Numb(er)

Chapter 2

Italics is Shion thinking.

For about the hundredth time (so far) that day, I checked my watch. It read 12:30. I groaned aloud, silently thanking God, or gods, or whatever was sort of watching over me. My stomach grumbled loudly, agreeing with my happy sentiment. I unconsciously skipped (like a little girl…) to the lounge, ready to eat my lunch. I threw the door open, a smile apparent on my face as I started moving towards the fridge before, yet again, bumping into someone.

Oh, who could it be? I wonder! Not really.

It was the young man, from early. I grumbled an apology before continuing my way to the fridge, opening it and grabbing the brown bag with 'Shion' written in my handwriting in black sharpie.

"Hey, you." I heard an unfamiliar, deep voice coming from behind me, scaring me out of my hungry thoughts. I straightened up quickly out of fright, hitting the top of my head on the inside of the refrigerator. I yelped and let out a silent 'fuck' before rubbing the back of my head with my right hand, my lunch in my left. He paused for a couple seconds before continuing, "What's your name?" I turned around, careful not to hit anything again. The guy from before looked straight into my eyes, a serious look on his face. At first, I wasn't going to answer, but I felt an annoyed aura coming from him, so I decided not to push his mood any further into annoyance.

"Uh, I'm Shion. Who are you?" I answered, shooting the same question back at him. I subconsciously looked away from him, his eyes baring into me a tad too much. I then realized I was uncomfortable and also stuck between a rock and a hard place. Or, in this case, the guy and the now-closed fridge. After I asked the fateful question of who was he, his mouth twisted into an almost evil grin.

"I'm Nezumi."

And that's all that happened. He told me his name. He smiled at me, a coy tint at the corners of his mouth. He backed away from me, and walked away, whistling a tune I didn't recognize.

That's when I noticed what he was wearing.

He had an employee vest on. And he looked damn good in it, too. Why the fuck am I thinking that? I don't even find guys attractive, I grumbled silently before correcting myself: well... more accurately - I don't find anyone attractive.

A couple hours later, it was finally, finally, time for me to go home. As it were, that day was one of the most exhausting ones I've had in a long time. I checked my watch another several hundred times, before nearly collapsing when it finally (finally is my favorite word) said 6pm.

I sighed, leaning my tired body on the cool wall and reflected on the events of the day: After finishing lunch, I gave a few more tours, one on Greece, and one on France. I gave a slightly longer one, around 2 hours, about the generic history of the Earth. Throughout the tours, I always seemed to catch myself glancing around, looking for that mysterious weirdo, Nezumi. Yet, I also seemed to try to avoid him. A paradox, but truth none-the-less. A few times, I did end up catching his glances, making eye contact with him. For some reason, I kept looking away with my face feeling unusually warm, somewhat frightened. I must be catching a cold, I had determined, not believing any other plausible reason - since there obviously wasn't any.

After my Greece tour, I went up to the manager and asked why Nezumi was wearing an employee vest and he finally explained it to me, and everything came together. Jason, my manager, said that Nezumi is working at the museum for community service. He had been in jail for a couple months, after violating his parole. He obtained parole by robbing a gas station and getting caught - how unoriginal. He paid a slight fine and was under parole for several months until he robbed the same gas station.

I wonder what's his deal with that place, I questioned in my mind before recalling the rest of Jason's tale.

Nezumi had went to trial, and pled guilty so he was only sentenced to a year of jail. After 4 months had passed, they told him if he did some community service, he would reduce his jail time to only 2 months remaining, serving half of his total year-long sentence. Like any sane person would do, Nezumi had agreed. And out of all the damn places in Augustana, he was told to serve his community service at the History Museum. According to Jason, he had been whining unconditionally right before he started working.

Jason thinks he just gave up, but I knew what really happened. Nezumi saw me, and decided doing the service at the museum wouldn't be too bad - he could have fun torturing me. Oh boy, does he torture me. Obnoxiously, no less.

After the explanation Jason gave me, I did my France tour, and I could feel Nezumi's puzzling eyes baring into my back the entire time. I dared not turn around, in fear of what sort of monster I would see. The one time I did, he made a face that I guess he thought was supposed to be funny, but all it did was scare the shit out of me. His teeth were a bit pointed in his impish grin and I was positive he could rip someone's throat out like that.

For the rest of the France tour and the entirety of the Earth History tour, I kept my eyes and focus on teaching my groups about the past. I knew he was still watching me. Although I had been determined to focus on the tour groups, I still snuck a few glances at him when he wasn't looking my way. When Nezumi seemed to be relaxed, he didn't look too scary - almost peaceful. But not quite.

Suddenly, I was ripped out of my recollection of the day with a deep chuckle. I looked up from my sitting position on the ground to see the devil himself smirking down at me. I guess my contemplation of the guy called his presence towards mine. Like my thoughts had called to him or something. Either way, it didn't really matter, because he was still positioned above me, looking down into my eyes. His mouth started moving, but I was so engrossed with the fact that he was lingering over me, almost too close for comfort, that I couldn't make out what he was saying. I could feel his hot breath on the top of my head from all the down on the ground.

I blinked as he waited for me to respond. I opened my mouth to ask him what he had said. I had tried to sound undaunted by his close proximity, but what came out of my mouth was the opposite.

"W-w-what?"

Fuck. I stuttered. I grumbled a long, annoyed groan, feeling totally embarrassed. Before I could scold myself for being so stupid, I heard him laugh. This wasn't a dark chuckle, or a snicker, but a genuine laugh that radiated warmth.

"You're funny." Nezumi paused, calming himself down. He still had a glowing smile on his face before explaining. "I asked you if your shift was over yet."

I took a deep breath and nodded.

"Cool." He straightened up, cracking his back like he was some old man. He looked down at me again, a sly smile on his face. "You looked engrossed in your work. How long have you worked here?" he inquired, while stretching out a hand to help me up. I took it, pulling as I stood up.

"A little less than a year. I'm 18, but I graduated high school a year early, so that's why I'm able to work here for so long. It probably sounds dumb to everyone except me, but I love working at the history museum. There are so many different pasts, all in different timelines and places. And, it all adds up into one big history - the Earth. I love knowing the past of every single place, so that's why I give most of the tours. My favorite tour to give is either the Japan one, or the United States one, though I enjoy Greece, France, Italy, North and South Korea, and Australia as well. Not to mention, I have pretty much the entire history of the world memorized. Just the generic part, though. I can't know everything about the past - that'd be impossible!"

I finally took a breath, looking at Nezumi. He had a weird look on his face - like I was crazy or something. By then, I realized I had been babbling on about history, which I was sure he didn't give one shit about. Suddenly, the look changed. It went from confused to amused. I could feel my eyebrows scrunching up in confusion - why did his expression change so quickly? Like he had read my mind, he chose then to speak up.

"It's nice to see someone passionate about their work, for once. You said you're 18? I'm 21. I never finished high school. I don't love anything related to work. I don't even know if I even want to have a job at all." He paused, a slight frown flickering on his face, before going to a somewhat indifferent expression. "There. We're even. Now you know the same things about me, that I know about you."

Randomly, he frowned again before turning around and stalking off without so much as a goodbye. I was left there, my confused expression still apparent on my face.

The only thing that went through my mind was: He's one weird guy.

End of Chapter 2