Vol 2 Chapter 1 Part 4

Holmes was busy with the birthday party preparations and his schoolwork, so he didn’t show up at Kura that week. It was mainly the manager who was on duty. The manager has a hard time staying in one place when he reaches an impasse in his writing, so ever since I started working here, he’d often dash out of the store. He seemed to have been making good progress lately, though. He stopped leaving and had been staying at the counter, concentrating solely on his manuscript. Even today, when I entered the store and said, “Good morning,” a while passed before he noticed me.

He’s incredibly focused, but I’m not sure if that’s a good thing when he’s supposed to be tending to the store. I giggled and started cleaning—quietly so that I wouldn’t bother him. With so many items for sale, dusting everything off was a struggle in itself. Scritch, scritch went the manager’s pen as I cleaned. I didn’t mind spending time like this.

The manager stopped writing and said, “All right,” as he stretched. It seemed like he’d reached a stopping point. I was still in the middle of cleaning, but I quickly went to the kitchenette and made coffee.

“Here you go,” I said, placing the cup on the counter with a clink.

The manager immediately looked up as if he’d just noticed my presence. “Oh, thank you, Aoi.” He smiled warmly.

“Did you reach a stopping point in your manuscript?”

“Yes. I was asked to write a short story, and I just finished.”

“Congratulations.”

“Thank you,” the manager murmured, slowly bringing the coffee cup to his mouth. His mannerisms were really similar to Holmes’s at times like this.

Noticing my gaze, the manager looked at me curiously and asked, “Is something wrong?”

“No, I was just thinking about how the owner’s party is soon.”

The manager looked at the tabletop calendar and sighed weakly. “You’re right.” He didn’t look too excited.

“Are you too busy with work?”

“No, the problem is that I don’t like appearing in public. Since it’s my father’s birthday, I’ll have to give a speech, right? When I’m too nervous, my stomach hurts.” He sighed again, dejectedly. It might’ve been rude of me, but I couldn’t help but think he was kind of cute like that. This was one aspect where he was completely different from Holmes and the owner. The owner had made TV appearances, yet the manager couldn’t even handle a birthday speech.

“Come to think of it, I heard from my friend that the owner used to be on TV. Is that true?”

“Yes. Actually, you didn’t know?”

“I had no idea. No one told me.”

“My apologies. I suppose it’s common knowledge around here. Besides, his final appearance was two years ago.”

“He doesn’t go on TV anymore?”

“He still receives requests, but he turns them down.”

“It kind of seems like a waste. I wish I could’ve seen him on TV.” Oh well.

The manager chuckled and said, “He was much more composed on TV. It was like watching a completely different person.”

“My friend told me that too. Why is he turning down TV requests now?”

“Ah, well…some things happened,” the manager said evasively.

I looked at him curiously, but suddenly, the door chime rang.

“Oh, what a nice store! It’s like an antique cafe.”

“I’m looking for ceramic cups.”

Two customers entered the store. They seemed to be tourists.

I hurriedly turned towards the door and put on my customer-facing smile. “Welcome! Take your time looking around.”