I (30), Who Works for a Black Company and Died While Regretting My Gloomy Life, Started Over From High School!
Chapter 110: A White Workplace and an Unexpected Encounter

“Alright, now for the manager’s office…”

I, who was working part-time from noon on Saturday, walked down the corridor in the back of the book cafe, carrying a stack of documents.

This space was used as an office area for administrative tasks and the bookstore’s backstage by the full-time employees, not us part-timers.

I was walking here because I had just received a stack of documents from the full-time employees. This was for the typical menial task assigned to a part-timer like me: taking the documents to Assistant Manager Mishima’s room.

(But the full-time employees seem to be dealing with a lot of challenges too… It must be tough for them too, especially as staff for the new business, feeling responsible for the declining sales.)

Even this store was already a test store, as a bookstore diving into the cafe business. Moreover, it seemed they had been unlucky enough to have an outside-hired manager, who was also a cafe consultant, hospitalized for an extended period.

Additionally, due to a mass exodus of part-timers, the store’s sales had dropped further due to a decrease in creative and service quality.

They seemed to be working hard to address these issues, but for now, maintaining the current situation, or even a slight decrease, seemed to be the best they could achieve. The burden on Assistant Manager Mishima, who was working to tackle these problems, must be substantial.

“Excuse me. I’m Niihama the part-timer…. Um.. Mishima-san?”

I felt a bit odd that there was no response to my knock, but I could hear the sound of typing clearly, so I hesitated for a moment before slowly opening the door and entering.

And there, just as expected, Assistant Manager Mishima was typing away at her desk, but—

(Oh… )

At first glance, she seemed plain, but if she dressed up, she would likely attract the attention of men around the town. However, her eyes were vacant, and she was focused solely on typing, looking somewhat lifeless.

Her clothes, which seemed to have been to the dry cleaners less frequently, and her slightly neglected hair indicated the recent busyness, and she didn’t seem to notice me standing right beside her, possibly due to her scattered attention.

“Um… Mishima-sa—”

“Beer…”

“Huh?”

She muttered a word suddenly, directed at the void, causing me to blink in surprise.

“Highball… plum chu-hi… grilled mackerel… tripe stew… shrimp mayo… chicken liver… hehe… I even drink the oil from the shrimp ahij— huh?” (TLN: Chu-hi is a type of drink)

She was listing her cravings while wearing a faint smile, but her vacant eyes suddenly locked onto me, stopping dead in their tracks.

It seemed she had finally recognized my presence.

“Wait!? Um, uh, ne, Niihama-kun! How long have you been there!?”

“Well, just for a moment…”

Feeling apologetic, I responded to my flustered superior with a touch of regret in my voice.

She doesn’t need to be this panicked…

“Did you hear what I just said? Did you hear me mumbling about craving oasis?”

“Well, yes…”

“Uwaaaaaaah!?”

Assistant Manager Mishima shouted in anguish, much like when she spilled cup noodles into the sink, and covered her face with her hands.

While I personally didn’t find it embarrassing, it seemed she might be more sensitive than I thought, maybe more like a woman than I expected.

“Uh, uh… Worst… Now, the part-timers are going to be spreading rumors like ‘The assistant manager in her thirties was muttering about alcohol and salty snacks with a creepy smile endlessly, did you hear?’… They might even start gossiping, ‘Is that middle-aged woman an alcoholic? Hahaha!’…”

“I won’t spread such rumors! Also, how heartless were the part-timers here until now!?”

Perhaps due to exhaustion, Assistant Manager Mishima’s emotions seemed a bit unstable. While the store aimed to keep overtime within reasonable limits according to its policy, the mental strain of being a young manager was inevitably accumulating.

“But seriously, why do you always exude this mysteriously heavy and convincing atmosphere with such a gloomy expression…?”

Though I genuinely meant to console her, my words accidentally ended up sounding quite mature.

The answer would be, “Because I was older than you once upon a time, haha,” but, of course, I couldn’t say that.

“Well, I guess I did overreact a bit. I was afraid my authority as the assistant manager might have diminished… so I got flustered.”

Finally returning to her usual demeanor, Assistant Manager Mishima accepted the documents I brought and handed me a canned juice from the refrigerator in her room, saying, “Here’s an apology for showing you an embarrassing moment.”

She leaned back in her office chair and opened a can of coffee herself. Apparently, she realized her own exhaustion and decided to take a short break.

“Thank you. It might seem presumptuous for a part-timer like me to worry, but… Mishima-san, you seem a bit too exhausted, don’t you think?”

As someone who had contemplated the meaning of life while facing death due to overwork, I naturally ended up worrying about her.

“Well, I’ll be fine. It’s just tough having so many things to think about. I do take regular breaks, you know. And lately, there’s that kid, Niihama, who can handle just about anything… How about you? It’s been a week since you started working here as a part-timer. What do you think about this workplace?”

“If I were to describe my impression of this store…”

When asked like that, a natural word came to mind.

