"Can I help you?"

The woman standing in front of me pinched her face even tighter as she eyed me up. My first week on the job had been anything but eventful, and I was getting bored. I wanted something, anything to shake things up.

Well, maybe not everything. Definitely not a pinched looking woman glaring at me as I stocked shelves.

"Yes, you can help me," the woman snapped. "I need to know the price of something."

"Alright, what is it exactly?"

"I think it's called a 'Mega Potion' or something along those lines."

"You think it's called a 'Mega Potion?'"

"Yes, didn't you hear me?"

"Sorry," I mumbled. "I believe those are 1000 gil."

"Well, there's something else!" She boomed at me. "I get a discount."

"What?"

She rubbed her temple inpatiently, "I. Get. A. Discount. Mr. Rin gives me a discount. I just don't remember how much."

I was still looking for an easy way out of this mess. I should have just gone with my first instinct. Hurt time.

But instead...

"Do you have a member's card or anything?"

"No. He's just always given me the discount. Why don't you know this?"

"Well, if you don't have a card or anything, I don't know. I can go check for you, if you'll give me a second," I put the last antidote on the shelf and headed to the back to find Rin.

"You mean you don't KNOW?" She screamed at me. "How could you not KNOW?"

"I'm just going to go check," I said through gritted teeth. Then, stupidly reconsidering what I'd just said, I decided to say simply "I'm very sorry, it's my first week on the job. I'm not sure of everything yet."

There, I admitted I had screwed up. Everything was...

"You don't KNOW? How could they let you work here if you don't know?" She continued. "I'm sorry my dear, but do you realize what you are doing?" She began pounding the shelf with her fist. "You are EMBARASSING Mr. Rin! And I think I have the right as one of his longest standing customers to point out that you are an embarrassment and that if I were your manager I wouldn't have hired you until you knew every price and every customer in this store!"

This time I went with that first instinct.

I grabbed the woman by the back of the head and pulled her towards the shelf. She screamed as I pounded her head into the shelf I'd just stocked. I held tight to her and pounded her into that shelf again, and then again. I was about to smash her forehead one more time, when I heard "PAINE! Stop!" This was quickly followed by someone pulling my hand off of the woman's head.

Rin immediately began apologizing to the woman. I turned back the shelf and began re-arranging the antidotes that had been knocked over when her head hit the shelf.

The woman left in a huff and I figured it was all over. Rin was going to fire me, let me go without paying him, and it would all be great.

Instead he moved me. To behind the register. To work on my "people skills."

Fuck.