Episode 181: Fatigue

Saturday, day six of the part-time job lifestyle.

Pi-pi-pi… Pi-pi-pi…

……

Ding-dong…

「Wait!?」

Waking up with a jolt, I felt a vague sense of anxiety, like I’d heard the doorbell in a dream or forgotten something important.

As my consciousness sharpened, that bad feeling only grew. I checked my phone to confirm the damage…

Is it really this late!?

Crap, I’ve gotta move!!

I’ve never overslept this close to the wire before.

I’d worked at the liquor store until the last possible second yesterday, but the timing wasn’t that different from usual.

If I had to guess, the delivery volume was higher because of the weekend, so I’d been busy prepping a larger amount of alcohol than normal.

Was I really that tired?

Ding-dong…

Knock, knock…

Crap, Mayumi-san!

I’d totally forgotten that it was time for Mayumi-san to deliver my bento. I decided to put off changing and opened the front door first.

Wait… now that I think about it, wasn’t today a day I didn’t actually need a bento?

「I’m coming!」

I’ll think about it later. I called out to Mayumi-san, who was waiting on the other side, and unlocked the door.

Click

The sound of the lock echoed, and the knob turned. Naturally, Mayumi-san was standing there.

「Good morning, Takanashi-sa… hm?」

Noticing that I hadn’t even changed yet, Mayumi-san tilted her head, her expression shifting to one of confusion.

「Oh? You haven’t even started getting ready yet?」

「S-sorry, I overslept…」

Hearing my answer, Mayumi-san said「Excuse me then,」and stepped into the room. She set a stack of folded laundry on a chair. It looked like she brought back the clothes I handed over yesterday.

She glanced at the bread sitting on the table and then checked the clock.

「It’s a shame, but it doesn’t look like there’s time for a proper breakfast. I’ll toast the bread for you, so go finish getting ready.」

「Sorry, I’ll be quick.」

Prioritizing the clock, I left the kitchen to her and started changing.

I thought about going into the bathroom area, but I didn’t have time for that kind of politeness.

Mayumi-san didn’t seem to mind anyway, so whatever…

「By the way, what brings you here today?」

I figured she hadn’t come just to drop off laundry, so I asked to see if there was another reason.

「I came to check on you, just in case. You looked a bit exhausted yesterday.」

「……I’m sorry.」

I rushed through washing my face and getting dressed. When I got back to the table, the toast and a drink were ready.

As I started scarfing it down, Mayumi-san spoke up while watching me.

「Oversleeping like that… aren’t you getting pretty tired?」

Maybe it wasn’t just yesterday’s work. Juggling two unfamiliar part-time jobs all of a sudden might’ve finally caught up to me…

That was a real possibility, but with only two days left including today, I just had to push through with sheer willpower.

「No, I’m fine. I just stayed up a little late last night.」

「……I see. I’ll come pick you up after school.」

「Thank you, I’ll see you then.」

Mayumi-san looked like she wanted to say something else, but she ended up keeping it to herself.

She accepted my answer for now, but I’m sure she knows…

「……kun, Takanashi-kun?」

The feeling of someone shaking me brought my consciousness back into focus. The first thing I saw was Todo-san’s worried face.

I thought I was awake, but apparently, I’d been out cold.

「You okay, Kazunari?」

Hayato was standing past Todo-san, staring at me with a similar look of concern.

I looked around and realized I was at our usual flowerbed.

Thinking back, I remember eating my bento, but everything after that is a blank. Does that mean I’ve been sleeping since then…?

I pulled my phone from my pocket to check the time. There were about five minutes left before the warning bell for the end of lunch break.

Right, I’ve gotta water the plants… just as I looked toward the flowerbed, I saw clear signs that the ground was already wet.

Which meant…

「Sorry, you even did the watering…」

「Don’t worry, you can leave that much to us. But more importantly, are you okay?」

It looked like they’d let me sleep until the last possible second, finishing even the cleanup. I felt terrible…

「Kazunari, aren’t you getting seriously worn out?」

「………To be honest, I think it’s getting a bit tough.」

「Takanashi-kun, if it’s that bad, you should take today off. I’ll tell Grandpa…」

「I’m fine. Tomorrow is the finish line, and I only work the morning shift, so I can rest all afternoon.」

「………Okay, I get it.」

I felt bad for making them worry, but since I’d come this far, I just had to give it one last push…

「This one goes here… and this goes there… okay.」

I took the documents I’d sorted by department, arranged them alphabetically by the document name, and filed them. Then I added labels with numbers.

If I put the same numbers on related files and lined them up so they were easy to see at a glance, it’d be a breeze to find them later.

Luckily, there was plenty of room on the shelves, so it wasn’t hard to keep things organized.

Alright, this box is done.

I tried to lift it up to the desk… ow!?

My palm… specifically the spot under my right ring finger. The blister there hit the box, and a flash of pain ran through me.

There were two other spots that looked like they were becoming blisters too…

Mostly because of carrying heavy stuff at the liquor store. Maybe my grip was bad, but I’d noticed the blisters before I knew it.

