Chapter Text
Day XX
He scans the item, rings it up and thanks the customer who leaves without turning back. He does the same action, over and over, not truly realising the mundane repetition which plagues his daily life at work as he alternates between stocking up the shelves and manning the counter. That was how life is, for everyone surely, that it repeats itself endlessly without much event or incident to be remembered with clarity.
Despite the numbness of working day in and day out, never questioning anything that is asked of him by duty or by force of nature, he would sometimes feel as though life is breathed into him briefly when he sees the petite girl enter the store. The jet black hair cascades down her back and reaches right above her waist and she seemed to love wearing plaid. She would always bring a bottle of milk and some food to the counter with a warm smile as she had her items checked out.
The nametag on his vest is a blank one and so was his mind. But the tiny voice in his head would whisper at the back of his mind whenever he sees her standing before him. Her eyes would always meet his with a warmth that outshone the brightest sun on a mid-winter's day, the kind that had to it a nature of salvation that could save ten thousand, or perhaps, just him. It held within itself a light that illuminated their pasts and future yet its brightness blinded him from truly seeing what their pasts held.
At some point, he would feel a sense of familiarity by her frequent visits to the store whether in her best dress or wrapped up in her oversized sweater. He would offer a genuine smile and a nod which she would return with much ease of the same familiarity. The days and months all blur into each other, with no specificity of date to indicate whether time travelled in a particular direction. Yet, the world shifted ever so slightly.
One late evening, she approached the counter with a sandwich and milk. She decided to pay by cash, gathering from the depths of her pockets some loose change and dropping them into his hands. Her finger touched his palm ever so slightly. Both of them had a flash of memory briefly but made nothing of it. She looked up at him, a young man who stood towering over her, with eyes that were often hard and brows almost permanently stitched together by a constant frown that she wished to untangle. Yet when he looked at her, perhaps softened by the familiarity of her frequency to the store, she witnessed an icy look melt into the warmest spring that blossomed across his face, always greeting her with a warmth that reached her.
"I know this may sound like a pick up line," she started "but i think you look familiar. Like I've seen you before."
The edges of his lips curled upwards into a smile that made him look younger.
"Hmm" he responded, "I'm not sure though?"
He brows danced to each other and was animated by his curiosity and wonder.
"I go to Hani University. Are you also a student there?" She asked.
"Yeah! I am. Maybe we've seen each other in school huh?"
She smiled and started for the door.
"Maybe. I'll see you around."