Back when I met you, I didn't have a clue...
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"Emi!" Ren Kuroki dropped her keys and purse at the front door of her apartment, carelessly kicking off her shoes as she made her way inside, "Emi, did you do the dishes? I mean, it's only fair, Em, I did the laundry, and the shopping, so the least you could do is..."
She stopped dead, taking a good look at her surroundings. It was oddly clean. Clean was not normal. Though Ren usually tried her best to keep the apartment as clean as possible, her roommate Emi did her very best to stumble home at one in the morning and knock over as many things as possible.
Emi was a party-girl, through and through, much to Ren's dismay. Fresh out of high school, and she was already drinking college seniors under the table. She was a beer pong champion at the Domino City Community College, and had a rather nasty habit of vomiting in the laundry hamper whenever she was home.
Quite a change from the AP Biotech student Ren had once known and loved.
But now that she had gotten a better look around the apartment, she realized that it hadn't been cleaned at all. Things were missing. The chair and ottoman, the television, two full shelves of trinkets and books, posters and photos off the walls, the stereo... Great. Robbed. Fanfuckingtastic.
Ren plopped down onto the couch, head in her hands, trying not to cry. She didn't cry. Crying was for pansies and poodles, and she was neither. She had been robbed. That was it. Someone had broken into the house and taken her things. It wouldn't have been a difficult feat, either, last she had seen Emi, she was passed out, drooling on the couch, adding to the fond vomit stains on the upholstery.
But when she thought back on it... where was Emi?
And that was when she saw it. A folded piece of printer paper on the coffee table, with Ren scrawled across the top. She snatched it up and began to read aloud...
"Ren,
Sorry, love, but I took my shit and hauled ass out of here. I'm going to live with Matsuo. You remember, right? That hottie we met at Tama's party? Or were you there? I can't remember... Anywho, it was fun while it lasted, let's go clubbing sometime!
Love ya lots!
-Emi Takumo"
Ren shook her head, gazing off in frustration. "Love me lots, huh?" she asked, laughing weakly, "PS? PS: Sorry, Ren, but I'm not good for this month's rent money. Think you could go ahead and take care of that? Oh, of course Emi. I'll take care of your rent for this month. After all, I take care of it ten months out of twelve already!"
Fucked.
Ren balled up the letter and hucked it across the living area. She was utterly fucked. Her video-rental salary just barely paid for food and half of the rent. She refused to ask her parents for financial help again, she'd already had to borrow money from them to pay the rent for the past couple of months. She wouldn't move back home, and she wouldn't ask them for help. She was going on twenty years old, a grown woman now. And she would not beg her parents for money.
"A second, job, that's it..." she mumbled, working out a plan in her head, "I'll just get a second job. It shouldn't be too hard, at least I don't have to worry about paying for school or anything on top of that..."
She sighed, taking another glance around the apartment. The television was gone. The television that she had to save for months to be able to afford to pay her half. All that Emi had left her was a macaroni vomit stain gleaming fondly on her rug.
"Home, sweet home."
*****
"Hi there! Are you all set, here?"
Ren hated video rental. Hated it. Among the many things that she hated in life, her job was topped the list. Every year since the tenth grade, she swore to herself that she would work a job that was better than the last. A job that paid a bit better than minimum wage. A job that had a bit more reasonable hours. A job that was a bit less humiliating to work. A job that she detested just a bit less than the last one. She hated that she had to play bitch to six different bosses, hated that she had to take crap from idiot customers who didn't know what they were talking about, and she hated having to put on that perky facade and sit there and take all of that abuse.
But still, she held her head high. These Joe Jobs were just stepping stones on her way to her ultimate goal of becoming a photographer.
Ren had opted out of going to college, instead choosing to go straight into the working world. She felt as though more study of the subject of photography would sour the experience, and Ren wanted to experience her true passion on her own. She was always an independent learner, a hands-on kind of girl, and was never very good at doing things the conventional way.
Needless to say, her parents were a bit disappointed that she hadn't gone right into a university. But Ren didn't care. Her sisters, Karin and Michiyo, were still in high school and were already planning their college lives. They'd go to college and do wonderfully. Besides, two college graduates out of three children was still a passing grade for their parents. Ren would find her own way to succeed in life.
But right now, she was having a hard time convincing people that working at Video Hut was an intentional part of her master plan.
"Um, yeah, why does it say that it's going to be thirty-six bucks for a video rental?" asked the balding man at the counter, looking down at the pin pad, "I just want Blazing Saddles."