It was my first time experiencing this. I’d heard stories, but actually feeling it was something else…

The fact that it hurt more than expected was a drawback, but I couldn’t exactly stop using my hands, so I just had to bear it.

The job at the Satsukawa house ends tomorrow, and the liquor store job ends next week. Just a little longer…

「Wait… is that it?」

The box in front of me was empty. I looked around to grab the next one, but the boxes that had been spread all over the floor were gone.

Which meant the work was finished…

To make sure it was really over, I checked the department names and the files on the shelf… yeah, looks like everything’s there. I’d been so immersed I hadn’t even noticed, but I was done.

So what happens tomorrow?

Even if it’s only half a day, losing that expected income would actually sting. If there’s other work…

Knock, knock…Click…

「Good work, Takanashi-san.」

Mayumi-san had come to check on me.

As she stepped inside, she noticed the boxes were gone and looked a bit surprised.

「Oh? Did you finish everything already?」

「Yeah, I surprised myself, but I finished before I knew it.」

「Don’t tell me you skipped your break again…」

「……Sorry. I guess I just got into it and didn’t realize.」

When I told her the truth, she muttered「You’re hopeless…」with an exasperated look, but I didn’t get punished this time. (Not that I wanted to be.)

「Well, good work today. Thank you so much for working so hard.」

「No, thank you. I was in a bind because I couldn’t find work, so this really saved me.」

We both bowed to each other. When we looked up and our eyes met, we both started smiling.

「Hahaha…」

「Ufufu… Oh, Takanashi-san. Anyway, I figured you hadn’t taken a break, so I came to force you to rest. Tea is ready, so come to the living room, okay?」

「Yes, thank you.」

Since the work was done, I had no reason to refuse, so I accepted.

It was a short time, but this might be the last time I come to this room to work.

I looked around the room as if to burn the image into my mind. Unlike when I first got here, the shelves were now lined with files.

Feeling a sense of achievement that I’d completed this, I closed the door.

Even though the work was over, I was already fighting my next battle.

My opponent was a powerful enemy named drowsiness.

I was sitting on the living room sofa, eating the tea and snacks Mayumi-san had prepared, but I kept drifting off. I had to force myself to snap out of it.

It’s true that I was tired to begin with, but now that the work was done, the string of tension had snapped. It felt like something that had been pulled tight was finally going slack.

Mayumi-san, who for some reason was sitting next to me as usual, seemed to be watching me. But I didn’t even have the mental space to worry about that; if I let my guard down for a second, I’d be nodding off.

「……Takanashi-san, I’m laying you down, okay?」

Lay me down? Before I could even ask, Mayumi-san reached out and easily tipped me over.

No matter how I looked at it, this was a lap pillow.

Usually, I would’ve jumped right up, but I didn’t have the energy to resist today.

I still tried to sit up, but she gently held me down.

「We still have some time, so just sleep for a bit.」

「No, this is really…」

「It’s a no-no. This is also a punishment for not taking breaks, so stay down and sleep.」

She sounded like she was scolding me, but there was a mischievous vibe mixed in. I could feel my will to resist just fading away.

「I’ll wake you up when the time is right, so just drift off. If you don’t, it’ll be obvious you’re tired when you talk to Sara-chan tonight, right?」

I reacted for a split second, wondering how she knew about that, but I didn’t even have the energy to ask. My consciousness started to blur.

「Ufufu… how nostalgic.」

I thought I heard those words somewhere far away, but only for a moment…

「Seriously… I don’t even know what to say…」

I was apologizing so hard I was practically ready to go into a full bow, but Mayumi-san just had a happy smile on her face.

「Honestly, I told you not to worry about it.」

Fatigue, the tension snapping, eating something sweet, the afternoon nap timing… a lot of factors had piled up to cause that irresistible drowsiness, but I couldn’t believe I’d actually used Sara-san’s mother as a lap pillow.

As I woke up and realized what had happened, I saw just how much I’d messed up. I’d been sitting upright on the sofa, repeating my apologies for a while now.

Ugh… honestly, I want to apologize to Sara-san too… but I can’t…

「It was my choice to give you a lap pillow, so please don’t let it bother you. Or… is a lap pillow from your Mother-in-law really that much of a problem?」

「No, it’s not like that…」

「Then there’s no problem for either of us, is there?」

Is that how it works?

No, even if Mayumi-san is okay with it, it’s still a problem for me.

I’ll take her word for it this time, but I’ve gotta be really careful from now on.

「Well then… um, thank you very much.」

「You’re very welcome. Fufu, it made me a bit happy, remembering my own high school days.」

「Really?」

Remembering high school in this situation probably meant memories of Masaomi-san.

I’d heard that they had the same dynamic as us, with Mayumi-san being the upperclassman and Masaomi-san being the underclassman. Maybe she had experience doing stuff like this back then.

Wait, I’m always getting lap pillows from Sara-san, so we really are similar in that way.

「Now, I’m going to get dinner started, so just relax here. I think he’ll be home soon.」

Mayumi-san stood up and headed for the kitchen.

Watching her back, I found myself curious about what kind of high school life those two had together. I figured I’d ask if I ever got the chance.