[ Would it be weird for Nanashi to go up to Jouhei and go "Hey, so your coworker is coming along to go grocery shopping with us!"? Yeah, it'd be weird. Jouhei is not allowed to suspect anything.
This'll work instead: The next time Nanashi and Jouhei plans to go to the store, Nanashi tips Minato off and Minato gets there ahead of them, rehearsing a "Fancy meeting you here! What a coincidence." in his head while he circles the store keeping a lookout for the other two, making several passes by the sample stalls of salmon cream cheese spread on toast until he starts getting turned away.
Being anxious and excited about finally discovering the source of strawberry candies does not stop Minato from capitalizing on free breakfast. ]
[ jouhei is someone who follows a routine. every monday, he sits down and writes in his planner on what to do for the week. every wednesday, he reorganizes the kitchen and all his bowls and plates. every friday and saturday, he makes meals based on the leftovers in his fridge. but, most importantly, every sunday, he goes grocery shopping. sometimes, he goes alone and other times, he brings nanashi like today. ]
[ currently, he does not suspect anything as he walks into the store. what is there to suspect? it's just going to be another normal day and he's going to buy his food. he takes two baskets at the entrance and hands one to nanashi so he can grab whatever he wants around the store as well. ]
[ will they be successful on their mission? we will find out ]
[Nanashi's keeping a close eye on Jouhei's movements. He's being a little too conspicuous about it. This guy doesn't have any chill. He'll be bouncing down the aisle smiling.
I'm pretty sure Nanashi made up some crapass excuse earlier: "Oh yeah, you know my senpai and he works at your place! Let's go shopping!" So here we are.
What's Jouhei's secret?? ? Where are these candies coming from? The world may never know. ]
[ The 16th time around, Minato is given his own little platter of toast so that he won't stop coming back, and it's now that he sees Nanashi and Jouhei and makes a beeline directly towards them in no way that can be excused as a coincidence.
His mouth is full of crunchy bread, though, so he can't recite what he'd practiced... Instead, he holds out the plate for each of them to offer a sample, and hopefully to get Jouhei to let his guard down. ]
[ ah, hello. he did not expect to see minato here but he's not really upset about it. rather than actually saying, you know, hello or something, jouhei just nods at him like that's a proper greeting instead. ]
[ and he takes a piece of toast from minato's plate without really suspecting anything ]
[ Oh? Oh. Even if they don't find out the secret today, Minato's already coming out on top with +2 strawberry candies. He nods his thanks at Nanashi, while in the same motion, continues passing Jouhei more bread.
Dry bread with salty spread. After eating about ten of them, you start to crave something sweet, like, say, addictive strawberry hard candies. Maybe he can subconsciously plant this craving into Jouhei's mind. ]
[ even if jouhei sees the little exchange, he has no idea what it's supposed to mean. he just assumes that nanashi is being nice and sharing the candy that he got earlier so nothing to be suspicious about. ]
[ he does take more pieces of toast and hm, minato's plan works because it does make him want to eat something sweet. after eating, he tends to have a single hard candy so he's left with a sweet taste in his mouth so he reaches into his pocket to pull out two. he takes one for himself but then he holds out the other for minato. jouhei isn't a monster, he knows how to say thank you so here is his thank you through candy ]
[Everyone's here to give Minato candies. Nanashi doesn't feel like eating sweets right now. Why are you guys like this?
He's happy to give his share away. Give him another minute or so and he'll finish eating his bread in proper. Then he just goes for another slice because this bread is too good to give up.
[ The thank you candy is gratefully accepted. That bumps up today's earnings to three, and he still has three candies back home stashed away in his safety deposit box. He can enjoy one every two months now.
But here it is, a link to the candies that they should pursue, so Minato steps over to the bread and cracker aisle and pulls some of the bread off the shelves. Around five or six loaves that get stacked inside Jouhei's and Nanashi's grocery baskets. No other food. Only bread. Bread leads to candy. ]
[ no, minato, no... this much bread does not lead to candy. this much bread only leads to jouhei looking at minato with A Look and he starts putting some back. he looks at nanashi to do the same. ]
[Oh no. It's that judging stare....! What's wrong with six???? If you have stomach for sweets then you've got a stomach for bread!!!
Nanashi nudges Jouhei's shoulder like "hey, can we take one extra?".
