VERSION 1.0
Jaewon
A few days later...
August 23, 20XX
I slowly opened my eyes expecting to meet my tan cold dull ceiling but instead get blinded by the bright shine of the sun, feeling little to no pain but temporary blindness as my eyes couldn't adjust to the sudden brightness difference, I quickly closed my eyes to prevent any more eye damage and turned away from the window before looking at my dark room.
The air is cold and stuffy with tiny little clumps of dust slowly flowing around the air where the sun shines causing them to inherit a glow to them. I quietly gaze in awe as they dance around in the air before looking for my phone. My boss always sends a text at the crack of dawn saying if I need to go to work or not since our work days are randomized. I sort of like this system because I didn't have to wake up in the morning for five continuous days and could just sleep in every two to three days.
I slightly raise my head and stared at the night stand, the light from the window barely illuminated the tiny little table. Several figures dotted the top of the nightstand, all of them look like unidentifiable dark blobs and none of them took the shape of my phone, I tiredly raise my hand and moved it until it was above the table and slapped it trying to distinguish the texture and surface of my phone from everything else.
I quickly narrowed down the choices until there is one blob that I haven't slapped yet sitting on the edge, farthest from me teetering precariously on the corner, I leaned over the edge of my bed and watch as my fingers drew closer and closer to my phone until I felt nothing below me supporting my weight.
It all happened in a blur, a rush of air, the crashing and breaking of several objects one of them being a glass that doused me in half a glass of water before breaking into a thousand pieces in front of me and finally the familiar thump of my phone that somehow turned itself on as my body collided on the cold lifeless and now damp wooden floor.
'that's definitely gonna damage the wood...' I thought to myself.
I glance at the now illuminating phone and notice the text from my boss, the lettering was too small for me to distinguish words and the letters seemingly combined into a bunch of thin black blobs. I carefully reached my hand out lightly placing it down on the floor making sure there isn't glass there and somehow moved my body until I was able to reach my phone.
The cafe will be closed for the entire day again due to the flu epidemic going around. Stay safe!
The flu has been unusually bad this year after several reports came out stating that this was becoming the worst flu outbreak in years.
Like every other year rumors are being spread that this year's flu season is an entirely different more deadly disease and this is 'the beginning of the end' but the people spreading the rumors are the same people that said that frogs are going to be our overlords so it's now become media's new comedic punch bag.
Many schools are apparently seeing dropping attendance with one school apparently only had thirty seven kids show up!
The good thing about this whole ordeal is that there is less likely to be random interactions with people so I can stay in my thoughts longer than usual.
I yawned and stretched my arms out to try and wake up my tired body. I let out a grunt as my body that yearns for sleep finally begins to wake up. I had to work all day until 2AM this morning to make up the lost revenue from all the days we've been closed.
He wasn't happy when all of his workers didn't want to work a twenty one hour shift and decided to randomly pick who would work the shift by placing little slips of paper with the names of the workers on them and randomly choosing five of them to work, we couldn't do anything about it because if we did we faced the possibility of being fired which no one wanted to consider how well this job pays for a cafe worker.
I got onto my feet making sure I didn't step on any glass and walked into the bathroom. I flicked on the light and stared intensely into the mirror. My eye bags are now just beginning to fade and my eyes were no longer bloodshot.
I take several deep breaths as I gaze into my eyes before shifting it to my hair which sported an intense bed head from me not drying my hair after a shower this morning. I look down at my mouth and immediately notice that I have a tiny line of drool that only went a little under two inches from the corner of my mouth.
I looked at it for a few more moments before I turned on the faucet and splashed water onto my face. I finished the rest of my business in the bathroom before heading into my closet picking out some clothes and putting them on.
I thought about the William guy as I just put on my shirt. Through my friend, I found out that when he arrived at the hospital his condition went into a nosedive and he immediately had to be put in the ICU and ever since then his condition continued to go downhill as the days passed by, he eventually passed away just yesterday and that really threw me off.
Even if he is a person that I only know the name of the fact that he just randomly threw up and collapsed onto the floor really concerned me.
My thoughts about him are soon overcome with food as I entered the kitchen and made the short walk to my fridge. Opening it I saw that all I had left was just a bottle of water and a stick of butter.
'Great...' I thought to myself,
I gotta go to the grocery store. I immediately go and grab my credit card and my phone and check my bank account 'I have enough for food for the rest of the month and I can finally eat out!' It doesn't seem much to others but it was a lot of money with my kind of pay, enough to pay the rent and bills. I hardly ever have money left over so whatever money I have left I simply use it for another time.
I look around my little apartment and notice that it's very filthily, I don't really clean much because it's a real hassle to do so I just let it slowly pile up until I have to do it. I go to my closet and get out the cleaning supplies and this maid outfit that I randomly got as a gift for my birthday because some of my friends thought it would be a funny prank... I don't really wear it of course because who would want to see me in a maid outfit.
