Starting a Night Shift Part-time Job at a Convenience Store

“Sorry for the abruptness. Well, take care of yourself.”

“Yeah.”

“It’s up to you, Masa. If you ever think you’d like to do this, let me know. The boys will be happy to have you.”

“Okay.”

“Call me anytime you have any problems. I’ll be waiting for you.”

After parting ways with Kinoshita, who waved at me until I was no longer in view, I went back to my place to have a nap.

Coach huh…

I… becoming the coach…

To be frank, it would be impossible. How could I possible carry the weight of an entire team? As much as it pained me to flout the expectations of those pure-eyed middle-schoolers, me being me, I didn’t have the luxury of letting their imagination run wild by getting the wrong ideas right now. I wouldd rather settle the matter at the convenience store than be distracted by something else.

Going to another place without clearing things up was… Perhaps it would be tantamount to running away.

I had yet to face it. Despite discovering that I was the source of Hyuga’s death, I still hadn’t faced Hyuga, who lingered in this world, appearing and disappearing at random.

Even though I knew that she bore a vendetta against me, she might kill me if I approached her. Regardless of that―I must make sure that she would be liberated properly.

Not by Takenaka or Hirai. That was my duty, my role.

Today, the night shift was again with the manager. That was the way it was supposed to be but…

A phone call was received at the store as I was discussing with Nagase of the evening shift how odd it was that the manager had not arrived despite plenty of time that had gone by since I had arrived. Apparently, the manager’s vehicle had gotten a breakdown or such, and he was running slightly late.

“He said his tire went flat and noticed it just after he left.”

“Heh, I didn’t know a flat tire could be that easy to notice.”

“It’s incredibly uncomfortable. The steering wheel is difficult to turn, and the car tilts. Oh, that’s right, Hakamada, you always ride a motorcycle.”

“Yeah, I don’t get a chance to ride in a car very often.”

“Right, I don’t get flat tires that often, so it’s probably some kind of mischief. Whether doing it yourself or hiring a contractor, it will be time-consuming and the manager won’t be able to get here anytime soon.”

In any case, from this point onward, even if a customer came, I could deal with them with my own hands. One or two people, it made no difference.

Aside from stocking and ordering, customer service wouldn’t be a concern. The manager would probably join me in a couple of hours.

Perhaps out of worry because he knew that I had fallen ill the other day, Nagase suggested that he stay until the manager arrived, but I politely declined and asked him to leave at the exact time.

Then, thirty minutes later―

I stretched out widely in front of the counter.

As expected, not a single customer showed up.

If anybody was present, it was a ragged-clothed woman who was once again staring at me from against the magazine section’s glass wall.

Thanks to Takenaka and Yagura, the woman could neither intrude into the store from the outside nor interfere with the people coming in and out of the store, so nothing would happen to me like before.

…Seriously, that kind of staring.

Even if I turned my head in the other direction, her gaze only pierced me from directly to the side.

Manager, please hurry and arrive; if I weren’t alone, I wouldn’t be so disturbed. Unless I got distracted by your barcode head, her gaze seemed to puncture my head.

“Phew…”

I wondered if Takenaka was relaxing at his parents’ house right now. What were the other two doing now?

Perhaps Hirai was drawing thin books or whatever again. As for Aoyama… well, what was he doing in his private life? I couldn’t imagine.

Throughout the store, only the classical music that was playing in the late-night zone was replayed. Clouds were thick tonight with no moon. Not even a car passed by on the road. The boundless, seamless darkness created by all kinds of trees in the sea of trees.

Having never been in the convenience store alone until now, I realized now that it was indeed pitch-black here, and that the convenience store stood alone in a place that was overly quiet.