"M-"
"Miss!"
A loud ringing noise stirred her out of her unconscious state, but she was on the verge of passing out again due to a painful headache that washed over her. Fighting against the pain, she forcibly opened her heavy eyelids only to be greeted by countless of dazzling lights and a blurry face that was a bit too close to her's. When the blurry face saw her waking up, the corner of his lips rose, revealing a wide, relieved smile.
"Where am I?" She managed to croak out through her sore throat.
Her physical alarm clock backed away from her sweating and slightly bloated face and replied, "You were passed out next to ATE's main building. Although we have security cameras protecting you, I thought it was still dangerous for a young lady to be out this late at night."
"Oh." She softly mumbled out, too exhausted to process anything he was saying.
His eyebrows slightly furrowed as he examined her rather pathetic condition. Her curly wine colored hair was sticking to her sweaty face and her dress had bits of flowers and grass on it due to her sleeping on top of a flower patch. After coming to the conclusion that this person was too weak to make it home herself, he offered to escort her home.
"No, my mom always told me to watch out for strangers. Thank you for the offer though." She politely rejected him while she struggled to stand up, her legs trembling because of her sudden actions, which only made her look more fragile to him.
"Well my name is Rowan Benson, and I turn 25 this year on May 14. I work at ATE and came out for a small smoke break when I saw you passed out. Now that I've introduced myself, we are no longer strangers, so may I take you home?" He introduced himself with a content but rather childish smile.
After hearing his quick introduction, she felt her headache becoming stronger. She stared at his glistening, innocent-looking round blue eyes and hesitated for a moment before accepting his offer this time. All she cared about at this point was to go home, wash up, and sleep.
"Considering that your current condition is rather poor, I have come to the conclusion that I must carry you. Now, If you don't mind-" His trailing thoughts broke off her own, and she saw his tall stature gradually become lower before she could say anything.
Rowan knelt down with his back facing her front, seemingly offering her a piggy back ride. She raised an eyebrow and stared at his suggestive expression for a few seconds before jumping onto his back, wrapping her arms around his neck, and closing her eyes to relieve her headache.
"Might as well snag a free ride." She thought to herself while burying her face comfortably into Rowan's neck, which caused his body to slightly stiffen up. He tried his best to ignore the hot, steady breaths hitting against his neck and started walking towards the direction she directed him to go.
...
After walking for roughly twenty minutes, the girl on his back started tapping on his shoulders, indicating their arrival. They walked away from all the tall skyscrapers, the bustling city, and the bright lights into a quiet, dark residential area. He stopped and frowned at the dirty and smelly condition of the neighborhood, but he didn't say anything as he slid her off of his back.
"Thank you." She grumbled with a tired voice after she got off his back.
His hands were straightening out his wrinkled white shirt as he replied, "It was my pleasure to be your escort. But I didn't manage to catch your name young lady."
"Ran. You can call me Ran." Resting for twenty minutes somewhat cleared her headache, but she still felt uncomfortable and disgusting.
"It was nice to meet you, Ran. I hope you have a good night." He waved her a swift farewell and quickly walked away from the poor and foul neighborhood.
She watched the 'nice' man walk away until she could no longer see his back and dragged her tired self to her home. Although she was never completely satisfied with her current neighborhood, the cheaper rent of her home saved a load off her wallet. Not to mention, she eventually got used to the odd smell the neighborhood gave off. For now, she just needs to save more money and maybe liven up her current home. But... to her surprise, the small yet cozy one bedroom home that she was thinking about this entire time never appeared. Instead, there was just a plot of empty dirt with a small sign in the middle of it that read 'For Sale' where her home was supposed to be.
She blinked once, twice, and numerous more times, praying that her headache only caused her to hallucinate the disappearance of her house. But reality slapped her awake as she only saw a pitiful sign in the middle of dry dirt no matter how many times she blinked and rubbed her eyes.
"Where in the world..?" She felt her headache coming back.
She stood frowning in front of the empty lot, frustrated at her current situation. Nothing seemed to be going well for her. After all, she somehow left her nonexistent house in the middle of the night to sleep on company property wearing a dress? What an awful night she's having.
She had no where else to go since the hotels and motels near here were uselessly expensive. She also didn't want to sleep on a bench or on the ground since the city and neighborhood were dangerous at night. ATE's main building, although safe, was also out of the question since she didn't want to be kicked out, or in Rowan's terms 'escorted' out again.
After pondering over her choices for a while, Ran came to a decision. Fortunately for her, she wasn't at a complete loss. She could sleep at Owner's shop for the night and then figure out what happened to her house in the morning.
