𝕆ℕ 𝔸 𝔻𝕀𝔽𝔽𝔼ℝ𝔼ℕ𝕋 𝕊ℍ𝕆ℝ𝔼

10

Y/N leaned back against the stone wall, surveying the pub. It was dimly lit with candles and lanterns all over the place. They gave the place a nice golden aura. It felt cozy and homely. The place was incredibly warm, as it was completely stuffed with people - mostly fishermen and sailors - that had come here to enjoy the evening, but the cool drink that Y/N was holding in her hands was balancing it all out.

She had never really had the money to drink ever since she had come here, and she hadn't been drinking much before coming here either, because she was basically a child. But Yami had told her that no one here ever checked for their age and most people that were known to work on the fishing boats or on the bigger ships would get a drink or two or maybe even more. And since Y/N was now officially working with Yami's father, she counted as one of them.

It felt like a bit of a victory for her to be counted as one of the fishermen. Especially after she had been trying for so long to get a job and was always turned away. It felt good to be here and to drink with everyone else. And funnily enough, everyone was treating her with a whole new kind of respect now. She was a little salty about that not being the case beforehand, but she also enjoyed being part of this little group now. She liked that she was in on all the jokes and the name-calling and wasn't being laughed at and mocked anymore. It was strange how it almost happened overnight.

But she was almost happier that she was here with Yami. Sure, people were still talking about them, but Y/N really liked him. She didn't care all that much about what people were saying. She loved spending time with him, she enjoyed working with him and having some drinks after work with him. It almost made her feel like her life had finally started and like she could manage to take care of all these things she had to take care of. She had so much more time, too!

She got some days during the week off which she could use to relieve Hiroshi from his duty and which she could use to do laundry, clean her room or do any other chores that needed to be done. Life didn't seem nearly as daunting to her anymore now that she was making better money and was able to have some time off. She'd almost call it enjoyable, but she was afraid that calling it enjoyable would make something terrible happen and she'd lose it all. Like a jinx or something.

She had even managed to get a better room, where she had more space and more privacy, because now she could pay the rent and the landlady actually believed that she was able to pay the rent, because her son worked on a fishing boat and he knew her. It was amazing how many doors knowing other people could open, especially in a small town like this one. She smiled to herself.

"You look way too happy for how exhausting today was." Yami said to her, as he saw her smiling. Y/N chuckled and nodded, before taking a big gulp of beer. She did quite like the taste of it - it was refreshing, but it also felt strangely nourishing. She was getting an idea why it was so popular. Plus, it did give her a nice buzz if she drank enough of it or if she drank it really fast.

"Yeah. It was a good kind of exhausting." she replied. Yami frowned at her and shook his head.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? There's no good kind of exhausting. The good kind of exhausting is not being exhausted." he protested and started chugging down his beer. Y/N was still impressed by how quickly he was able to drink that. She only got a few gulps at a time down. It tasted good, but it still tasted somewhat bitter and she couldn't chug it down too fast.

"The good kind of exhausting is when you feel like you've actually achieved something. Like when you finish a long day of work and get your wages and that's that. A bad kind of exhausting is when you do the dishes just to get them dirty again the same evening." she replied. Yami shook his head, as if he still didn't understand but he smiled a little behind his glass. Y/N could see it in his eyes.