Crushing Defeat by Aggressive Solicitation / Misery Loves Company #13

Let's go home together.

I haven't told him where I live, nor does he know which way I'm heading, so what is he talking about?

Thinking it would be fine just to the station, I walked with him.

"I'm busy today, but let's go out for a drink sometime," he said.

I gave a vague reply, "I'd like to go sometime."

Then, he took out his phone and said, "Well then, give me your phone number."

Having said I'd like to go sometime, I didn't want to give it to him, but it was hard to refuse.

I had no choice but to give him my number, and he gave me a missed call to register it.

Thinking back, I felt suspicious because he said he came to this job because he had nothing but free time, yet he claimed to be busy today.

(Is it just a coincidence?)

I asked him a mean-spirited question: "You said you're usually free, so you're busy today?"

He replied, "There's an amazing person speaking in Shinjuku today. So I'm going to listen to that seminar."

An amazing person? A seminar? Nothing but suspicious words I'm not used to hearing were flying out of his mouth.

"Well, I do that work too, and I'm quite high-ranking, but you rarely get to hear a seminar from the person speaking today."

In response to his remark, I thought to myself, 'A high-ranking person doing temp work?' and he continued.

"When I go to that company, everyone bows down to me, but the person speaking today is on a whole different level."

Reacting to his words, I replied with something I didn't mean: "I'm envious that you get to hear such an amazing person speak."

Then, he looked as if he had a sudden inspiration and said this to me.

"In that case, let's go together now. It's not really allowed, but I'll beg them to let you participate in the seminar."

I was surprised by his completely unexpected words.

I had no particular intention of going, or rather, it was such short notice, and as I struggled to find an answer, he pressed me even further.

"If it's after the seminar, we can go for a drink today. I said let's go for a drink sometime earlier, but today is better than sometime."

I did not think, "I see!"

I thought he was a man who used extremely aggressive ways to invite people.

Before I could even say whether I would go or not, he started talking to someone on his mobile phone.

"I managed to secure a seat, so it's fine, let's go."

I might have been able to refuse, but the feeling of guilt that he had already secured a seat for me won out.

He said the place was in Shinjuku, but I asked him various questions until we arrived there.

I was just being evaded, and there was never the kind of answer I wanted, so I just kept feeling more and more uneasy.

He wouldn't answer my questions, but he started talking about his age, which I hadn't even asked about, and that was about the only thing I learned—that he was three years older than me.

When I said, "I'll go, but you're not going to make me buy anything, right?" he replied.

"I'm not going to force you to buy anything. If I did something like that, you can just use the cooling-off period or take me to the police."

He was strangely confident, but I thought that at worst, I could just call 110, and I decided to make sure my phone wouldn't be taken away.

To be precise, the location was in Nishi-Shinjuku.

And then, we arrived at the building where he said his company was located.

However, there was no one bowing to him, nor was there even anyone who came to greet him.

He said today's venue was somewhere else, and we headed there.

I was taken to a room in a building a little way from where he said the company was.

In the cramped room, folding chairs were packed tightly together.

At the front, there was just a whiteboard and a screen for projecting presentation materials.

People came in noisily, and when I looked closely, there were even people standing because there weren't enough chairs.

Those who arrived late were turned away, perhaps due to room capacity limits, as there wasn't even any standing room left.

The man who brought me said, "I gave up my seat for you, so I won't be able to listen. Call me when it's over."

With that, he left the room.

"If it's a weird talk, I'll just head home without calling him after the seminar ends."

Thinking that, I felt a little more at ease.

Hitotarao

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