June 26, Wednesday
5:00 PM

"Come on! You need to look professional!"

"Ughh can't I just be myself?"

"It doesn't work like that!"

Ari attempts to hold me into place, as I was trying to dodge every touch of make up that hit my face.

Looking for an outfit was already bad enough. I spent thirty minutes looking through clothes and trying them on, but in the end I'm still wearing a hoodie and jeans.

"Come on! If you don't hold still, then it'll get too late! Then our job hunting will have to be postponed." Ari pouts.

"Fine fine..." I exhale and stop dodging Ari's hands. Then she began doing my make up. Blush, eyeshadow and such. It was only light.

"My god Lydia! You're so pretty!!!" Ari cups my face. "Ah oops! I might ruin the make up hehe." She lets go and stands up straight, rubbing her hands. "Now we gotta do your hair!"

"Seriously!??" I question.

"Of course!" Ari begins to comb my hair. "The look wouldn't be complete if I didn't fix your hair!"

This is going to take a while...

"Oh and guess what?" Ari suddenly spoke, straying away from the previous conversation.

"What?"

"I'm going to apply with you!"

"Well that's reassuring."

"Right!!" Ari smiles widely.

Looks like I don't have to worry when I end up in a bad situation. Thank goodness I have an awesome best friend.

---
5:40 PM

Now at the mall, the two of us stand just by the entrance, scanning the stores as far as our eyes can see.

Mostly food and clothing shops.

"So where to first?" Ari asks.

"Food." I answer without hesitation.

"No! Eat later!"

"Do we want to be having serious interviews on an empty stomach?"

"Well... You have a point." Ari sighs in defeat. "We'll eat first then. Burger Queen?"

"That'll do."

"Yey!" Ari takes my hand and we head over to Burger Queen.

As we enter, and head up to the counter with no people, and our orders already in mind, we bump into a slightly familiar face. Uhh what was his name again?

I take a quick look at his name tag then the memory of where I've first seen him flashes back. Li Shin.

That student skipping classes. He works here?

"Ms? Your orders please?" He asks us.

"You work here?" I ask bluntly instead of ordering.

"Uhh..." He pauses for a few seconds, then a wave of shock washes upon his face. "Y-you're a student from symphony high-"

"Yes, I am."

"Can you uhh... Keep this a secret?"

"Ehem ehem." Ari coughs. "Lydia we don't have time for this!"

"Ahh yeah, my apologies. We'll have two whoppers with fries and apple juice."

"Sure thing." Li Shin punches our order in, looking a little unsteady. "That'll be $8"

I hand him the money and he hands me my reciept and I move to the side to wait for our order.

"H-hey, you." Li Shin grabs Ari's attention, and tilts her head at him.

"Do you need something?"

"Uhh well, if it's alright with you, can I have your number?"

"..."

"..."

Ari looks at me, and I look at her.

WOAH

She the tilts her head at me, and I nod. It was like our way of silently communicating.

Ari grabs a tissue, borrows a pen from Li Shin, and procedes to writing her number on the tissue, then handing it to him. He smiles. I could feel the eyes of the people behind us watching this happen and thinking of how cliché this is. I don't know. Guys asking for a girls number just feels so cliché now, since everyone just asks for facebook names or Instagram accounts.

After that, I take our order and I take a vacant table and sit down. I am dumbfounded.

Shookt.

Wow.

Asian boy got guts.

That escalated faster than how fast it takes my to mom get mad.

Ari takes her seat infront of me, and the two of us unwrap our whoppers at the same time.

"Well." I look at her sternly, and she looks back at me. "So are you going to give the boy a chance?"

"Ehh? W-well I don't know! Let's just eat!" Ari says, getting flustered.

"Alright, alright." I giggle. Flustered Ari is so cute!

---
6:10 PM

"Ok. Now it's time to get serious!" Ari gets up from her seat and says confidently. "Having a good meal has got my brain working! And I have thought of the perfect place for us to get a part time job!"

"And that is?"

"A game shop!"

"Hmm... That sounds alright."

"It's very alright! Since you have so much knowledge on games, it should be a breeze!" Ari grabs my hand and pulls me to stand up and drags me out of Burger Queen.

"Are you really that excited??"

"Of course! Now hurry up, the techy stuff is on the second floor."

I sigh and pick up the pace to match Ari's and we take the stairs up to the second floor. Good exercise.

However, that's what only my dad would think. Exercise is non-existent in my vocabulary. That doesn't mean I'm a lazy person though.

Quickly arriving to the top of the stairs, we head over to the "techy" section of the mall. There were quite a few shops. All selling different things.

Some for gaming consoles, others for computers, gadget accessories and all those stuff.

But only one store catches my eye. It's the game shop. And no, not for the title of the shop. Because calling a game shop "game shop" has no creativity whatsoever, But because a poster was stuck on the shop advertising Divine Springs. Heh, I wonder why I didn't notice this shop earlier.

The game shop. The shop's name echoed in my head.

Oh, right. Well atleast it says what they sell eh?

