2 Chapter 1

Chapter 1- The Drunk man

In the supermarket where people come and go, different kinds of people are picking and buying different things, there are also people lining in every counter which form a very long line, and a love song as a piece of background music, Jewel is one of the cashiers in those counters that are punchings the items of every customer.

Having to stand the whole day and serve different faces of people with different kind of attitudes, Jewel who's not good with a lot of people are already frowning and is somewhat irritated.

She did realize that she applied for the wrong position, a wrong job.

" Did you manage to get a ticket for Lavor's concert tonight?" Said one of the customers in front of her.

They are now putting their items on the counter in order to pay.

The two while putting their items on the counter started talking about some concert of a celebrity from the neighboring country.

Jewel who doesn't want to listen to their conversation just focused on punching their items.

"A total of 354.00." Jewel said after punching all their items. But it seems like they're not listening to her.

" Lavor is really handsome. I'll make sure to go to his concert."

" Ahh!! So annoying. It was sold out immediately so I didn't manage to get a ticket." The other customer answered back.

The two continued talking and didn't notice Jewel who's staring at them.

"Excuse me." Jewel said calmly but still staring at them as if she's looking at some criminal.

There's a lot of people today but these two just keep talking and loudly laughing as if they're the only one here.

"Ah! It's already done? How much?"

Finally, one of the customers noticed her staring at them.

It seems like she's the owner of these groceries.

"A total of 354.00." Jewel repeated the same sentence.

" Ah! Wait, wait, wait! This one, this, this, and this are not together with hers. These items are mine." Suddenly the other customer started to pick some items from the group of items that she already punch.

" Huh?" Jewel's frowning forehead started to frown even more

The girl with the owner of the groceries also finally noticed. She found her items together with the items of her friend, so she started picking her items among the items of her friend and put them on the side where the items that were not punched yet. A total of four items.

Then *toot--" an item passed by in the scanner

While she was getting her items, one of the items passed by the scanner and was immediately scanned.

"Wait--!!"

Jewel immediately hold the scanner in front of her to avoid scanning even more items.

Their scanner is the square shape type of scanner where you don't need to press it to scan the item. You only need to face the barcode of the item in front of the scanner to scan the items. That's why when an item passed by while the barcode is facing the scanner, it would immediately scan the item.

If Jewel's forehead can still be frown, she would frown it even more.

In the end, Jewel just decided to call her supervisor. Since an item that are not supposed to be together in that receipt but was scanned together, it needed to be deleted to avoid double scanning. And in order to delete an item, they needed the access of their supervisor. That's why she decided to just call her supervisor to solve the problem immediately because there's still a long line of people in front of her counter.

" Please avoid making mistakes. There's a lot of people today so it's not a good thing to make mistakes. Scanning and deleting, will also take some time. Every seconds are important. Double time please."

Jewel's supervisor said after deleting the four items.

Jewel wanted to say that it was not her fault.

It's not like it was her who was so busy talking with others and not looking after her items that's why it was mix with others' items. And she also put her items on top of the counter together with the items of her friend without her saying anything about putting them in a different receipt.

"Next time miss, it would be better to ask the customer if their items are to be put on the same receipt."

It's one thing for her supervisor to tell her off but it's a different thing if the customer who's the reason why her supervisor had something to say to her also started to say something.

It would also be better if next time you as the customer would also look after your items or at least told the cashier that your items are not together and should not be put on the same receipt. Actually, it would help if the both of you should just stop talking as if you're the only customer here. We don't care if the both of you start chatting how much you want, even if you end up biting your tongue or even if your teeth start to fall off from talking, we don't really care as long as you do it after you paid and go away.

Jewel can't help thinking like this. She really wanted to answer back to the customer but she doesn't want to start quarreling with a customer or more like, she just doesn't want to quarrel with someone she doesn't really know in front of many people. She still need her job.

So Jewel just shut her mouth and immediately finished their transaction to have them immediately get out of her sight and transact the other customer's items.

If you don't like the customer, just scanned their items fast to immediately 'shoo' them away.

Jewel was tired, on top of that she was annoyed.

Today was really an eventful day, just after she finished scanning the groceries of those two talkative people, the next customer also happens to be a talkative one. But since she's alone and has no one to talk to, she started talking with Jewel.

When the first item was put on the counter, the customer also started her talking journey. She starts talking about those two people earlier before her. She complains about their attitude and how talkative they are and their attentions are also not on their items

Jewel really wanted to tell her that she's also a talkative person and that she should also look after her items. But Jewel didn't say anything, she listen to her quietly, after all, what she's talking about is also the supposed complaint inside Jewels' mind but didn't dare to say it out loud.

The customer is really talkative she just keeps talking on and on, she keeps on babbling various topics on and on.

Jewel was half listening to her while responding a little, like 'hmm', 'oh' and 'and then'. It wouldn't be good if the customer decided to comment about her being unresponsive. So she scanned the items while half-listening and half-responding.

Finally, she finished scanning all her items. It's kind of interesting that when she stops scanning, the customer also stops chattering at the same time.

Jewel meets different kinds of people because of her job. But she also needs to adjust her attitude depending on every customer's attitude. There are customers who are a chatter but there are also those who don't like chatting and would get annoyed if you start chatting with them. Customers who keep looking at the prices of every item and would cancel the high-priced items but there are also customers who don't really care about how high the price of the items. And when you tell them about the prices of the items they're buying to avoid cancellation, they would even get annoyed and would say something like 'Do you think I don't have enough money to pay?'.

It's really hard to adjust to every customer's attitude, even more on people like Jewel who's an introverted type of person. She doesn't really like interacting with people that much, she would rather sit and read a novel or just quietly stay at home than chatter with other people.

So by the time Jewel finished her job on that day she was already both mentally and physically tired.

Her home is not that far from her working place but it would still take about 15 minutes when you're just walking. So Jewel starts going home walking even though she was tired.

But although the job was physically and mentally tiring, she still decided to get the job because it's not that far from her home.

Jewel did want to work in a company, not being a cashier but an office worker. After all, she also graduates in college. But she needs to work in a different city if she decides to get that type of job and it would take time to go home from work and vice-versa. Not just that but she also considers the expenses in commuting. So, in the end, she just decided to work as a cashier in a supermarket. Even though she would only get a minimum wage at least it's not below minimum like others.

***

In the middle of going home from work, she saw someone sitting on the roadside. It looks like a drunk person.

When Jewel decided to just pass by, the drunken person also started to stand up and look at her.

Jewel who doesn't really have a good personality but still a girl was scared at this moment.

@🐯