Chapter Text
A lot of people prefer to have routines. You, being one of them. You don’t stray away from it. Your alarm rings, you scroll on TikTok for a couple of minutes, get up, shower, eat breakfast, head to work via bus, work for 8 hours at your minimum wage job, go home, eat lunch, attend your online classes, do your daily commissions on Genshin Impact, eat dinner, and then ending the day with sleeping. It’s the same routine every single day. It’s been like this since you moved out when you were 18. Sure, you get burnt out quite a lot by this routine. Life isn’t easy.
The day starts anew. Your alarm wakes you at 7 AM. You had set the alarm sound to be the song in Alhaitham’s demo. He was always your favourite, his blunt nature being the thing you loved the most, he was never afraid of telling the truth, even if it was harsh. Although, you’d probably die on the spot if he said something to you. It’s not like you’d burst into tears, but rather you’d just be embarrassed of being called out for whatever truth he hit you with. Nonetheless, even with his personality, you find yourself drawn to him.
Your workplace is decent. It’s at a nearby supermarket, only 3 bus stops away from your apartment. They also allow you to wear whatever you want, as long as you wear the company vest. Pay is alright, paying around 13$ an hour. Compared to other jobs in the area, it’s the best. You managed to move into a fairly decent apartment, a one bedroom, one bathroom apartment. You managed to save the money from previous jobs when you were living with your parents to be able to move out. You could get a roommate, but having a place to yourself is amazing. You’re able to decorate it as you please, which of course just so happens to be decorated with your special interests, which just so happens to be mostly Genshin characters. You are a fan of the other Hoyo games, like Honkai, but Genshin seems to call out to you more.
Speaking of which, most of your room is filled with figurines and other merch of characters that you like, mostly being of Alhaitham and Kaveh. Those two were always your favourite pairing, second one being Tighnari and Cyno, and lastly, Dr. Veritas Ratio and Aventurine. Sure, those two aren’t from Genshin, but they hold a place dear in your heart. There are several others you ship, but it’s mainly those that you’re drawn to. You loved seeing edits and fanarts of all of them, saving the videos in their designated folders. Thankfully. no one had access to your account, the amount of stuff you had about them on your phone was overwhelming.
You slowly rose up from your bed, already dreading going to work.The day has barely started and you already wanted to be home. Being an adult is difficult. You could call out, but with the rent rising, you could really use the money at the moment. Sure, you do have money saved, but more couldn’t hurt. You get from the bed, slowly, walking over to the bathroom to take a shower. You prefer to take cold showers to wake you up in the first 5 minutes, before slowly turning it warmer. It’s helped you from falling back asleep in the shower. The amount you’ve managed to fall asleep in the shower couldn’t be counted on both hands.
After finishing your shower and getting dressed, a simple black T-shirt, tan pants, and black shoes, you head to your kitchen, opting to make some toast with butter. You’re not particularly hungry in the mornings, so you often have something small. You could always eat something at work if you got hungry again. You open the bag of bread, pulling out 2 pieces of bread and placing it into the toaster. You close the bag, placing it back on the counter. You walk over to the fridge, opening it before realizing you ran out of butter yesterday. Well, you could take advantage of today to go do some grocery shopping after work. You take a mental note of everything you need to buy, which isn’t much thankfully. The toast pops out of the toaster, making you jump a bit. You close the fridge, heading to the toaster and pulling out the toast from it, burning your fingers a bit in the process. Sure, you could wait for it to cool, but you weren’t that patient. You quickly eat the dry toast. Making sure the crumbs don’t fall on your clothes, before checking the bus times. Thankfully, the next one was in 10 minutes. You would still be around 5 minutes early if the bus is on schedule.
You head over to your living room, picking up your backpack and wireless headphones that you take to work. Checking the time again, you head out of your apartment, locking the door. You walk over to the bus stop, taking a seat on the benches while you wait for it. The bus was always something you enjoyed taking, you got time to think before having to work. Thinking was something you enjoyed doing, although there were times where your thinking would turn into thought you didn’t necessarily want to have. It must be nice to be those people who could wake up doing the same thing every day without getting burnt out.
