"Still… it's kind of hard to believe that it was you I had my first time with," I said.
The moment I said that, she froze for a second and looked at me like I had just said something completely ridiculous.
"What are you even trying to say? Is it really that hard to believe you'd have your first time with someone older than you?" she asked, clearly caught off guard.
That wasn't even close to what I meant, but I could see how it came across that way. Yeah, I probably worded that badly.
"That's not what I meant," I said. "What I'm trying to say is… it just feels weird that it ended up being you. Before all that happened, I couldn't really imagine us getting along like that. I mean, when I first started working here, you were really harsh on me."
"W-Well, that's because you were sloppy with your work!" she shot back almost immediately. "As your manager, it's my responsibility to make sure you're doing things properly!"
I couldn't really argue with that. She wasn't wrong. I did mess up a lot when I started, and she was just doing her job. Still, the difference between that version of her and the one in front of me now was kind of funny to think about.
"Yeah, I get that," I said. "It just didn't exactly scream 'this is someone I'll end up sleeping with someday.'"
Okay, maybe that sounded a bit too direct, but it was already out there.
She went quiet after that, like she didn't immediately know how to respond.
"I-Is it really that strange?" she asked after a moment, her voice softer this time.
I looked at her, and honestly, the way she was reacting right now felt completely different from how she usually carried herself. She was blushing, avoiding eye contact, and fidgeting just a little. It made her look… cute. Not something I would've associated with her before.
"Well…" I paused for a second, choosing my words a bit more carefully this time. "When you're not looking grumpy all the time, I can kind of see why I got attracted to you back then."
"A-Attracted?" she repeated, like the word itself surprised her. "I didn't do anything to make that happen."
"You didn't have to," I said. "You're attractive. That's just how it is. It's not like attraction needs a reason every time."
She blinked a couple of times, clearly processing that.
"Y-You really think that?" she asked, still sounding unsure.
"I do," I said, keeping it simple. "That's why I always thought it was strange that guys don't approach you more often."
That seemed to hit something, because she went quiet again, but this time it felt more thoughtful than awkward.
"Well… I think I know why," she said after a bit. "It's probably because I don't want them to approach me in the first place. I've been focused on my career for a long time. Or at least, I tried to be. But… things didn't exactly turn out how I expected."
I leaned back slightly, listening.
I didn't know all the details about what she originally wanted to do, but I could tell she had aimed for something bigger than this. Seeing her here, managing a convenience store, felt like a mismatch. Not in a bad way, just… not where she was supposed to end up, if that made sense.
"Then why not just quit?" I asked.
The look she gave me right after that said everything. It was the kind of look that made it very clear I had just said something stupid without realizing it.
"It's not that simple," she said. "Quitting without any kind of backup plan would be incredibly stupid. And I mean incredibly stupid. I don't even know if I'd be able to find another job. This place is basically my last option."
She smiled after saying that, but it wasn't a happy smile. It felt forced, like she was trying to make it sound lighter than it actually was.
"Do you regret it?" I asked before I could stop myself. "Ending up here instead of somewhere else?"
Yeah, that probably crossed a line.
I wasn't really in a position to ask something like that. It wasn't my business. But at the same time, seeing that expression on her face made it hard not to wonder.
"You're asking a lot of personal questions," she said, giving me a look that wasn't exactly annoyed, but not entirely amused either. "I don't mind though. It's fine." She paused briefly. "Although… I think I'll need a drink before I get into that."
She stood up, walked over, grabbed a beer, and paid for it.
Even as the manager, she still followed the rules. No special treatment, not even for herself.
"Just don't go overboard," I said.
"Relax," she replied. "I can handle my alcohol."
That was kind of funny, considering how things turned out the last time alcohol was involved. That whole situation led to us having sex in the first place. Still, she had insisted she was fully aware of what she was doing back then, so I wasn't going to argue about it now.
She opened the beer, the soft fsshh sound filling the space for a second, then took a small sip before continuing.
"It's not like this is what I wanted," she said. "I used to work at a fairly well-known corporate company. It wasn't perfect, but it was a step in the direction I wanted. At least, that's what I thought."
She looked down at the can for a moment.
"But things didn't go well. I had a lot of disagreements with the management, especially about the proposals I was making. I got into arguments with people there. Verbal ones, nothing physical, but still… it built up."
She let out a quiet breath.
"And then one day, I got fired. Just like that. I didn't even fully understand why at first. I just wanted to prove that I could be useful to the company, that I could help it grow. But instead, they saw me as overbearing. Someone difficult to work with. So they let me go. With no proper explanation and no chance to fix anything. And all of that happened within my first month there."
She took another sip of her beer, this time a bit longer.
"After that, I started looking for jobs again. I thought it would be simple. I mean, I had experience, even if it was short. But it didn't go the way I expected."
She gave a small, almost tired laugh.
"Every time I applied somewhere, they'd look at my resume and immediately focus on that one detail. The fact that I got fired after a month. They'd ask why. Over and over again."
"And when I couldn't give them a clear answer, or at least one that satisfied them… I'd fail the application."
