Itou replied emphatically that she absolutely would. After that, the two began chatting about their favorite celebrities. It was times like this when Satoko was thankful to have an assistant with interests different from hers.
The salon’s receptionist, having been waiting for a lull in their conversation, stopped beside Satoko and asked for a moment of her time. The stylist left the coloring to Itou and headed to reception.
It seemed that a client had requested a change in appointment time, and they weren’t sure on how to respond. The client was booked into Satoko’s next appointment slot to get their hair straightened but had asked if they would be able to shift it to an evening slot the next day. If Satoko agreed to the change, then the appointment would run past closing time, but she didn’t have any other three-hour openings for a long while.
Satoko pulled up the client’s records on the reception computer and saw that this would be the client’s second visit. While she would have preferred to switch it to something in a few weeks’ time, she couldn’t refuse the client’s request. Shinjuku’s salon scene was flooded with options, and a client simply liking their haircut wasn’t enough to make them a return customer. The situation was so unforgiving that even going above and beyond wouldn’t stop them from going elsewhere.
While finishing up Maekawa’s hair, the woman mentioned that she was meeting up with a friend in Shinjuku afterward, and Satoko gave her the same light blow-dry that her kouhai used to. She pulled a bottle of hair oil off the shelf to give it some more gloss.
“The hairs around your face are so cute, Kasugai-san. Honestly, I’ve loved them for a while now,” Maekawa commented.
“These ones?” Satoko asked, pinching the straggling hairs she’d curled that morning. When Maekawa commented resignedly that she could never manage to do them for herself, the stylist picked up the curling iron from the wagon. “Would you like to match with me, then?”
Maekawa’s face perked right up. Seeing her finished style in the mirror, she beamed, “This is wonderful! From now on, I’ll always come to you, Kasugai-san!”
Having a loyal customer was a great thing, and Satoko was glad to hear it. But at the same time, sometimes she found the word “always” suffocating.
After settling the payment and seeing her client off, Satoko put on her coat and left the salon. Thanks to the sudden schedule change, she had a few hours off.
Should I have an early lunch at a café? But I’d still end up with too much time on my hands, then. Maybe I should go buy some new work clothes around Shinjuku? Though it’s kind of hard to have fun shopping when you know you’re going to ruin an outfit you love almost immediately… Fretting as she walked, she suddenly remembered the bookstore that Maekawa mentioned.
Turning onto the main street, Satoko walked the verdant paths along Shinjuku Gyoen Park. Peeking at a terrace-style café as she continued on to a T-junction, she found a shop with a storefront made entirely of glass. Inside the window was a wooden sign that said “Frère.”
While the counter seats along the storefront made it look like a café at first glance, the rack filled with flyers for Tokyo, Asakusa, and other tourist destinations made her immediately realize that this was the bookstore that she’d heard about. Though she wanted to go inside, the store’s lights were still off. She wasn’t sure whether it wasn’t open yet or if it was closed that day.
As Satoko looked around the shop through the glass, a man with a backpack pet carrier on his back and holding a paper bag held with both arms came running up, out of breath. His bangs were plastered onto his forehead with sweat, and his metal-framed glasses had slipped to the tip of his nose. He wore both a hooded sweatshirt and a jacket, but for some reason, he had sandals on. Looking to be somewhere in his early twenties, she determined he must have been an employee.
Lowering his paper bag to the ground, the man took his smartphone out and started fiddling with it. He pulled up the same app-based key that Salon Blan used.
Just as he was about to step inside, Satoko spoke up. “Um, excuse me…”
Before she could get the words “when do you open” out of her mouth, the man just about jumped out of his skin in surprise. “We’re opening right now!” he cried, rushing inside before seemingly remembering to backtrack and open the glass door for her. “Please, come in!”
The entrance was two-layered. Directly across from the initial door was another glass door with a metal plate reading “Frère” on the front of it, and to the right, there was a staircase leading upstairs. Apparently, the store only occupied the first floor. The staircase had a sign asking unrelated people to stay out.
Satoko stepped into Frère. Just the sunlight coming in through the window was enough to light up the store. There were five counter seats along the front window, and the remaining three walls had bookshelves split up into square sections along them. Right in front of the entrance was a tiered display platform, but compared to normal bookstores with their densely placed shelves, there was a lot more open space. Perhaps that was because it was also a tourist information center.
The man put his backpack down before bringing a wooden sign out front. When he tried to move a flyer rack, he tripped over himself, but continued to turn on the background music and lighting to open the shop without picking up any of the scattered papers.
I wasn’t trying to rush him… Satoko felt guilty, picking up some of the flyers on the floor before noticing a feral growl mixed in with the gentle piano music. The carrier backpack on the floor was moving. Taking a step closer, she gave it a poke, only to get a low mewl in response.
“Whoops. I forgot about Chiyo-san!”
The man rushed over, opening the top of the carrier. Satoko’s eyes met with the white-furred, black-spotted cat on the other side of the mesh barrier. It looked up at her, meowing a number of times.
“A kitty.” Oh, that’s right. Maekawa mentioned there was a shop cat.
Just as she was about to try to touch the cat, a hand grabbed her wrist. She looked back in surprise, and the man immediately let go, flying backward so quickly that he nearly fell down. “Wah! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean…”
“Oh, don’t worry about it at all,” Satoko comforted him. Seeing as she worked a job where she was constantly touching people’s hair and skin, it didn’t bother her in the least.
“I’m seriously sorry, but I’m pretty sure my cat is in the absolute worst mood right now.” According to him, he’d overslept and then ran the entire way here in an attempt to arrive by opening time. The kitty was thus, understandably, growling quite unhappily at how she’d been jostled around so much. “Chiyo-san hates her carrier. Once when I opened the top of it back up, she got me right in the neck with her claws.”
“Really?!”
Satoko couldn’t help but cover her mouth in shock, but the store employee just gave a bashful smile as he marveled at how the cat’s wild blood had made sure she aimed right for his vitals. She wondered if cat owners ended up finding their pet’s viciousness cute too.
“Chiyo-san was a stray for most of her life,” the employee explained. Apparently, one day he’d noticed that the stray who hung around near his home had a pretty nasty injury on her leg, and he welcomed her as a new member of his family. “One of this shop’s main draws is having a store cat. It’s supposed to be the owner’s cat, but she’s so shy that she almost never comes out. I figured maybe I could bring mine instead today.”
Hearing a meow from the carrier, Satoko peeked in to see a very unhappy-looking kitty. She must have wanted out, now. But when the employee gently told the beast that she’d be staying in there until she calmed down, she finally got a little quieter.
“I’m sorry for blabbering on about things I’m sure you don’t care about,” the employee apologized.
“Oh, no! I love cats. There are a lot of them around where I live,” she assured him.
“Really?”
Their conversation was friendly, but he suddenly turned his back to her. Using his shoulder to wipe some sweat off his face, the employee began picking up the flyers he’d accidentally dropped when he’d tripped. Not only were there the sort of Tokyo tourist guides you’d find at subway stations but also some maps of nearby areas with handwritten writing and art. There were maps of Shinjuku Gyoen Park, different flyers for day and night barhopping, breakfast restaurant guides…all sorts of flyers that made you want to leaf through them.
“May I take one of each of these flyers?” Satoko asked.
“Yes, of course! Take as many as you like!” replied the employee, face flushed.