
If he were cleaning his house back home, he would have finished at this point, but....
"Hmm... I hope Nuna doesn't think that she shouldn't have lent me the breakroom for no reason tomorrow."
It was something Skadi said before she left, and he was about to sleep with his back hunched over on a library chair.
Naturally, he couldn't help but want to finish it better.
Of course, in his own opinion, this seemed like enough, even more than enough, so he tidied up the mop in the bathroom, but still.
"......Haa."
Actually, cleaning the inside of the convenience store wasn't really a problem.
The real problem for Noah started now.
"...Should I just put the blanket and pillow somewhere else and sleep?"
Skadi was always the one resting inside the breakroom whenever she took a break from working at the convenience store.
Because of that, naturally, Skadi's unique scent was bound to remain inside the breakroom.
It was like that when he entered the breakroom, and naturally, the scent was bound to remain even more strongly in the spot where she usually lay down.
First of all, he had to sleep.
He had to sleep early so he could prepare for the exam tomorrow.
Noah lay down on the bed, telling himself he absolutely did not have the intention of smelling the scent.
"......Sniff."
Of course, the cozy scent he felt the moment he laid his body comfortably on the bed.
The scent he could smell even when talking to Skadi usually felt much more dense than he thought.
He was flustered when Skadi first made the strange suggestion, but he accepted it because it was true that it was much better to actually lie on the bed and sleep, but now that the situation was like this....
"......Ah, I'm screwed."
Noah couldn't just fall asleep comfortably.
Whether he lay looking at the ceiling, looking to the side, or burying his face in the pillow.
The thick scent could be felt from every direction.
"Haa......."
Unlike someone who is 28, he is a robust, active, and healthy 17-year-old teenager in his prime.
It's not that he's completely unaccustomed to the opposite sex.
But the scent of someone he had feelings for had the power to easily overcome such things.
Naturally, he couldn't help but be conscious of it, and it was even more natural that all sorts of thoughts would come to mind.
He tried to maintain his composure by counting sheep or numbers to fall asleep quickly, but naturally, the object of counting numbers became Skadi, not animals.
Also, he tried to breathe calmly like when practicing swordsmanship, but even that was immediately undone.
"......Should I just give up on the exam."
His thoughts naturally kept drifting away from the direction of sleep.
It couldn't be helped.
"......Let's at least drink some water."
He tried to sleep early, and he believed it would be possible because he was clearly tired.
But it was too difficult an environment for that.
Noah had no choice but to go outside the breakroom for a moment to drink water and work hard to forget his thoughts by doing some light bodyweight exercises.
To the point of getting stressed.