I (30), Who Works for a Black Company and Died While Regretting My Gloomy Life, Started Over From High School!
Chapter 107: The Male High School Student Who Came for a Part-Time Job Interview Seems Rather Strange

My name is Yuko Mishima.

I’m a rather plain office worker, with minimal makeup. It’s a struggle being a 27-year-old who, every time I visit my parents, gets bombarded with questions like, “Don’t you have a nice person in your life?”.

With my curly, slightly messy long hair, cheap glasses, and unremarkable plain suit, I recently ran into a high school friend from our manga club who said, “Wow, your face still looks great, but you haven’t changed a bit! You’re a perfect match for someone who’s into understated office lady types!”

Despite my lack of sparkle, I do have one bragging right – I managed to secure a job at a well-known corporation that everyone recognizes.

Although my university was quite average, I still gave job hunting a shot. I was moved to tears when my victorious journey into the world of employment began.

Or at least, that’s how it was supposed to be…

“Aaaah! What am I going to do about this? It’s impossible! Absolutely impossible! I can’t handle this!”

The clock hadn’t even struck 6 AM, and I was already in my workplace’s designated private room, holding my head in my hands.

I need to emphasize this: I am a humble 27-year-old office worker, by no means an elite.

However, my employee badge is engraved with a position that’s way beyond my station.

To be precise…

“Shijouin Group’s Farewell Bookstore Café – Acting Manager Yuko Mishima.”

“Ugh… Why am I the acting manager?”

This Bookstore Café is one of the experimental branches exploring the fusion of a bookstore and a café. They brought in café management experts to serve as managers.

The reason they didn’t fully outsource the café to an external company is apparently because the higher-ups want to create a café division within Shijouin Bookstore, or even establish a semi-independent café company.

That’s why I was originally stationed at the main Shijouin Bookstore branch, handling procurement and planning tasks for a few years. When I was reassigned here, I was genuinely surprised.

Admittedly, there were some complications during the café’s initial launch, but after six months, we’d gathered a fair amount of know-how, and business was picking up. Apparently, the upper management was mostly satisfied with the results.

Thanks to this, I was just coasting along as one of the staff members…

“But then the manager suddenly gets hospitalized? And why in the world did they pick a young woman like me, who’s got no experience, as the acting manager?”

I’m here so early because, as the acting manager, I have too many tasks and responsibilities to handle. It’s not that I’m brimming with work enthusiasm.

The cause of this whole mess was apparently the manager’s frequenting of hostess clubs, which was discovered by his wife. Trembling in fear at his wife’s wrath, he attempted to escape through his second-floor window… only to fall to the ground, suffering a neck sprain and fracturing his right leg in the process.

“The ‘we’re looking for a replacement manager, but since we can’t find someone who’s immediately available, just keep things running as they are for now’ – what’s up with that? Our main pillar, the manager, is gone, and you’re telling me to just maintain the status quo?”

“Moreover, right after summer break ended, we had a mass exodus of college student part-timers… Why didn’t they let us know earlier that they were all planning to quit? Now, we’re struggling with understaffing all around, and it’s affecting our sales… And you expect me to fix this with just my supposed talent?”

I continued to vent my frustrations and complaints in the empty store, my lamentations and resentments filling the manager’s office. My gripes about the current situation seemed endless, and I couldn’t help but let my stress out by shouting.

However, I couldn’t keep whining forever.

Crying or throwing tantrums might grant me relief, but I knew those were only viable options until the end of compulsory education. I was already an adult.

“Sigh… The biggest concern is still the number of part-timers.”

I took a sip of lightly sweetened canned coffee and voiced my current predicament.

“Many high school students apply, but why does everyone quit so quickly? Is our environment bad or something? I’ve wracked my brain over it, but honestly, these kids are just taking the job too lightly!”

Due to a mass exodus at the end of summer, we urgently needed to hire new part-timers, but objectively speaking, none of the applicants – and pardon my bluntness – were any good.

Attracted by the stylish concept of a Bookstore Café, they’d apply, only to quit after three days, complaining about heavier workload than they expected. Others would come in and chat endlessly with their friends, and when I gave them a warning, they’d stop showing up without a word. Some would smile and confidently declare during the interview, “I can start tomorrow!” only to go MIA afterward… I’ve completely lost trust in high school students at this point.

Having been on the hiring side myself, I realized that the combination of “Finally, new recruits have arrived! Let’s teach and nurture them with care!” followed by “I quit immediately” creates a sense of futility that’s hard to describe.

“…Another batch of part-time job interviews from 8 AM today. Now, who’s the candidate this time?”

Switching my mindset from venting mode to work mode, I opened the resume that had been sent to me. While another staff member had handled the interview scheduling over the phone, I hadn’t yet examined the detailed information as the interviewer.

“The name is… Niihama Shinichirou-kun, huh? Well, his face looks kinda cute.”

As expected, the resume was pretty standard, but the photo showed a boy in a school uniform who seemed quite earnest.

Maybe this time, he could turn out to be a dependable force…

(No, no, I mustn’t be deceived! Boys who look this serious are often underestimating the job! I’ve been betrayed so many times before… Wait, hold on?)

Looking out of the window from this store manager’s room on the second floor of the shop, I thought I saw a figure outside the entrance.

Thinking it might be a staff member coming in early, I stood up and peered out into the dim morning light.

And then…

“Huh?”

What I saw wasn’t one of the staff members but a boy in summer clothes, wearing a school uniform. Oddly, he was standing completely still near the entrance, as if he had been ordered to stand guard like a motionless police dog.

(W-What is that? I can’t understand his intentions, and it’s really creepy… Wait, wait, that face…)

I was momentarily startled by the boy standing there so early in the morning, but I quickly realized that it was the same face I had just seen on the resume in my hand – Niihama Shinichirou-kun.

(Huh? Wait, isn’t the interview scheduled for 8 AM? Why is he here two hours early, standing around? Even if he mistook the time, anyone could see that the entrance is closed, right?)

Completely clueless about the mindset of today’s teenagers, I held my head in confusion.

Even though the summer had ended and the early morning heat still lingered, why was that boy sweating profusely, standing there like a faithful Hachiko?

“Ugh, I can’t make sense of this! B-But, I have to do something!”

Feeling thoroughly perplexed, I couldn’t just leave him there like that, so I hurriedly made my way to the entrance.

Little did I know that this boy would soon become a presence in my life, both a source of salvation and stomachaches, entirely beyond my imagination at that moment.