“In a word… it’s light.”

“Huh? Light…?”

My sincere impression seemed to be quite nonsensical, as Mishima-san’s eyes widened. But there were no more accurate words to convey my feelings.

“First of all, it’s physically bright. Sunlight pours in from outside, and there’s no gloomy or dark feeling at all. Moreover, there’s a calm and gentle atmosphere here where people enjoy books and coffee… It’s filled with a sense of human goodness.”

I hardly sense any ugly darkness in this workplace. There’s no baseless shouting, no personal attacks fueled by malice and ridicule. Even when there’s reprimanding, there’s a proper reason, and common sense and decency as humans are respected. Both the full-time staff and part-timers are… they’re all decent. They respond sensibly to ordinary things, don’t lash out due to mood swings, or demean others like it’s second nature. I haven’t encountered mindless yelling, malicious personal attacks, or insidious gossip here, at least for now.

The smiles of the customers, the efforts and mutual support among the staff, and the soothing aroma of coffee and sweets…

If my previous workplace was darkness, this book cafe is light. If I were to compare it, that place was a pile of garbage, while this is a meadow with a gentle spring breeze.

“The full-time staff and the part-timers… everyone is just so decent. They respond sensibly to ordinary things, and they don’t degrade others with insults or malicious comments. It’s just… being in an environment like this, I can’t help but feel truly happy… sniff“

“Huh!? W-Why are you crying? Come on, give me a break! It’s not like I made you cry!”

Overwhelmed by the realization that the longed-for white workplace truly exists, I found my eyes welling up with tears.

If I had shed tears like this in my previous workplace, those awful bosses would have all been furious. In their eyes, tears were a sign of weakness, an indulgence of the lazy, a proof of not taking work seriously.

Compared to that, the woman before me, the store manager, was worried and flustered over a mere part-timer’s tears. This alone highlighted how fortunate I was to be in this environment.

“Well, I’m sorry. Anyway, this workplace is busy, but the wonderful aspects of it being white are what I wanted to say. It’s certainly a company run by Tokimune-san.”

“Huh? Tokimune… our president? What’s with that friendly way of addressing him, like he’s some relative’s uncle?”

“Oh, well, that’s—”

“Niiiiihaaaamaaaaa! Where are you? The cash register is acting up and I don’t know what to do, so come back here!”

Just as I was about to answer, a voice came from the store, a senior working the same shift calling for help.

Looking at the clock, I realized it was already well into the afternoon, a time when the café would start getting more customers.

While I had spent quite a bit of time in this room, it was time to return.

“They’re already depending on you out there… Be careful not to overexert yourself while I’m gone, alright?”

“Haha, yeah, I’ll be careful. Well then, if you’ll excuse me!”

I nodded to Mishima-san and quickly left the manager’s office, heading back to the café floor.

Unlike before, I didn’t feel a stomach-churning fear when someone called me. Just that simple fact made me feel this workplace was truly amazing.

“Hey, the register’s working again! Thanks a bunch, Niihama!”

“Well, it was just a matter of checking the error code and following the instructions in the manual.”

Resolving the issue, which turned out to be simpler than I thought, I received exaggerated thanks from my tall, brown-haired senior, Takatori-san, who was at the cash register counter.

“Sorry, you know… When the register suddenly stops in the middle of a busy time, you tend to panic and not even think about looking at the manual.”

“I understand. When you’re about to burst from stress, you don’t always think straight… Ah, well, we’re wasting time with idle chatter! Sorry, but can you bring the Three-Color Macaron Parfait to Table Five?”

“Yes, of course!”

While this café primarily used a counter-service system for both food and drinks, for items that took longer to prepare, table service was necessary.

Three parfaits were already placed on trays in the kitchen, and I grabbed one to deliver it to the designated table.

(Phew, well, I’m getting used to this part-time job more and more. Everyone here is so nice, which is really fortunate…)

While I had some aversion towards workplaces due to my previous life’s experience, I found myself blending in surprisingly well. This was largely thanks to the white-consciousness of the manager and staff.

(They’ve been really good to me, and while I’d love to help with the declining sales of this store that Mishima-san is so worried about… well, it’s not something I can handle alone, huh?)

I’m just a former corporate slave with slightly above-average abilities as a high school part-timer. I can’t do anything monumental… but at least I thought I could help this store within my capabilities.

Well, for now, I need to finish up the task in front of me.

“Thank you for waiting! Here are the Three-Color Macaron Parfaits—oh?”

“Oh, yes! Thank you very mu—eh?”

I arrived at the table with a radiant smile, and there, sitting before me, was a girl I was very familiar with.

A beautiful girl with traditional Japanese beauty, her black hair cascading elegantly. She was the most important person in the world to me, and we had only recently reached a stage in our relationship where we called each other by our first names.

“Ha… Haruka!? Wh-why are you here!?”

Taken aback by the unexpected encounter with an acquaintance, I inadvertently let out a surprised exclamation.