CH 16

NOVEMBER 27, 2022 / MAD HATTER

Translator: MadHatter

“T-Then, please take care of the store later.”

Theimanagerileft theistore afteriNagase did so, withia somewhat worriediexpression.

Insideithe store were fouricustomers: an OL and a youngiwoman in casual attire, both of whom hadiwallets in their hands and were pacing back and forth between the bread and sweets sections; two older officeiworkers in worn-out suitsibrowsing the magazine section.

Takenaka wasistanding beside the registerion the left, closeito the entrance, while Iiwas positionediin front of theiregister on the rightiwith a tissueishoved up both of my nostrils.

Nothingito be embarrassediabout. Nothingiat all wasiwhat I wanted to say but…

Needlessito say, it wasiembarrassing after all.

Which convenienceistore in the world would have a staffiworking with tissuesistuffed in both nostrils?

…That someone wasiactually here, though.

It wasime.

When Iiwas in the back roomistopping the bleeding, somehowithe bloodiended up flowingiout of the hole that was not bleeding, so I was forced toiattend work with bothiholes stuffed with shreddeditissues, an extremely foolish state to be in. Of course, I had my ownicircumstances, but whatiwas embarrassing wasithat all the customers whoishowed up were peering at me.

A few minutes ago, a young man who wasipurchasing rice balls stoppedidead in his tracks, hisieyes wideningiat the sightiof my face. He mustihave thought, “What’s going on with this guy?”

That would be a normal reaction. I didn’t likeistuffing tissues upimy nostrils either, nonetheless. Beingibitterly smilediat bothered me. At times like this, please passiit off with the unique Japanese power of ignoring.

Oh, look. This time, the OL came this way withia sweetened bun.

That OL wasiclearly trying to headithis way. However, theimoment she reachedithe rice ball displayishelf right inifront of my cash register, she noticedisomething strange on my face. Perhapsinoticing something unusualiabout my face, sheichanged direction at a rightiangle, without shifting her facial expression, butiunnaturally.

The change in courseibrought her to Takenaka’s cash register.

Of course. That was what Iiexpected.

The following woman in casualiattire and the old men withimagazines alliamusingly avoided myicash registeriand linediup at Takenaka’s. People instinctively steered clear of suspicious-looking things, I supposed.

Although itiwas a blessing that it wasilate at night, I wonderediwhat would haveiensued had itibeen duringithe daytime. Aiscene of a store with anienormous disparity in line emerged in my mind.

Whatiwas this, the emptiness that surged up from the depths of my heart…

As anticipated, onceiTakenaka dealt with the four clientsiand sent them on their way, theinumber of customersiceased to flow. Followingithe customary cycle of setting outithe products anditidying up, there came the usual excessive leisure time.

My nosebleed finallyicompletely ceased whenithe customers stopped showingiup and I took theitissues out of myinostrils. For now, this wouldinot arouse any suspicion from theicustomers whoicame by. A sigh of relief escapedime.

“…Excuse me, is your nose alright?”

Whileiobserving this, Takenaka turnedito face me andistated in a loud butinot clear voice. His eyesiwere somewhatiapologetic. It seemed that he wasiconcerned about me at least.

“Yeah… I’m fine. See, it stoppediright here like this.”

Indeed, I was startled by that, but I was not the type of personito hold a grudgeilike that. Besides…

“Thank you for cleaningiup the mess I left behind too…”

When I lightlyibowed to him, he followed suit too.

Oh,ino, no, no. Not shared on any website especially not lightnovelreader.me

Whatiwas this complicated exchange? Even if this was our initial meeting, it wasitoo formal. Just laugh itioff and remark something like, “nosebleed,” or “that’s very amusing,”!! Not good, thisitense atmosphere wasitoo severeisimply dueito the absence of customers. Lateiat night, in this quiet time, we shouldibe filled withiexcitement from the bottom of our hearts!

“…”

“…”

“…”

“Um.”

“…Yes?”

“Um, you alwaysicome in early and cleanithe store, right Takenaka? I heardithat from Nagase and the manager.” 

“…” 

“That’s amazing, I wantito learn from that kind of thing too.”

“…” Not shared on any website especially not lightnovelreader.me

“…” Not shared on any website especially not lightnovelreader.me

“…” Not shared on any website especially not lightnovelreader.me

“Whereiis your hometown, Takenaka? Is it near here?”

“…” Not shared on any website especially not lightnovelreader.me

“…” Not shared on any website especially not lightnovelreader.me

“…XX town, 20 minutesifrom here.”

“Oh, that’s rather closeito myihometown.”

“…” Not shared on any website especially not lightnovelreader.me

“…” Not shared on any website especially not lightnovelreader.me

“…” Not shared on any website especially not lightnovelreader.me

Huh? Not shared on any website especially not lightnovelreader.me

“…” Not shared on any website especially not lightnovelreader.me

Wait.

“…”

The conversationiwasn’t progressing! What the hell? Catchingiup in conversation wasn’t going well. The ball that was supposed to be thrown was crashing into the grass.

“…”

It was really just asiAoyama said, he didn’t speak at all, and his facial expressionididn’t change a bit. Did this imply that he was unwilling to converse with me? Despite my attempts to engage Takenaka in conversation, he remained silent throughout.

Nah… was this the rumored Takenaka? He turnediout to be a calm individual, contraryito my expectations that he would assume some shady persona. Or rather, this ill-fittingiatmosphere would linger until the morning. Give me a break, this feeling of awkwardnessiwould be too muchifor me to handle. I tried toicommunicate with Takenaka and re-engaged iniconversation with him to refrain from that.

“Well, no customers are stopping by, butithis is natural for late at night, isn’t it?”

