I Planned My Escape Because I Knew Her Secret - Episode 23

The udon shop I started working at is called “Narita-an,” and it was opened about seven years ago by the owner, Mr. Tetsuji Narita, and his wife, Ms. Meiko Narita.

It seems that they used to hire part-timers, and Yuko, their daughter, would help out in the evenings as a part-time job until she graduated from the local junior college. After graduating, she got a job at a regular company. However, since the part-timers would quit or the new hires wouldn’t last long because the store was busy, Yuko ended up quitting her job and started working full-time at the store.

The master is now 48 years old. The proprietress didn’t tell me. Yuko said she was three years younger than me, 24 years old. The master, the proprietress, and Yuko are always smiling, friendly, very sociable, and chatty, and I felt that we got along well without having to be polite.

The supermarket where I worked part-time had other employees and part-timers who would all talk to me, but I always felt a sense of wariness and a wall between us. It felt like they were wary of me speaking Mikawa dialect. Later, the landlady told me that this is a characteristic of Okayama residents.

They are closed off and very wary of outsiders, not opening up to them, but they are friendly and familiar with their own.

In other words, at my part-time job, I was treated like an outsider no matter how long I worked there.

And conversely, I was asked by the innkeepers, “Why did you come to Okayama?” I had deceived my partner with a lifetime’s worth of lies, and I didn’t want to lie anymore for the rest of my life. However, I still didn’t trust these people enough to tell them everything honestly, and the truth felt too heavy to share. So, I said, “I had a heartbreak and got tired of my previous life, so I ran away. I chose Okayama because it’s a completely unknown place with no acquaintances.” I shouldn’t have been lying.

Then all three of them, feeling like “There are various things,” didn’t pry any further and were considerate. The landlady comforted me by saying with a smile, “In a long life, sometimes you need a break.”

When I started working at Naritaan, they really prepared meals for me three times a day at their home on the second floor. Even on their days off, they would invite me over to eat, treating me like family. Yuko-san even said, “It must be tough living alone and working from early morning until night, so bring your laundry over, and I’ll wash it all for you.” It felt like they were taking care of not just my meals but my entire life. It was almost like being treated as an apprentice living on-site.

I honestly talked about my past work experience (as a family restaurant manager).

The landlady said to me, “That’s why you were always peeking into the kitchen.”

Yuko-san also said, “No wonder you’re good at handling drunk customers.”

Because of that, as someone with experience in the food and beverage industry, I was suddenly taught various kitchen tasks, and I was trying to learn everything.

Unlike the standardized operations of family restaurants, there is just so much to do.

Not only do we have to prepare and cook the ingredients based on customer orders, but we also need to make more depending on the remaining stock and the number of customers. So even during peak hours, we have to wash the large pots, and for rice, it’s a full cycle of washing, cooking, and cleaning the rice cooker, then washing the rice again. We use a dishwasher for the dishes, which is the same as a family restaurant, but we have to wipe and dry the washed dishes and trays

In a family restaurant, even if you call it cooking, it’s just heating and plating, and we had a ridiculous amount of dishes and trays in stock.

During peak times, it’s so busy that there’s hardly a moment to catch my breath.

But it was really fun.

I didn’t feel this way during my time at the family restaurant, but I realized that this kind of work suits me.

It wasn’t that I didn’t remember Madoka, but thanks to starting my training at the udon shop and leading a busy yet fulfilling life, I was able to spend every day happily and cheerfully with everyone at Narita-an, without feeling down or angry like before my escape.