T-Then, please take care of the store later.
The manager left the store after Nagase did so, with a sowhat worried expression.
Inside the store were four custors: an OL and a young woman in casual attire, both of whom had wallets in their hands and were pacing back and forth between the bread and sweets sections; two older office workers in worn-out suits browsing the magazine section.
Takenaka was standing beside the register on the left, close to the entrance, while I was positioned in front of the register on the right with a tissue shoved up both of my nostrils.
Nothing to be embarrassed about. Nothing at all was what I wanted to say but
Needless to say, it was embarrassing after all.
Which convenience store in the world would have a staff working with tissues stuffed in both nostrils?
That soone was actually here, though.
It was .
When I was in the back room stopping the bleeding, sohow the blood ended up flowing out of the hole that was not bleeding, so I was forced to attend work with both holes stuffed with shredded tissues, an extrely foolish state to be in. Of course, I had my own circumstances, but what was embarrassing was that all the custors who showed up were peering at .
A few minutes ago, a young man who was purchasing rice balls stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes widening at the sight of my face. He must have thought, Whats going on with this guy?
That would be a normal reaction. I didnt like stuffing tissues up my nostrils either, nonetheless. Being bitterly smiled at bothered . At tis like this, please pass it off with the unique Japanese power of ignoring.
Oh, look. This ti, the OL ca this way with a sweetened bun.
That OL was clearly trying to head this way. However, the mont she reached the rice ball display shelf right in front of my cash register, she noticed sothing strange on my face. Perhaps noticing sothing unusual about my face, she changed direction at a right angle, without shifting her facial expression, but unnaturally.
The change in course brought her to Takenakas cash register.
Of course. That was what I expected.
The following woman in casual attire and the old n with magazines all amusingly avoided my cash register and lined up at Takenakas. People instinctively steered clear of suspicious-looking things, I supposed.
Although it was a blessing that it was late at night, I wondered what would have ensued had it been during the dayti. A scene of a store with an enormous disparity in line erged in my mind.
What was this, the emptiness that surged up from the depths of my heart
As anticipated, once Takenaka dealt with the four clients and sent them on their way, the number of custors ceased to flow. Following the customary cycle of setting out the products and tidying up, there ca the usual excessive leisure ti.
My nosebleed finally completely ceased when the custors stopped showing up and I took the tissues out of my nostrils. For now, this would not arouse any suspicion from the custors who ca by. A sigh of relief escaped .
Excuse , is your nose alright?
While observing this, Takenaka turned to face and stated in a loud but not clear voice. His eyes were sowhat apologetic. It seed that he was concerned about at least.
Yeah Im fine. See, it stopped right here like this.
Indeed, I was startled by that, but I was not the type of person to hold a grudge like that. Besides
Thank you for cleaning up the ss I left behind too
When I lightly bowed to him, he followed suit too.
Oh, no, no, no.
What was this complicated exchange? Even if this was our initial eting, it was too formal. Just laugh it off and remark sothing like, nosebleed, or thats very amusing,!! Not good, this tense atmosphere was too severe simply due to the absence of custors. Late at night, in this quiet ti, we should be filled with excitent from the bottom of our hearts!
Um.
Yes?
Um, you always co in early and clean the store, right Takenaka? I heard that from Nagase and the manager.
Thats amazing, I want to learn from that kind of thing too.
Where is your hotown, Takenaka? Is it near here?
XX town, 20 minutes from here.
Oh, thats rather close to my hotown.
Huh?
Wait.
The conversation wasnt progressing! What the hell? Catching up in conversation wasnt going well. The ball that was supposed to be thrown was crashing into the grass.
It was really just as Aoyama said, he didnt speak at all, and his facial expression didnt change a bit. Did this imply that he was unwilling to converse with ? Despite my attempts to engage Takenaka in conversation, he remained silent throughout.
Nah was this the rumored Takenaka? He turned out to be a calm individual, contrary to my expectations that he would assu so shady persona. Or rather, this ill-fitting atmosphere would linger until the morning. Give a break, this feeling of awkwardness would be too much for to handle. I tried to communicate with Takenaka and re-engaged in conversation with him to refrain from that.
Well, no custors are stopping by, but this is natural for late at night, isnt it?
It was a well-used phrase. He struggled to find the right things to say, but he managed to squeeze out a few words.
.Right.
Like his earlier remark, Takenakas was succinct and left little room for the debate to continue. He never abruptly ended the conversation, which led to question whether he wasnt very good at communicating.
If so, that was fine with , since I didnt have to bother about it either. That being said, I was still not quite grasping the situation, so rather than just go on in silence, I decided to throw a direct question that would compel Takenaka to respond.
By the way, you seem to be quite well-known here. I had heard a lot about you from Hirai and Aoyama before eting you.
