Volume 2 - CH 1.5

The first day of his part-time job arrived.

As he was spending his now-back-to-as-usual school life with Shino, just like that, it was now after school.

Finally at last.

“Alright, today’s the day, huh.”

“The day? Ah, I see, your part-time job? Do your best.”

“It’s not like it’s an unreasonable job, and I sure don’t want to work that hard. It’s just cleaning.”

“No feeling like, ‘I’ll do my best!’ at all?”

“Try imagining me saying ‘I’ll do my best!’ with a full face smile and showing my teeth.”

“…Creepy, huh.”

“Right? Well, I’m happy you’re cheering me on, and I’ll try to do my best in my own way.”

“You’re so lax~.”

“Isn’t it better to be lax than to weirdly strain yourself? When you see someone overly tense, won’t you worry like, ‘are they okay?’ instead?”

“Hmmm… that might be certainly true.”

“That’s how it is—and isn’t it about time for your part-time job?”

“Ah, you’re right. Okay, see you later then.”

After having the time pointed out by Sandai, Shino hurriedly broke into a run.

After seeing off Shino leaving, Sandai, too, headed to the aquarium, his workplace. His gait was normal, neither light nor heavy.

After walking for some ten-odd minutes, the aquarium came into view.

Perhaps because it was its opening day, even though it was a weekday, it was crowded enough to have a decent line forming which could even be seen from a distance.

“An aquarium is surprisingly getting a lot of visitors, huh.”

Although he had expected it to of course be not empty at all, it was also surprising for him for it to have a line forming, still.

“…It’s a weekday, though.”

In this world, there are a lot of people with a schedule different from school, and there are many more cases of days off on weekdays than Sandai thought.

While looking at the formed line with a sidelong glance, Sandai went inside through the employee room’s entrance in the rear exit—only to find a lot of staff moving around busily.

“That is the entrance for employees, so for a visitor please from the front entrance…”

“I’m Fujiwara Sandai, a cleaning staff. I look forward to working with you.”

“Cleaning staff… I think one came earlier… ah, come to think of it, the cleaning staff was a group of two, was it? The vice director mentioned something like that. Alright then, Fujiwara-kun, the other cleaning staff member has arrived, so go get changed and start working together.”

Apparently they wanted Sandai to immediately get to work, so he clocked in his time card, hurriedly got changed, and began preparing the cleaning equipment.

And there, out of nowhere, Hajime showed up in his cleaning staff work clothes.

“Hey, Fujiwara-kun.”

“Oh, it’s Saeki. Long time no see, huh.”

“It’s not even been a month since we last met, so I personally don’t feel like it’s been that long, though… Didn’t you say something similar before? Maybe your sense of time is bugged?”

“That’s not true. I personally feel it’s been a long time.”

“If I think about it positively, maybe it’s like you were so looking forward to seeing me that every second just felt so long?”

“Nah, it’s because I’ve been a bit busy lately, and things happening a little while ago seemed like a long time ago.”

“…You’ve been busy? Did something happen?”

“I’ve been helping Shino study to prepare for the finals.”

“Shino is… err… ah, Yuizaki-san, right? Yuizaki Shino-san. That reminds me, you did say it before; you said she’s your girlfriend.”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

While having a chit-chat, they went about their work as they had been taught previously in training—picking up the trash outside while the sun was still out, and when that was done, all sorts of cleaning inside next.

“There sure are more visitors coming than I imagined. Even though today’s a weekday and all.”

“Well there are a decent number of people on day off even on a weekday, and then there are probably also many people who want to take a look once since it’s a new opening.”

“Day off on a weekday… huh. Now that you mention it, speaking of jobs with days off on weekdays and setting aside part-time jobs, doesn’t it happen to be unpopular in the case of full-time employees?”

“Eh?”

“I saw all kinds of job offers before finding this one, but I saw plenty of job offers for full-time positions that heavily advertised weekends off. As I thought, isn’t that more popular?”

“…Often events and stuff are held on weekends, and the majority of people probably want to actively have fun, so aren’t days off on weekends popular then?”

“I see.”

“But on the contrary, I think there’s also a lot of people who prefer days off on weekdays, though. Both my papa and mama said having days off on weekdays makes it easier to go to the government office or the bank.”

“Nn? Do you refer to your own parents as papa and mama?”

“Is it weird?”

“How do I say it… I thought it’s like a girl. Well it’s simply just me feeling that way, and I think I’ve told you before, but I’m a loner bad at socializing. There are times I’m out of sync with society. Forgive me for that.”

Hajime was a guy, he himself had said—a guy whose looks, voice, and gestures already looked like nothing but that of a complete girl.

Perhaps the so-called femboy.

No out of place feeling when recognizing one as a girl, but when properly looking at one as a guy, there would be a feeling of discomfort now and then.

It is such a feeling.

“That kind of self-deprecating remark of yours, seems like it would make you enemies somewhat.”

“Make me enemies? Why?”

“I think there’s a lot of people who’d end up thinking you have a bad personality at your ‘I’m a loner bad at socializing’ even though you have a beauty for a girlfriend, you know? I know what kind of a guy you are, so I can easily pass it off, though.”

“I’m—”

“—Just saying the truth since you’re really a loner bad at socializing, right?”

“That’s it. That’s the truth, so I just say it as it is so there’s no misunderstandings.”

“Mm-hmm. But it’s about how the people who’d get that are only people like me who clearly understand you.”

Even if it is a remark that states only the truth, different people would take it differently.

That was a fair point, and one that Sandai should think a bit about.

Sandai didn’t really care about how people he got little to do with would see him like, but on the other hand… Sandai was aware that being like that wasn’t all right.

So he decided to honestly take Hajime’s point.

“I see… I guess you’re right. Thanks.”

“Thanks?”