It doesn't really take me very long to clean the entire apartment, just a little over half an hour and it's spotless. I put up the cleaning supplies and quickly dumped the maid outfit into my pile of dirty clothes making sure none of my neighbors saw me wearing it through my window cause that's going to be embarrassing.
I put on some faded jeans and white t-shirt and head towards the nearby restaurant, the food was really cheap so I didn't need to worry about what I was ordering there so I never came home hungry. I opened my door and see that the hall is nearly empty except for one of my neighbors standing outside in his boxers holding alcohol in his hand.
I tried to quietly walk by him but he caught me at the last second, he started to say barely understandable words and flung the bottle towards me and hitting the wall just right next to my head. I quickly rushed out of the building terrified of what else he might throw or said to me and went directly to the restaurant.
I opened the door and looked one last time behind me and reassured myself that he isn't following me and turned back around to see the owner of the restaurant, giving me a look like i just grown a third head.
The owner was a 73 year old Italian women that immigrated to the U.S when she was just 13 years old, she had 3 children and too many grandchildren to count but a few years ago her husband was rushed to the hospital after suffering from a heart attack and later passed away and ever since then I see a little bit of her personality disappear every day.
She gave me a worrying yet bright smile as I walked towards the counter before saying.
"Hello dear how are you doing? Do want the usual?"
"I am doing well and yes."
"Good your getting too skinny sweetie, you need to gain some weight!"
I blush in embarrassment before nodding and sitting down at a table near a window. I look outside to see a nearby tree with a little bird happily chirping away, it flapped its tiny little wings without a care in the world as hovered majestically above the branches.
I smiled fondly over it as it did a little dance on the road, then the smile went away after it got immediately ran over by a car.
I jumped back in surprise watching the little bird that couldn't get squashed under the tires. Silently observing the bird as it basically became a bird patty, I said a small prayer for it and got on my phone to look on twitter.
A few minutes pass before I hear a plate gently tap the table in front of me and the intoxicating smell of food wafting into the air around me, I look up and see a young woman who seems to be around the age of 28 kindly smiling at me before saying
"Enjoy your meal sir, I see that you have quite the relationship with my grandma, she doesn't like people getting close to her after you know..." She trails off with the sentence as her look becomes somber as she starts to twiddle with her thumbs
"Yeah..." I also trailed off before continuing "It's hard seeing her becoming a shell of her former self but she is strong for not letting her husband's death get to her... Well at least not right now.." I look to see her frowning as she knead some dough on the table
She slightly chuckles before saying "Well I gotta go help in the kitchen, my older brother doesn't like when I talk to the customers." a shout from the back most likely to be her older brother interrupts her before she shouts back "I'm coming" She quickly shouts back in a very obvious annoyed manner before saying again "Enjoy your meal sir." and went back into the kitchen as she shouts at her brother to shut up.
I laughed as I saw through the little window where you could see the kitchen as they started to fight and throw things at each other, watching in amusement as they grabbed knives and their grandma had to slap them with breadsticks for them to stop fighting and get back to work.
They both retreated to opposite sides of the room as they did an intense side eye staring contest before looking at the table with my plate of food on it. I licked my lips in delight as I saw the steam slowly rise from the plate before grabbing a fork and spoon and diving in.
I didn't bother paying attention to anything else other than my food as it slowly and 'mysteriously' disappeared from my plate. My mind stays blank as all the flavors of the meal dance around in my mouth as bite after bite enters my mouth. I moan in delight as the perfect balance between all the flavors created something that words cannot describe.
The meal only lasted around thirty minutes before I swallow the last bite of it, and tiredness slowly began to set in. I force myself up before I end up falling into a food coma and walk to the counter as my eyelids start to feel a bit heavy. I get out my wallet and place a twenty dollar bill on the counter before the owner stopped me and walked off.
I opened the door and a burst of warm Californian air surrounds my body, I step outside and look up seeing a few clouds above me not in a hurry to move and lingering around in the same spot.
I pull out my phone and check the time 1:37 PM it said. I have enough time to grab groceries and make it home and make dinner. I looked up directions to the nearest grocery store mostly because the grocery store I usually go to is in the opposite direction and is a 5 Mile walk from where I am there and I don't want to walk there. The nearest store is less than a quarter of a mile away and I did a light walk there which only lasted around a few minutes.
I walked in and was greeted by one of the cashiers before grabbing a basket and heading off around the store. I pick out a lot of vegetables and fruits along with some meat and maybe some junk food if I want to have one of those days. All in all I had around maybe 30-40 items in total in my basket when I walked up to the cashier, the person working there was stunned at how I could fit so many items into a basket that's so small but didn't care as he scanned all the items and showed me the total price of it all.
$28.54 was the final price after tax and had around forty dollars which let around twelve dollars to be later spent for something which is of uncertain as of right now. I quickly pick up all the grocery bags and headed home not wanting to be stopped randomly again.
