Do you prefer private vehicles or public transport? Maybe both? For me, it’s neither. I actively do my best to avoid them. It certainly takes a toll on my frail body to walk forty minutes each day, twice in fact, back and forth from my rented apartment to the office. But I like it very much. Not to mention it’s healthy for both body and mind. Plus, it’s free. So yay! Haha…

  No music, just thoughts. I watch the children go home from their schools, some elderly people tending to their needs by visiting various shops, and fellow workers who stroll about, and cars. Many cars. There's traffic so rge, so endlessly long I wonder whether it’d make any substantial difference in time were I to take a bus.

  The air hence isn’t as fresh as in some rural areas, but still, the air is air. Not much need for unbroken fields of poppy and lupin walled with clean cliffs to enjoy life.

  As for the noises? You may find them annoying. Me? I like them. Occasional beeps of honks included. Am I a masochist? I do get that a lot. But no. Let me expin why, okay?

  In the office, it’s always silent. Occasionally people chatter, bumbling meaninglessly meandering formalities. I do too. You can imagine how suffocating it is to talk when you don’t want to and smile when you don’t want to. So yeah, the noisy city actually calms me. I feel free walking here. I feel at peace amidst the disorderly chaos.

  Especially considering it’s my st day.

  Hey! Don’t get any wrong ideas! I didn’t mean st day in a sense like the very st day. But, uhh, like, st day at my job. I’m not dying! Okay?! Today, I decided I was done with the boring job, and that I have enough capital to pave my own path, and-and that I will fully focus on my own perfume business I’m about to unch!

  So today, I brazenly strode to my supervisor’s supervisor, chest raised high, fists clenched. In battle mode! And demanded! I demanded a twofold raise that’s long been due!

  He assaulted me with an arsenal of me excuses. I knew where it’d go. Quarterly review bh bh. At best a five percent increase— To hell with that! Minimum of fifty! And so I said! Ehm, shouted, actually. And so I got fired!

  They don’t know my worth! Incompetent fool! I do three people’s work, so that’s the least I deserve. Why should I, then, receive the same pay as the guy who, say, doomscrolls social media instead of working on the sales during work hours?!

  You may ask me then, why don’t I just do the same? Because I take everything I do seriously! That’s my mantra in life!

  So what if they don’t appreciate my efforts? Hmph! They’re the only ones losing on this!

  Anyway! Who’s calling me at such a poignant point in my life?!

  I run my hands through my pinkish purse with red fury and grab my trembling phone as my hands vibrate AND wham it onto my ear!

  “What do you want, bitch?!”

  “...”

  Not the best way to start a conversation if you ask me, I do admit.

  I force a smile right after.

  “How have you been, bitch~”

  Way better.

  “Jewel… are you like… fine?”

  “Of course! I always am!” I muse as the granny carrying groceries beside me shoots me a worried gnce.

  Scram, old hag. I wave my hand at her with a kind smile, barely resisting flipping a finger off.

  “So what's the deal, Iris? You know it's the middle of the week, right?”

  “Yesterday, you wrote to me you'd talk to the big guy at the company. So I was just worried—”

  “—That I'd say something stupid and get into trouble?”

  “Exactly! You know me well. Almost as well as I know you.”

  I cross the district, and a truck stops by me as the lights shine red. Then, I continue to walk with the herd, stepping off the crosswalk.

  “Wanna go have a drink?”

  “For fuck’s sake, Iris. It's the middle of the week.”

  I stop. I just got fired. Right.

  “And? Let's celebrate your promotion! I will bring Homer too!”

  Who the heck is Homer? Her new boyfriend?

  Love, hah. An exercise in futility.

  I'm not any bit jealous, per se.

  What? You think I'm lying?

  No, really not. As kind as she may be, men mostly court her for her petite body and pretty looks.

  As for me? Well, at least I'll know it's genuine since there's not much going on for me in that respect. Not like I care anyway. I've lived to be thirty, all alone. Then I might as well live another thirty in a simir manner and be done with life!

  “That book you sent me yesterday!” I yell at her through the encoded dimension. “THE worst read I’ve had in a while!”

  “You say so, but you’ve binged it through the night, haven’t you?”

  “Well, kinda…”

  Sure, I don’t like the disastrous ending where the dragon invasion takes pce and where they basically ravage all the territories and waste all the characters, but the story till that point is fine, albeit slightly too dark for my tastes.

  What stands out to me are those very characters. No cutesy or courtesy. Everyone’s just after each other’s throats, and atypical of a viliness story, the heroine isn’t loved but actively hunted to death by what’s supposed to be male love interests.

  “Any simir reads…?”

  “There’s actually a prequel to the story. I figure it’d expin a lot—”

  “Why didn't you first send me the prequel then?! I bet it’d expin many things that happened!”

  “Oh, you see…”

  I stand behind another intersection, waiting for the cars to stop as the traffic lights give a signal.

  “You were always compining about your job. That you are meant for something grander. So…”

  Hmm? What’s she mumbling about? I nod to myself as the people start crossing the road, and I join in.

  “Perhaps you can rewrite it. A sequel fitting the story. The job is very, very demanding. But the pay is worth the effort.”

  You hear the tremendous honks close to me?

  The very moment I turn my head, I see death in the form of a truck speeding up to me. I drop the phone, frozen.

  Then, a sharp, constant pain before I can ugh. Then darkness.

  Tears roll down my face.

  My face?