Carrying bags of daily necessities, Shirakawa’s mood was a bit complicated on the way back to the Mouri Detective Agency.
On one hand, Kogoro Mouri’s extraordinary enthusiasm made him feel flattered but also a bit creeped out.
On the other hand, with a new phone and a few changes of clothes, he finally felt a tiny, insignificant sense of belonging in this unfamiliar world.
Conan Edogawa followed behind the two, his small head filled with big questions.
He secretly observed Shirakawa and Kogoro Mouri walking ahead.
Kogoro Mouri was currently hooking his arm around Shirakawa’s shoulder, boastfully spitting as he recounted his heroic deeds back at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.
That level of intimacy , anyone who didn’t know better would think Shirakawa was his long lost biological son.
As for Shirakawa, although he had a polite smile on his face, Conan could keenly sense his physical stiffness and the way his eyes darted around.
The interaction between these two was filled with weirdness at every turn.
Just as they were about to reach the bottom of the Detective Agency building, Shirakawa suddenly stopped.
His gaze was drawn to a notice posted in front of Café Poirot downstairs.
It was a handwritten recruitment notice with elegant handwriting and simple content—hiring one shop assistant.
Looking for a job!
This thought instantly took top priority in Shirakawa’s mind.
He only had a few tens of thousands of yen left, and he owed the Mouri Family a favor; he couldn’t just live and eat there indefinitely with a clear conscience.
Plus, being an undocumented person without identification, a regular company would never hire him.
A small, seemingly family-run shop like Café Poirot might not be so strict about background checks.
Moreover, working here meant being close to where he lived, making it convenient to look after things.
The more Shirakawa thought about it, the more he felt it was a good opportunity, and a hint of interest couldn’t help but flicker in his eyes.
“What’s wrong, Shirakawa?”
Kogoro Mouri followed his gaze, saw the recruitment notice, and immediately slapped his thigh.
“Oh!
You want to work here!”
Without waiting for Shirakawa’s answer, Kogoro Mouri thumped his chest loudly.
“Leave this little thing to me!”
He winked at Shirakawa with a “you’ve got good taste, kid” expression.
“The owner of this shop and I are old friends.
If I step in, there’ll be no problem!”
“Take the things and this little brat upstairs first, and wait for my good news!”
With that, Kogoro Mouri stuffed all the shopping bags into Shirakawa’s hands without another word and swaggered into Café Poirot.
Shirakawa stood there holding the things, exchanging looks with Conan.
Conan watched Kogoro Mouri’s overly enthusiastic back, the clouds of suspicion in his heart growing thicker.
What’s with this old man today?
It’s like he’s pumped up.
Shirakawa felt a bit helpless; he really couldn’t handle Kogoro Mouri’s over-familiar personality, but he could only choose to trust him. This chapter was copied from novelping(.)com without permission.
“Let’s go up first, Conan-kun.”
Shirakawa smiled at Conan and carried the things upstairs.
After putting the things in a corner of the Detective Agency, Shirakawa sat restlessly on the sofa for a while, his heart in his throat.
Eventually, he couldn’t hold back and decided to go downstairs to check on the situation.
Before he even reached the bottom, he could faintly hear Kogoro Mouri’s almost ear-splittingly hearty laughter coming from the cafe.
Shirakawa took a deep breath and pushed open the door to Café Poirot.
The scene inside made him startle slightly.
Kogoro Mouri was sitting at the bar with a simple and honest-looking man in an apron; they each had a cup of coffee in front of them and were chatting happily, the atmosphere as good as old friends who hadn’t met in years.
Seeing Shirakawa enter, Kogoro Mouri immediately waved him over.
“Shirakawa, come here quickly!”
Kogoro pointed to the man in the apron beside him and introduced him proudly, “This is the owner of Café Poirot.
I’ve already settled everything with him!”
“Boss,” Kogoro Mouri pulled Shirakawa by the shoulder and began his wild praise, “this is the Shirakawa I mentioned to you!”
“Good character, handsome, hardworking, and can handle anything!
He’ll definitely be a great employee!”
Shirakawa’s face turned red from the praise, and he could only bow awkwardly to the owner.
The owner was amused by Kogoro Mouri’s exaggerated recommendation and waved his hand.
“Mr.
Mouri, you’re exaggerating.”
He looked at Shirakawa and explained the reason for hiring: ” my wife is due to give birth in two months.
I plan to spend that time at the hospital with her, and the baby will need care after being born, so I really can’t manage the shop alone.”
“There’s currently another employee named Enomoto Azusa, but I’m worried she won’t be able to handle it alone.
That’s why I want to hire another person for at least a year or so.”
I see.
Shirakawa now understood.
Kogoro Mouri added more fuel to the fire: “Don’t worry, Boss.
I guarantee on the reputation of Kogoro Mouri that Shirakawa is absolutely fine!”
“If you miss out on him, it’ll be the biggest loss of your life!”
Under Kogoro Mouri’s relentless assault, the cafe owner finally relented.
“Alright,” the owner nodded.
Mouri, I’ll give him a chance.”
He said to Shirakawa, “How about this: starting tomorrow, you come for a one-week trial.
If there are no problems, you can stay.”
“That’s great!” Kogoro Mouri was more excited than Shirakawa himself, slapping him hard on the back.
Shirakawa also breathed a sigh of relief and quickly bowed to the owner again.
“Thank you, Boss!
I will definitely work hard!”
“By the way, let me introduce you to Azusa.”
As the owner spoke, he called out toward the kitchen, “Azusa, come out for a moment!”
A moment later, a young woman in her early twenties with shoulder-length hair and a calm appearance walked out of the kitchen, still wearing an apron.
“Boss, is something the matter?”
“Azusa, let me introduce you.
This is Shirakawa; he’ll be starting a trial at our shop tomorrow.
You’ll be the one to train him and observe him,” the owner introduced.
The girl’s gaze fell on Shirakawa, and her eyes instantly lit up.
What a clean and handsome guy.
She proactively reached out her hand, a kind smile spreading across her face.
“Hello, I’m Enomoto Azusa.
Please look after me.”
“Hello, I’m Shirakawa.” Shirakawa politely shook her hand.
The moment Enomoto Azusa shook Shirakawa’s hand, a strange sense of familiarity suddenly welled up in her heart.
She felt that this man before her radiated an aura that made people feel at ease and trust him.
“Someone with as much affinity as Mr.
Shirakawa will definitely be able to handle this job!”
Enomoto Azusa said with a smile, her words filled with genuine sincerity.
Affinity?
Shirakawa was stunned upon hearing this.
He never thought he had anything to do with that word, so he just took it as a polite remark from Enomoto Azusa and didn’t take it to heart.
However, this future senior seemed to have a very good personality, which made him look forward to the job a bit more.
In the workplace culture of Japan, where seniority is everything, it wasn’t easy to encounter a normal colleague.
If you were unlucky and met a senior who liked to make things difficult, you’d have to do all the dirty and tiring work without any complaints.
This was a rather morbid phenomenon in Japan.
Shirakawa had caught glimpses of it a few times during his previous business trips.