"Thank goodness for Owner!" She secretly praised him in her mind, "Should I contact him before I break into- no I mean enter his shop for the night?"
She contemplated for a moment before deciding not to contact him. It was late at night, 1:00am, and Owner was most likely sleeping. Also, her phone had almost no more batteries left, and texting was just another leech sucking away at her money.
She took one last look at the empty lot and jotted down the phone number written on the sign in her phone before making a small growl of frustration and heading back into the heart of the bright and busy city. Owner's shop was located a little bit further down from the front of ATE's main building on the outside of a small dining outlet.
Or so she thought...
Before arriving at the ATE's main building, she found the small dining outlet and with it, Owner's shop. Ran was stunned at the fact that the outlet was a few streets behind the main building when it should have been a few streets in front of it. Was her memory somehow deteriorating?
"That can't be it. I'm only 21." She mumbled to herself as she searched through her dress pocket for her keychain.
After finding her keychain, she took a peek inside Owner's shop: a bookstore. Countless of tall black bookshelves were uniformly lined within the room, contrasting with the white walls and the white marble flooring. Owner took great care of his shop by cleaning the windows and bookshelves daily and decorating the inside with green flourishing house plants. He also had a Rose scented candle on his desk in order to keep the shop smelling fragrant and welcoming.
Ran used the spare key Owner gave her and opened the front door of the shop. "Sorry Owner!" She quietly whispered to nobody as she closed the door, stepped inside the store, and quickly rushed up the stairs located near his front desk. As she reached the bigger, more wider second floor, she made her way to the middle of the room where the soft emerald green sofas were located.
She quickly collapsed onto one of the four sofas and threw aside her phone and keychain, then she comfortably sank into the couch and passed out.
She'll probably frighten the Owner tomorrow when he arrives at the store and realize that his only worker is sleeping on one of the sofas and even dirtied it. Hopefully she'll just receive a small scolding, but she might get fired if Owner's mood isn't too great, and her only source of money will be gone. Not to mention, even her house has somehow disappeared. But she'll find out more of that tomorrow.
Tomorrow...
She'll do everything tomorrow.
For now, she only wants to sleep. She'll worry about her responsibilities after waking up.
First chapter! Although I'm not expecting this to hit big since there are a lot of original novels on this site. Nonetheless, it's still nice to have somewhere to write. The pace may seem slow and the story may seem boring, but hang in there with me! Also, I feel like my English is deteriorating so apologies for any mistakes.
I try my best I swear.
She had a terrible dream that night. Maybe it was caused by a feeling of guilt she had for borrowing Owner's shop for her own selfish purposes or because of the headache from earlier. She dreamt that she was falling... falling down a long, endless void. And she couldn't muster up the strength to move even a finger, so she waited. Waited for the end that never seemed to come.
...
Her body jerked herself awake, and she woke up with a sweat covered forehead and an incredibly dry mouth. She felt that she just woke up from a nightmare, but she couldn't recall much of its details. She rubbed her dry swollen eyes with her dirty hands and breathed slowly in order to calm her unusually quick heart beat.
After finally calming down, she pushed her heavy body up from the sofa and looked around. She jumped in fright when she saw Owner sitting directly in the sofa across from her, calmly sipping his morning coffee and staring at her with indifferent eyes. She stared back and felt goosebumps forming on her arms; she expected Owner to wake her up and start scolding her, but he seemed too quiet... too composed. She's never seen Owner like this before. Perhaps his anger has reached the peak?
"O-Owner?" She felt her heart beat quicken again as she stuttered, "I-I'm so sorry I entered the shop and slept here without your permission! My house disappeared last night, so I had nowhere else to stay but here..."
After she finished speaking, an awkward silence took over the second floor as Ran sat on the sofa with her head facing the ground. She didn't dare say anything else or even look up at him. But Owner continued to quietly sip his coffee, as if Ran didn't interrupt his morning coffee session with her frantic rambling.
She didn't know how long she waited before a soft "Mm," from Owner broke off the silence that washed over the room.
Ran stiffened as she heard Owner set down his cup on the table. She raised her eyes and saw Owner cross his arms with a small frown on his face.
"Who are you?"
Ran was stunned. Was this the infamous 'pretend to not know you in order to piss you off' joke? She looked at his stern face and felt her body temperature grow colder. 'No, Owner would never joke around like this!' She reasoned with her inner self while her outer self sat there with a blank, dumbfounded expression.
"I work for you. You always call me Ran," Ran explained to the patiently waiting Owner.
Upon hearing her reply, Owner raised an eyebrow and titled his head to the side, like a confused puppy.
