The Case of Takafumi Yokozawa Vol. 2

Chapter 3

 “I’ve brought your drinks! The beers go to…?”

“Oh—you can just set them all down there together.” Henmi, who’d volunteered to order drinks for everyone, took over here and began to pass mugs of beer around to everyone. He was clearly the type to put himself in charge of manning the hotpot during winter. “Umm, Yukina-kun, you had…the grapefruit sour, right?”

“Yes, thank you.” Taking in hand the glass Henmi passed him, he set it on top of a coaster in front of his seat. A number of the female employees had been casting surreptitious glances his way for a while now; perhaps because he was used to it, the man himself didn’t seem bothered by it at all, but Yokozawa couldn’t help noticing it and it was seriously getting on his nerves. The seating areas were cordoned off by shoji doors, but the walkway area between rooms was only separated by a partitioning screen. They should’ve just sprung for a private room.

“Yukina—how much longer will the manager be?”

“He couldn’t really be sure, so he made sure to let us know to start without him.”

“Did he? Well then I guess we’ll get started. Umm, well—good work the other day, everyone. We’ll leave things brief for now and be a bit more thorough later.”

“Good work!” The four present raised their glasses and brought them together with a loud clink, gulping down their beers. The sensation of the liquid sliding down his throat felt amazing, and he could feel the discomfort that had been building up over the workday fading away.

Today’s drinking party was being hosted by Marukawa Shoten, and was meant to celebrate successfully ending the autograph event the other day. Those scheduled to attend were Yokozawa, Henmi, and Katou from Marukawa Shoten, and manager Okada and Yukina from Books Marimo. Unfortunately, no other staff members had been able to fit the party into their schedules, so it had turned into a rather cozy little affair. Okada, the guest of honor, was running late, so it really wasn’t all that different an atmosphere from a typical night out for drinks.

“Still, I’m quite glad the autograph event ended so smoothly!”

“It was all thanks to you and the others, Yukina-kun. We’re truly in your debt.” Henmi settled his palms on his thighs and bowed his head deeply.

“We were only doing our jobs, same as always. The fans were extremely well-mannered, so that helped a lot. Ah—but there was a bit of panic when we thought we’d run out of postcards!”

“Yeah, that was all my fault for not checking thoroughly. Sorry about that.” The postcards meant to be distributed as presents had run out in the middle of the event. Yokozawa had paled, panicking that they’d mistakenly ordered the wrong amount when they should’ve had plenty to spare, but when he looked around, he realized that one packet had been mixed in with presents Takanashi had received from the fans. Apparently it had been dropped into the box of letters and gifts when he’d tried to move it.

“Not at all—we should’ve been more alert to the situation. We really weren’t on our game then. But the sense of unity we felt when we found it was kind of amusing, now that I think back on it.”