Broken Smile [Tsukkiyama] -ON HOLD-

Chapter 1

“Excuse me kid, but can you please remove your mask?”

The old man asks. White strands of hair are visible and you can see wrinkles scattered across his face. He's brows almost met as he suspiciously looks at the boy in front of him.

“Ah! S-sure!”

******•******
Broken Smile

Chapter 1 - Usual day

Just another usual sunny day. Yamaguchi is trying to get a job but he get to see a usual scenario.

He is inside a small store owned by the old man in front of him.

“Ah! S-sure!” he hesitantly say as he remove the black facemask which covers the lower half of his face.
The old man in front of him gasp taken aback, he is shock by the sight presented by the boy.

“Y-you...” the old man trailed.
He cleared his throat and tries to speak again.

“U-uhm...I'm sorry kid, but we can't hire you.” the old man states, he bows his head 'cause he just can't look directly at the boy.
The freckled boy cleared his throat and speak

“I-is it...because of this?” Yamaguchi asks pointing at the stitches lined on top of a huge smile-like scar.

The old man hesitates to answer  “I'm really sorry” he said with head hung low.

“It's fine..” Yamaguchi then leave the store.

That's the fifth one today...

He sighed. Yamaguchi Tadashi, a 23 year old boy, is living all by himself. He need to find a job to support his living, and by the time now he have been trying to apply for a decent job, but he just can't get any.

I know it's because of this.

He thought as he touches his cheeks. He looks at the huge glass window of a store he manage to pass by.

What a horrible sight..

His mouth has an upward slashes which reach both of his cheeks creating a huge smiley scar. The scar is a bit purple-reddish and the skin is layered on top you could tell that it was burnt.

*tap*tap*

He jolts when he hears a tapping. There's a man behind the huge glass window he's looking to. The man is frantically waving his hand.

Yamaguchi tilted his head with a questioned look, he looks at the man and points at himself. The man looked mad. He made his way outside to confront the freckled boy.

“Hey! ” he shouts at Yamaguchi.

“Y-yes?”

“Could you please go away? You're scaring our costumers! ” The man says, raising his voice.

He heave another deep sigh, wear his facemask and made his way out of the man's sight.

******•******

Yamaguchi is currently sitting on a bench in a small park. He removes his mask and chugs the last drops of water in his bottle. Yamaguchi clutches the paper which contains all job opening he planned to apply to, he had crossed out almost all of it.

“How can I get a job with this?”

It's been a month since he started looking for a job. Of course he sometimes get one but he eventually lose it. He had been hired and then fired multiple times. The reason?

This scar...Like usual

He's renting a small apartment that's good for one person. He lives there by himself so he must pay the bills all by himself too. He gets extra money by selling his artworks, sometimes a friend would ask to draw them and they'll pay him back. He must say that he's a bit of an artist.
But the income he got by selling his works is not enough. He still needs to buy new equipments, pigments, pencils and such which cost him much. That's why he is searching for a job, but for heaven's love he had a hard time to get one, or more likely to make it last even just for a month or even weeks.

He exerts a loud frustrated grunt as he messes his green locks. He then look up and see how much of attention he earns. Few people looked at him, he earns disgusted and horrific looks. But what caught his attention is the young girl in front of him.

She looks at Yamaguchi with tears threaten to spill out of her eyes. Yamaguchi panicked, he realized that he wasn't wearing his mask. He frantically waved his arms not knowing how to console the girl.

“T-there! There! I-it's all right, I wont hurt you--”

Yamaguchi was interrupted with the loud wail of the girl. He immediately wears his mask on and tried to get near the crying girl. He tries to reach the girl with his trembling hands when someone shouts.

“Kidnapper!”

This made Yamaguchi stops his actions.

“K-kidnapper?”

He looks at the direction where the shout came from and a middle-aged women is pointing at him. 'Why would she think that I'm a kidnapper?!?' Yamaguchi asks himself. He then looked at his self 'oh right...Mask, cap, shades, and a jacket?...Who wouldn't?'

“Eh? W-w-wait! I'm-I'm not! Let me expl--”

He says but the young girl started bawling her eyes out. He tries to explain but his mind is filled with cries of the girl, shout of the woman and mumbling of the crowd. He can't think straight so he just run out of the scene.

******•******

He is now near the river bank, hiding under the bridge. The sun is setting, making a beautiful scenery most people love. That commotion is usual. People always think that he's suspicious
Like a bad person or somethin'

He looks down the river where his reflection is visible. He let his mask slid down his face but manage to catch it before it completely fell.
It's so sad that he has to live with this life, but after years? he's now used to it.

He focused on his reflection on the river as the place gets darker and darker, till the only thing that emits light is the moon...

******•******
Word count: 1000 :*

FINALLY!! A chapter, lol

how's the this though? Is it great? Tehehe I hope so. If you see any mistake, please do correct me I'll appreciate it <3
btw, today (19th) is mi birthday so I came into conclusion that I might as well update this for ya'll ^^'
I'll try my best to update as often as I could, much love<3 ;)

-Jane