Boys' Love ❤ Security Work

Good morning, this is Hosshi.
(This is work from early April)

Do you all engage in 'oshi-katsu' (supporting your favorite idol/character)?
When I read articles about oshi-katsu on note, it looks so fun and I'm envious.
I'm just a boring middle-aged guy who doesn't really support any specific person or team.
Of course, I have songs or works I like.
But I don't have that feeling where I love a person so much that I love everything they sing or create, or want to collect their merchandise at all...

However, my daughter loves anime, voice actors, and all sorts of things, and I think she spends a good chunk of her part-time job earnings on merchandise...

Well, I watch anime too, and there are works I like.
But I never feel like I want the merchandise 💦
I also like sports and enjoy watching various games...
Rather than supporting a specific team or player, I'm the type who enjoys the sport or the match itself.

Writing this, I'm starting to think of myself as a boring person...
Of course, I don't intend to deny oshi-katsu; in fact, I'm envious of it, so I want to understand that feeling.
And so, here's the thing.
In the midst of all that, I found this day labor job.
A day labor job at a shop in Nipponbashi, Osaka, that sells a ton of anime and game merchandise.
I mean, I have to go, right?
Even though I don't know anything about merchandise at all 🤣

Actually, I've been to this shop a few times, brought along by my daughter.

My daughter walks around the sales floor going 'ooh' and 'aah', while I'm just standing there all alone.
Since I'm so bored, I sneak off to the slightly risqué manga corner by myself.
And then, as we approach the register, my daughter pulls out her trump card.
'I didn't bring my wallet today'
How would I know that...
From the bottom of my heart, how would I know, SHIRAN・GANA (I don't know)❗❗
Not realizing you don't have your wallet until you're in line at the register is clearly strange.
But it's pitiful to come all this way and not be able to buy anything, so I give her money saying 'pay me back later,' but the recovery rate from the past is only about 50% 💸
That's strange 🤔
If my memory serves me right, money is supposed to come back with a little extra when you lend it.
A recovery rate that would make Ginjiro Manda roll his eyes.
Could this be the rumored 'papa-katsu'?
A papa, but a real papa.
It's a fateful shop where my wallet gets lighter every time I'm dragged there, but...
If it comes to this, I have no choice but to recover it through day labor 🤣

So, the day arrived and I came to the store.
There are maids everywhere.

And I enter the fateful shop, but come to think of it, this is my first time entering this shop alone.
When I enter, a staff member helps me, and I put on the staff jacket, attach the headset, and the work briefing begins.

Today's task is to patrol a paid exhibition, or rather, something like security work.
I mean, I have almost no product knowledge, so I couldn't possibly handle the register or stocking shelves.

And that exhibition is an exhibition for a certain anime, and it's about Boys' Love.
Wow, a world unknown to me❗🤣
Is this a world that a dull middle-aged guy like me should be stepping into...
I enter the venue with a pounding heart, and there are panels with manga drawn on them displayed in every nook and cranny, a recreation of a room from the work, and life-sized panels.
The art is beautiful, but it's all handsome guys kissing each other, and 100% of the customers are young women.

Wait... hold on... is this all there is to the exhibition event❗❓
I mean, haven't you all read this plenty in the manga?
It's just enlarged and put in frames, right?
I don't get it❗
I don't get it at all❗
Are they paying over 2000 yen for this 😱
But, there are a decent number of customers...
Wait... am I the only one who doesn't understand? 🙄

I'm supposed to be the person who wanders around the venue holding a sign with precautions.
I have to warn people if they touch the exhibits or enter restricted areas, but since they are 100% young women, there are no bad kids like that.
So, I'm just wandering around the whole time.
This in itself is exhausting 💦
If it were a work I was interested in, it might be fun, but since it's a world I don't understand...
The women who come alone are staring at the panels as if they're going to bore holes in them.
The women who come in groups are chatting excitedly, saying things like 'the emotions in this development are such and such,' or 'because this happened, that girl did that.'
It's just like a post-game analysis of a shogi match.

Well, hobbies and tastes are different for everyone, after all.
Whether it's anime, idols, or sports, if you can relieve stress by looking at what you love and do your best again tomorrow, then anything is fine.
I have a special quirk that others might find hard to understand, where my hobby is day labor.
If there were a day labor exhibition in the world, I think I'd be looking at it with a big grin 🤣
The fact that so many young women are gathered here means there is that much demand for it.

With that feeling, while I was patrolling and looking at pictures of handsome guys kissing, it became closing time.
After that, I finished by dusting the panels and cleaning the floor.

Wow, I've seen a world unknown to me 😅
I probably wouldn't have had the chance to see this if it weren't for day labor, so it was a valuable experience.
When I got home and asked my daughter, she knew the work too.
When I told her it was full of young women,
'Yeah, because it's BL,'
she said casually.
I guess that's how it is.
Anyway, pay me back the money you borrowed.
Well, but there are still many worlds I don't know, and the value of things is different for everyone, and what people spend money on is also different.

I wonder if there's a day labor exhibition happening somewhere...
If it's around 2000 yen, I'd pay it without hesitation 🤣