Dullard Buddy-kun: Heading Reluctantly to School Again Today - Episode 67

“Welcome!”

Somehow, I barely made it in time.

Anyway, I, Kentaro Mamiya, am once again frying potatoes in the kitchen today.

Yes. Despite everything, I’ve been back at my part-time job since the Saturday following the end of the school trip. Since then, up until today, the store manager has had me working in the kitchen rather than the register.

Apparently, I was mistaken for someone else, and when I wasn’t on shift, the register was overflowing with people to the point of confusion, or something like that.

When I finally returned to my shift after a long time, a senior who’s close to me tried to show me a video of a guy who looked like me, but the video had been made private with a message saying, “This video was removed for violating community guidelines” so I never got to see it. The explanation mentioned something about violating policies regarding explicit content, but at that point, it was clearly not me.

There’s no way I would appear in such a lewd video, and I don’t remember being in one.

My senior said, “It really looked a lot like you, but now that I think about it, you’re not the type to do something that noticeable. Now that I think about it, it seems off. Could you strip for a bit?”

Of course, he said some ridiculous and dangerous things like that, so I ignored him for the rest of the day.

Now that I think about it, what on earth did that guy do while naked?

And to get banned for something like that… there’s no way it was me.

Yeah. From my perspective, it’s just a huge hassle.

Once, I asked Tanaka-kun, who was the only person I could talk to about such things at school before he broke his leg, if he had ever seen a video with a guy who looked like me, but he just said, “I don’t know.”

Of course, I don’t know either.

Well, it seems like it’s not something everyone knows about, and it hasn’t caused any issues in my daily life, so I don’t really care much. But still, I wonder what it’s all about.

Thanks to that guy, in a way, I’ve gotten used to the task of frying potatoes, and I’ve also become really fast at making hamburgers…

Honestly, lately, I’ve even started finding this job pretty interesting.

My glasses fog up, and I have to wear contacts since my hair can’t get into the food, but despite all that hassle, I still prefer working like I always have. It’s not bad at all.

“Hey, Mamiya-kun.”

Ah, I’m being called.

Before I knew it, the elderly store clerk, Sasaki-san, is walking over to me.

Now that I think about it, his movements as he walks slowly toward me are so graceful.

I’ve heard that before his retirement, he worked as a concierge at a luxury hotel. At any rate, he’s really popular with the older women here.

If that’s true, then I wonder why he’s here, but I at least know the manager brought him in.

But still, this calm and elegant, experienced gentleman who’s always composed, is coming toward me with a totally different expression… one that I’ve never seen before, a sort of goofy, overly affectionate look.

I thought he was at the register today… what’s going on? What happened to Sasaki-san? What’s with that expression that’s so out of character for him?

“Your cute little friend from the same school is calling for you. Go say hi to her.”

Huh?

A girl from the same school? And she’s cute, and she knows I work here? And Sasaki-san’s acting like this…

It’s not Shibuya-san… but somehow, this feels more like Yamamoto-san.

But I wonder what’s going on.

She does come by sometimes, but it’s rare for her to specifically call me out like this.

Well, it’s not exactly a busy time right now, so it’s not a problem at all.

For now, I’ll go check it out.

“Okay. I’ll be right there.”

But, looking at it again, it’s really impressive.

To be able to make Sasaki-san relax his expression like that…

She really is good with people.