"Oh, it says here that you have quite the late fee..." said Ren, checking the computer, "Thirty-two dollars for that movie 300. It says that you still haven't returned it."
"What!?" he exclaimed, "I brought that back weeks ago! Something must be wrong, maybe something's wrong with your system."
"Sir, it says right here that you've had this movie for five weeks past its due date, it's not logged as being here in the store, it's not been rented out by anyone except you. You must still have it."
"I'd beg to differ." he said, visibly reddening. She tried so hard not to sigh and roll her eyes. The purple veiny guy was going to have a hissy fit right here in the middle of the store, and Ren was going to have to take the brunt of the attack. It was going to be a long day...
"Sir, this late fee's only going to get worse with time." she reasoned, trying to do her best damage control, "If you still have it, it's fine, no skin off my nose or anything. If you just pay the fee now, it'll be like you just bought the movie."
"But, I returned it!" he snapped. This was where it always got ugly... "You know, I really hate it when you movie places slap on these late fees and shit just so you can squeeze a couple extra bucks out of us! It's mad! I'm not paying this late fee, and you can't make me!"
"Fine, then you can just leave and not get the movie." she said, doing her best to calm the eggplant man, without actually losing her own patience, "We're not going to make you pay it right now, but it's our policy to not let you rent anything more until it is paid."
"No way, I'm a paying customer!"
"Obviously not..." she mumbled, wondering to herself just how long until her next break was.
But before Ren could further ponder that thought, the DVD box was thrown in her face, smacking her in the nose. It clattered down onto the counter, the disc flying free of the case. She blinked twice, not sure exactly what had just happened. This guy had just thrown a DVD case at her face. A completely unprovoked attack on her person. A more responsible employee would have had him escorted from the premises, but Ren was not a responsible employee.
Before she could think her actions through, she had thrown the case back at him, hitting him square in his ugly mug. Ha. He had it coming.
"Miss Kuroki!" Oh, Hell. Roseanne again. Yui Mizuhashi, regional manager of Video Hut, was currently waddling her way towards the hubbub. Of course. The lardo had to stuff her fat nose into everyone's business. Mizuhashi, a short stout woman with the worst Napoleon complex Ren had ever seen, had witnessed the whole event from three registers down, and just had to give her own say on the event. "What on Earth is wrong with you!? That is a customer! I'm going to have to write you up for this!"
Ren rolled her eyes, thoroughly sick of the world. "You know what?" she asked, tearing off her team lanyard and slapping it down on the counter, slamming her work keys down next to it with a loud clatter, "You go ahead and do that. Fuck this, I hate this job, I hate these mindless sheep coming in here, and I hate you!"
"Ren!" she shrieked, stomping over to register one, "You are in front of customers! Go to my office and wait for me there."
"Fuck this job - I quit!" Ouch, Ren hadn't planned on that. But she had to stick with her decision! Once it had been said, it couldn't be taken back. She had quit, and she wasn't going back, so she grabbed her bottled water and stomped her way out of the store, legging the glass door slam shut behind her.
She blinked, surprised. Clearly she had never had anyone blow up on her like that. "You can't quit!" she yelled after her, "You're fired!"
Mizuhashi nodded in victory with the slam of the door. "Yeah. That's right. You just try and come back. Give it a week, you'll be begging for your job back, Ren Kuroki."
*****
"I'm boned..." Ren mumbled, once she had found a way through the epic parking structure to her moped. She was really beginning to feel the sting of what she'd done. It wasn't an intelligent move, especially in the financial state she was in. But she certainly wasn't about to walk back in there and ask for her job back. That would mean submission, and Ren Kuroki wasn't about to submit to that pig of a woman.
She sighed, strapping on her mod white helmet over choppy, almost boyish brunette locks. She hadn't had a haircut in a while, and it looked like it was going to be a bit longer, now...
As she fired up her moped, a flyer taped to the door of the phone booth in front of her caught her eye. In bold print was 'Babysitter Wanted : Exceptional Pay'.
'Exceptional pay, eh?' It was worth a look.
Full time babysitter wanted to look over fifteen-year-old tech enthusiast. Provides benefits and generous pay. If interested, come to 22 Shinjuhime Court on the morning of October second at promptly eleven o'clock.
No previous experience is necessary.
Ren grinned her cheshire grin, tearing the advertisement from the phone booth. "Cha-ching."
