The walk to work is just like any other day. A bit on the colder side, however, which works in my favour since I can wear a comfortable sweater. I open up my phone and look at my face in the camera. My slightly messy, long, dark hair and tired gray eyes come into view once it loads.
"...23, but I look 30. I'm so tired," I mumble to myself.
I practically rushed out the door earlier this morning to make it on time since I fell asleep mid-breakfast, so I didn't notice my hair was a little messy.
"I'm way too tired for this," I sigh; there's no better way to start the morning than seeing your tired face while you're on your way to work.
I brush it off; there's nothing I can do about it now. Cold morning air hits my face, waking me up a bit. My black work sweater does a good job of keeping me warm. I'm not fully focused on where I'm going; then again, I, Fujiwara Hidefumi, don't need to be. After all, I've done this same walk time and time again for nearly four years, so by this point, I could do it blindfolded.
It all feels like a pattern. The sound of cars passing by and people talking on their phones. The smells coming from the bakeries and cafés I pass every morning are all too familiar to me. I make the turns and twists to my work like they're coded into me. You'd think I'd be bored with the repetition, but I don't mind it. I enjoy my life in this town—not too quiet, not too loud, just perfectly in the middle. Sure enough, without even noticing, I make it to my place of work.
A small building with three floors, not too run-down but not top-of-the-line either. It's one of the older buildings in the company chain. The walls are made of concrete painted white. The top two floors have long windows lining them, while the first floor has two glass doors with black handles. Above the doors, a sign reads, "Shugen Editing." I walk up to the glass doors at the front and peer inside.
"Dark," I mumble before sighing.
"She's late again," I complain. Thank God I have my own set of keys. I would never get inside on time if it were up to her. We're supposed to get here at roughly the same time, but it's become more of a guarantee that I'll be the first one here. I take out my keys and unlock the door. Once inside, I wipe my feet on the mat, turn on the lights, and look around. The sound of my shoes stepping on the tiled floor has a faint echo that I didn't catch the first few times I came here. The building is small compared to most office buildings, but still too big for the few actual employees this place has.
The company I work for is a pretty big manga editing company in Japan called "Shugen Editing," with countless office buildings similar to this one scattered across Japan. This one, however, is what I can only assume is their most neglected. If it wasn't for the new assignments we get every day, I wouldn't know that they remembered this place existed. The only people ever here are me, my co-worker, the janitor who comes every night, and a few struggling college students we get on the holidays or once in a while. This means we only really use one or two of the offices in this building.
The building is set up like this: on the first floor, there's a main check-in area with a desk at the very front. There used to be a girl working there, but she got transferred to a different building, I believe. The main purpose of the receptionist was to handle in-person appointments with editors. But we live in a digital world now, meaning the demand for in-person meetings rather than online calls or email exchanges has dropped substantially, so we don't really use it. Plus, if you're looking for a meeting like that, you'd probably want to meet one of the big guns at a bigger, more respected location, so I doubt anyone would come to this older, smaller building for that.
To the left and right, the walls break into hallways. On both sides of the hallways, there are four small office rooms, two on each side. Those would be where you'd hold editor meetings. But my co-worker uses them as our regular offices since it saves us the trouble of going up and down a floor. At the very end of the hallways, there are sets of stairs and bathrooms.
The second floor has a more standard office layout with many cubicles. I don't ever work over there because there's no point.
The third floor… well, actually, I've never gone up there. The janitor, Mr. Kuze, a much older man, told me he lost the key to unlock the third floor ages ago. You don't need to open a door to get to the second floor; you can just take the elevators, which are to the right and left of the reception desk at the front, or the stairs at the end of both hallways on the first floor. However, for some reason, the elevator doesn't go up to the third floor; you can only get there by taking the right hallway stairs and opening the door on that side. I've never cared enough to see what's there, but I assume it's storage.
"Welp, time to get to work," I grumble, way too tired to do anything today. No matter how strong a person is, exhaustion can kick any man's ass. I stare in the direction of the door; five minutes in, and she still isn't here.
"I wonder how late she'll be today," I mumble to myself sarcastically. If I had to guess, I'd bet she's 30 minutes late, though it's sometimes more. Nevertheless, work has to be done. I walk to the far left, where the main office we use is, and go inside. I turn on the lights and get situated.
My co-worker and I have our little areas, but for the most part, it's one big desk. I look over at my side on the right—clean, with neatly stacked piles of paper and a charging block; all a man really ever needs. However, on my co-worker's side, papers are strewn across the desk, sticky notes with "to-do lists" everywhere, and all her desk ornaments and decorations. I sigh and pay it no mind. I get to work quickly while drinking my coffee.
A couple of minutes later, I hear shoes clicking on the tile floor, coming closer. I pick up my phone and look at the time.
"9:00, looks like I was right on the money," I say, chuckling.
On cue, the door behind me opens.
"Hi, Hidefumi-kun! How are you this morning?"