The boss of Hikaruko went to see a psychiatrist, but it was not she who had a problem, it was Hikaruko.  The boss found that Hikaruko could not go further on her career and seemed that she was stacked these days.  The doctor said that only Hikaruko could help herself, no one can help her.  At the site where the movie was shooting, Hikaruko could not do what the director wanted her to.  She was very upset.  Her manager asked her, "can I help you? Do you want anything?"  "No, thanks."  Hikaruko was very unhappy.

The boss of the ham shop was meeting with the director of their holding company.  The director reminded the boss that as the performance of the ham shop was not satisfactory, he had to lay off one staff, the boss was upset.  In Japanese, "neck" (kubi) is of the same pronunciation of "lay off", so when the staff in the office mentioned about "kubi", the boss was getting nervous and scold them.  However, they still played around, as usual.

The next morning, Sosuke woke up as usual, washed his face and changed his clothes.  When he opened the door, he found Hikaruko outside.  He was shocked.  And as usual, he closed the door (as he did not believe).  Hikaruko knocked the door again.  She would like to stay at Sosuke's home.  But Sosuke told her that he had to go to work.  "I can stay here by myself."  Hikaruko said.  Sosuke took out a pillow for her to sit, then he went to work.

On the other hand, the company of Hikaruko was in a mess, as they could not find Hikaruko, they did not know where she went.  The manager had to change the schedules of Hikaruko at once.

Hikaruko had nothing to do in Sosuke's home, the phone rang, Hikaruko picked that up, it was Sosuke. "You should not pick up any call.  Besides, you cannot open the window, answer the door.  I will come back home at once after work."  Sosuke told Hikaruko.  Sosuke's colleagues, sure noted something's happened, crowded with Sosuke and asked him who was at his home.  "My neck hurts!"  Sosuke shouted.  "Don't say "kubi" again!"  The boss eventually told them that he had to lay off a staff.  The others were unhappy and said that they could not go without a job.

The landlord went to find Sosuke, but Hikaruko answered the door, the landlord was surprised.  The landlord then invited the neighbor to have a party at Sosuke's home.  Even the shop owner of the sushi shop went to take a look at Hikaruko.  When Sosuke went back home, he could not find Hikaruko.  "Where are you?"  Sosuke asked.  "I am in the bath."  "In the bath?"  "She is in my bath in my house?"  Sosuke was happy.

Hikaruko went out and used the hair-dryer to dry her hair.  "Um, the dryer was not strong enough, let's turn to a higher level."  "Stop!"  But it was too late, the lights of the flat went out.  Sosuke went to turn on the lights again, but Hikaruko had already been gone to bed.

The next morning, Sosuke went to the office and worked hard to sell more ham, but the response was not good.  One of the colleagues went to sell ham to a local restaurant, but the owner refused and asked him to go.   He left a piggy key holder to the owner.  When back to the office, the boss asked if someone would like to leave, the man said, "let me leave."  The others was sad.....

The manager remembered Sosuke and went to meet him.  Sosuke told him that Hikaruko was with him.  "Then let her take a week's leave, please look after her for me."  The manager asked Sosuke.  "I think you are a cool man.  You are a kind person."  Sosuke said.  "I have been her manager for 10 years."  The manager told Sosuke.

The manager went back to the office and told the boss that he found Hikaruko.  He hoped the boss could give Hikaruko a week.  The boss agreed.  They went to the pub for a drink.  The boss said they had been working with Hikaruko for 10 years.  She is a nice girl and they had happy time with her.  The manager mentioned that he would like to leave Hikaruko after she returned.

When Sosuke was back, Hikaruko opened the door and said, "welcome back."  Sosuke was very happy and asked, "could you please say once more?"  Sosuke then took Hikaruko out to learn more about his way of living.  He took her to the "help yourself laundry", to the tape rental shop, and to the "100 yens shop".  Hikaruko was very happy in the "100 yens shop" and bought lots of stuff.  They went to have noodles, then Sosuke asked Hikaruko to their usual pub for a drink.

Sosuke told Hikaruko that he met her manager in the morning and he asked him to take care of her.  He then told Hikaruko that the boss asked his colleague to leave because their sales was not good enough.  "Why?"  "It is not possible to have thirty thousand pounds of ham order for a month."  "Why?"  Cause Hikaruko did not know how difficult is the business, she could only ask "why".  Sosuke was a little bit annoyed and said, "you have never tried this so you don't understand at all."  Then Sosuke knew that he went too far, he apologized.  Hikaruko asked, "but actually have you even tried?  If you have never tried, how can you say "impossible"?"

The next morning Sosuke told the others Hikaruko's idea, so they agreed to try their best.  Sosuke walked along the street all the day and was very tired when back home.  He slept on the desk.  Hikaruko decided to help Sosuke...

The next day, Hikaruko went to work with Sosuke, she volunteer to stay in their office and picked up the phones.  The others were happy and all went out to work hard.  They got more orders.  Sosuke thought of selling ham to the large chain shop which sells lunch boxes at the railway stations.  However, they could not meet the boss and no one in the company take care of them.  In the night, a burglar broke into the restaurant which the staff had been there to sell ham, however, he accidentally sliced down because he stepped on the piggy key holder.  The owner was very touched and would like to thank "the piggy"....

The colleague failed to get a job, he went back to the ham shop, where he met the others.  The others told him that they got more orders and might be he did not have to go away.  At first he reluctant to do so.  But then he met Hikaruko, who passed all the lunch boxes to him and asked him to come back.   When he stepped in the office, his phone rang at the same time.  It was the owner of the restaurant, he would like to order ham.  Besides, he would like to order ham for his chain shop which sell lunch boxes at the railway stations.  He was the boss of that large shop.  All of them were excited.

The holidays for a week ended, Sosuke drove Hikaruko back to the place for shooting the film.  Hikaruko asked Sosuke to stop in the middle of the road.  "I am a star so it is not fit for me to take this kind of car to the location."  "Oh, yes."  Sosuke then encouraged Hikaruko, "you can do it.  Remember?  It is you who tell us to try before saying "it is impossible".  Work hard."  Hikaruko went back to meet others, they were all happy to see her back again.

Hikaruko could do what the director asked.  The manager went to her, Hikaruko asked him what was the time and place for tomorrow's work.  She said "thanks" to the manager.
 
 

This is the first time Totoro try to write down the story.  However, my Japanese is still weak.  Please forgive me if there is any mis-interpretation.  Besides, I only write down bits of the story, not a detailed one.  Sorry.
 

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