Archangel Abugariyoru-kun [The 'What Are You Talking About' Department]

He was a third-year student at a nearby university.
He was working two part-time jobs, but since that still didn't meet his desired income, he applied to ours as well.

He was wearing a baggy, super thin yellow T-shirt.
I don't think you necessarily need a suit and tie for an interview, but I thought, 'Surely there's a standard for these things.'

Besides, that super thin yellow didn't even suit him.

But, this sort of thing happens often with students.
What made me react with a shudder was the color of the shoes he was wearing and the backpack he had slung over his shoulder.

Our store's sign and company logo are blue. In other words, blue is our corporate color. And our rival company's color is red.
Even for a student, I couldn't believe he came here without knowing that.

"That's a nice red."

When I said that with a hint of sarcasm, he

"Yes, I love red."

replied with a pure sparkle in his eyes.

"You know what our store's sign looks like, right?"

"Yes, I do."

"And the company logo?"

"Yes!"

I thought to myself that this must be what a sincere expression looks like.
He looked like a child seeing their favorite bullet train on the platform for the first time.

"I'm sure he's a good kid."

The manager seemed to have taken a real liking to him and insisted on that with full confidence.
I suggested, "But he showed up in red," but since the manager said, "Well, I think it's fine," he was hired.

When he showed up for the onboarding process, he arrived in those same red sneakers and red backpack.
It bothered me to no end, but since he would be provided with a uniform for both top and bottom, I decided not to be the kind of person who nitpicks and gets on the nerves of young people.
I didn't want to discourage him right from the start or leave a negative impression when I wanted him to work with enthusiasm.

He took the job training very, very seriously.

Since his way of counting bills was so awkward, I told him to watch a video and practice, so he cut up magazines to the size of bills and practiced until his fingers cramped.

His fingertips would twitch at odd angles as he stacked the paper bills. The awkwardness couldn't be erased, but his effort was clearly evident.

Also, regarding grooming, when I advised him that deodorizing charcoal was good for the smell of the leather shoes worn with the uniform, he brought some with him the next time he came to work and kept it in his locker.

However, for some reason, he still came to work in his red sneakers and backpack.
Day after day, this red set was his staple.
I decided to assume he had his own reasons, or perhaps a personal preference.

One time, when I was working on my PC at my desk, he asked me where a certain file was stored.

“Oh, if that’s the case, it’s on the shelf over there.”

I pointed toward the wall where the shelf was and answered.

He thanked me and walked straight in the direction I pointed. Then he stopped in front of the wall at the end of the room.
He stared at the tapestry hanging on the wall for a while, then slowly flipped it over to peek behind it.

“What?”

Unable to understand his actions, I asked him.

“It’s a wall.”

He answered with a puzzled expression, gently putting the tapestry back in place.

“Huh? Huh? What do you mean?”

I walked over to him, peered into his face, and asked again.

“It… was a wall.”

I don’t know how the word “shelf” I used sounded to him.

Perhaps he simply headed exactly in the direction I pointed.
However, he must have been troubled by the contradiction that there was “no shelf” there.

“The shelf is this.”

I placed my hand on the middle shelf of a unit about 2 meters tall and 1.5 meters wide that was towering right next to him as he faced the wall.

“Ah…”

He noticed its existence for the first time and was flustered.

Seeing that expression, I realized he belonged to the “Genus: What-Are-You-Talking-About.”

For some reason, my workplace has a track record where the population rate of “airheads” never drops below 30%.

The daily life of a group where 30% of the members possess this kind of personality is a spectacle. At times it is a whirlpool of laughter, and at others, it involves thrills and suspense.

At some point, the episodes caused by them began to be recorded in the shift handover notebook.

And based on the results accumulated there, someone established the 'Boke (Airhead) Award'.

It eventually became a monthly tradition, and the 'Monthly Boke MVP' would have the honorary title posted on the winner's locker.

'A major new player has joined the company!' he was introduced in the handover notebook.

On the other hand, his work performance was quite serious. He picked up the tasks quickly, and his cheerful and honest personality meant he fit in with everyone right away.

By the time three months had passed since he joined, he asked to work exclusively with us and quit the other two part-time jobs he had been juggling.

We check the desired working hours when someone joins, but his request was nearly three times the initial amount, so I got a little worried and asked if he was okay with his main priority, his studies, and he replied,

'I'm in my third year for the second time, so I've got plenty of room.'

That is what he answered.

It seems he hadn't met the requirements for advancement due to a mistake in earning credits.He spoke naively about how he hadn't realized it until the end of the school year and ended up repeating a year.I felt like, 'Are there really people who make such blunders?'Right after joining, he won the MVP Newcomer Award for this 'shelf' and 'repeating a year' episode.It seemed it was the first time he had been called a natural airhead, and while he was bewildered, he commented, 'I'm not usually lucky with awards, so I'm happy.'With this 'repeating a year' matter, I realized why he had been juggling multiple part-time jobs.I wondered if it was out of consideration for the financial burden on his parents, whose period of sending him an allowance had increased by a year.

