Work Text:
The clock hits 10 AM, and the grocery store opens.
The place is a maze of white tiles, tall shelves, and air conditioning constantly cranked up to max, making people feel like they've stepped straight into a blizzard even on the hottest days. The same exact selection of music plays from the overhead speakers every day, and every little sound echoes throughout the vast building.
This is Ame-Chan's workplace. (Hopefully not for long,) she constantly thinks to herself as she stands behind one of the cash registers, day after day.
It had been two weeks since she got the job. Ame thought that she should be used to waking up at 8:30 by now, but unfortunately for her, getting up any earlier than noon was still an intense struggle. Hell, getting up at all was a struggle. At least she had a reason to get out of bed now. Gotta make them bucks.
Despite her exhaustion, Ame looks picture perfect: long black hair neatly put up into her usual twintails, and clean makeup that covers her eyebags. However, the grocery store's uniform is the ugliest thing she's even worn, Ame decided. (As always, my face is the only thing I've got going for me,) she thought.
Not even half an hour into her shift, a young girl skips up to Ame's register, carrying a few items in her hands.
"Hello, miss!" The girl says cheerfully, dumping her items onto the counter. Ame forces a smile.
"Hello!" She greets in equal cheerfulness, as she was trained to by societal pressure. Gotta be cute and positive for the customers.
"That's all I'm getting," the girl before her comments as she begins scanning the items.
A small pack of cookies, a mini notebook, and a bottle of those weird gummies meant to help children sleep.
Ame looks at the girl again, noticing her age. (She looks like a high-schooler,) Ame notices. (Why isn't she at school?) Against her better judgement, she decides to ask.
"Are you a high-schooler?"
The girl before her blushes a little in embarrassment.
"You caught me, ehehe~" she giggles, tapping her fingers together as a guilty smile spreads across her face. "You see... I overslept a little, so I decided to skip today."
"They let you do that?" Ame questions, putting the girl's items into a bag.
"I told them I was sick," the girl explains casually, producing cash from her pocket and handing it over.
Ame takes another good look at the girl as she accepts the money. Shoulder-length ginger hair, bright blue eyes, and a big red bow on the side of her head - definitely unusual. Now that she's paying attention, Ame also notices signs of fatigue present in the girl's appearance: tangled hair, wrinkled clothes, tired eyes. Ame looks down at the sleeping gummies in the bag before handing it over to the girl.
"Have a good rest of your day!" Ame says, forcing unnatural sweetness into her tone.
"Thank you, miss! You too!" The girl replies, taking the bag of groceries before leaving in a hurry.
Once she's out of her vision, Ame sighs, the fake smile dropping. (So friggin' exhausting. But it's worth it for the money. Maybe I'll make curry for dinner tonight...)
But Ame's moment of relaxation doesn't last long, as more customers enter the store and approach the cash registers to check out. Luckily, it's a weekday, so the crowds aren't TOO bad... but still, dealing with customers isn't fun. Not to Ame, anyway.
A young man with spiky brown hair approaches her register, holding a bundle of cheap flowers in one hand and a strange brand of coffee in the other.
"Good morning, miss," he greets politely, placing the items down onto the counter.
"Good morning!" Ame chirps, in her cutesy customer service voice. "Will this be all?"
"Yes," the man replies.
Ame scans the tag wrapped around the center of the flower bouquet, and the barcode on the can of "orange joe" iced coffee. (Gross,) Ame thinks to herself. She once again bags the items, and hands the bag over to the man in exchange for money.
"The coffee is for my brother, and the flowers are for my girlfriend," the man explains as he takes the bag.
"Aww, how sweet!" Ame replies, not actually giving a shit. Something in the back of her mind screams at her to follow up with (nobody asked,) but that would be incredibly impolite, and Ame wants to keep her job, despite how much she hates it.
The young man chuckles at Ame's words. "Thank you," he says, giving her a smile that practically glows. He's definitely good-looking.
However, the more Ame looks at him, the more she notices the same concerning details she'd noticed in the ginger-haired girl. (Another tired soul,) she thinks. (There must be a lot of us around here.)
"Have a good day, sir!" Ame calls out as the man leaves.
The next customer to approach Ame's register is a black-haired man pushing a shopping cart. (Great,) Ame groans internally. (Hopefully he won't try to make small talk while I scan his stuff...)
