Chapter 3

Chapter 3 — 003, So Selling Myself Is the Only Option After All?

The afternoon sunlight grew increasingly brilliant.

Naoki Nagayama walked along the street toward the convenience store. Even though he deliberately chose paths shaded by green trees, beads of sweat soon formed on his forehead.

His body was still too weak. He would have to start exercising more in the future.

The convenience store was actually not far from where he lived. As a recent high school graduate who had come to Tokyo to work, he could hardly find a job located too far away. Combined with his reserved personality, he had spent the past half year barely getting by here, knowing few people besides the store manager and Mrs. Makino, his landlady.

When Naoki Nagayama first came to Tokyo, he had not thought things through very carefully. After graduating from high school, he did not want to stay in the family izakaya with his father and older brother. Carrying a small amount of saved pocket money and a stubborn determination deep inside, he came to Tokyo.

The convenience store had been his first job in life.
His first paycheck.
The first rent he ever paid with his own earnings.

Thinking about it this way, working at the convenience store carried real meaning.

Even so, continuing to work there was impossible. He absolutely would not keep working part-time in the future.

After about forty minutes of walking, the small convenience store appeared tucked between residential buildings. Convenience stores of the Showa era did not yet have the dazzling variety of goods seen in later years. Some vegetables still sat on the shelves, more like an upgraded grocery shop, though outdoor freezers, ice cream, soda, and other drinks had already become standard.

Behind the counter, the uniformed manager, Yuichi Ishida, was checking invoices. A young man was already organizing merchandise inside the store.

“Ishida-san, excuse me,” Naoki said as he stepped inside and greeted the manager.

“Nagayama-kun, you’re here.” Ishida appeared calm, but Naoki, familiar with his personality, knew a serious conversation would follow.

Even the form of address has become formal, Naoki thought.

“Yes. I was hospitalized for some personal reasons, which is why I didn’t come to work these past three days,” he said honestly.
“I sincerely apologize for the trouble caused to the store.” He bowed deeply.

Hearing that he had been hospitalized, Ishida’s expression remained steady, but his tone softened noticeably.

“What happened, Nagayama-san? Are you alright now?”

Even the way he addressed him had changed back.

“Yes. I ate something bad and had to undergo stomach lavage,” Naoki explained, deciding to state his purpose directly.
“My body is fine now, but I need some time to recuperate.”

“I see. Then you came today…” Ishida seemed to have already guessed.

“Yes, Manager. Though I regret it, I came today to resign from this job.” Polite words had to be said.
“Thank you very much for taking care of me during this time.”

“Ah, I understand.” Ishida looked somewhat relieved. “You’ve helped the store quite a bit. Take good care of your health in the future.”

“Yes. Thank you very much.”

Naoki walked down the street holding an envelope containing fifty thousand yen.

Manager Ishida said it was unpaid wages. In reality, wages were settled weekly. Working full-time with an additional night shift could bring in about 150,000 yen a month. Taking multiple part-time jobs could earn even more, possibly matching an ordinary company employee’s income.

He had worked less than five days in October and even caused trouble by being absent. The manager could easily have refused to pay him.

“Ishida-san really is a good person.”

He wandered casually through the streets, looking at the unfamiliar Showa-era scenery, with no immediate desire to return to his apartment.

At this time, Nakano Ward was still primarily residential. Under the lingering late-autumn heat of the afternoon, pedestrians hurried past, leaving little to see.

He slowly boarded a train and headed to Shibuya, an area the previous Naoki had hardly known.

It truly was Shibuya. Even in such weather, the crowds were considerable.

The neon lights lining the streets rested silently; perhaps only at night could one truly feel the brilliance that represented the country.

Shop windows facing the streets displayed all kinds of fashionable novelties. The trendy clothing inside would not look outdated even in the twenty-first century. Perhaps fashion truly moved in cycles.

Occasionally he passed small groups of girls, inevitably surrounded by attentive young men. The rumored bubble-era phenomenon—where a single girl was accompanied by several pursuing men—already seemed to be taking shape.

Yet Naoki, walking along the commercial street, was not absorbed by these scenes. Facing Tokyo’s most prosperous district and its dazzling array of goods, one thought dominated his mind:

How could he obtain the first bucket of gold to begin his journey toward sudden wealth?

Seeing nearby discos and closed nightclubs, a thought crossed his mind.

Do I have to sell my body?

Would my stamina even handle it?

What kind of future idea could I sell for a good price?

As he walked while thinking, music suddenly reached his ears.

He had passed a record store.

Inside, a poster of Momoe Yamaguchi still smiled gently. The shop used her retirement as a marketing theme, placing her past records prominently in the center, hoping to profit once more from fans’ nostalgia.

On the other side hung a poster of a brightly smiling young girl. The song entering his ears was Matsuda Seiko’s breakout hit “Blue Coral Reef.”

Naoki felt the strange atmosphere of one era retreating while another advanced, and thought of the fierce competition within the entertainment industry during the bubble era.

What echoed in his ears was no longer cheerful music—

But the sound of his first fortune pouring down upon him.

“Thanks to all those Bilibili creators… thanks to Seiko and Akina’s golden-age beauty, I learned so many classic Showa hits.”

“My first bucket of gold… looks like I’ll have to sell songs after all.”