Monday afternoon, a couple of days after the New Department Head fired our cleaning people, we smell dead rats in the girls’ bathroom. I heard that the Accounts Receivables girl was the first to sniff it out: Apparently she was blow-drying her hair and panicked, thinking she had accidentally set her hair on fire.
By evil, malicious whimsy, the New Department Head designates me and the Fridge Tyrant the bathroom-airer-outers because we “look[ed] bored and in need of something to do.” So there I am on a sluggishly lukewarm Monday afternoon, propping the door to the girls’ bathroom open with my back and left heel. I’m yelling at the Fridge Tyrant to “Get me something to hold it open!” (He picks up a paperweight.) “No, something heavy!” (He gestures at my purse.) “Haha, funny.” (A sheepish shrug as he disappears into the warehouse and re-enters with a heavy-duty Oxford English Dictionary.) “Perfect.”
But that’s actually the dictionary pour moi. I brought it with me when I first started working here nine years ago, and was still wet behind the ears. My beloved dictionary, one that had served me as a young adult who’d curiously run the rough edge of her thumb over words like “voracious”,”combustible”, “chemise”. It had survived my two younger brothers, the flooding of the shed/apartment I rented during heavy torrential rain, a four-story test-drop, and a car accident. Little did it know that a couple of weeks into our relationship, I would eventually cheat on it with a thesaurus, and it would now find its face shoved into the bottom of the bathroom door to prop it open.
The Fridge Tyrant armed with a can of Lysol and I, armed with an empty stomach, zone in on the suspected stall. He places his hand on the top of the door, and says, “We’re going in on a count of one, two-”
But I am already pushing my way in.
The moment we shimmy our noses near the toilet bowl, we are hit smack-dab in the face with the most pungent of pungent odors imaginable. Think of the moist underside of an elephant’s trunk, except there’s like a trillion of them packaged into a permeating ring of death-dealing smells.
“I think I’m about to vomit,” I squeak.
“Was this the same bowl that swallowed your phone?” he squeaks.
His smile fades when I shoot him a look that reads, “I have a Swiss Army knife, I know where you park, and I’m not afraid to use it on your Goodyear tires.”
So there we are, Fridge Tyrant and Fridge Tyrant Victim, brought together for a single purpose: To huddle in a bathroom stall with our shoulders touching, peering over the toilet bowl with our noses pressed into the crotch of our elbows, sniffing out disaster. Both are slightly-attractive single adults searching for love. I have to admit, when he first came on the job, his dark looks conjured up images of a lumbering, depraved, and wild-eyed wolf. I have to admit that when our gaze met, something strangely chemical, strangely electric jolted through me… Until the moment he tossed my stuff out of the fridge. One would expect for something romantic to happen here, but it doesn’t. Everything just stinks like hell.
Mimi: Hey, I’m going to leave this to you, OK?
Pats him on the shoulder.
Fridge Tyrant: Sure, OK.
————
And ch.9: Download | Read online
Shiro lacks experience, so I doubt he’ll get his feelings through to Kaoru. Even if he confesses, it’s too late now. She only has eyes for Yagai. If anything had materialized between Shiro and Kaoru at this point, they’d just be two bumbling fools in love anyway. (At least that’s what I try to convince myself to mask the slight disappointment that Kaoru is blind to the goodness that encompasses Shiro.) 超ブルーなミミ
Mani Mani ch.5 (Joint w/ Hotcakes): *Please DO NOT announce this release on MANGAUPDATES. Nightswan will be the one doing it.* Download | Read online
It’s been a while, and you’ve probably forgotten all about them, but Kun-chan, her daughter, Fuuko, and Kitamori-kun make a return in this latest installment.
Sekine’s Love ch.17: Download | Read online
You will not find Sara in her Plain Jane overalls, weird hats, or baseball tees here. Should we take this as a good sign? o(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)o
Teketeke Rendezvous ch.5: Download | Read online
I thought Kota would be the sane one out of the group, but I thought wrong. I’m not complaining though, kekeke. P.S. Yoetsu was pretty 2D hot in his greaser days.
Thank you very much!!
Hats! I wish you have told me, I did buy Heibon Ponch vol 1 book years ago. It’s somewhere in my storage. Email me about this. :D.
Any plans for Heibon Ponch?
Unfortunately, I only have tanko raws for Volume 2-4. I’m missing the first volume, which is not available at any of my local Japanese bookstores. If you know where to find the public raws for Volume 1, please let me know. I’d love to work on this project but gave up when the public raws disappeared.
Kyyyyaaaahhh!!!
Tks for &!!! *-*~~
Haha, keri. Everywhere I go to read about Unita Yumi, there you are, and there I see you! I understand the fervor though. She’s a rare gem, though Mani Mani itself is more of a diamond in the rough. It hasn’t ended yet though. There’s another chapter left, and it ends with quite a bang. This should be coming shortly. Have some things to iron out IRL, but the very lovely Nightswan of Hotcakes works as fast as the devil, so you will not have to wait YEARS this time around.
The links should be fixed now, so let me know if you still run into any problems. 🙂
Thankssss. Lovely chapter :D!!
Thanks =)
I bet if someone had told you that you’d be up-close and personal in a bathroom stall with Fridge Tyrant, you’d have never imagined it would be in that kind of situation! I’ve never had the pleasure of experiencing what dead rats smell like, but kudos for the two of you for facing the ordeal. Sure, NDH singled the two of you out for the job, and Fridge Tyrant had the can of Lysol, but you pushed the door open like a trouper.
(And stop making Fridge Tyrant so appealing! I don’t even know what this guy looks like but I feel I might start rooting for him at any moment… Countless hours of Korean dramas have brainwashed me into thinking that antagonistic clashing = future romance. Don’t make me hope that it will go down this path!)
“And stop making Fridge Tyrant so appealing! I don’t even know what this guy looks like but I feel I might start rooting for him at any moment…” God! I feel the same way: I also wish for some romantic outcome now! fufufu
And thanks for the releases!
Douse the flames of your Hallyu fever, my sweet girls, for I am determined to loathe this boy-man for all eternity! He will eventually move up the ranks anyway, and that requires an imminent transfer abroad. My delicate frame cannot weather the biting cold in Germany. I would be that old lady in her rocking chair, wrapped up in ten layers, heater blasting, and dog curled around my feet.
And btw, if I sound like I’m speaking English strangely, then know that it’s only because I have just finished the third series of Garrow’s Law. I’ve absorbed Andrew Buchan’s Garrow’s manner of speaking and cannot shake it loose.
But… *fangirl mode* Oh my god, Rexy. After Poirot! Before Poirot! Or while watching Poirot! YOU. MUST. SEE. GARROW’S LAW. (And if you haven’t yet, David Suchet was mind-blowing as Augustus Melmotte in The Way We Live Now too. Saw that on ITV or something years ago.) (Plus Cillian Murphy was so damn adorable in there.)
Btw, puff, must join us in the quest to spread the love for dramas across the pond. (Not that there aren’t enough fan girls already.)
Will do! Tried to look it up Netflix but didn’t see it so I’ll try to torrent it. Meanwhile, I’m trying to zoom through Poirot while it’s still there. I was watching Wives and Daughters but that stepmother had me with hate lasers shooting out my eyes so I had to take a break from it. Also this is kind of going on a tangent but check out Bread & Tulips if you get a chance. I have an older-gentleman crush on Bruno Ganz now. Those sad eyes…!
Well… Sekine-kun and Sara-san aren’t the only ones feeling giddy (^o^)
Thank you so much for all the releases, Stiletto Heels Team!!!!!!
Thanks a lot for the releases!