Volume 2 - CH 3.1

After school, I went home and headed to my part-time job, while still in my uniform.

When I told her that we could not go home together after her club activities today, Hinagata looked a little sad, but she said, “Good luck with your part-time job,” and we parted ways on school grounds.

When I arrived at the part-time job, I went in through the back door. There I saw the back of a girl wearing our uniform.

“Huh, that uniform…”

Perhaps she heard me mumbling, she shrugged her shoulders and walked into the changing room with a rustling sound.

…Well, aren’t there any students from our school? 

I glanced at the shift list while changing clothes, but no one’s face and name matched.

The list of people mentioned here may not necessarily be at work today.

Shaking the girls out of my mind, I went back and reviewed the work notes I wrote yesterday.

My first goal is to make sure I don’t cause any trouble.

I went inside from the back of the kitchen and greeted a few of the senpais who were not busy .

It seems that the weekdays are pretty quiet, and the electronic beeps that go off when an order is placed didn’t set off at all.

“Good Morning.”

Mise-san came in.

“‘Morning, I’ll be in your care today as well.”

“Ahh, yeah. I’ll be counting on you. I think I’m still free today, so I’ll probably focus more on training than practice.”

“Is that so?”

I came in at 17:00 and left at 22:00.

When I think of the thousands of yen I could earn from this, I realized how much of my free time after school went to waste.

“You should take notes──”

The kind and courteous Mise-san handed me a pen and a notepad again.

If examined closely, there were some marks around the lower part of Mise-san’s forehead .

“…Mise-san, do you usually wear glasses or something?”

“Ehh-?”

Mise-san stiffened like a frog staring at a snake.

“Wh-why do you ask?”

“No, because here. Right on the nose. There are traces of glasses on it.”

Mise-san quickly rubbed the area with her fingers.

“So-sometimes… I use them… sometimes…”

“Ahh, Is that so?”

Hmmm, I thought, and suddenly the dots that had stuck with me since I started working became lines and connected.

The manager said Mise-san was a high school senior the same age as me.

The girl in the uniform I saw. Glasses. Mise…

“Mise-san, are you in my class by any chance?”

“Uh-hiiiii!”

Mise-san, who had stiffened with a jerk, made strange noises again.

“Guessed it.”

“I-I’m extremely so-sorry, but yo-you are mi-mistaken.”

Why did she restate it in honorifics?

I don’t think I’ve seen her in class today… 

We probably sit far apart.

I think she was wearing glasses. Maybe.

I don’t have any contact with her, so I don’t …think there was a girl like that in my class. I didn’t even know who she was friends with. I don’t even know who she gets along with…

…Ahh.

When she first introduced herself, those words, “I’m Mise,” she said properly, could have meant to say that we were in the same class.

If so, it makes sense that there was a weird pause. She also knew that I used to play baseball, even though I didn’t tell her.

“If that’s how it was , then why didn’t you just tell me that’s not the case?”

“You don’t need to talk to me using honorifics. “

Her small physique seemed to be shrinking more and more.

“I’ve been doing it for a long time. I can’t stop suddenly now.”

“At sc-s-s-school…. That… Wha-tt would have… happened…if …I-I-I was …b-bu-usted…”

Mise-san looked as if she was about to cry.

“You don’t have to hide it.”

“I have to hide it… Because I’m a loner and shady…”

It seems that it was unavoidable not to know who she was on good terms with.

“Is your personality different from the one at your part-time job, like an overly self conscious or internet persona thing?”

I asked her directly.

“That’s not true…”

She denied it directly. Was I wrong?

“I mean, I was just embarrassed, what if someone knew where I worked part-time…”

“Oh, so that’s why you don’t wear glasses? Doesn’t it trouble you?”

“I wear contacts, so I’m fine.”

That much to prevent from being found out?

“Tonomura-kun, when are you going to stop using honorifics…?”

Mise-san lowered her eyebrows as if she was troubled.

I was also troubled by that kind of expression.

“No, I use honorifics with my senpais. Even if we are the same age, it’s impossible to talk to senpais as if they are my classmates.”

“It gives bad impression of the baseball club~”

I don’t think it’s giving a bad impression, but apparently it’s quite inconvenient for Mise-san.

“Mise-san, the training, ya know.”

“Yeshh.. ”

I think she meant to say yes, but her mouth jumbled and she gave a strange reply.