"Nobody works for me. I don't know how you managed to get into my shop in the middle of the night, but I have to ask you to leave," Owner got up to grab his mug and left the dazed Ran by herself on the second floor.
Ran watched him walk back downstairs with her voice stuck in her throat. She wanted to stop him, and appease his anger, but she knew how incredibly stubborn he was. He was serious in his decision to kick her out for the day.
She abruptly stood up from the sofa, grabbed her belongings, and left the store through the door on the second floor. But she won't be gone for long. Even if Owner had a stubborn personality, it wasn't as extreme as her's.
'Hmph! Two can play at that game then,' She scowled while stomping to the exit of the small dining outlet, determined to come back.
...
Night fell upon the city, but the city remained as lively as during the day. Majority of the shops were still operating in order to accept the countless of people still roaming the streets; however, one shop was preparing to close their doors. Owner dusted the last bookshelf on the first floor and proudly looked at his sparkly clean store. His hazel eyes glistened with satisfaction as he took off his shiba apron and hung it on top of his chair.
His every actions were seen by Ran who was sneaking peeks inside the store behind a nearby pole, waiting for him to leave. She frowned when she saw him taking off his shiba apron. 'Didn't he used to have a poodle one? When did his preference change?' She searched through her memories to confirm if Owner has ever mentioned liking shibas to her, but she couldn't ever recall a moment.
A loud bang finally brought her back to reality, and she cursed at herself for getting distracted before looking back to see Owner's situation. She cursed again, louder this time, when she saw that Owner already locked up his door and disappeared.
'Well.... I'll just start my plan B then' Ran snuck out of one of the outlet's pillar and quickly walked to Owner's shop, used her spare key, and opened it. Her 'plan B' was just to sleep another night at Owner's, wake up before he arrives, and talk to him in the morning after he's had a day to calm down. After all, Owner easily forgives once he's calm again.
She quietly closed the door behind her before heading towards the stairs. Before she made it to the stairs, she heard a "So this is how you got in?" that stopped her in her tracks. She looked up to see Owner come out from behind his desk and she silently cursed. 'I forgot Owner had the key to the entrance of the dining outlet. Of course he could just enter through the doors connected to the outlet.' She scolded herself for underestimating Owner's cautious attitude.
"How'd you get a spare key to my store?" Owner crossed his arms as he started his interrogation, the glisten in his eyes from earlier was long gone, "Are you one of those infamous stalkers that roam around and disturb other people's lives?"
His calm demeanor from earlier completely changed, and Ran stood there with a horrible feeling starting to form in her heart. How come Owner is acting like he doesn't know her?
She hid the spare key behind her back, protecting it in case Owner reached out and stole it from her. "Owner," She called his name with a cold, frustrated tone, "I don't know why you're suddenly pretending like you don't know me. You're the one who gave me the spare key since I work for you." She scowled in frustration.
"Well alright fine," He stopped crossing his arms, his expression loosening, "You're fired. So, give me the spare key and leave me alone." Owner stuck out one of his arms and motioned at her to give the key to him.
Ran felt her heart dropping after she heard Owner's heartless words. She stared at his arm and back at his indifferent expression, which hurt her more than his words. He was looking at her as if she was a stranger, but in her eyes, he was the one that became the stranger.
Ran's grip on the key grew stronger as she also stuck her arm out, her closed hand directly on top of Owner's palm.
"If," Ran's voice was slightly shaking, "If I give you this key right here and now Owner, then that means our relationship, our friendship is over. Do you still want it?"
Owner's eyebrows furrowed after he heard Ran's words.
"What are you talking about? We had no relationship in the first place. Now give me the key and scram," Owner motioned for her key again, more firmly this time.
Ran fought back the tears that threatened to form in her baby blue eyes as she glared at Owner.
"So be it,"
She dropped the key that represented the three years she spent working for him as her voice audibly shook with emotion. All along, she thought Owner and her had a relationship that surpassed that of a Boss and a worker. She considered him as a genuine friend and even believed that he thought of her as one too.
Ran quickly turned around and stomped her way to the door she just entered from, "I'll just have you know that you lost the best worker out there."
She childishly stuck out her middle finger then pushed opened the door. Just as Owner finally thought she left, he heard a distant, "Also, I'm not a stalker. Who would be idiotic enough to follow around such a plain man that has more d*ck in his personality than in his pants?"
And the door shut.
I meant to upload this much sooner, but I visited my sister for the weekend. Thanks to everyone who managed to at least make it to the second chapter after finding the first one interesting enough.
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