It was such a sunny day at the broom-landing patch. Oktrext however was not having a good day. His super had just scolded him for he had forgotten to turn off the one eyed bug last night, the bug's behind had been shining all through the night calling broom flights from all over the world to Apasmyran and this had messed up the Broom Travelling Network. Apasmyran was the Witch's equivalent of New York, so it was always busy, and Oktrext's mistake had made it even busier. (A group of Chinese witches had threatened to curse all of Apasmyran since their delivery of Warm Mummies Fingers to Zimbabwe had been delayed because of the light.)
It took the energy of all the Apasmyran Mayor Office to smooth the matter over, and of course, they need someone to blame and he had made it easy. Oktrext was already bored of his routines-filled work, it was always signalling the brooms, clearing the catwalks to the patch, showing the wind-strewn witches and wizards to the flight-port. He almost announced that he wanted to quit, but he needed this dire job, because it pays the bills.
It was not until a witch tapped his shoulder that he realised that he was signalling to a family-sized, double-embroidered carpet to land on a broom-landing patch, he quickly gestured to the carpet's driver to land on the carpet catwalk two hundred meters north of he was working.
That was a close call; he could be really fired because of that.
He turned around to face the witch who had saved his job. But the face that met his eyes was far from glee. The witch's face was scowling and her mouth was pursed. She looked extremely angry but Oktrext was looking beyond that, the witch had a very beautiful face, her eyes was slightly slanted, she had the cutest nose with small ridge, her face was heart-shaped and Oktrext had never felt his heart beat this fast. He felt his face going into a smile.
'Arigato,' she scoffed, Oktrext noticed her derisiveness in saying that one Japanese word, but he chose to ignore it. It was also the only one Japanese word he understood.
'You are welcome,' he said, could not believe it that he was talking to one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen.
'Anata wa watashi ni anata ga ita hōhō o shimeshita...' she said. Anyone in their vicinity would realise that the woman was angry with him, even when none could understand her language. With a hiss, the woman turn around in a swirl of her red robes and disappeared into the throng of people going into the flight-port.
From that day on, Oktrext had never taken his job with any laxity. His patch and his station proved to be the cleanest and the most well-managed station in the Apasmyran flight-port. Even his super was really confused with this change. Oktrext blond hair that was usually scraggly was combed sleekly under his horned-helmet. His crimson toga that was usually as wrinkled as the sea was now as soft as still water.
His super and his colleagues was baffled by this change. But what his colleagues didn't know was that there was a very simple reason why Oktrext changed, the reason why almost all men changed for the better.
It was love.
Oktrext was unequivocally, indubitably in love with that woman. He had always been scolded by flyers before; it almost fit into his job description. But there was something about that Japanese Witch that changed him. Something about her look, her eyes were fiery, how her lips pursed, and then parted the words that Oktrext would never understand. It all had changed him. Like he wanted to be better for himself, and for her.
It was not until two months later that Oktrext finally saw the woman again, she was casually walking towards a landing patch with her emerald green robes billowing behind her. She was not screwing up her face in anger this time, and her beauty was more apparent. Oktrext felt a sensation in his knees, as though he never ever had any knees - he felt like he didn't need them now the woman was here.