The bus arrives, snapping you out of your thoughts. You get up from the bench, hopping onto the bus, scanning your bus ticket, before sitting down. The bus ride is uneventful, arriving at the stop near the supermarket early. You get off, thanking the bus driver and making your way to the supermarket. By the time you get there, you have 7 minutes to spare. Awesome, 7 minutes to prepare to get yelled at by a customer and having to take on most of the work by yourself depending on the coworker you’re working with.
—
8 long hours of work. Thankfully, it was an easy day and there weren't too many people. You even managed to be paired up with your favourite coworker! You also got an email about classes being cancelled today! So far, today has been easier. If only it could be this easy everyday. You make your way back to the bus stop after buying everything you were missing at home. You couldn’t wait to get home to start grinding for more primogems to hopefully C6 Alhaitham on his rerun. You managed to get C6 Kaveh on Nilou’s banner, although you managed to get C1 Nilou before finally getting Kaveh to C6. So many primogems were spent just because he refused to come home. But, it was worth it for him.
—
You sluggishly unlock the door, heading to the kitchen. You quickly put away the groceries into the fridge before going to the living room and placing the backpack in its original spot. You could make lunch, but the thought of grinding for more primogems sounded more appealing and you weren't necessarily hungry at the moment. You make your way to your bedroom, kicking off your shoes, and plopping down onto your cheap, worn out office chair. You need to replace it soon, but as long as it works, it's okay. You press the space key several times, waiting for the lock screen to pop up. You didn't need to put a lock on your computer, but it was better to be safe just in case.
After typing in the password and entering, you open up Genshin. The main menu music was always calming, giving a sense of comfort. This was one of your favorite parts of your days, relaxing and playing with your favourite fictional men. The game loads in, the screen displaying Alhaitham standing in front of his house. You always liked placing him or Kaveh in front of their house. With anyone else, you'd place them someplace in Sumeru. You would always log out with your team in Sumeru, it had a special in your heart after the Archon quest. Your team was composed of Alhaitham, Kaveh, Baizhu, and Kinich. They didn't work together at all, but Dendro had always been your favourite element ever since it was released. You had other teams for battling enemies, but this was just your overworld team.
Your stomach rumbled, bringing you out of your thoughts. You lean back in the chair, sighing. You really wanted to skip out on lunch. Did you really have to eat right now? You could wait a bit longer. Unfortunately, if you went back to playing, you would definitely lose track of time and end up not eating. You got up, grumbling to yourself before heading to the kitchen.
What could you possibly make? You did have ramen, but taking out a pan to boil it sounded like too much work. You could always make more toast, but it wouldn't necessarily fill you up. You check the cupboards for any sort of easy meal to make. Ramen, ramen, more ramen, how much ramen do you even have? You quickly spot a can of chicken noodle soup, grabbing it and setting it on the counter. You can just put it in a bowl and heat it up, and boom, an easy meal without using too much energy.
—
The front door opens and closes, before slowly opening again and closing. Did you lock the door when you came in? You could've sworn you did. But then, the person opened and closed the door twice. Did they leave?
Slow footsteps echoed through the apartment. A chill runs down your spine.
They. Didn't. Leave.
You quietly move and open up the drawers with the knives. You carefully pull out a knife. Of course, on the days this could've happened, it had to be on the day where your day was going great. You swiftly, without making too much noise, move closer to the living room. You peek around the corner of the kitchen entrance, knife close to your chest, trying to make out who it was.
It couldn't be your parents, they don't know where you live, your friends don't visit without a warning, and your landlord also gives out a warning of him visiting. Whoever this person is, is a threat. You should've taken up some self defense classes during high school. It would've been necessary for this situation. Alas, you can't change the past.
The person lets out a low hum, making you jump slightly. This is definitely a man. There's no way this can be a woman. Just your luck. You take a deep breath, preparing yourself to fight if needed. After mentally preparing yourself, you quickly leave the corner, pointing the knife at the man in the hallway.
“What the fuck?”