"Good morning, sir!" Ame greets as the man starts placing his groceries onto the counter.
"Good morning," he replies in a timid manner. Ame takes his apparent shyness as a good sign.
She starts scanning his items - mostly pre-made meals that can be quickly thrown into the microwave. However, there are a few regular ingredients thrown into the mix, as well as some snacks. The typical stuff one would usually get when shopping for groceries. Since there are a lot of items, Ame decides she isn't going to bother bagging them. Usually the customers bagged their own groceries, anyway.
As she scans the items, Ame notices the man repetitively glancing up at her. Occasionally he would stare until Ame looked back at him, causing him to avert his brown-eyed gaze.
(The hell?) Ame thought, the man's actions making her uneasy.
Once she finishes scanning the items, Ame tells the man his total, and the man takes out a credit card. After the payment goes through, the man looks up at her.
"Excuse me, I do not mean to be rude," he starts, "but has anyone ever told you that you look like KAngel?"
Ame completely freezes. For a second, it feels as though her heart has stopped beating.
"W-What?" She stammers, her cheerful facade shattering under the sudden panic she feels rising within her.
The man's face goes red. "Forgive me. It is just--" For a moment, he struggles to get his words out. "You have a very similar face shape to KAngel. I apologize." The man bows politely.
"I... oh," Ame mumbles, attempting to recompose herself. "W-Well... KAngel is very pretty, so... I'm going to take that as a compliment." She laughs, masking her internal panic. "Crazy how she got canceled, huh?"
"Yes, quite," the man agrees. "If she wanted to quit, she should have just said so, in my opinion. Smoking weed on stream to get yourself banned is a little extreme..."
"Haha, yeah," Ame chuckles, trying not to think about the mistake that destroyed her dream career.
"Can I help you with anything else?" She says quickly, attempting to drop the conversation topic.
"No, I am alright. Thank you." The man, now having bagged all of his groceries, scoops the bags up and into his arms.
"Alright! Have a good rest of your day!" Ame says as she watches the man leave.
For a few seconds she stands still, taking a moment to calm her racing heart. (Breathe. Just breathe... jeez, that was WAY too close of a call.)
Ame discreetly takes her phone out of her pocket to check the time. She still has a couple more hours of work until she can break for lunch. Sighing, she puts her phone away again and looks up to see that lines are beginning to form at the various check out counters, including her own. Forcing that sickeningly sweet smile back onto her face, she resumes helping the customers.
By the time her lunch break does roll around, Ame is utterly exhausted. She rushes into the break room, dismayed to see that some of her coworkers are already there. She quickly retrieves a pre-made meal from one of the vending machines before sitting at a table in the corner of the room, away from everyone else.
(Finally, time away from having to deal with customers,) she thinks. Ame takes her phone out, scrolling through her Tweeter feed as she eats her lunch.
Post after post about OMGKawaiiAngel's termination.
It pains her. But she keeps scrolling, unable to stop herself. Mixed in with posts documenting the news are posts from her fans expressing sadness and shock, along with posts from her haters expressing relief and making comments about how they "knew this would happen eventually." (Stupid nerds,) Ame thinks to herself as she reads the posts. She decides to make a post of her own on her private account.
"how is the kangel ban still relevant.......... its been weeks come on people 😭😭"
She decides to shoot a JINE message to her P-Chan, too.
"p-chaaaaan come and save me this job is going to suck out my soul bleeeeeuuughhh"
A few seconds later, she receives a sticker of a pink cat saying "Sorry" in response. Ame chuckles at the stupid picture she's probably seen a million times before by now. She spends the rest of her break time chatting with her P-Chan and making herself more upset than she already is by scrolling through Tweeter. When her lunch break ends, she stuffs her phone back into her pocket and throws her empty meal container away before begrudgingly dragging herself out of the break room.
Back to work.
Ame plasters another cutesy smile on her face as the next customer approaches.
"Good afternoon!" She greets, as the customer silently puts their shopping basket onto the counter. They don't reply to her greeting. They also look to be the same age as that ginger-haired girl.
(I guess nobody goes to school anymore,) she thinks. (At least I can relate to that.)
Ame finds herself looking the customer over as she scans their items. Their appearance is incredibly androgynous, and their bangs cover their eyes. She holds herself back from making a comment about their eyesight. She turns her attention back toward the customer's items, which are all just snacks with easy-to-open packaging that are conveniently to-go sized. She yet again bags the items and hands the bag over to the customer in exchange for money.
