Chapter 32.

Chapter 32. The Popular Girl who just wants to be friends. (1/5)

It had been five days since my encounter with a certain popular girl at the school. I hadn’t seen her once since then. I was presently seated behind a counter looking over the convenience store with half-dead eyes beside my coworker.

As for why I was in such a bad mood at the moment. It was a result of the person who’d just walked in to make a purchase.

She was presently the only customer in the store. As for the identity of the person, it was Rosa. At least I wish I could say that. I would have actually much rather it been her than who it really was.

It was the popular girl from school that I didn’t think I’d bump into again. Well, technically, I still hadn’t bumped into her. She was just in the store and she didn’t know it was me here so from her perspective we were completely unrelated strangers.

Currently, I was in a dilemma.

The popular girl was tiptoeing trying to grab a drink at the very back of the fridge on the highest shelf. She couldn't reach it. She even tried to use another bottle to pull the one she really wanted closer. It was the last bottle in there of the drink she wanted to get.

I internally struggled while watching. I didn’t want to help at all, but this was my job. I had to do it for the sake of a sale.

“What are you doing? Aren’t you going to help that customer out?”

“Uh… can you take this one? As you should be able to tell, I’m not particularly good with girls.

“I can’t reach it either. You’re taller than me and have longer arms, you should be able to reach it.”

“Can’t you at least try and see if you can first?”

“Oh! I get it… hmmm… could it be she’s the type of girl you’re interested in? And you’re too shy to approach her carelessly on your own because of how pretty she is? She’s a high schooler you know. Should you really be having such scandalous thoughts?”

“No. It’s nothing like that. I’m really just not good at dealing with such people is all.”

Looking at the girl desperately trying to reach that last bottle of her favorite beverage, with the appearance of someone who wanted to cry because of how cruel the world was to people not quite tall enough to reach the back top shelf of the fridge in convenience stores, I felt extremely guilty.

As for why I felt such immense guilt, I was the bastard who thoughtlessly stocked those drinks.

She could have come over to ask us of her own accord for help, but she was too nice and didn’t want to bother anyone with such a small matter.

Finally giving in I stood up.

“Oh, so you are going to help her after all then. If you’re going to do so, do it sooner. It’s just pitiful watching such a pretty girl on the verge of tears.”

I didn’t bother to say anything.

I simply walked up to the girl’s side in silence. She hadn’t noticed my approach at all. While she still had her hand stretched out I reached into the fridge and grabbed it.

“Ah. No way.”

It seems she thought I was here to snatch it up for myself.

I didn’t bother to remove it from the fridge or hand it over to her, I simply moved it up closer to the front row.

Her face was a bit too close for comfort, especially those crystal clear steel-blue eyes. 

Wanting to escape I quickly turned around and returned to the counter without exchanging a single word with her.

“Oh, aren’t you actually pretty smooth?” Yuna beside me joked.

I didn’t know what to say so I maintained my silence.

Not too long after the girl approached the counter with her bottle in hand. When she approached she placed the bottle down on the counter directly in front of me rather than Yuna as if she expected me to ring her up.

“Thank you for your help just now.”

I nodded in silence. It was best not to talk since she’d heard my voice before. I could alter it a bit like I usually did while at work, but I didn’t want to take any chances.

“Why don’t you ring her up? Haha, it seems she would rather you do it than me. I’m also feeling a bit lazy right now.” Yuna said with a bemused smile on her face. She was having fun seeing a situation that typically would never occur.

It’s not that I didn’t know how, it was just easier with the way we normally did things.

I begrudgingly got up, scanned her drink, then took her payment.

When I handed the bottle back to her, her hand came into contact with my own, but she didn’t seem bothered by that. Instead, she shot me a bright smile and slightly bowed in my direction while saying “thank you” before she left. She was such a well-mannered girl, it made me want to cry.

There’s no need to thank me, I’m the idiot who stocked the drinks in the first place, the root of all your problems so to speak. I should be your mortal enemy. The final boss in a video game you’d want to eliminate. The evil demon lord. A monster. A villain.

I sighed internally to myself while beating myself up over such a small and petty matter.

“Hey, I was sort of joking before about you being interested in that girl… but… are you actually interested in her? You didn’t open your mouth once during that entire interaction. Do you know her or something?”

Yuna was needlessly sharp as usual.

“No, and no. It’s nothing of the sort. I just don’t like interacting much with people I don’t know.”

“Yet you’re working at a convenience store where you have to interact with strangers you don’t know all day? You really think I’m going to believe that? At least try if you’re going to lie. Well, whatever. It’s true that who you like is none of my business. Just try to at least wait till she graduates before you confess your undying feelings of love for her.” Yuna made yet another unfunny joke at my expense.

“Aren’t you mistaken? Don’t you think my type would be a girl more like you? Someone my age that is.”

“Haha. Are you trying to hit on me or something? I suppose there’s a first for everything. There are no guys in their right mind who’d be interested in a boring girl like me.”

“You’ll make all the guys who come to this convenience store who only buy something just to see and have a chance to talk to you cry, you know.”

She didn’t have a retort and couldn’t say anything back. Somehow, I’d taken an inconsequential meaningless victory over her for once. Though it was such a pathetic thing for me to even consider a victory.

If anything, it felt more like she won.

Two days passed by and I was again at work. Today, at the same time two days prior, a girl walked into the store. It was little Miss Popular once again.

She immediately went over to the same fridge as last time but froze up with a troubled face. As for why… there was only one bottle left of the drink she got last time. I was similarly surprised because I’d restocked it just recently, but it was already almost sold out. When I thought about the customers who bought them, it seemed to be a drink quite popular among younger girls. I always filled it up, right to the back since it was one of our best sellers among drinks.

As for why there was one left so far back on both occasions, it was likely because girls tended to be shorter and had shorter arms so not many of them could reach the last one all the way at the back. It was truly unfortunate. Or maybe for her, it was actually fortunate in a way since she was the only one that put in the effort to get the very last one. 

Just like the day before, she reached out to grab it but failed to do so.

Instead of just sitting around and doing nothing I figured I’d get this over with quickly.

I approached her side again, grabbed it, and moved it to the front. I returned to the counter in the exact same fashion I’d done two days prior.

Yuna shot me a glance with one brow raised and an amused smile on her face but said nothing this time around. When the popular girl approached the counter she handed it over to me right away. I rang her up and she paid. She bowed and thanked me again with a smile.

The following day when it was five minutes before the time the popular girls had arrived on the last two occasions I got up and checked the fridge. There was one left over as usual. I decided to preemptively move it up to avoid having to go through the same hassle every single time.

As soon as I returned behind the counter the girl walked in. When she stopped in front of the fridge her face lit up happily in joy at the sight of her favorite drink within arms reach. There was only one as usual, but she didn’t question why it was at the front this time.

When she approached the counter she handed the drink over to me and I rang her up for the third time. She bowed and thanked me again with that same signature smile before she departed. 

“How sweet of you.” Yuna had a small grin on her face.

That’s all she said in the end.