The crowd of people move impatiently in both ways on the sidewalk. I am on time, I thought, as I squeeze myself through the store's back door which is located in a narrow alley. The atmosphere bares a smell of rain descending on me, as I close the door carefully, not to make much noise.
The staff room is not-large, just enough to fit four people at the same time. In the left corner lies a changing room which horrifies me because of the lack of lighting. There was one time when I was wearing my clothes that I felt a creature landing on top of me. I ignored it, and it turned out to be a monitor lizard. Apart from that, two rows of changing lockers, twelve in total, space out and fill most of the area. Two wooden Ikea tables and four metal stools occupy the two other corners. On top, two macaron colour LED lights illuminate the room.
As I get dressed in my staff-uniform, a pair of grey trousers and a round-neck white shirt, Amy, the girl from the previous shift, enters. She greets me with her usual feeble and soft voice.
"Hey, you're just on time."
"I just changed. Give me two minutes and I will be there." One of my hands is holding my hair up while the other reaches for the scrunchy I left in the trousers yesterday. From the mirror, my reflection shows my hair--a mess with bumps on the top.
"I'll help you with it." Amy comes forward with her comb and a new scrunchy. She is a little taller than me, which makes it easy for her to deal with my tangling hair from the top. She brushes gently and ties a high-ponytail which makes me look much girlier than I am used to, "Hey, you look good!"
"Thanks." The reflection smiles and now the face seems sweeter, the figure turns over, "I should probably get going."
"Yeah." She pats my head gently and applies some perfume on my neck. I love the feeling of the tip of the perfume bottle rolling over. It just feels relaxing. "Oh, also, there will be a new guy today who will be working with you on your shifts. Train him well before the manager quizzes him next Monday. Don't forget to add him into the group chat also."
"Okay." I pat her on the shoulders and appear in the shop behind the cashier.
The customers are lining up already, all the way to the corner and turning to the back. I smile professionally, as I check the payment and hand them the items, "Are you interested in any of these products? Special price today…"
"Nope." The man cuts me off.
"Okay. Thank you so much. Family mart is your home." And the next customer steps in front, yelling some jargons for tobacco. So many people smoke, and they are troubling as they always make up some special term for their stuff. As if it is something everyone should know and specialize in.
The most annoying part about this job is the opening and closing of the automatic doors. Every time someone enters or exits there will be this tune "la la la la la laa la la la la laa." Okay, obviously you can't make sense of the tune but I reassure you that it frustrates every person that works here. Sometimes even the customers that stay in the long queue.
A guy my age enters. From the corner of my eye, I can see him with my school uniform. He wanders around and then decides to join the line after grabbing nothing to pay for. I figure he might want to buy something at the counter.
"Sorry, our meatballs are out. You can order these shrimp-balls and curry soup sets if you want." This is the fourth time I am apologizing to the old lady who is determined that she needs to buy her son the family-mart meatballs. And the girl behind glares at me impatiently.
"If you are not willing to purchase, I am afraid that you should leave." And I continue operating. The evening shift is busy. Which is a nice thing for me. Since I enjoy working as a cashier more than checking the logistics and cleaning the shop. Which I will now hand over to the guy who should have been here half an hour ago.
Then the next person standing is the one with my school uniform. He looks down on the floor and asks, "I am informed to work on this shift. Where can I start?"
"Oh, that side is the staffroom. Go to locker 12 and find your uniform and change quickly then come here." I hand him the locker room key that is reserved for the new guy. It was hidden under a pile of old cash.
As I usher the next customer, I find myself thinking about the new guy. He looks familiar, but I still don't recognize him for who he is, as he looked down and I couldn't see his face just now. The way he walks reminded me of the wealthy kids in my class. Confident, with perfect posture.
The rush hours have ended and finally there are no more customers in front of the counter. Until now, there is still no sign of the new staff, and this would be the last hour of my shift. I pause and stretch myself as I prepare the microwave and coffee machine.
I push open the staff room, and he is resting on the coffee table. He looks up, "Hey. Sorry for lacking around here. I just didn't know what to do."
Immediately his pale skin and sharp jawline reminds me of who he is. My chest feels a sharp pain and it is suddenly hard to breathe. Everything that I seem to know is starting to fade away. And I finally gulped enough air to talk, "Are you James?"
"Yes. Jess. I am your classmate." He replies with some sincerity as he turns to look me in the eye. Something about his presence makes me uncomfortable. I just want to flinch and get away from everything. Acquaintances, especially those that know way too much about me, are the worst. But the real question is, why is he here? His family, according to everyone else, owns the tech-industry in the country. He is so rich, so fulfilled, so spoiled that he should not even be standing in front of me. It is like I am shrinking, smaller and smaller, till I am under his giant shadow.
He must have sensed the amount of suspicion from me, so he shrugs, "Well, people are not what they always seem to be."
"Huh?" I laugh. How self-indulgent should a person be to think that I will have to be thinking about him. Well, it is true though, but I am a professional, "I don't know what happened but there is a lot you need to work on today. I will show you around." I recollect my voice and swallow my thoughts as I approach him.