"Hey, why are you still sleeping here? Get up and get to work!"
HR supervisor Nakamura came to the workers' dormitory and found that everyone else was gone. Only one person remained, curled up in his blanket like a caterpillar. He checked the nameplate on the bed—Kijima.
It was already late morning. The other workers had been at it for two hours, yet Kijima was still lying in bed like a corpse. Nakamura's anger flared, and he yanked Kijima's blanket away.
"Get your ass up and get to work, or you'll lose all of today's wages!"
Kijima did not care in the slightest about having his blanket taken away. Slowly, he pulled it back and wrapped himself up again, muttering under his breath.
"I'm not feeling well today. I'm not going."
"Then did you ask the foreman for sick leave?"
Nakamura was furious.
"No."
Kijima did not even turn around. He had no regard for the HR supervisor.
"Hmph, Kijima, is it? Don't think I don't know. I checked your attendance. You skipped work more than twenty days this month, mooching off free food and lodging all day. If you don't get up today, pack your things and get the hell out!"
"Get out? What gives you the right to tell me to get out?"
Kijima finally turned his head.
"I heard this place provided food and lodging, and even paid money, so I came here. Why should I leave? Hah! What a joke."
With that, he turned back around and wrapped the blanket even more tightly around himself.
Nakamura was nearly enraged to death. He had truly never seen such a shameless loafer before.
"My temper... I hired you to work, not to freeload."
"Work? I worked."
"You missed over twenty days of work in a month, and you