Working part-time isn't a burden at all. Sometimes there are people who say things like that.

Everyone at work is nice, and it's fun.

Every time I hear that, I think it's a different kind of creature from me.

Working part-time is nothing but a burden. It's not because my current job doesn't suit me. The act of working itself is unbearable. If possible, I don't want to work. I want to sleep all the time. I want to quietly end my life without getting involved with anyone.

Despite that, I work part-time at the convenience store three days a week from 4 PM to 10 PM because I need to earn a living expenses.

I am living alone.

Objectively speaking, I think it's quite rare for high school students to live alone. At least, I have never met anyone in the same situation as me.

The reason I started living alone was due to family circumstances.

My parents wanted me to leave home, and I also wanted to leave home. Because both sides shared the same feelings, we agreed, and I moved out of my parents' house. That's how it is.

I glance at the time displayed on the monitor. Twenty-one fifty-five. Five minutes until quitting time. While working part-time, this is the only time I feel good.

As soon as it hit exactly 10 PM, I punched out on the time card and clocked out.

Quickly taking off the uniform worn over the school-designated dress shirt, I stuff it into my school bag and leave the back room without speaking to anyone. Just enough not to come off as rude, don't forget to say Thank you for your hard work to the manager and the other part-timers.

I don't want to engage in unnecessary small talk, but I also don't want to earn unnecessary resentment.

When I stepped out the back door of the store, the moon was in the night sky. It was as clear as ice. Filled with a pleasant sense of liberation, I set off on my way home.

My apartment was about a ten-minute walk away.

A dilapidated apartment, over fifty years old, stood in the darkness. The rent is 28,000 yen. If a big earthquake comes, it will probably be the first to get flattened.

I think there is a boundary at a rent of 30,000 yen. If they go below that, the dilapidation and inconvenience suddenly reveal their fangs.

When I was about to leave my parents' house, they offered to cover the rent. So if I had wanted to, I could have lived in a better place.

My father, who remarried my mother, is wealthy. If I had said I wanted to live in a high-rise apartment, they might have gone along with it.

But I chose this place. Rent is 28,000 yen. A room in a rundown apartment with a five-tatami mat space, where the toilet and bath are combined.

I wanted to distance myself from a normal society. I want to live quietly in a place where no one pays attention to me, in a peaceful area without people.

I wanted to live like a pill bug in the dark shadows where no one could see me, rather than living on the top floor of a high-rise building and being looked up to by everyone.

I climbed the red-stained stairs of the apartment. The sound echoes more than necessary. Due to the thin walls, if there are sensitive residents, they might get angry.

But that won't happen. This two-story apartment has a total of eight rooms, but no one besides me is living here properly.

There are empty rooms, and some are rented out as storage, so basically, there's no sign of people. Thanks to that, I was able to live a comfortable life.

I unlocked the door and entered the room. It's small. But it's much better than being too spacious. After putting down my school bag, I opened the window and went out onto the balcony.

In front of me, an empty lot stretches out.

An empty space. There, an expansive darkness spreads out.

After spending a long time with people, it had become a habit to cool off here for a while and soothe my heated head. Otherwise, I can't sleep.

I was leaning my elbows on the balcony railing, staring blankly at the darkness spreading before me, thinking about her coming to the store to buy cigarettes.

"―Good evening."

I was surprised when someone suddenly spoke to me from next door.

The neighboring room that no one was supposed to have lived in until just recently.

A woman was standing on the balcony.

For a moment, I thought I was dreaming.

She was leaning her elbow on the railing, a black-haired woman with a cigarette lazily pinched between her fingers was her, the one who always came to the store to buy cigarettes.

"Twenty-five...?"

"Twenty-five?"

"Uh, no, um..."

"Hmm?"

"...You always come to the store to buy cigarettes, right? Cigarettes Twenty-five. So remember it. I kind of let it slip."

"Hmm, hmm. I see. In other words, I was secretly given the nickname Twenty-five by the clerk-san in your mind, right?"

"...I'm sorry."

"No, no. I was surprised. Because I was suddenly called by the number. I thought you had found out that I had been in a juvenile detention center."

"Huh?"

"You know, people who are in prison or juvenile detention centers are called by numbers, right? At that time, I was called Twenty-five. The cigarettes I'm smoking now, it's not that I like the brand, but because the number is the same, I feel attached to them and smoke them."

"I-is that so?"

"Of course, it's just a joke."

"Huh?"

"Did you really think it was true?"

She, Twenty-five-san, looked at me and chuckled softly.

It seems she was just teasing.

But I was surprised. I was thinking about her, and to my surprise, she was on the balcony of the next room. I thought I was hallucinating.

"...Did you move here recently?"

"Yes. It's close to the university."

"But it's an absolutely terrible rundown apartment, isn't it? Even if it were a man, I feel like there would be various concerns about a woman living there."

"Oh, really? It has a certain charm, and I quite like it."

To perceive this dilapidation as a charm, one must be quite tough.

"How about you, clerk-san? Are you a university student?"

"No, I'm a high school student."

"No wonder I thought you were young. Are you living with your family in a five-tatami mat room?"

"Oh, no, I live alone."

"Hmm..."

Twenty-five-san fell silent. For a moment, silence. She might have thought she accidentally stepped on a landmine.

A high school student living alone. It wouldn't be possible without some kind of family circumstances involved. Most of the time, it's troublesome and bothersome circumstances.

Maybe she will apologize. It was when I was thinking, "I don't want that." She said something different from what I expected.

"That's wonderful."

"...!"

"Is something wrong?"

"No, I thought for sure I would be pitied."

"Living freely away from home as a high school student. I think it's a very wonderful thing. I also wanted to do that when I was in high school."

Twenty-five-san said that,

"Oh, but if that's the case, smoking isn't good, right? I have to put it out."

"I-I'm fine, really."

She must be being considerate because I'm a minor. I hurriedly stopped her from putting out the cigarette.

"Given the wind direction, the smoke won't come this way. There's still some left in the cigarette. I think it's a waste to extinguish it."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. So, please don't worry about it at all."

"Hehe. Well then, I won't hold back."

Twenty-five-san once again takes the cigarette she was about to stub out in the ashtray. Taking a puff,

I exhale the smoke she inhaled into the night sky. Somewhat languidly.

The reason I stopped her earlier. Both of them were lies.

The truth is, I wanted to see it. Where she is actually smoking a cigarette.

I had imagined her smoking a few times in my head. But the actual sight was much better than the image I had in my mind.

I watched her smoke for a while. The cigarette, slowly burning down, looked like a sparkler.

"Oh dear. It's all gone now."

The cigarettes are gone. That meant the end of the conversation. I was reluctant to end it, so I couldn't help but ask a question.

"You always buy just one pack of cigarettes, right? Why is that?"

"Were you worried about it?"

"That, yes."

"Hehe. Is that right."

When Twenty-five-san wore a knowing smile,

"What would you do if I said I wanted to see clerk-san?"

"Eh."

"Hehe. I had a great time chatting with the clerk-san. I would be happy if the neighbors get along well from now on."

Twenty-five-san picked up the empty cigarette box and ashtray with her fingertips.

"Well then, see you later. Good night."

After saying that, she went back to her room.

Silence descends on the balcony, leaving me all alone.

―Well then, see you later.

For a while after that, I stood on the balcony in a daze. To go back inside the room, there was still too much heat left in my head and body.

Chapter 2: I Thought I Was Dreaming