"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.