My Neighbor, Kurozawa

My neighbor, Kurozawa, is a textbook corporate drone. He spends all year traveling across the country on business trips, drinks coffee like water, and always keeps stomach medicine on hand. I hear that even though he works around the clock and has a whole team of subordinates, they are all a handful: a punk-styled woman who comes to work with butterflies painted on her face, a gloomy, withdrawn man who can barely manage a reply in ten questions, a junior partner he has mentored for ages but still hasn’t managed to train up because they’re slow on the uptake, and a woman parachuted in at his rank who is very much in the big boss’s good graces. “He sure has it rough,” I couldn’t help saying, watching as Kurozawa’s once-lustrous, flowing golden hair gradually faded to pale silver over the years. I looked at him with sympathy, secretly thinking that even if my income was unstable, being a freelancer and escaping the corporate grind was wonderful. That is, until one day I saw a Porsche 356A parked outside the house next door, and my neighbor stepping out of it with the air of a powerful big shot who looked very much like someone you shouldn’t mess with. Sorry. Turns out I was the clown all along. Blurb posted on February 7, 2021 Unless something unexpected comes up, this book will be available for purchase on April 25, with three chapters released that day. Your support is much appreciated! Theme: Break free from the 996 work schedule, set your heart on poetry and faraway places, and keep an earnest record of life as a freelancer