The customer hadn't said a single word to her. Ame doesn't know whether to find it refreshing, or rude.
"Have a good day," Ame dismisses weakly, her faux-cheerfulness slipping in the face of the customer's nonchalance. The high-schooler simply takes their bag and walks out of the store, not even looking back once. They almost look hypnotized. (Weirdo,) Ame couldn't help but think to herself.
Next up is a young woman pushing a shopping cart. She's dressed head-to-toe in blood red clothing. Ame's fake smile becomes a little more genuine as she appreciates the woman's attire.
"Good afternoon!" The woman exclaims, smiling brightly as she places her items onto the counter. "It's such a lovely day today, isn't it?"
"It is!" Ame forces out the agreement, her appreciation already fading.
"The sun is shining... the temperature is perfect...! Ah, what a shame I have to be in here shopping for groceries! Hehe! But it's alright, my friends and I are planning on going to this cute little cafe that opened up downtown recently..."
Ame tunes out the woman's excessive yapping as she scans her groceries.
After all of the items are scanned, Ame tells the woman her total, trying to keep up her happy outward appearance.
"Oh! Right, of course!" The woman says as she shoves her hands into her jacket pockets, presumably searching for her wallet. When she doesn't find it, she instead starts searching the pockets on her shorts, giggling awkwardly. When she does find it, she sighs in relief.
"Phew! I was worried for a second there!" She laughs, using her credit card to pay for her groceries.
"You would've had to put everything back if you forget your wallet," Ame says in a playful tone, trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice.
"Ugh, that would've been embarrassing! And tedious," the woman groans. She walks to the end of the counter to finish bagging her groceries. Once all of her items are probably bagged up, she picks up her bags and gives Ame another sweet smile.
"Thanks for your help! have a good day, miss!"
"You too!" Ame says, secretly glad to see the woman leaving.
Ame helps more and more customers as the hours pass. After what felt like forever, Ame notices the sun setting. She checks the time on her phone again.
8 PM.
Just one more hour.
Still, the thought of having another hour of work is torture to Ame. But she's already convinced herself that it's worth it for the pay. She keeps this in mind as the next customer walks up to her register.
"Good evening. I'd like to buy this, please," The girl's voice is soft, her expression is almost eerily blank, and she's clad in traditional Japanese clothing. She places a shopping basket filled with various baking supplies onto the counter.
"Okay!" Ame replies, taking items out of the basket to scan them. Flour, sugar, eggs, baking powder, butter, and... a bottle of sake!? Ame looks at the girl again - the girl who is very clearly underage.
"Excuse me, do you have an ID with you?" Ame asks.
"No," the girl replies. "Why?"
"You have to be at least 20 years old to purchase alcohol." Ame points out, gesturing to the bottle of sake.
"Oh." The girl's voice is dull and unfeeling. "Okay. I'll put it back then."
Ame watches awkwardly as the girl takes the bottle and wanders off, leaving her stuff at the counter. (This is so dumb,) Ame thinks to herself, sighing in exasperation.
A few minutes later the girl returns, silently paying for her groceries with a credit card as if she hadn't just inconvenienced everyone in line behind her by disappearing for who knows how long. Ame wonders if the credit card even belongs to her, but she decides to keep her mouth shut about it.
"Thank you for your purchase!" Ame says, watching the girl take her sweet time bagging her groceries.
"Of course. My co-workers and I are throwing a party, so I need to bake a cake for them. I'll have to find sake elsewhere."
"Oh, sounds fun!" Ame forces out.
"Yes," the girl replies simply, picking up her bags. "Goodbye."
"Goodbye..." Ame's upbeat tone falters as the girl leaves without another word. She stares at the exit for a few seconds, before turning to take care of the next customer.
(God, I hate this job.)
Finally, the clock hits 9 PM, and the grocery store is closed for the night. Ame makes a beeline for the exit, not wanting to spend another minute in this wretched place.
The fresh air feels like heaven.
She keeps her head down as she makes her way to the train station, her social batteries entirely drained. (I'll be home soon,) she reassures herself, repeating the words over and over in her head.
(I'll come home to my P-Chan, I'll make us some curry for dinner... and I'll get out of this ugly uniform, dammit.)