He can make some sort of compromise and go home with two instead. Nanashi is truly a kid. Can you blame him for having a big appetite? In the event that Jouhei refuses to take one extra then Nanashi will pay for it with his own allowance. ]
[ Yeah, come on, Jouhei. Minato isn't part of this household but he will still pick up the cream cheese spread used on the samplers and hold it up for Jouhei to see. It's like. A gallon sized bulk purchase or something, but you save so much, considering the price per ounce. And with that much spread, you'll need at least two loafs of bread. ]
[ why are these two tag-teaming up on him? are they working on commission and the more bread they sell, the more money they get? ah, whatever, another loaf of bread won't hurt, he guesses, especially if nanashi is asking for some. he'll just nod at nanashi, silently agreeing for him to let him take that extra one. ]
[ jouhei then looks at minato, tipping his hat a bit as a silent goodbye, and begins to walk further into the store. he'll just leave nanashi to grab whatever he wants to eat and he assumes that minato has nothing else to do with him so he just wanders off. ]
[Tag teaming on Jouhei was the entire point of this shopping trip. Sorry dude.
Nanashi slaps Minato's back. "Come with me, senpai!!!! " They're going to tail Jouhei...secretly. It's time to find out where he gets those fucking candies.
[ good enough. First things first is to narrow down Jouhei's most frequented aisles. Minato and Nanashi sticking together might be a little suspicious, so they should split up-- Once Jouhei's back is turned, Minato shakes his head and motions for Nanashi to slip around and go down the aisle to the right, while Minato will take a stroll down the left. Depending on which way Jouhei turns after reaching the end of the bread, one of them will be able to keep him in sight. ]
[ just how long are they going to keep this up until they realize that they'll never find out where he gets those strawberry candies? because jouhei is just going to do his grocery shopping like a regular person, looking at what's for sale, reading the nutritional info and ingredients in pre-packaged food, carefully weighing any fruits or nuts he's getting, it's a very slow and boring shopping trip. ]
[ do they give up or do they continue? maybe this isn't the place where he gets his black market candies ]
[ jouhei sees nanashi but he does not think much of it because they came to the grocery store together so it's okay. nanashi is a weird kid so it probably doesn't really mean much if nanashi is following him and staring ]
[ now if jouhei sees minato staring at him... that's a whole other thing ]
[ Nobody is leaving this store until they find out where Jouhei is getting those candies. Every time Jouhei stops to stare at the nutritional labels on the back of a box or package, Minato gets a little closer, closer, closer, until he's standing right beside Jouhei. What a coincidence!! Minato is also considering buying... pistachios. Those aren't strawberry candies and no he's not buying them, they're delicious but it hurts cracking them open and Minato has decided they are too expensive and not worth the pain.
But he will (entirely coincidentally) pick up and consider everything that Jouhei does, with phone out like he's pretending to calculate a unit price, but he's actually texting Nanashi instead.
[The notification coming from Minato's text message makes Nanashi jump up in surprise. What the heck man? He wasn't expecting that. He'll type this up as a response back.]
(b ~_^)b OK! I've got this d(^_^ d)
[Hey, Jouhei. What's up? Nanashi's joining up with you again. He's got some Miso soup because he knows that's okay. ]
Do we have everything yet, Jouhei? I think we're missing something. Easter's coming up and we don't have anything for it.
[ what a coincidence!! jouhei eyes minato as he suspiciously stands next to him and picks up whatever he's also holding. he's suddenly getting the suspicion that something is up but he doesn't really know what yet... ]
[ he looks at nanashi and he doesn't reply back to him right away. he just holds his bag of pistachios before he slowly puts it away in his basket ]
... we can pick up some chocolate eggs.
[ they were selling some in the front of the store near the cash so they can grab some on the way out ]
[ No, no, say you don't want chocolate, Nanashi...!
Minato also does his part by keeping his mouth shut and tries to throw the suspicion off himself by leaving to do his shopping elsewhere. Although he comes back every two minutes with something new in his basket every time and walking past Jouhei as he does so. There's strawberry jam, dried strawberry slices, strawberry scented shampoo, actual strawberries. Minato will inevitably be that asshole who leaves his shopping basket on top of a display shelf somewhere for employees to put everything away later, but sometimes sacrifices have to be made for subliminal/honestly very obvious messages. ]
[ ............. now he's getting real mighty suspicious. he knows that nanashi loves chocolate so it's not super uncommon to ask for that but jouhei never needs to be pushed to buy more candy. he already has that covered and with minato weirdly appearing every moment with a bunch of strawberry products in his basket, something reeks. jouhei will do some tests... ]
We can get jellybeans.
[ those are easter candies, right? they're practically like eggs ]
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breaks into your inbox w/ an action thread, hello
This'll work instead: The next time Nanashi and Jouhei plans to go to the store, Nanashi tips Minato off and Minato gets there ahead of them, rehearsing a "Fancy meeting you here! What a coincidence." in his head while he circles the store keeping a lookout for the other two, making several passes by the sample stalls of salmon cream cheese spread on toast until he starts getting turned away.
