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

ew

“Yeah, there, in the corner of the glazed magazine section is a woman in tattered clothes… From time to time, when someone she likes pops up, she will try to pull a nasty move on them, to make them her ‘possession’…”

It didn’tifeel like she was trying to frighten me.
Hirai seemed to be describing the situation straightforwardly while staring at the glazed section of the magazine corner.

“Oh… It’s creepy that I said this so bluntly, isn’t it? Sorry, I shouldn’t have done this.”

“…Um, you can see them…? Hirai…”

When I asked with aislightly quizzical countenance, Hirai nodded with a smile.

“Yeah.
I can see a woman with bloodshot eyes watching Hakamada over there in the glazed section.”

Yet, the wordsiuttered were not befitting of a smile.

“I… see…”

“Hmm.
Your face says you don’t believe me, Hakamada.”

Right as I was attempting to brush it off lightly, she caught on toimy thoughts in one shot, leaving me feeling impatient inwardly.
Before I could deny it, Hirai opened her mouth.

“It’s fine, I didn’t say that to makeiyou believe me.”

She was only expressingiher vision in words.

“Hakamada, you are the kind of personiwho doesn’t believe in such things, right? If so, Iisuppose that’s fine.
It’s preferable to being overly frightened.”

“Why… Why do you think so?”

“Because I thought so, soiperhaps I hit the mark?”

“Uh.”

“Did I guess it right?”

Silenceiwasiaffirmation―

“No, Hirai, indeed I am a person who doesn’t believe in such things, but it doesn’t mean I assume that you are lying… you know.”

Feeling that the atmosphere would be awkward, I was afraid to speakioutiof fear of that, but after voicing it, I thought I was being foolish.
My intention was to follow up with a contradiction, yet conversely, it turned out that I had no clue what to say.
Silence ensued over my response.

“I don’t really care how you think about it, Hakamada.
It’s fine.
After all, some people will definitely believe it, and some people will definitely not.”

‘That’s how things are,’ added Hirai.
No matter how I reacted, Hirai remained indifferent and seemed to be unaffected by it.

“However… I merely figured that I’d give you a warning.
This place is even stranger than you think, Hakamada.”

A normal personiwouldn’t be able to carry on like this.

Like me, numerous people have been lured by the hourly wage and worked here.
Practically all of them had quit within a week or so, despite their claims to the contrary.

“I don’t mean to be creepy, but I don’t want you to resign straight away, so please hang in there.”

Hirai’s words contained no falsehoods.
Intuitively, I thoughtiso.
This person was not fabricating a lie.
This person was… really.

“Can you really… see it? Those things…”

I was half in doubt.
With such feelingsiin my heart, I thought asking such a question was impolite.
Nevertheless, Iicouldn’t help but inquire.
Perhaps it was out of curiosity as well.
What would Hiraiisay back to me?

“Then, shall you try lookingiat it?”

What followediwas a far different responseithan I had anticipated.