"I said I didn't feel nothing baby, but I lied. I almost cut a piece of myself for your life, guess I was just another pit stop 'til you made up your mind, you just wasted my time."
cover creds: @Unicorn-Flowers
I toyed around with the bobble head on my part of the front desk. The bakery never gets as many customers as it used to in the olden days, now it's all about clubs and being disloyal to your partners. I was always alone during my shift— everyday, the exact start of my shift, the employees here before me always flee as soon as they see me walk through the door.
Not that I care either way, I enjoy this lonely silence. The bell rang and my back went erect, the same catchphrase from last time was about to roll off my tongue but stopped midway when, "K-Kiyoomi! What're you doing here so early?"
To be honest the man looked a mess, enormously different from yesterday. His hair was messy and he had slight visible eyebags and he dressed like a hobo. "Jeez what happened to you." My hands reached the front edge of the desk to snap a closer look of the boy. Dried up tear marks trailing down to his jaw.
I saw his lip trembling and my heart immediately broke. "Ki, what's wrong?!" The boy posed like a toddler sobbing for his mom at the grocery store. His arms crossed over the other and he kept his head low. I moved the unnecessary details on my desk to the side to land a clean jump beside him. I had to crouch to pick his head back up— I was fully aware of his mysophobia but I'm sure he didn't care for it at the moment just like I didn't.
Our eyes met but it was sad, I dreamed of meeting him again to stare into his eyes as he stared into mine but this wasn't what I pictured, I didn't mean for it to be like this, gloomy and depressing. My right hand slowly caressed the top of his head whilst my other hand let his head rest on the tip of my fingers.
Although it pained me to see him in this state, he still managed to look mesmerizing even with tears coating his lips with gloss. "Now will you tell me what's wrong?" I failed to lighten up the situation with my also failed laugh because the sadness was getting to me too, I felt like crying too but I stayed strong for the both of us.
Ki nodded instantly but took his time to actually speak through his gritted teeth. "T-t..Tomiko.." I should've known that slut had something to do with this. He wouldn't just come crawling to my workplace, looking like a wreck so early in the morning. "She left a voice message for m-me and I don't know what to do!" His whole body was close to giving out so I kept him standing myself instead.
I wasn't very good with helping people when they were already bawling their eyes out, in all honesty it made me panic. I put my arms around his neck and tip-toed to embrace his entire upper body with a tussle so he just put his head on my shoulder instead and we stood together in the quiet bakery, calming both ourselves down.