Being anxious and excited about finally discovering the source of strawberry candies does not stop Minato from capitalizing on free breakfast. ]
i am so glad for this
[ currently, he does not suspect anything as he walks into the store. what is there to suspect? it's just going to be another normal day and he's going to buy his food. he takes two baskets at the entrance and hands one to nanashi so he can grab whatever he wants around the store as well. ]
[ will they be successful on their mission? we will find out ]
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I'm pretty sure Nanashi made up some crapass excuse earlier: "Oh yeah, you know my senpai and he works at your place! Let's go shopping!" So here we are.
What's Jouhei's secret?? ? Where are these candies coming from? The world may never know. ]
I NEVER TRACKED THIS...................
His mouth is full of crunchy bread, though, so he can't recite what he'd practiced... Instead, he holds out the plate for each of them to offer a sample, and hopefully to get Jouhei to let his guard down. ]
minato ate your tracking
[ and he takes a piece of toast from minato's plate without really suspecting anything ]
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Remember he said he would? Minato might suddenly find 2 strawberry candies in his pocket.
This is supposed to be a hidden message!!! Jouhei can't know what's up! ]
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Dry bread with salty spread. After eating about ten of them, you start to crave something sweet, like, say, addictive strawberry hard candies. Maybe he can subconsciously plant this craving into Jouhei's mind. ]
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[ he does take more pieces of toast and hm, minato's plan works because it does make him want to eat something sweet. after eating, he tends to have a single hard candy so he's left with a sweet taste in his mouth so he reaches into his pocket to pull out two. he takes one for himself but then he holds out the other for minato. jouhei isn't a monster, he knows how to say thank you so here is his thank you through candy ]
[ you get none, nanashi ]
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He's happy to give his share away. Give him another minute or so and he'll finish eating his bread in proper. Then he just goes for another slice because this bread is too good to give up.
They should buy some. ]
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But here it is, a link to the candies that they should pursue, so Minato steps over to the bread and cracker aisle and pulls some of the bread off the shelves. Around five or six loaves that get stacked inside Jouhei's and Nanashi's grocery baskets. No other food. Only bread. Bread leads to candy. ]
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[ they can take one home, not six ]
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Nanashi nudges Jouhei's shoulder like "hey, can we take one extra?".
He can make some sort of compromise and go home with two instead. Nanashi is truly a kid. Can you blame him for having a big appetite? In the event that Jouhei refuses to take one extra then Nanashi will pay for it with his own allowance. ]
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[ jouhei then looks at minato, tipping his hat a bit as a silent goodbye, and begins to walk further into the store. he'll just leave nanashi to grab whatever he wants to eat and he assumes that minato has nothing else to do with him so he just wanders off. ]
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Nanashi slaps Minato's back. "Come with me, senpai!!!! " They're going to tail Jouhei...secretly. It's time to find out where he gets those fucking candies.
This is a matter of life or death.]
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[ do they give up or do they continue? maybe this isn't the place where he gets his black market candies ]
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Nanashi takes a different path from Minato and tries to tail Jouhei on the other end. He sees you getting fruits and nuts.
The real question is: does Jouhei see Nanashi?
This is suspicious. ]
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[ now if jouhei sees minato staring at him... that's a whole other thing ]
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But he will (entirely coincidentally) pick up and consider everything that Jouhei does, with phone out like he's pretending to calculate a unit price, but he's actually texting Nanashi instead.
Suggest eggs. Easter. Candy.
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(b ~_^)b OK! I've got this d(^_^ d)
[Hey, Jouhei. What's up? Nanashi's joining up with you again. He's got some Miso soup because he knows that's okay. ]
Do we have everything yet, Jouhei? I think we're missing something. Easter's coming up and we don't have anything for it.
[Here it comes.]
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[ he looks at nanashi and he doesn't reply back to him right away. he just holds his bag of pistachios before he slowly puts it away in his basket ]
... we can pick up some chocolate eggs.
[ they were selling some in the front of the store near the cash so they can grab some on the way out ]
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Minato also does his part by keeping his mouth shut and tries to throw the suspicion off himself by leaving to do his shopping elsewhere. Although he comes back every two minutes with something new in his basket every time and walking past Jouhei as he does so. There's strawberry jam, dried strawberry slices, strawberry scented shampoo, actual strawberries. Minato will inevitably be that asshole who leaves his shopping basket on top of a display shelf somewhere for employees to put everything away later, but sometimes sacrifices have to be made for subliminal/honestly very obvious messages. ]
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Can we get some chocolate and candy too? I know you like sweets.
[Chocolate's not gonna cut it, buddy. Strawberry candies or bust. ]
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We can get jellybeans.
[ those are easter candies, right? they're practically like eggs ]
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