She shrugged slightly.
"It turned into this loop. Apply, get questioned, fail. Repeat. Again and again. And eventually… no one wanted to hire me."
Well, that sucked. And yeah, it sucked a lot more than I expected it to.
"So, I ended up here," she said, her tone quieter now, like she was just talking to herself and I happened to be there to hear it. "To be honest, I think this is just one of those things that happens to people. You mess something up somewhere along the way, maybe not even that badly, and then it just keeps piling up." She paused for a second, like she was choosing her words more carefully. "It reaches a point where you can't really fix anything anymore. You just kind of… deal with it. It makes you want to quit sometimes. Actually, more than sometimes."
She let out a small breath, then continued.
"But if I quit, then everything I've worked for until now would just be meaningless. Like it never mattered in the first place. So I guess I don't really have a choice. I just have to keep going and put up with this."
I didn't interrupt her. It didn't feel like the kind of moment where I should.
From the way she said it, it didn't sound dramatic or exaggerated. Like she had already thought about this a hundred times and came to the same conclusion every time.
So this was how she kept herself afloat. Even if it meant ending up in a place like this.
Honestly, it didn't sit right with me.
She didn't belong here.
Even if our first few interactions were kind of rough and borderline hostile, I already knew she wasn't just some random person getting by. She had something. I'd heard about her grades before, a 3.9 GPA, which honestly sounded unreal. That wasn't something you got by accident. On top of that, she graduated from a pretty prestigious school. People like that usually had things lined up for them.
So seeing her here, hearing her talk like this, it felt like something was off. Like her potential was just sitting there, not being used properly. It felt like watching someone with actual talent get stuck in the wrong place.
"If I ever become a business owner, would you quit this job and work for me instead?" I asked.
I didn't plan on saying that. It just came out.
The moment the words left my mouth, I realized how random it probably sounded.
She looked at me, clearly surprised, like she didn't expect that kind of question at all.
"Well… if it's something like that, then I guess I would," she said after a moment. "Not like I can do that right now, though. You don't even have a business yet."
She picked up her beer and took a sip, and I noticed a faint blush on her face.
[+ 20 Verra's Mood]
"Are you actually planning to start a business?" she asked, this time sounding a bit more curious.
"Yeah. I am," I said. "I'm already working on it. And right now, I think I need a manager. So if you're okay with it… would you consider it?"
That got her attention.
"W-Wait, seriously?" she said, her eyes widening a bit. "You're actually building a business? You're not just joking around or messing with me, right?"
"Why would I joke about something like that?" I replied. "I mean, I know I might look like some idiot who just wastes his time doing nothing useful, but I do have plans. I want to make something out of myself. I'm not just going to sit around forever."
She went quiet after that.
Not in a bad way. More like she was thinking about what I said.
"Is that really that surprising?" I asked.
"W-Well… yeah," she admitted. "I just didn't expect that from you. I thought you were just… you know… someone who didn't really care about becoming something bigger. Like you were just fine with whatever you had."
"That's kind of rude, you know."
I said it lightly, but I wasn't completely joking.
Still, I couldn't really blame her.
If I was being honest, the only reason I even started thinking about doing something productive was because of the system. Without it, I probably would've kept wasting time, drifting from one thing to another without any real direction.
"What kind of business are you planning to build?" she asked. "D-Do you even have the money for it? And have you actually planned everything properly? Like every detail? Have you calculated how you're going to reach break-even? Starting a business isn't cheap. If you just throw money into it without a proper plan and it fails to even break even, then you're just making things harder for yourself."
She was getting more serious now.
And she wasn't wrong.
Everything she said made sense.
"Well, to be honest, I don't really have the experience to manage everything perfectly yet," I admitted. "And the place is actually opening next week. I've already started looking for employees, but aside from that, I'm still figuring things out. I think I can handle it for now, though. It's just a small internet cafe. I don't think it'll completely fail or anything. And even if it does… I don't think it'll be that big of a deal."
The moment I finished, she looked straight at me.
Not casually. Seriously.
"Of course it would be a big deal," she said. "If you don't plan things properly, you're going to fail. That's just how it works. And when you fail, you lose money. A lot of it. Do you think running a business is some kind of game where losing doesn't matter? It's not like that."
She leaned forward slightly, her tone firm.
"Yes, it's high risk, high reward. But the chances of success aren't high enough to justify being careless. Most of the time, it's just risk. Then more risk. Then even more risk stacked on top of that."
Yeah.
I knew all of that already.
That was exactly why I was thinking the way I was right now.
If I wanted this to work, I couldn't do it alone. I needed people who actually knew what they were doing. People who could handle the parts I couldn't.
And she was one of those people.
Someone with actual ability. Someone who understood how things worked.
I wanted her on my side.
Not just as an employee, but as someone who could actually run things properly.
"Do you think you could help me with this business?" I asked her directly with no hesitation this time.
I just said it.
The moment I did, she went quiet.
Her lips pressed together slightly, and for a second, she didn't say anything at all. It was like she was caught off guard, not sure how to respond right away.