When you run a restaurant, miracles happen.
For example, when I calculate the bill and it comes to 7,777 yen, I can't help but gasp as I take the receipt to the table.
For example, if you think, "Oh, there's something left behind on the table," and take a closer look, you'll see that it's a small folded paper crane. What! You folded it using my thin chopstick case? What a miracle!
For example, when you think, "I feel like I've met this customer somewhere before..." and decide to ask them the name of their high school, you find out that you were classmates in high school. Oh, I see, we were in different classes for three years, but we were in clubs next to each other, so I vaguely remembered them!
The accumulation of small daily miracles is what makes life interesting. I'm glad I opened the store.
Last week, I received a message from a senior from my university club, A, asking, "Do you have any seats available after this today?"
I have been very close with that senior since our university days, and we even went on trips together.
By the way, our club is a broadcasting club, and there are quite a few people who leave it and go into media-related fields. I am one of them.
When I became a radio director, I had the opportunity to handle information from overseas for the program I was in charge of. I contacted my senior, A, who happened to be working overseas at the time, and he sent me information from overseas. That was a great help to me.
Even after we opened the store, he would stop by whenever he had a business trip to Nagoya, and on that day last week he visited for the first time in several months.
Just as I was wondering what kind of wine I should serve today, I got a phone call.
"My husband and I happen to be in Nagoya today. I want to go to a restaurant, but can I make a reservation?"
The voice belongs to Senior B, a woman who is in the same year as Senior A!
Wow, this is quite a miracle!
Without any hesitation, I grabbed the side of A-senpai's counter seat. Then, I let out a mumbling sound.
It must be a long time since they last met. I wonder what their expressions would be if they bumped into each other at the Bokumo counter.
Senior A will take his seat first.
Then I said, "Actually, someone you know will be sitting next to you after this," and Senior A became nervous and said, "Huh? I wonder who it is."
I can't get enough of it. It's so much fun knowing what's going to happen next, only I know beforehand.
Then 30 minutes later, senior B arrived with her husband.
I noticed Senior A sitting at the counter and said "What?!"
I can't get enough of it!
Senior A also seemed very surprised as he never expected Senior B to come to Nagoya.
Apparently it had been eight years since they last met. We were connected on social media, so I felt like I had a general idea of what was going on with him.
For the next two hours, we talked about our school days and our current jobs, and had a great time.
Senior B has been working in voice acting for a long time, and Senior A is also tasked with speaking in front of the camera in his current department.
No matter what, the present future is an extension of what I did in my student days. And at this moment, the past and the present were connected by this counter.
If this isn't a miracle then what is?
Running a store is really fun.
I was waiting for the last train on the subway platform, grinning as I reflected on the events of the day.
I realized something.
But wait, what I did today may have been very problematic.
Because, what if, by any chance, Senior A and Senior B had a relationship that went on between them back when they were students, without me knowing about it?
This is not good. Naturally, romance is likely to occur in university clubs. When we gathered in the club room at night, I feel like we only did one of two things: talk about romance or play Mario Kart.
Since I'm two years older than the seniors, there's naturally a period of two years I didn't know about before I enrolled. No, even when we were in the same club, not all love stories made their way into the club room, and there were probably all sorts of secret things going on. That's no good! That's no good!
If something had happened in the past, I would have been a real child, sitting at the counter and enjoying their reactions, saying things like, "See, look, weren't you surprised?"
but.
I didn't get that vibe at all from today's conversation, right? Right?
She was smiling from start to finish, and the three of them, including B-senpai's husband, were chatting in a friendly atmosphere. It's probably all just a false alarm! Right! Right!
I mean, my student days were already 30 years ago. Even if something had happened, it would be an old story we could laugh about. I'm sure that's the case. There's no doubt about it. Let's just assume that!
As I got off the subway and walked home, my back felt a little cool from the cold sweat I had just worked up.
And then I thought.
In any case, if something like this happens again, I think it would be better to stop staging a reunion where only I can be the one to make fun of it.
Now in our 14th year since opening, we have learned something new.
A store is a place where a childish man like me can still learn. Stores are great after all.