“There are times I don’t really get common sense and all that stuff. So, thanks for pointing that out to me.”

At Sandai expressing his thanks while scratching the tip of his nose, Hajime looked surprised and bursted into laughter immediately after.

“Fufu… ahahaha!”

“W-Why’re you laughing, I was just saying my thanks.”

Could it be that… Hajime was making fun of Sandai?

No idea.

However, Hajime was a hard-to-grasp femboy, so what was in Hajime’s mind was impossible for Sandai to know.

While doing all this and that, he reached the end of his first day of part-time job without a single hitch. All that was left would be to clock out and get changed.

When Sandai entered the office together with Hajime, almost at the same time, Komaki in a rubber suit walked in from the other entrance.

“So cold…” With quivering lips, she grabbed the remote for the AC with inconceivable speed and raised the temperature at once. “Quick, quick, get warmer—huh? Fujiwara-kun and Hajime-kun? I see, it’s already time for you to get off work, huh.”

“What’s with that outfit?”

“This? Since today’s the opening day, I thought I’d make the dolphin show a bit longer than planned, so I hurriedly changed the schedule. And then my body got colder than expected. Since you know, it’s a show where I’m also going into the water.”

Apparently she herself had gotten into the water for a show production or something, and that had ended up prolonged.

Komaki seemed to be pushing herself, but since she was the vice director, he felt that it was not a position where she would have to be like that, however…

In the worst case scenario of her physical condition deteriorating, it would have an effect on many things, so shouldn’t her job be to make sure it wouldn’t turn into anything serious?

No, it might be the opposite.

It was also possible that precisely because it was a position with its own weight, she was trying to take the initiative, and show the employees that she was working hard.

“It’s starting to get warmer… but… still cold.”

The room temperature inside the room was steadily rising, but Komaki was rubbing both her hands while shivering, perhaps she was still cold from the inside. 

Sandai pushed in his time card to clock out, bought a bottle of warm tea from a vending machine installed on the premises, and handed it to Komaki.

“Please take this.”

“Tea? You’re giving me?”

“Yes.”

“Thanks…”

“…Wouldn’t it be better to not push yourself?”

“I get that, but I’m the vice director. If I don’t show myself pushing myself, I might get told ‘you got the nerve looking so pompous while doing nothing!’ you know?”

Komaki scratched her cheek and smiled wryly. It seemed it was correct that she was deliberately showing herself working hard to the employees precisely because she had her position.

“It seems there is a lot going on.”

“Well, I’m sure the time will come when you’ll understand, too. Yeah.”

“I feel like I will spend the rest of my life without ever understanding it, though… I cannot imagine a future where I’m a person with position.”

“You have a girlfriend, right? You showed me her photo in the training last time, didn’t you? She’s a really cute girl.”

“Err, yes.”

“If you continue to be in a relationship with that girl without any hiccups, you’ll become an adult, and it’s possible it’ll get to marriage and such. Then you’ve gotta work hard and become a big man.”

“Assuming we will get married, I wonder, is there a need for me to be a big man at that time…?”

“Well, it’s fine even if you don’t become a big man, though… For the result of you working hard, it’s an easy to understand indicator, like… hmmm… what I want to say is that, you should show her that you’re working hard I think… I just hate my weak vocabulary. I should’ve gone to a humanities college instead of the science one.”

Although just somehow, Sandai did understand what Komaki wanted to say. To sum it up, it was about: don’t forget to work hard for your girlfriend.

What suddenly came up in Komaki’s mind, about what a big person was like, was: the results of working hard at your job.

“I understand what you do want to say.”

“Really?”

“It’s just somehow, though… I have to pick my girlfriend up after this, so I will take my leave now.”

“Picking her up, huh… I’d love a boyfriend who will come pick me up, too.”

Sandai would like to avoid getting into a long conversation and being late in picking Shino up, so he cut the conversation short.

Then immediately after, having been watching from the side from the beginning, “Fujiwara-kun, you’re rather good at dealing with women, huh?” Hajime spoke so, who knows what kind of a joke it was this time.

“In what way does it look like that? I’m bad with women instead. I can’t even shower compliments like a host in a host club can.”

“Compliments alone don’t mean you’re good at dealing with them, though…”

“I sure don’t quite get what you’re trying to say.”

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it. Yeah.”

Sandai couldn’t even fathom what the true meaning of Hajime’s words was. That said, Hajime said not to worry about it, so it wasn’t a big deal.

“Speaking of which, we’re still in our work clothes, so we’ve gotta go get changed. Let’s head to the changing room together.”

Hajime’s way of changing the subject was so natural that Sandai almost reflexively nodded his head. However, he remembered that that was a proposal he must not get on board with.

If Sandai were to go get changed together with Hajime, that would mean to end up seeing that body of Hajime. That would end up with discovering something that would never be able to get undoed… was what Sandai felt for the situation.

Sandai had felt the same thing before, but he had gone to change alone in the toilet at that time.

Sandai’s instinct was telling him to do the same this time, too. Deep down inside him was telling him that he must not open the Pandora’s box.

“You suddenly froze up, what’s up? Are you feeling ill?”

“I’m feeling just fine.”

“Then let’s just quickly head to the changing room.”

“No can do.”

“Eh?”

“I’ll go get changed in the toilet.”

“…I get that you’re embarrassed, and I also remember you’re telling me you have that kind of principle, but don’t you think of mustering up the courage a little? And I do feel like we can get to know each other better if we go get changed together.”

“I’m a man who won’t change his principle easily.”

“Wai—”

“—Sorry.”

Sandai grabbed his change of clothes and ran to the toilet without waiting for Hajime’s response.

Hajime wasn’t a bad person, and probably someone who was close to his no. 1 friend. Sandai did recognize that in his heart.

But this and that were a different story.