Midnight Diner

Episode 7

He put down the towel and stepped up to the baseline.

He tried to settle his nerves. This late into the match, the nerves did not really do much. It wasn't a matter of being nervous, he just wanted to calm himself.

Boom.

His opponent hit an ace past him. He dropped his racquet. And his head.

Shaking his head, he walked up to the net to shake his opponent's hand.

Another loss.

He walked off the court and ignored his teammates. Straight into the locker room he went. He dropped his bag onto the floor and buried his face into his towel.

He wept.

Those many hours in the gym. Those many hours on court. All for what? Six losses in a row. Six. He had tried everything. He always gave his all in practice and forced himself into the gym and off-court workouts, but there was always something missing in his game. He had no strengths and no weapons.

His friends tell him that he should relax and not put too much pressure on himself. But how else would one learn to cope with the pressure? The expectations? Isn't that how the professionals do it?

"I tried my best, that's all that matters." That thought had never crossed his mind. In his eyes, that's giving himself comfort, giving himself an excuse, giving himself a reason to lose. He stopped his tears and took a shower.

Do better in the next one. 

***

She stood at her desk. She doodled away on the back side of an uncollected receipt, her hand supporting her face as she leaned on it. There are not many customers today, she thought. She drew a few lines which joined together to form a sketch of a bento box. In the bento box she coloured in the rice and the chicken pieces, depicting the oyakodon he gave her the other day. She heard footsteps and dropped the pencil.

"Hello !!" she said enthusiastically. "How can I help you?"

Everyday she put on a smile and greet customers and made them feel welcomed. She felt like that was the responsibility of a cashier. Most cashiers don't want to be cashiers. As a results, they just carry out transactions with the monotonous, and sometimes policy-mandatory, "welcome" and "thank you". She, on the other hand, tries to embrace it. The customers should feel welcome every time they come.