Slowly, he felt the approach of dawn as he made his way back to the shrine. Deciding to rest in order to build up his strength, he took off his geta, then settled on the futon “flat mattress” to rest as he closed his eyes.

Miyako woke up to the sound of the alarm clock as it buzzed at 6 am, knowing that her first job required that she be at the food café by 8 am.

She quickly made her way into the kitchen to prepare breakfast before heading for the bathroom to take a shower. It took twenty minutes to be fully dressed and she rushed to check on breakfast.

Within another ten minutes it was ready. After she sat to eat, she quickly cleared the dishes then packed her bag, locked the door and made her way out of the building for work, as usual, the day was starting to get busy, seeing school children heading for school and people rushing to work.

Upon arriving at work, she saw the manager, Ichikawa Hayao, a man in his thirties. She greeted him while heading to the locker room to place her belongings, before starting the day.

The food café majorly served pastries and lemonade drink, with the occasional tea by the side. Business was booming, and the manager was thinking of opening another branch some miles from where they were.

Since she was working part-time, he spoke to her of considering the position of becoming the manager at the new store. She had been working with him for a long time and was familiar with the setup of the food café which was opened by 9 am and closed by 5 pm.

Miyako told him she’ll let him know of her decision before the new branch opened for business; the day was busy as usual and before long, it was time for her to start at the grocery store; which was a walkable distance from the food café.

On getting there by 3 pm, she saw the place was busy for the day as people were walking about loading food into their shopping carts.