Every Morning the Most Popular Girl at School Sits Next to Me on the Train

After a short meeting, Itou-san and I headed towards my father’s workplace. It seems that she wants to check on my father’s progress. I’ve been told that I can return home if I want, but if my father is also heading home, we can head back together.

On our way to the workplace, we engaged in unrelated conversations.

“Is being an editor really busy?”

“It is. It’s a lot busier than any other normal occupation. There are days where you end up working more than 12 hours.”

“12 hours!? That’s amazing. Isn’t that quite harsh?”

“Well, there are some people that say the editors have it hard, but I don’t think that.”

Seeing Itou-san brush it off so easily, I became a little bit fearful of her. A person who is fine with working 12 hours in one day, there would have to be something wrong with your head right? Even if the work was like my current part time job, I would still find it harsh if I was told to work 12 hours.

Seeing me pull back a bit, Itou-san broke into a smile.

“Well~ there isn’t a need to make a face like that. It’s just that I really like my work a lot. I find it a very rewarding experience.”

That’s true, if the person really likes manga, even working 12 hours would be alright… or not. 12 hours is still way too hard. Editors must all just be weird people.

“Besides, the authors are many times busier than us editors. There’s no way we can complain about it being busy.”

“That’s true, my father ends up being really busy.”

“Fuu, don’t act like this is about other people. You aren’t an exception you know?”

“Eh?”

“Although it’s readable, and it can be put into a magazine, I’m planning on making you refine it properly after redrawing it many more times.”

Really… It was already hard trying to draw the storyboard for the 45 pages, and now I have to redraw this who knows how many more times… Feeling crushed, I drop my head. Then, Itou-san said:

“That’s why, you shouldn’t think that you are free enough to keep a part-time job. Well, you should get income from your manga, so I don’t think you need to force it.”

Quitting my part time job… I’ve never thought about it, but if I’m going to be drawing manga, it’s true that I won’t have that much free time. Besides, I’ll probably get a stable income. Since there aren’t that many customers that come to where I work, they probably won’t be at too bad of a loss… I would be said not being able to see the owner or Echizen, but right now, I want to do my best working on the manga.

“Now that I think about it, that’s true. I guess I’ll stop with my part time job.”

“Eh, is that alright? I did put out the suggestion but isn’t it bad if you quit so suddenly? It’s like that for publishers after all.”

“Not really, the place that I work at is a café where no customers come to. If I stop it’s probably alright.”

“Then I guess it’s okay. If you quit work, you will be able to concentrate on your manga.”

“Yeah, I’ll definitely draw something interesting, and pull out the readers interest.”

When I said that, Itou-san threw out a light smile.

“It takes a lot of guts to say something so embarrassing.”

“…”

“…”

“… No, please don’t point that out…”

By the time I noticed, half of September had already passed by. Suffering from the steady heat of the sun, I headed to my workplace at Mon Pet Kuwa as usual.

This is the first time I came to work since I decide to quit in order to work on my manga. I need to let the owner now my intention of quitting two weeks in advance. For that reason, it is important that I go early.

However, saying that I’m going to quit makes me really nervous. It feels like I’m doing something really wrong. Still, if I don’t say it quickly, I’ll end up dragging it on so I need to say it today.

I encouraged myself as I walked into the break room, but today, unlike usual, the owner was out on the floor and not in the back. Well, there’s a lot of time after my shift so there’s no need to rush.

After making a long sigh, I change into my uniform and check the shift table. Today is just me and the owner. Recently, during summer break and I had a lot of days where I worked with Echizen, but things are a lot more relaxing when it’s just me. Since Echizen isn’t here, I’ll also have more things to do.

While thinking about such things, I left for the floor. When I did, I saw the owner there, serving customers unlike usual. This “unlike usual”, refers to both the fact that the owner is serving and that there are customers. As soon as the owner finished serving the customers he returned towards my direction.

“Hey, Setsu-kun. Thanks for coming.”

“Thank you for your work. I see that customers came today.”

“Yeah, I’m quite surprised.”

No, you shouldn’t be surprised about that. I swallowed those words and continued speaking.

“Then, Owner. I have something I want to talk about, is now okay?”

“Sorry, an order just came in, so is later okay?”

“That’s true. Sorry, later then.”

Saying that, the owner went towards the kitchen and started to do some work.

Even if there are customers, there is only one group, so there isn’t that much work. As such, I just stood there while blanking out.

After a little bit of time went by, I was called by the owner. It seems that the order is ready to be delivered.

I picked up the order and brought it to the customer’s table.

“Thank you for waiting. Eh, Kenji… and Echizen?”

That’s right, the group that was there consisted of my middle school friend Kenji, and my coworker Echizen. The two of them went to the same school, Oumi High School, and I recently found out that Kenji likes Echizen.

“Yoshiki! So this is where you work!”

“Well, yeah. What are the two of you doing?”

I set the requested dish on the table and ask them this. When I did that, Kenji his cheeks blushed embarrassingly as he muttered.

“… D-date.”

“Eh?”

“Yeah, a date… I think.”

Well, Kenji said that it was a date but I don’t think that Echizen thinks that way. She has a really surprised expression on right now after all. When Kenji said that it was a “date” I was thinking that they may be dating, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Still, there’s no need to point it out specifically. It’s not like you need to be in a relationship to go on a “date” together.

“W-wait a minute. We aren’t dating, you know?”

However, Echizen, who did not think of a “date” in any other way besides one with special meanings, for some reason, faced me and clearly denied that.

“No, I mean even if it is a date, you can go on one with friends, right? That’s how it is, right Kenji?”

“T-that’s right. Yeah yeah.”

Being rejected so clearly, Kenji looked sad so I decided to follow through for him. When I did that, he quickly followed along.

“I see, that’s how it is…”

Echizen muttered, accepting it.

“Then, please enjoy.”

I shouldn’t get in the way of the two of them, so I left their location. Besides, I’m technically in the middle of work right now.

“… Ah…”

“See you later, Yoshiki.”

“Yeah.”

When I returned to the back, the owner was looking at me with a suspicious look.

“Surprised, aren’t you? Never expected that Echizen-chan would ever come with a boy~”

“That’s true. I was a little bit surprised.”

“Still, it seems somewhat awkward. I wonder if she’s able to speak properly.”

“There isn’t really a need to worry about that right? She isn’t a child after all.”

“That is true, but… I’m still worried.”

I slightly withdrew from the owner who was twisting his body in worry at his old age as I changed the topic.

“More importantly, is now fine for what I wanted to say earlier?”

“Ah… what did you want to say?”

“Well, ummm…”

This is bad, I suddenly became nervous. The words weren’t coming out. Still, I need to say them now!

“This job, is it alright if I quit?”

Kashan.

The moment when I told the owner my intention of quitting, a sound from a falling spoon rang out. When I looked over, no one was there.

However, I didn’t really pay very much attention to it. Instead, I was just continued looking towards the owner.