It was aiwell-used phrase. He struggledito find the right things to say, but he managed to squeeze out a few words.

“….Right.”

Likeihis earlier remark, Takenaka’s was succinct and left littleiroom for the debate to continue. He never abruptly ended the conversation, which led me toiquestion whether he wasn’t very good at communicating.

If so, thatiwas fine with me, since I didn’t 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 decidedito throw a direct question that would compel Takenaka to respond.

“By the way, you seem to be quiteiwell-known here. I had heard a lot about you from Hirai and Aoyama before meeting you.”

“…”

“Right, Aoyama toldime that Takenaka said, ‘There’s 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 me.

“Is that ‘boy’ a ghost? Do you see such things, Takenaka? I amiactually fascinated by such storiesiand would like to hear about it if possible…”

A false smileiaccompanied my question. I wasn’t captivated by such things. Notwithstanding, I simplyiwanted to observe how he would answer my question and how he would react to it. I thought Iiwas being obnoxious. Yet, I couldn’t stand byiwhile this guy unnecessarily terrifiediother people byicirculating untrue allegations. He mightionly be a wolfiin sheep’s clothing at the moment but imagine how he would appearito others and how he would boastfully and pompously discuss such things.

I wanted to see it. Therefore, I figured that by feigningicuriosity, Takenaka would share such a story with me.

Be it elementaryischool, junior high school or high school. Every now and then, peopleiwould brazenly claim that they experienced non-existent and invisible things as though they could see them.

They could be friends, superiors or even studentsiin the neighboring class. I couldn’t believeianyone who told meisuch stories. No matter how close or distant they were.

It lacked any realism and I found myself convinced thatithe story wasinothing moreithan a fantasy madeiup out of imagination. Of course, a lot of people tookithe bait withistories about seeingispecters or beingiable to see them. Whether thoseiwho spoke in a nonchalantimanner or in a loud, desperate voice, I couldn’t helpibut suspect that theyiwere all trying to attract other people’s attention.

If thatiwas all, it was fine.

The only thing was that I detested those who spread rumors and tried to incite fear, even though not everyone couldisee them and there was no proof of their existence.

I detested it immensely. Takenaka must be one of those people. That was my thought.

When I was casting an expectant glance at him, thinking that heimight take me up on my offer if I stirred him up properly, Takenaka looked at me without a wordijust as if he had come to a halt.

After a while, he said, “…I suggest you should stop this.”

“Huh?”

I was taken aback by the words that wereicompletely irrelevant to the answer to my question.

I should stop this?

“What do you mean?”

When I asked thisiwith a wry smile, Takenaka respondediwith his eyes, implying, “You know what I mean.”

“…I should stop… frankly speaking, you’re telling me to quit my job, isn’t it?”

“…” fewfasd

“Why?”

“…” dwfwe

Even if not told, I could roughly figure out what you were tryingito say. But I didn’t wantiTakenaka or anyone else to tell me what to do.

Takenaka was still looking at me with eyes that seemedito be appealing to me. I guessedithat he had always done this to scare off newcomers but I was not a coward to back down so easily.

“Can’t you tell me?”

“…Experience.”

“What?”

“…Before youiexperience it, it’s better to quit.”

What was this guy talking about? It was no good. I wasigetting moreiand moreiirritated. Whether it was intentional or not, the pace of the conversation was tooisluggish.

This type of person wasn’t well-suited for me. He wouldn’t talk, his facial expression was poor and it wasn’t clear what he was thinking.

Frominow on, I was goingito tell him, in a roundabout way, not to giveime such advice or threats. I optedinot to though. I didn’t want to complicate the relationship beyondirepair on the first day. As long as I didn’t mind, it was fine. Unleashing hostility was not necessary.

If I didn’t speak to him, heiprobably wouldn’t speak to me. Eveniwhen I spoke to him, he wouldn’t speak to me either, though…

The distrust I harbored for Takenaka was silentlyitucked away insideimy chest. After that, I decidedinot to speak as much as possible.

Once more I realized how hard it was to be there doing nothing but time passed even when I was doing nothing. Out of boredom, I went through the backyard and otheriplaces that didn’t lookitoo 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. Evenithough all week long I haveibeen doing the same thing over and over again, I felt even more fatigued today. The cause of this was no doubt that Iihad been forcibly straining my mind for several hours straight.

Takenaka and I hadn’t had a conversation since theniexcept for short replies and confirmation of shelf clearance and cleaning. Perhaps it was because I wasigiving off a disconcerting vibe but Takenaka didn’t talk to me either.

In the end, the atmosphereiremained awkward and the situation continued until now. I stood idly in front of the cash register with nothing to do. Despite not talking to me, Takenaka seemed to look at meievery now and then, and I felt his gaze on me a few times.

What the hell, if you didn’t like it, why didn’t you simply say so? I didn’t want to be intimidated in silence.

As a result, myishoulders were tense even if I didn’t do anythingiand I was quite irritated by the strange tightness of the situation.

“…”

I should smoke a cigarette. Usually, I would have taken a break andismoked a cigarette long ago. Takenaka showedino sign of retreating to the back room.

No way… he wasn’t going to take a break? How long did he expect he would stand there in his spare time? You’ve got to be joking. Carrying on like this until morning… Oi, oi, what kind of endurance contest was this?

Even Aoyama and Hirai were takingiturns having a break, and it was the only precious time for me to take a breather during my late-night part-time job.

Nevertheless, Takenaka patientlyimaintained an upright posture in front of the cash register. I grew numb and called out to him, “…Takenaka, why don’t we take a break soon?” as I turnedito him to say so.

?!―

“Ehhhhhhh.”