Right, Aoyama told that Takenaka said, Theres a boy playing in front of the door.
When I said this, Takenaka surprisingly had a reaction. Blinking quickly, he turned his head slightly toward .
Is that boy a ghost? Do you see such things, Takenaka? I am actually fascinated by such stories and would like to hear about it if possible
A false smile accompanied my question. I wasnt captivated by such things. Notwithstanding, I simply wanted to observe how he would answer my question and how he would react to it. I thought I was being obnoxious. Yet, I couldnt stand by while this guy unnecessarily terrified other people by circulating untrue allegations. He might only be a wolf in sheeps clothing at the mont but imagine how he would appear to others and how he would boastfully and pompously discuss such things.
I wanted to see it. Therefore, I figured that by feigning curiosity, Takenaka would share such a story with .
Be it elentary school, junior high school or high school. Every now and then, people would brazenly claim that they experienced non-existent and invisible things as though they could see them.
They could be friends, superiors, or even students in the neighboring class. I couldnt believe anyone who told such stories. No matter how close or distant they were.
It lacked any realism and I found myself convinced that the story was nothing more than a fantasy made up out of imagination. Of course, a lot of people took the bait with stories about seeing specters or being able to see them. Whether those who spoke in a nonchalant manner or in a loud, desperate voice, I couldnt help but suspect that they were all trying to attract other peoples attention.
If that was all, it was fine.
The only thing was that I detested those who spread rumors and tried to incite fear, even though not everyone could see them and there was no proof of their existence.
I detested it imnsely. Takenaka must be one of those people. That was my thought.
When I was casting an expectant glance at him, thinking that he might take up on my offer if I stirred him up properly, Takenaka looked at without a word just as if he had co to a halt.
After a while, he said, I suggest you should stop this.
Huh?
I was taken aback by the words that were completely irrelevant to the answer to my question.
I should stop this?
What do you an?
When I asked this with a wry smile, Takenaka responded with his eyes, implying, You know what I an.
I should stop frankly speaking, youre telling to quit my job, isnt it?
Why?
Even if not told, I could roughly figure out what you were trying to say. But I didnt want Takenaka or anyone else to tell what to do.
Takenaka was still looking at with eyes that seed to be appealing to . I guessed that he had always done this to scare off newcors but I was not a coward to back down so easily.
Cant you tell ?
Experience.
What?
Before you experience it, its better to quit.
What was this guy talking about? It was no good. I was getting more and more irritated. Whether it was intentional or not, the pace of the conversation was too sluggish.
This type of person wasnt well-suited for . He wouldnt talk, his facial expression was poor and it wasnt clear what he was thinking.
From now on, I was going to tell him, in a roundabout way, not to give such advice or threats. I opted not to though. I didnt want to complicate the relationship beyond repair on the first day. As long as I didnt mind, it was fine. Unleashing hostility was not necessary.
If I didnt speak to him, he probably wouldnt speak to . Even when I spoke to him, he wouldnt speak to either, though
The distrust I harbored for Takenaka was silently tucked away inside my chest. After that, I decided not to speak as much as possible.
Once more I realized how hard it was to be there doing nothing but ti passed even when I was doing nothing. Out of boredom, I went through the backyard and other places that didnt look too dirty and cleaned them up, and finally the short hand of my watch started to tick the 3 mark.
I returned to the counter after taking out the trash and stretched out.
Ah, this was exhausting. Even though all week long I have been doing the sa thing over and over again, I felt even more fatigued today. The cause of this was no doubt that I had been forcibly straining my mind for several hours straight.
Takenaka and I hadnt had a conversation since then except for short replies and confirmation of shelf clearance and cleaning. Perhaps it was because I was giving off a disconcerting vibe but Takenaka didnt talk to either.
In the end, the atmosphere remained awkward and the situation continued until now. I stood idly in front of the cash register with nothing to do. Despite not talking to , Takenaka seed to look at every now and then, and I felt his gaze on a few tis.
What the hell, if you didnt like it, why didnt you simply say so? I didnt want to be intimidated in silence.
As a result, my shoulders were tense even if I didnt do anything and I was quite irritated by the strange tightness of the situation.
I should smoke a cigarette. Usually, I would have taken a break and smoked a cigarette long ago. Takenaka showed no sign of retreating to the back room.
No way he wasnt going to take a break? How long did he expect he would stand there in his spare ti? Youve got to be joking. Carrying on like this until morning Oi, oi, what kind of endurance contest was this?
Even Aoyama and Hirai were taking turns having a break, and it was the only precious ti for to take a breather during my late-night part-ti job.
Nevertheless, Takenaka patiently maintained an upright posture in front of the cash register. I grew numb and called out to him, Takenaka, why dont we take a break soon? as I turned to him to say so.
?!
Ehhhhhhh.
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