Chapter 1: 1

Before the Fall in the Storeroom

“Ah, really!?” 

I instinctively responded in disbelief to what I had just been told on the phone call that I had just received during my break at my part-time job.

“Yes. Will you be able to start coming next month?”

“Of course! I look forward to working with you.”

Although the person I was talking to could not see me, I bowed my head anyway while trying to convey my happiness. 

The call ended after we confirmed the specific date and time that I would start.

I did it! I finally got selected!!

I graduated from design school three years ago. Ever since, I’ve been working in retail selling apparel, but my dream has always been to work as a fashion designer. My job hunt has finally succeeded and I’m going to be hired as an assistant designer. It’s been a long process, but I can finally start to design clothes!

My current job isn’t bad. I love clothes, and while selling cute outfits is great, I like the idea of making them more.

With such a happy event occurring during my break, I returned to work with a light step. My face also loosened up, completely relaxed from my dream being realized.

“I’m back~,” I announced to my coworker.

“Welcome back. Hey, what’s that huge smile for?” my manager, who was working the shift with me, playfully asked. 

“I got a call from the hiring manager,” I explained. “I’ve been hired.”

“Hey, you did it! Congratulations!!”

“Thank you very much.”

I had already told my manager about my dream about designing clothes, so she was happy for my success. Although, shortly after she did seem to look a bit lonelier.

“I guess that means that you’ll be quitting soon, Itoi-san,” she stated.

“Yes, I’m very sorry. This month will be my last…”

“No worries. I’ve known for a long time that the time would come. Let me handle informing upper management.”

“I’m relying on your help,” I gratefully responded.

I had been working here since I had graduated from my design school. The shop was located in a building not far from the train station at the city center. Since it was an important station, a stop for many trains, it was a busy area with plenty of people walking about. I was also only living three stations away, so the commute was very easy.

The brands that we sold were generally targeted for people in their twenties, with clothes ranging from casual to formal. Most of our customers were either college students or career women who were around my age, making it easy to talk to and serve our customers.

While I was very happy to finally get a job that I always wanted, I would also be sad to leave this job.

I learned a ton from my manager. When I started this job, I wasn’t good at connecting the design of the clothes with the image that the customers had in mind. While I had learned the intricacies of design at school, I struggled to explain those points to the customers. At that time, my manager told me that it’s important to think about how the customers want to wear the clothes themselves.

The clothes are only complete once they are worn by someone. The clothes exist for the person wearing them.

Clothes are a basic necessity for our daily lives, but fashion can enrich it by adding a splash of flair. While some people were happy to wear something as long as it looked nice, most customers came to buy clothes that enriched them in their lives. They could not buy clothes that would not be practical to their daily lives.

I wanted to design clothes that would be worn by many people. With that intention in mind, I studied to become a designer. But I only thought about the designs that I wanted to make without paying consideration to the people who would be wearing it. Learning this lesson definitely felt like a strike to the head.

This lesson might seem small, but it was one of the many important things that the manager taught me.

I had wondered at times if I would be stuck only as a clothes salesperson, but now with the door to being a designer has finally opened up to me, I know that these experiences will serve as an important source of nourishment for my future work.

“Well, you might not be here for long, but I’m counting on you in the remaining period!”

“Yes!” I firmly nodded to the words that my manager had said.

In the remaining time, I was going to try and absorb anything that I had not yet experienced. With that resolve in mind, I greeted all of the customers coming in with a smile.

Looking at my wristwatch, I saw that it was half an hour before the store closed. Seeing that my manager was finished with a phone call, I asked her, “Is it alright if I head out now?” I had started working early today, so I was planning on leaving before closing as well.

“Yes, you’re good. Oh, before you leave, can you take the shoes on reservation out from the stockroom? Satou-san said they will be coming to pick up the shoes they ordered. 

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The call that the manager was just on must have been from a customer. After I left, she would be by herself for the rest of the shift.

“I understand! Then, I’ll bring it out while I’m leaving. Sorry for leaving early.”

“No worries~”

Once again saying “good work for the day” as a farewell, I headed to the backroom.

I changed out of my work uniform, switched the heels for my sneakers, and put my phone and wallet in my backpack. With all of that done, I swung my backpack on and was ready to head out.

“Need to get the reserved shoes out,” I muttered to myself, walking from the lockers to the storeroom.

Although the space available in the back of the building was not much, the available space in the store itself for inventory was very limited, so whatever wasn’t urgently necessary was kept in this small storeroom. With a space of two tatami mats1, the walls were lined up to the ceiling with shelves facing each other.

“Where is it?” I muttered. Looking left and right, I advanced to the back of the room. ‘Maybe it’s higher up,’ I thought, not seeing it.

With the shelves going up three meters, I looked around to see if there was a way to raise myself to check the higher shelves.

“Here we go,” I said as I placed a foot on a shelf slightly higher than my knee. The proper procedure would have been to bring a stepladder over, but the stepladder was heavy and the place it was stored was a bit far. 

I was just looking for some shoes. You don’t need a stepladder to bring down a shoebox. Thinking like that, I brought both of my feet up to the shelves, climbing up.

“Is it this one?” I found the shoebox of the right size on the uppermost shelf. I wasn’t sure why the box was placed in such a difficult to find spot, but I was relieved to have found it. 

I reached my hand out to pick it up. At that moment—

My backpack got caught on something.

“Oh no….”

By the time I registered what happened, it was too late.

With my legs already on unstable footing, I wasn’t able to hold myself up. I lurched over in the direction of my backpack.

As I fell, the bright unnatural shine from the fluorescent lights caught my eye. Closing my eyes tightly, those sparkles remained in my vision as I experienced the sudden impact.

Thud.

“Ugh!”

Something was poking me in the back. Was it my thermos bottle?

While my back and legs throbbed in pain, I was slowly able to lift myself up while letting out some groans.

Feeling something cool and rough through my hands, I opened my eyes.

“What?”

It was grass.

Was I possibly in a dream?

I should be in the storeroom of my job right now.

But that wasn’t what I saw before me.

In front of me was grass and trees and earth.

It was a field that had not been cultivated by people. The scene of the inorganic metal bookshelves in the storeroom had changed in an instant to # of untouched nature.

“What, where…”

In an unbelievable situation, seeing an impossible scene, I muttered to myself in disbelief.

Notes

Tatami mats are used as a standard of measurement for area in Japan. 1 tatami mat = 1.62 square meters, or ~17.8 square feet.

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