"So where do you want to st-"

"There." I point at the shop before Ari could say anything.

"T-that was quick." Ari says with a tone slightly shocked. "Well lezz goooo!" She skips to towards the shop and I follow behind her.

Guess I should start hoping for the best now.

I hear the chime of bells as I enter the shop. The place was neat and was filled with games from almost every console. Not to mention loads of PC games too. All were arranged by console in a cabinet of glass windows which were locked.

And sitting- or not sitting, I mean sleeping at the counter was a man with messy black hair, probably around his mid 20s, and he was snoring.

"E-excuse me?" Ari slowly walks up to the man.

"Excuse you?" The man slowly opens his eyelids, so slow that he beat the record of those sloths from that movie called zootopia.

"Wait- I mean what is it that you're looking for Miss?" The man then suddenly pushes himself to sit up straight. He probably forgot he was still at work.

"Are you hiring?" Ari asks. I'm surprised she's not breaking out in laughter at this point.

"Well..." The man looks around, then scratches the back of his neck awkwardly. "Suppose I could use a bit of help around here."

"Alright, Do I need to schedule a meeting with your boss or something?"

"I am the boss."

"Oh." Ari turns to look at me and blinks twice. The kind of blink when you're in shock but also have no words.

"I see." I clear my throat. "Me and my friend would like to apply here."

"Give me a good reason to hire you both then." The man puts his hand on his chin, scratching his cleanly shaved beard. Is that necessary?

"Uhm... I like games?"

"A girl."

"Eerr yeah, I'm a girl."

"A girl." He repeats.

"Uhh... Yeah. A girl."

"Just so you know, we sell games from almost all platforms here."

"Are you trying to insult me?" I glare at him.

"L-lydia? Calm down!" Ari pokes me.

"I'm not trying to insult you at all. I just want to inform you."

"Well I can clearly see all the games around us. Thank you for informing me, Captain obvious!" I roll my eyes.

"Lydiaaa!!" Ari whimpers.

"Pft. Come on Ari, lets go." I grab her hand and begin to exit the store. "Also your store's name sucks, I bet buttstallion could sh*t out a better name than calling a game shop, game shop. And let's see if you get that reference, partner." I say as my right foot hits the exit and Ari looks at me in shock.

"Woah that's the first time I've heard you burn someone like that!"

"I just hate being underestimated." I sigh. "It just kills my brain cells looking at how some people react to girl gamers. They look at us like they're aliens."

Ari giggles and clings to my arm like a tarsier. "Oh forget that! You still in the mood to continue looking for a part time?" She wiggles her brows.

Well this horrible experience killed my mood like wildfire.

"H-hey wait." A panting voice from behind me spoke, before I got to make my decision.

"What?" Ari crossed her arms at the guy.

"Would you still consider working for me?" He asks.

"No."

"Pleasee? I actually... Need some employees. I only have two and they're on vacation."

"You think we'd want to work for a man with an attitude like that?" Ari questions with a hissing tone. That's not something I'd hear very often.

"I'll put an increase in your salaries! Just, give me a chance. And you girl, Yo I'm sorry for dissing you, You just didn't look like someone who'd play games. I shouldn't have judged, that was my wrong." His voice was very apologetic.

"Are you that desperate in getting employees? Even after I dissed at you too, I mean, your shop."

"You're kinda right about my shop name though. And I have no clue who buttstalion is, so I'm going to have a look at that later."

"Come on Lydia, just leave this man alone." Ari tugs my hand.

"Wait a moment." I shake my head negatively.

"What?" Ari asks.

"You can hire us, but I have a request."

"What is it?"

"If I ever buy a game, or anything from your shop, I want it to be 50% off. It's deal or nothing."

"You really put me in a tight spot." The man sighed. "But alright, I'll bring out the contracts.

We head back into the store and the man enters the room where only him and employees can enter, then returns to us with a pen and the contracts. So getting a job is as easy as this eh?

"You two are students right?"

Me and Ari nod.

"You guys can have 5 PM-9PM on weekdays, 9 AM - 2 PM on a Saturday and sunday is your day off." He hands us the pen.

"Are you sure with this?" Ari asks.

"Yeah." I say with little bit of relief. Then I take the pen and sign my contract, then I hand the pen to Ari and she does the same.

"Good, you two can start tomorrow if you'd like. I'm Dean Persson, and I'm your boss." He smiles.

"Nice to meet you sir, uh but will you still be needing our info and stuff?" Ari asks.

"Yes."

"We'll bring them in tomorrow, for now, the two of us will be heading home." I tell this man who is apparently my boss now and is apparently called Dean.

"Alright. Take care on the way home!"

Well, it looks like I got a job now.

•••

Yeeyyy I updateddd @~@
I'm so sleepy noww XD
It's currently 12:25 AM for me
But I just felt like I wouldn't be able to sleep if I didn't finish this chapter 🤣

Also I have big plans for next chapter hehe
It will be a special since I've hit 20 chapters! : D

Anddd imma go to sleep now XD

Question of the day: what's your favorite game?

-Kei