I’m Ai, 28 years old. After high school, I got a local job and now I’m in my tenth year with the company. I live with my husband, just the two of us. At work, every year one of the younger women gets picked to be the “leader”—basically the office gofer. But every time they’ve asked me, I’ve found a way to dodge it. The kinder you are, the more people take advantage of you… I learned that from watching my mother.
Since I turned it down again this year, the new “leader” ended up being Misaki, who had just transferred here from the main office.
As for me, I’m just the type who shows up at the BBQ, eats and drinks a little, chats enough to look social, and slips away when it’s time to clean up. People can think of me as useless if they want—I don’t mind. I had no intention of going along with Misaki’s plan to “divide the work evenly for efficiency.” So I refused to be on the recreation committee, turned down even small requests like planning the team groups, and dodged every attempt to get me involved.
But then, on the day of the event… Misaki’s tone suddenly changed. The calm, polite Misaki I thought I knew was gone. Wait—was she always like this?