Gen'ei Antique Shop

Tale 9 The Girl In The Recording

The first year of the Showa Era
Downtown Tokyo.

My name is Sawayanagi Nana, 22 years old, previously worked at a beauty salon, but after getting married six months ago, I resign. My loyal customers asked why I resign just because I'm getting married.

Of course, because I don't want to serve them for the rest of my life. That high-class woman only comes and talk highly about their status. But now, I'm just part of them.

A few days ago, I hired a worker to clean one of the rooms in our house. My husband was a widower, his wife died a year ago, and he married me afterward. The room I cleaned was his wife's study room, she was a writer.

I told my husband, I wanted to use the room for my workspace as a makeup expert. I want to learn more and hope to open my own beauty salon. My husband comes from a rich family, I'm sure money is not a problem for him if I want to open a beauty salon.

When cleaning the room, I looked at the items left by his late wife. It is annoying to see the remains stuff of his ex-wife still in this house. That's why I want to throw everything away so that my husband can forget about her. He even still talks about his wife sometimes. How gentle she is.

I found a record and a gramophone.

Actually, I don't really know about classical music, but high-class women always talk about it when I still work in the salon. I can only think about how it feels to listen to classical music while enjoying tea and the warmth of a fireplace.

At first, I enjoyed the record, but after hearing it several times, I felt like there was friction in the sound. Over time, the sound of the friction grew longer, almost cutting in half of the music.

Strangely, my husband said he didn't hear anything. The record is still in good condition, as well as the gramophone, the expert I met said the record was fine and there was no sound of friction.

After hearing it several times, the friction became even clearer. Like the sound of gusts of wind, the sound was like coming from inside a forest. Then, I slowly heard someone's voice. A woman's voice, a woman asking for help.

I stopped to listen to music from the record. Then, one night, I woke up hearing something. I searched for the origin of the sound and was shocked to find that the sound came from the record that was playing alone.

CLING !!

"Welcome to our shop, dear customers, what can I do for you?"

Cold air pierced my whole body when I entered the store. The atmosphere inside is very dark. I then saw a man standing in front of a bookshelf.

"Excuse me, I came to sell a record," I said, watching him in the dark.

"Is that so?" The man put the book in his hand back on the shelf and stepped toward me, "What kind of records do you want to sell?"

I looked at the man, he has bluish-black hair with and blue-greyish eyes. A very handsome man, "Ah ... that," I was a little nervous and took the record from the bag I was carrying, then showed it to the man

The man took it from my hand, "I will check it first," he said while removing the record from the cover.

"Don't!!" I stopped him. I no longer want to hear the screaming of the woman.

The young man stared at me, "What's wrong? I'm not going to buy things before checking it," he said.

I clenched my hands tightly, "That ..." How should I say it, I feel very nervous, the sweat is felt all over my body, "You ... you can take it. I will not ask for money. At first, I just want to throw it away, but I think if it can be sold, I will sell it, "I said, explaining, but I can't say the truth.