酷视

\'No, it\'s like she\'s not even surprised,\' I thought before shaking my shoulders a little in a silent chuckle.

"Is that what really happened?" The alleged manager asked while staring her employee down.

Yet, rather than lowering his head in even a fake attempt at apology, the young man glared right back into the woman\'s eyes with something between a pained and insulted look.

"I have no idea what this man is talking about! Rubbish! That\'s all he spoke!" he raised one of his hands while resting the other over his heart. "I swear!"

"What do you swear on?" I asked, actually minding the possibility of this man getting away scot-free. "Because I\'m ready to take away whatever you are dishonestly swearing on," I added, more than happy to inform.

The manager only shook her head and sighed.

"It\'s a word against word…" she then admitted in a sort of defeated voice, instantly giving rise to a flame in my soul.

Yet, right as I was about to start kicking up a fuss, the woman sharply raised her chin and threw a furious… no, hateful stare at the young man.

"The good thing is our cameras record both video and voice. And for legal reasons, all those recordings are backed up to the server!"

The woman\'s voice grew louder and angrier as her calm expression gradually peeled off, revealing the true scale of the fury brimming in her soul.

And hearing the woman\'s words, the young man stole a quick glance at the broken camera… Only to have his blood flow down from his face. He opened his eyes, trying to come up with a clever excuse… But what could he do against a solid proof?

\'That\'s one weird dynamic between those two,\' I thought. There was no question how the event right now was just the trigger, the drop of this guy\'s mischief that spilled over from the chalice of his manager\'s patience.

What we were witnessing was not the woman giving Fay justice, but her using this opportunity to unleash her demons.

"I believe this is enough of an answer to who speaks the truth," I pointed out, suddenly losing interest.

If it was about upholding Fay\'s honor and grace, I didn\'t mind spilling blood if the encounter escalated to that level. What was the use of all my physical strength and social power I worked hard to obtain if I couldn\'t use it when it mattered?

But again, this was no longer the case. And I had no plans of letting some woman use my grievances to settle her own accounts.

\'Do whatever you want, I\'m just not going to participate in it,\' I thought, grabbing Fay\'s hand a tiny bit tighter, only to feel her press into my side in return.

"Yeah," the woman nodded her head in response to my words. "I think so too," she added before turning to her employee. "Get the hell out of my shop. And I dare you to complain to that bastard of a father of yours!"

I slightly raised my eyebrows, suddenly craving some popcorn to snack while I observed the drama develop.

Yet, for all the bravado this damned fuckboy showed when trying to obnoxiously court my girl when it came to confronting the store manager… or rather, its owner, he…

His face twitched as some varying thoughts flashed through his mind. He even opened his mouth again, only to do the same as before and hold his words back.

"You just wait till he hears all about this!" the fuckboy suddenly exclaimed, pointing one of his hands at the woman while tearing off the shop\'s outerwear tunic off his normal clothes. The next moment, he was already at the doors, shouting some profanities as he escaped.

"I\'m sorry for allowing him to escape with all his limbs," I whispered over to Fay\'s ear, only to have her slightly shake her head in response.

"I don\'t really care about him," she said while rolling her eyes… only to instantly bring her attention back to the true priority of the moment.

Noticing Fay\'s stare turn towards her merchandise, the shop\'s owner sighed and lowered her head.

"I\'m really sorry for what happened," she apologized with a genuinely troubled expression all over her lowered face. "I\'ve tried all the methods to get rid of this parasite, but up until this moment, I could do nothing about him," she offered some explanation for what actually had just happened before raising her head and offering a small, still-troubled smile.

"I know this won\'t be enough, but may I offer you a free bottle of one of our high-grade products in exchange for your trouble?"

By now, all my anger has mostly dissipated.

Now that this fuckboy was gone, what would be the point of redirecting my annoyance over at this innocent woman?

\'Everyone has their own circumstances,\' I smiled at my thoughts before waving my hand, rejecting the woman\'s offer.

"That won\'t be necessary," spoke, only to bite myself in my tongue when I noticed the inherent message hidden in this precise formula. Hurried to mend my unintentional mistake, I quickly added, "How about we forget about what happened and pretend I didn\'t just break one of your cameras instead?"

Calmed down, I managed to somewhat sympathize with the woman. How could I judge and punish her for her inability to get rid of such a rude clerk from her shop, when I spent most of my life doing only the little that others allowed?

And when I put myself in the woman\'s shoes… the weight of me fucking up the camera and smashing one of the bottles, as cheap as they could be in my eyes, changed.

"Oh," the woman jumped a little, taken aback by my approach. "It\'s just a cheap fake, bought it for five bucks on some garage sale," she then added, showing no sign of a desire to haggle.

\'She could\'ve easily demanded a few hundred for it,\' I thought, glancing over at what turned out to be a mere maquette. \'Is it her way of showing sincerity?\'

Rather than once again refusing the woman, I simply nodded my head.

"Well, I\'m not going to blame you for the actions of others," I smiled, "consider this me restoring my karma after acting like a Karen a few times in the past," I added, averting my eyes and scratching myself behind my ear as certain, quite recent cringe memories reappeared in my mind.

For a moment, the shop turned silent, fully restoring the smokey basement vibe it carried…

Only for all three of us to burst out laughing at the same moment.

"Well then, since the only clerk I could see is gone now, may we employ your help for a bit?" I requested once we calmed down, "Right now, valid advice on our choices would be of great use."