Chapter Ten — From the Factory Cafeteria

“Who’s been with this company the longest?”

One lunchtime, Shun Kano asked the plant manager, who was sitting beside him in the company cafeteria.

“Why do you want to know?”

The plant manager answered curtly. He didn’t like talking while he was eating.

“Huh? I mean, you’ve gotta wonder about that kind of thing, right?”

“Still, you eat fast.”

The plant manager turned to Sugitani, who was sitting across from him and stuffing himself with ginger pork.

“Most new guys are always told to eat faster when they first start, you know.”

“Yeah, that’s true. I used to get yelled at all the time.”

Sugitani swallowed and continued.

“They’d say, ‘Are you still eating?’”

“See? Exactly. Good for you, rookie. At least you’ve got a special talent.”

“It just means I’m not all shortcomings.”

Sugitani added that while continuing to eat.

“Exactly!”

The two men laughed.

Several others nearby, who had been listening, burst out laughing too.

One of them hurriedly picked up a noodle that had flown onto the table in front of him.

“Come on, Boss! Don’t make us laugh while we’re eating!”

He looked over at someone nearby.

“Sorry, could you pass me that tablecloth—uh, that cleaning cloth?”

......

The cafeteria stayed lively and noisy for a while, but before long, everyone had finished eating and started getting up from their seats.

When Shun looked around, the plant manager was gone too.

Hey, hey, hey... Boss, you never answered my question.

Shun thought about calling after him, but everyone was already hurrying out of the cafeteria.

Everyone around here is in such a rush...

Shun, who loved to talk, realized he was probably going to have another long, empty break.

......

After leaving the cafeteria, the plant manager walked along with Sugitani.

“That new guy is something else, isn’t he?”

Sugitani said.

“He’s still a brand-new employee, and he just casually talks to the plant manager like that. Isn’t he one of the guys from the Second Factory?”

“Machine processing?”

The plant manager looked at him.

“Probably from Yamashiro’s section, then?”

“I think so.”

Sugitani nodded.

“You can tell from the oil stains on his work clothes.”

“Yeah. Probably.”

“But seriously, he’s amazing. Isn’t he scared?”

Sugitani laughed.

“It took me more than two years before I could even talk to you normally. Even when I had to come and give you a work report, I’d get nervous for a while beforehand.”

“I still get nervous around him.”

An older longtime employee known as Take-san chimed in from the side, teasing them.

“Yeah... me too.”

The plant manager glanced at him.

There was the faintest smile at the corner of his mouth.

“But really... he’s a little unusual.”

He was talking about Shun.

Hmm. So he’s working for Yamashiro.

Maybe I’ll go take a look sometime.

Then the plant manager said,

“He might turn out to be somebody important. You never know. Guys like that sometimes do.”

As he spoke, he remembered someone from long ago.

Come to think of it, there had once been a man like that...

Sugitani and Take-san looked at each other.

“You really think so?”

They both tilted their heads.

“This company’s changed. We’ve got all kinds of people coming in now.”

The plant manager smiled faintly.

“Hard to believe we started out in such a tiny place...”

For just a moment, an image appeared behind his eyelids—

himself as a teenager, learning the trade under the company’s previous president, long before he had become the plant manager...