Japanese → English transcript

I've never noticed before, but my line is unusually slow, and while the other lines have very few customers buying things, my line has an awful lot of customers.

My register is staffed by a new girl, and the register next to me is staffed by a veteran older woman. This is my current situation. If you look at the guy behind me, you'll understand why I can't buy a ticket.

If I switched to that line and this one suddenly started moving, and that guy ended up getting out first, it would be way too awkward.

Right after I thought that, he actually changed lines.

Seriously? Looks like that guy makes decisions faster. Then what do I do—no, I can’t. I have to hold back here, or so I thought, when suddenly…

Even the person in front of me left the line. Well, fine, with one less person it should move faster. Or so I thought, but the guy who was behind me just now has already finished paying ahead of me.

Before I knew it, the people who were in front of me are gone, one after another they leave this line. And yet I am the only one still here. Wait a second, the new cashier is being called over by the manager.

Are they maybe getting scolded for being slow and going to speed up? I finally thought I could see some hope, so why?

It’s gotten slower than before, isn’t it? You’re dawdling. What are you doing? Forget it, today I am definitely getting out of here.

me

I can’t put my feelings into words right now. Those people in that checkout line must be regretting it by now. Wait a second, what the hell, it suddenly got faster.

I am a newbie cashier who loves slacking off. It is now 4:54 p.m. If things go as usual, I get a thirty minute break starting at 5:00.

But at the pace this line is moving, I won’t be done right at 5:00. No matter how you look at it, it will be a little past 5:00. But if I can drag it out until 5:10, I can openly rest until 5:40.

So right now I just have to work as slowly as I can. Sure enough, the people in this line noticed, and they all moved over to the lady’s line next to mine.

Well, of course they did, that one is fast and she is experienced. Even I would go to her line. While I was slacking off like that, the manager showed up.

No way, I’ve been found out. “Do it slowly, as slowly as you can,” is what the manager said.

Right now, behind this line, there’s a man in a navy suit holding a bento and a beer. He’s a wanted criminal.

Hm.

The store manager said that they've already contacted the police and they're on their way now, so please try to delay the checkout process for this line as much as possible to buy us some time.

Even a wanted criminal like me has no choice but to do this now that things have come to this. I'll pretend to deliberately break the cash register to slow down this line as much as I can.

This bought me a little time, but perhaps noticing how slow I was, the man moved to the line with the older women.

That nasty old lady doesn't know the situation, so at that speed, she'll finish paying and get away quickly. No good, this time I have no choice but to do it as fast as I can.

Bring that man back over here? No way. Look, the culprit is watching, this way is faster.

I am Shimokawa Harue, and I have been at the register in this supermarket for fifteen years. When it comes to speed, I would never call myself second best.

I am always number one. Before I knew it, coworkers and regular customers started calling me the dedicated cashier. But a newcomer who just joined recently is threatening that position.

Normally, rookies fumble even just reading barcodes. But that girl is different, her movements are efficient, and she somehow knows from the start the angle that lets her scan at the fastest speed.

It is like she has, from the very beginning, the skills I spent years mastering. But it is still too soon for her to take my place. The passion I had forgotten is flaring up again.

All right then, I will show you which of us is faster. We will both get even faster— Hey, I am telling you, it is not like that anymore!

Aaaahhh— She is just a bit faster, huh.

Ana Aaahhhhh—

Aaahhhh—

Huh? By constantly putting off every single decision like this, in the end I wasted more than ten minutes.

But compared to these ten years I spent running away, that is nothing. And when I finally left the store, there were a lot of police officers outside.

I see, so this is how I end. The ending I was never able to change from the very beginning.