“Eight? That’s a delicate age, when they’re just starting to dip their toes into senior cathood, but you’re handling it all so irresponsibly. And you were planning to put this tiny collar on her. I don’t like this, not one bit!”
“I said keep it down. Look, you’ve frightened Mr. Kagawa,” said Satsuki.
Shuta felt a wave of relief; then he caught the intense, pointed gaze Satsuki was throwing him from behind her spectacles—a stare even sharper than Jinnai’s.
“I did a quick estimate for the cost of repair to the car. It’s going to be around a million yen,” she said.
“A million yen? No way.” Shuta laughed bitterly. That was equivalent to several months’ rent. He thought Satsuki was joking, but when he saw the looks on the couple’s faces, he was alarmed to find that they were dead serious.
“That’s impossible. I don’t have that kind of money. I just quit my job.”
“Well, if that’s the case, you’ll have to work for us, starting tomorrow,” Jinnai said with a hint of warning. “We’ll take the cost of repairs from your pay. Work hard, and you’ll get a fair wage from us. Give it six months, and you’ll be square with your debt.”
“Work for you?” echoed Shuta.
The rugged men in workwear and Jinnai, too, were all bigger than Shuta. It was evident that these guys were no strangers to physical labor. Still, Shuta looked up at Jinnai, wondering if perhaps…
“Do you need help with accounting or the like?” he asked.
“I want you to work onsite, of course. Get out there and work your ass off,” said Jinnai.
“I don’t think I can. I don’t have any experience with manual labor, and I’m not exactly athletic either.”
“Stop whining. You’re on the job with us starting tomorrow. Got it?” Jinnai looked down at Shuta and narrowed his eyes.
Shuta gave up. Sure, he’d said he didn’t care where he worked. But after all the trouble he’d gone through to escape from a toxic workplace, it seemed like he had ended up somewhere worse.
Bee was shuffling restlessly in circles. He vowed to reread the cat’s instruction leaflet, and this time he would make sure not to make a single mistake.
“Hey, you’ll hurt your back if you lift stuff like that.”
The tanned, brawny men chuckled as they lugged iron materials back and forth. They were probably older than Shuta’s father, but they were all effortlessly handling metal poles as if they were mere twigs.
They were fixing up a small park in a residential area: tearing out the previous foundation, pouring fresh cement, and trimming back the overgrown trees. Shuta, now a member of the construction team, moved the work zone ahead sign with some struggle. He was familiar with traffic cones, but had never touched one before, and had difficulty maneuvering the wheelbarrow full of gravel. And when he raked up the cut branches and leaves, he tripped over his own feet and fell, exasperating everyone.
Finally, it was time for their lunch break, and the crew made a beeline for the nearest convenience store. Some brought out packed lunches. Shuta just plopped on the ground, exhausted. A shadow loomed over him. Glancing up, he saw Kōsuke Higuchi.
“Here,” said Kōsuke, holding out a lunch box.
“You bought this for me?” Shuta accepted the convenience store bento with a weak smile.
Kōsuke sat down next to him. “The boss and Satsuki told me to take care of you. I mean, I pretty much found you myself.”
“Found me?” Shuta scoffed.
He was sure Kōsuke was younger than him, maybe about twenty. When Shuta asked, he answered he was twenty-two.
“Well, I, myself, was found by our boss when I was in a bad spot a few years ago.” Kōsuke laughed casually.
“When you say ‘bad spot,’ do you mean you were out of work and were short of money or something?” asked Shuta.
“Exactly. I was flat broke and on the verge of robbing a convenience store. But the boss happened to find me, and he dragged me to the office and beat some sense into me. You’re lucky the cat saved you from experiencing the same fate.”
There were many things Shuta wanted to ask and many things he didn’t, but he decided not to take things too far. I’m going to have to work as hard as I can. He planned to quickly settle his repair debt and start searching for a new, decent job.
They completed their job before sunset. When they returned to the office, the veteran workers went inside, while the junior workers were tasked with unloading the equipment. But Shuta was shaky with exhaustion, so Kōsuke did most of the work.
Shuta hadn’t pushed his body this hard in quite some time. He knew he was going to wake up with sore muscles the next day. When he entered the office on unsteady legs, he found Satsuki, the accountant, handing cash to a day laborer.
I didn’t know there were businesses that operated like this in this day and age, he thought.
“Hey, Kagawa. You should come and get your pay, too,” she said.
“Am I being paid by the day as well?”
“That’s right. You haven’t properly resigned from your former company yet, have you? Make sure to complete your exit paperwork with them as soon as possible. It’d be a real pain for us if you were to have an accident or something right now.”
“I see,” said Shuta as he accepted the envelope. He hadn’t contacted anyone at the company after fleeing from the office yesterday. It hadn’t even crossed his mind to. He knew he needed to return and complete the exit process, but he just didn’t feel up to it.
“And your cat,” Satsuki stated bluntly. The pet carrier was at her feet. Bee’s haunches were visible through the mesh.
“Oh, um, I’m sorry for bringing a cat to the workplace,” he said.
“It’s fine. You can’t leave a cat alone for too long, right? Some cats are sensitive like that. Right, Bee? You’ve been such a good girl.”
When Satsuki peered into the carrier, the cat wiggled her rump as if in response.
