Ellie unlocked the door to her apartment and stepped inside. The entire tiny apartment was smaller than the bedroom she had grown up in back home. The single bed that sat under the room's sole window took up a significant amount of the available floor space and the window was tiny, showing nothing more than the concrete wall of the building on the other side of the narrow alley.
Ellie dropped her bag on the floor next to the door and removed her coat, then made her way towards the bathroom, opening her shirt buttons as she walked. As she stood in the bathroom and stared at herself in the mirror, Ellie couldn't help but think that this was not how she had expected her life to pan out after moving to Japan. Before arriving, she had expected her decent level of Japanese to help her get a well-paying job but no matter how many positions she applied for, none of them wanted to hire her. Her savings almost gone and desperate for money to pay for rent and food, she had worked as a bartender before eventually getting a job at a 24-hour convenience store working the graveyard shift, the weekends, holidays, whenever her sleazy boss wanted. The pay and hours were terrible, along with the constant inappropriate behaviour from her boss, who would pinch her ass as she was bent over stacking shelves or brush his hand across her breasts on the pretence of adjusting her name badge, among numerous other things, after which he would claim not to have done a thing. As much as she hated working there, she was sick of jobhunting and at least she only had to walk a few hundred metres to and from work so she could at least get home quickly and didn't have to be packed into the subway like a sardine.
Letting out an enormous sigh, Ellie finished getting undressed and stepped into the shower, revelling in the feeling of the hot water washing the sweat from her face. She had worked up a sweat as she had spent much of her shift stacking shelves and moving stock around in the storeroom. Halfway through her shower, Ellie heard drilling reverberating up through the floor of her apartment, something that had become routine over the past couple of weeks. The retail space directly under her apartment was being renovated and every morning at 7 am the workers started their shift, filling her previously silent apartment with the sound of banging, drilling, and shouting.
Knowing there was nothing to be done but continue with routine, Ellie finished her shower, dried herself, and got into bed, the incredibly thin curtains on her window failing to block the rays of the morning sun that managed to make their way down the alley. Lying in bed staring at the ceiling, the sound of construction work going on below her still as loud as ever, Ellie rolled onto her side and picked up her phone from her bedside table, figuring since she didn't start work again until 8 pm, she could afford to spend a little more time awake, and perhaps the noise of the work downstairs might drop off a little and she would be able to get to sleep more easily.
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A few days later Ellie was storming home after a particularly awful shift. Her boss had stood behind her as she mopped the floor and when she had leaned forward to reach the mop under the shelves, he had thrust his crotch toward her ass and knocked her to the floor. When she had angrily rebuked him for what he'd done, he simply chuckled and claimed she must have slipped on the wet floor. Ellie had spent the rest of her shift in a furious temper and had left the second her shift ended.
As she walked down the alley that led to her apartment, a sign on the door of the retail unit below her apartment, which said 'Now Hiring -- cashier' caught her eye. Figuring she could hardly do much worse than her current job, Ellie opened the door and went inside. Upon entering the shop, she immediately began to have second thoughts. Floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with hentai, DVDs, and sex toys stretched the entire length of the space. Oh god, she thought, this is what they've been keeping me up building for weeks, a porn store.
Just as she was about to turn around to leave, a man came around the end of the last shelf and spotted her.
"Hello," he said "My name is Watanabe-san, welcome to my store. I'm sure we have something to interest you here. We have plenty of stock available, we just opened business today in fact."
"Oh, uh, I'm not," Ellie stuttered, and managed to breathe "I don't want to buy anything."
"No?" he queried, then his face brightened "Ah, you wish to apply for the cashier position?"
"Um, yes," Ellie replied, entirely unsure if she really did want to work in a place like this.
"Your Japanese is very good. Do you have any cashier experience? It is very important to be able to process transactions quickly while engaging with the customer and being friendly." he said.
"I work in the convenience store down the street," Ellie told him, "I've worked there for the past 5 months, and before I moved here, I worked for a summer in a supermarket."
"Excellent!" the man smiled, "As a matter of fact I recall seeing you before when I visited the store, and I was very pleased with your service. I would be happy to offer you a job here. The pay would not be huge, but I believe it is likely higher than what you currently earn. Do you live far from here? I would need you to start early in the morning on some days."
More money than I make now and not having to deal with Sato-san anymore, I could do that, Ellie thought to herself, even if there are creepy customers it can't be much worse than the weirdos we get looking at the porn magazines in the store.
"I would be very happy to accept your offer, Watanabe-san," Ellie responded, "I live in this building, so I don't have to travel far at all to get here. I don't know when I'll be able to start here though, I don't think that Sato-san, my boss, will let me break my contract early."
"I will speak to him this afternoon and persuade him," Mr. Watanabe said, "My nephew is looking for a job so I will propose that he fill your empty position."
"Thank you so much, Watanabe-san. You are very generous" Ellie said with relief, bowing as she spoke.
"Think nothing of it," Mr. Watanabe smiled, "You will start here tomorrow afternoon, okay?"
"Yes, that's good with me. Thank you very much again, Watanabe-san" Ellie responded.
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