I bent down to pick up the trash bag and move it aside.
That was when it happened.
The staff member who had been watching me simply stomped down on my back with his foot and shoved. I lost my balance and pitched forward, falling straight into the vomit-like mess on the floor. He sauntered over to my side, ground his cigarette out against my cast with a grin, and smiled.
“Fancy being the VIP exclusive — this smell suits you a lot better, don’t you think.”
The cigarette burn didn’t hurt, thanks to the cast. It just left me feeling disgusted.
If he had a problem with me becoming the VIP exclusive, I wanted to tell him to take it up with the manager — but knowing the manager’s personality, he wouldn’t listen to a word of it, so I understood why he was venting like this instead.
Yeah. I understood. Still felt disgusting, though.
Compared to the rotten mascot costume, this was practically fragrant — so I was about to just shake it off and finish gathering up the trash bags. But then I heard laughter again as he stepped down on the back of my hand.
…Should I hit him.
I was curling my hand into a fist when —
“Oh my — oh my goodness!!!”
A low, thick, lilting voice.
The manager.
At his sudden appearance, the staff member startled and backed off of me. The manager came rushing over in a fluster, grabbed me under both arms, and hoisted me straight up.
“……!”
“Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
Before I could even nod to say I was fine, he whipped his head around to the staff member who’d shoved me.
“Jun — what exactly is going on here?”
So the staff member’s name was Jun.
Jun couldn’t quite meet the manager’s eyes as he lied.
“I wasn’t doing anything — he fell on his own.”
“Excuse me, what did he just say?”
“I mean, come on — like I’d actually push him?”
“Oh my. Oh my. What is this? What kind of person has zero home training like this?”
The manager’s expression turned sharp, and he stepped right up close to Jun, who was considerably shorter than him.
“Jun, sweetheart. You were just throwing up your guts from all that drinking, and apparently your manners came out with it?”
“N-no, it wasn’t like that….”
“Lost your mind, haven’t you! You should have been more careful!”
And with that, the manager grabbed Jun by the hair and yanked him down toward the pooled mess on the floor in one sharp motion. If the manager applied just a bit more force, Jun’s face would be touching the vomit-soaked filth. Jun was frozen on his knees, unable to move an inch.
“Seems like Jun’s manners are all mixed in there — want to lick them back up?”
“S-sorry. I’m sorry.”
“I’m going through the change and I get sensitive easily, okay? Let’s not keep stressing me out.”
“Yes — yes!”
The manager let go of Jun’s hair. Then he gently smoothed it back into place and smiled pleasantly.
“There, pretty. Now off you go~”
Jun ran off without looking back once.
“Haah. Got all heated up and now I’m dry.”
From somewhere, the manager produced a facial mist and spritzed it over his face. He closed his eyes and savored it for a moment before tucking it away again and saying:
“You’re clocking out now.”
I hadn’t finished the contracted hours yet.
“I’m not done yet….”
The manager cut me off before I could finish.
“You did the serving and the setup with a busted arm.”
“…….”
“That’s enough. Keep going and you’ll do permanent damage.”
In the end, I had no choice but to leave early, just as the manager said.
On the way home, the streetlights were out, and the cold damp air pushed its way deep into my lungs. Somehow I was more tired than when I juggled several part-time jobs at once.
I stopped under the convenience store sign, thinking I’d buy something simple to have for tomorrow — and then on a whim, I turned to look beside it.
A 24-hour unmanned pet supply shop.
…When did that open?
Had there always been a shop like that in this neighborhood? I didn’t remember it.
But my feet were already carrying me inside before I’d made the decision.
Why did I even come in here.
It felt like I’d wandered somewhere I didn’t belong, and I moved to leave. But then my eyes caught the rows of dog food cans lined up inside the glass display case.
“…….”
I came out of the pet supply shop. In my hand was a can of dog food.
I don’t know why I bought it.
Just in case….
Who knows.
* * *
Wind seeped through the gaps between the old walls.
Carrying with it the damp smell peculiar to old stone.
At the bottom of the sunken stone steps — the rusty green iron gate. Left open just as I’d left it when I went to work.
I stepped inside.
The cold had spread into every corner of the place to the point where it was hard to imagine anything alive was in there. I pulled open the sliding door that had been left slightly ajar like the gate, and the single room was empty.
The mold was still blooming in the corner, and the floor was ice-cold — as if the coal briquettes I’d lit that morning had meant nothing. The only things different from usual were the dried dirty water stains that trailed all the way onto the haphazardly crumpled blanket, and the stale, hushed smell that only a sick dog has.
…I knew this would happen.
I tossed my outer layers onto the floor and went to the kitchen to wash my face with cold water. Without so much as a glance at the briquettes that had long since gone out, I went back to the room and lay down on the floor. The floor that held winter like it would never let it go — tonight it felt strangely unfamiliar, and I turned over several times.
Probably the smell.
When I wake up… I’ll throw it all in the coin laundry.
I’d wash out every trace of the unfamiliar thing that was making me restless.
And then….
I need to find another part-time job….
I’d have to find something daytime I could manage with one arm out of commission.
I stared at the ceiling for a while trying to make out whether the things crawling around up there were bugs or mold, then closed my eyes. My consciousness slowly sank.
I opened my eyes at a strange feeling.
“……?”
What time is it.
I reached toward my phone to check — and my back was warm…?
I slowly lifted my head and turned to look behind me.
“……!”
A dog.
Hadn’t it left? No — it must have. It must have gone.
So it had come back in through the open gate.
The dog was huddled against my back, motionless. Thin body, scraggly fur, and a belly that rose and fell with each breath.
The dog must have heard me stir and woken — it flicked one ear, then shifted the head it had been hiding in its curl just slightly, opened its eyes, and looked at me. Then, as if that check was all it needed, it turned its face back in toward itself again.
It wasn’t wary of me. But it didn’t seem particularly glad to see me either.
It simply stayed pressed close, quietly beside me.
“When did you even….”
Come in?
I hadn’t felt a thing. I was thrown off.
Right then, something bumped against my hand.
…A bone.
A trotters bone, half-eaten by someone.
A little bit of meat still clinging to it, dried and stuck….
A strange emotion I couldn’t put into words — an ache — drifted around somewhere near my chest.
Something that stung and made it feel like something was going to rise up. A feeling I didn’t recognize.
Not anger. Not tenderness. Not the kind that brings tears.
It just wasn’t familiar.
Just… strangely warm, for some reason.
I got up and went to get the can of dog food I’d bought at the unmanned pet shop. The dog still hadn’t moved. Either it had no interest in me, or it didn’t have the strength to move.
I glanced at the dog and then opened the can and tipped it out in front of its nose. Only then did the dog lift its head and look at me. With uncommonly pretty eyes.
“Eat.”
Only after I said that did the dog slowly raise its head, sniff at it a little — and begin to eat.
The sun hadn’t risen yet. When the day broke… I’d have to go buy coal briquettes.
