Chapter 2 1

The customer entered the store thirty minutes before closing time, that is, at half past one.There were no other customers in the store, and the two female shop assistants also left.Mother Sang Chitsuko is resting due to a cold, and Amamura Shinsuke is the only one left in the store.In fact, he was planning to call it quits early. After the male customer came in, he kept looking around the store.The lenses of his black round glasses reflected the light from the ceiling.Then he asked Shinsuke: "Is your store still closed?" His tone was as unassuming as if he was reading a textbook.

Shen Jie replied: "Yes." Although he found it very troublesome, if his mother accidentally found out that he drove away customers before the closing time, he would definitely not finish eating. The customer sat slowly on the leather chair and continued to look around the store. Shinsuke put on the towel and quickly checked what the man was wearing.The dark gray top doesn't look cheap, but it looks like an old style from two years ago.The shirt he was wearing underneath did not seem to have been ironed properly either.In addition, he didn't wear a tie, his watch was made in China, his hair wasn't combed, and his messy beard didn't look like he had deliberately grown it out of fashion.

"What would you like?" Shinsuke asked. The guest glanced at the wine cabinet behind Shinsuke and asked, "What's there?" "As long as it's not too exotic and rare wine, we have it." "I don't know the name of the wine." "I see. How about beer?" "No, that, do you have that? The drink I drank on the plane before." "airplane?" "The plane to Hawaii. No, it's the return flight. It's a creamy liqueur." "Ah." Shinsuke seemed to have thought of something, and took out a bottle of wine from the bottom shelf of the wine cabinet. "Probably Irish Cream Whiskey."

The serious expression on the guest's face softened, "It seems that the name is correct." "Let's have a drink and try." Shinsuke poured three centimeters of wine into a classic wine glass and handed it to the guests.The guests swirled their wine glasses, staring at the ivory-coloured liquid.After a while, he took a sip as if making up his mind.As if to determine the flavor of the wine, he swirled it with his tongue and tasted it in his mouth. The guest nodded and looked at Shinsuke with a smile. "That's right." "That would be wonderful."

"What's its name?" "Irish Cream Whiskey." "I will remember it." The guest took another sip of the wine after speaking. Shinsuke thought to himself, he is really a customer with a peculiar style, he doesn't look like someone who would go in and out of ordinary bars.Why did he come here alone today? There is one more thing that Shinsuke is very concerned about.He seemed to have seen this man somewhere, but where exactly? With a standard build, he looks like a middle-aged man in his late thirties.Shinsuke, who has reached the 30th mark this year, has many friends of the same age around him.However, that man didn't look like their friend either.

Shinsuke took out a cigarette, picked up the lighter with the store name on it, and lit it. "Guest, is this your first visit to our store?" "Hmm." The guest replied, still staring at the wine glass. "Who did you hear about our store?" "No, I came by myself. I came in while walking on the road..." "That's it." The conversation between the two was interrupted.Shinsuke thought to himself, what a strange guy, go back quickly.Shinsuke regretted not letting him in if he knew earlier. "Oh, I miss it so much. It really tastes like this." The guest said after drinking half a glass of Irish Cream Whiskey.

"When did you go to Hawaii?" Shinsuke asked.In fact, Shinsuke is not really interested in this matter, but he can't bear the embarrassment when the two are silent. "Probably four years ago." The guest replied. "Went on honeymoon." "Ah, that's how it is." Honeymoon trip - Shinsuke thought to himself, this is another word that has nothing to do with him. He glanced at the clock by the counter. It said forty-five past one.He thought in his heart that if he had another fifteen minutes to go, he would try to send this customer away from the store.

"If you've been married for four years, it's still in the honeymoon period." Shinsuke said.Shinsuke originally wanted to go on to say, if you go back too late, Madam will be too pitiful. "Do you really think so?" The guest asked with a serious face. "Isn't that the case? I'm still single myself, so I don't really know." "A lot can happen in four years." The guest raised his glass to his eyes.He looked like he was remembering something.Then he put down his glass and looked directly at Shinsuke. "A lot of unexpected things do happen."

"It's like this." Shinsuke didn't want to continue talking about this topic.Because of a carelessness, you may have to listen to the other party's full of complaints. Time passed by in silence.Shinsuke even hoped that a new guest would appear to rescue him, but the savior did not appear. "Have you been doing this job for a long time?" the guest asked.At this time, Shinsuke was planning to clean up the infield. "I've been working in bars for a long time, almost ten years." "It takes ten years to own a store like this." The guest's words made Shinsuke smile bitterly.

"It's not my shop. I'm just an employee." "Ah, that's it. Have you been working here?" "No, I just came here last year, and I worked in Ginza before." "Ginza." The guest nodded slightly while drinking Irish cream whiskey. "I've never been to Ginza." I think so, Shinsuke thought. "It's nice to go there once in a while." The clock ticked fifty-five.Shinsuke started cleaning the cup.He wholeheartedly hoped that the guest could go home because of this. "Are you happy doing this kind of work?" The guest asked again.

"This is my hobby." Shinsuke replied. "But there will still be some unpleasant things." "Unpleasant things? For example? Dealing with difficult customers?" "Yes. And many other things." The salary is too little, and Mom Sang is very bossy—— "What did you do at that time? How would you deal with such negative emotions?" "Don't do anything. I forgot about the annoying things long ago. That's all." Shinsuke replied, wiping his tumbler. "How can I forget those things?" The guest continued to ask. "There is no standard way, just try to maintain a happy mood and optimistic thoughts." "For example?" "Like... imagine owning a store or something." "Oh, so. That's your dream." "Forget it." Shinsuke couldn't help wiping the dishes with a little effort. Although it is a dream, it is not an unattainable dream, and it is already close at hand, it is only a matter of reaching out and grasping it. The guest downed the Irish cream whiskey and put down the empty glass.Shinsuke decided that if the customer wanted to refill his glass, he would tell the customer that it was closing time. "Actually, there is one thing I want to forget." The guest said. Because the other party suddenly changed to a very serious tone, Shinsuke couldn't help but stop what he was doing and look at him.The guest also looked up at Shinsuke. "No! I want to forget that incident and I will never forget it, but I want to free myself from it. I was thinking about this incident, walking in a trance on the street, and I saw the sign of this store. The shop is called 'Minghe', right?" "Because Mommy-san likes to eat Minghe." "I heard that eating too much myoga can make people forgetful. I was attracted by the name of the store." "It turns out that the strange store name of our store can still work." "Anyway, it's really great to be here." After the guest got up, he took out his wallet from his jacket pocket.Shinsuke breathed a sigh of relief. The customer didn't leave the store until after two o'clock.Shinsuke finished cleaning up, took off his bartender vest, turned off the lights, walked out of the gate, and locked the doors and windows. When he walked to the elevator, he felt that there seemed to be someone behind him.When the elevator door opened, he turned around sharply. He saw a black shadow coming towards him behind him. Then, he felt a violent blow to his head.But he didn't have the energy to control this feeling.It seemed that something was going to happen to him, and he would lose something—that was all he knew, and his consciousness immediately fell into the boundless darkness. In the consciousness that was about to drift away, he was still thinking about the last scene he saw just now. That dark shadow is the customer in the store just now.