I spent around 2 hours in the store and another 4 hours having to listen to a 'super short' story and this cheating ex-boyfriend that wants to get back together after he 'reconciled' himself and wanted to 'start fresh' but I couldn't listen to all of it because I had to get home before 8PM to prep the food and be ready to watch the newest episode of my favorite show.
I ran for several minutes watching as the sun slowly began to set over the horizon and the lights of the city slowly began to flicker on as store after store began to close for the day and people left for home. Time seemed to speed up as by the time I was at my apartment building the sun had already left the skies and the glow of the city lights gave the sky a yellowish tint.
The streets were mostly empty with a few cars passing by with most of them having tired drivers trying to quickly get home before they end up falling asleep on the road and something bad happens.
I make it to my apartment building a few minutes before 8 o'clock and climb up the steps two at a time as quiet as possible just in case if my neighbor was outside his apartment and tried to throw something at me again. I finally made it to my floor and breathe a sigh of relief when I saw the empty hall and quickly unlocked and opened my door.
Closing the door I turn on the light and immediately head for the kitchen to figure out what I was going to have for dinner. I never really had an exact idea of what food I make, I more or less sort of come up with it on the spot and see if it works. I quickly place the bags onto the table and quickly skim through each one of them and picked out some reasonable items for dinner.
I picked out some chicken, rice, some random spices, broccoli and several other items and grabbed several pots and pans and started to throw stuff together. I poured some rice into a container and after a process of rinsing out the rice I put it in the rice cooker and watched as steam slowly billowed out of the little openings before grabbing the chicken and vegetables and cutting them up into smaller pieces and throwing them into a stainless steel pan and making sure the food doesn't burn cause burnt food is such a waste of good food but I would probably still eat it anyways cause food is food.
The smell of food soon filled the air as I sigh in pleasure as all the aromas mixed in harmony creating something that reminded me of chicken fried rice, which is kinda obvious considering I have chicken, carrots, peas, and rice with some soy sauce mixed into this thing. The entire meal was done in a little over 25 minutes and by the time I plopped myself down on the couch and turned on the TV to the channel the show was on the opening theme song started to play.
I never really paid attention to anything else as the characters on the show go about they're dramatic daily lives as they go from one event to another with side characters always seeming to die every episode. I never really had a favorite character due to all of them dying every second.
As time passed the show eventually ended and my will to like the show was crushed as another one of my favorite characters died again in the episode, I sigh in dissatisfaction as I replay the memory of seeing him get ripped into pieces and getting eaten by one of those giant humanoid looking monsters.
I plop the last piece of chicken in my mouth before placing it in the sink not bothering to wash it and checked the time. It was almost midnight and I looked out the apartment window watching the city slowly settle in for the night as the fluorescent glow of the entire city lit up the sky creating a gritty urban aura that L.A. usually had.
I stared out the window for a few more minutes before I heard the chilling ending song that sounded like something out of a satanic ritual, goosebumps quickly appear across my entire body as I got closer to the living room until I finally turn it off. The eerie music still playing in my mind before I quickly shut it out and head off into the bathroom.
I quickly stripped off my clothes, turned on the shower and made sure it was the right temperature and stepped in. The warm water bombarded my body, relaxing my muscles as the streams of water roll down my thin frame. My mind turns blank as the days' events slowly become a drop in a vast ocean of memories.
After a few more minutes of showering I quickly wrapped a towel around my waist and finding some comfortable clothes to wear I lay down into bed snuggling into my blanket and quietly wondered about everything that happened these past few days.
First the William guy throwing up and collapsing on the ground at my workplace and him dying just today was a real curve ball in the week and apparently his sister didn't really care but cared at the same time mostly because he kept annoying her and kept stealing stuff from her even if she is sick which probably is why her friends kept hearing her shout William every 5 seconds but who am I to judge when I was kinda annoying younger sibling in my family heh...
I chuckle to myself recalling the plethora of memories of me annoying my siblings but at the end of the day they still love you unconditionally. I slightly frown knowing that I haven't seen my siblings in years, I don't even know what they are doing other than the occasional status update from them.
I never had enough money to visit them let alone own a car, but I heard that they are all visiting our parents in San Francisco right now which means that if work is cancelled tomorrow I can go and visit them since the bus fares are cheap enough for me to at least pay them one visit.
I was thinking of buying the tickets now but sleep is calling my name louder than my desire to visit my parents. I stumbled my way into my room and belly flopped into bed as I eyes shuttered closed.
Slowly the world around me darkens and for once, I went to sleep peacefully.
I hope y'all enjoyed the first chapter of the book. I never really thought I would finish this part mostly because I couldn't come up with anything lol. I've been debating whether or not i should restart the story since there are several aspects that i do not like about it.
Should i restart or just update the old chapters?
MR.MUMS~