'You can take as many shifts as you want.'

I was the one who said that, thinking it was for the best, but I hadn't anticipated that a part-time student would exceed 120 hours a month.

'You made a lot, didn't you?'

When another staff member called out to him as he was hunched over, peering at his pay stub, he gave a smile so shy it could melt your heart.It really is a wonderful smile, this one.

The 'Genus: What Are You Talking About' has the characteristic of having a 'guileless smile.' Everyone can't help but feel warmed by his smile.
The expression 'angelic despite being an adult' suits him perfectly.

It was around the time six months had passed that his smile began to gain a certain 'sheen.'

In addition to the youthful plumpness of his cheeks when he smiled, they began to take on a strange luster—or perhaps I should say they looked shiny or glossy.

I realized the cause of this on the day he came to work, a few days after the seasonal change of uniforms.

The moment he entered the office while greeting us, I felt the air in the cramped room warp with a 'whoosh'.

Ever since his shifts started increasing, he had become obsessed with eating ramen on his way home from his part-time job.

A Jiro-style ramen shop on his way back to his apartment. That was his favorite. He would happily tell me that eating everything 'extra' was pure bliss. He said that back fat after a hard day's work was the best.

'Was last night's dinner also at XX (shop name)?'

When I asked him that,

'Whoa! How did you know!? Do you have a special ability!?'

He reacted with wide eyes. As I stood there unable to follow up on his words,

'Ugh, it stinks!! What is this garlic smell!?'

Another staff member who had just returned from the shop floor shouted as soon as they entered the office.

And so.

彼の肉体は日々、増し増しが過ぎる背脂スープに浸され始めている

With such charges brought against him, his conviction was decided on the spot, and a verdict was posted on his locker with a large sticky note: 'When you have a morning shift, eating at XX (shop name) the night before is prohibited.'

Furthermore, the repercussions extended to his uniform.

The moment he crouched down to restock products on the floor, the seat of his pants let out a small scream and split open, creating a crevasse. And from inside that gap, something of a completely different color seemed to shout 'Welcome!' to a female customer standing nearby.

'Oh my! You there!!'

The customer's scream and him covering his rear with both hands and jumping like a frog happened almost simultaneously.

With cheeks as red as his favorite shoes, he retreated to the back room, moving sideways while rubbing his back against the wall fixtures.

He managed to make it to the office, but since he couldn't sew, he came up with the idea of using a stapler for first aid on the crevasse. He filled the crevasse with countless staples.

That said, stapling fabric lacks durability, so whenever he accidentally tried to bend over, a metal piece would glint on his rear, accompanied by a faint tearing sound.

For a while after this incident, he came to be called 'Back Fat-kun' or 'Crevasse-kun.' He would even react every time someone casually mentioned the word 'stapler'.

At one point, I muttered to his greasy, beaming smile, 'You're really dripping with grease (abura-giri-yoru) again today, aren't you,' and that stuck, becoming his character name for the awards: 'Aburagiriyoru'.

Following Archangels Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel, the 'Archangel Aburagiriyoru,' with his oily, radiant smile, was finally born.

And so, the archangel of my shop continued to scatter impactful episodes, always keeping his name at the top of the MVP rankings.

Time passed, and his initial six-month part-time contract was renewed three times; he worked for us until the very last day before he moved out of his apartment, right up until he graduated from university.

At the farewell party we held for him, I let slip, loosened by the alcohol, "You wore those same red shoes and backpack for two years, didn't you?"

"Was there some specific reason you insisted on those?"

The archangel looked blank at my question.

"You knew our company colors and kept coming to work in those, didn't you?"

"Of all things, you chose red."

"You had some real nerve."

All the staff said one after another, laughing.

"Oh..."

It seemed he finally realized his own boldness on his very last day.

There was no reason other than "because it's my favorite color."

By the way, after graduating from university, he was hired by a space development company and moved to Tokyo. He is working there as an SE.
When we heard about his job offer, we were all stunned to realize he was actually incredibly smart.

Perhaps Archangel Aburagiriyoru's ground mission was to experience gravity.

Urimo-san's Stand.fm theme for this month:
"People at work, people from school" Please tell us about your connections.

I truly think the workplace I was at was a treasure trove of talent.
For starters, the company president was someone who would always stumble over the store name.

I could easily write about five or six more people, but I'm hesitating because I'm worried people will think, "Wait, what company were you even at, #WhatAreWeTalkingAbout Inc.?"