Ch05. The power of a name

If the store already looked like something out of some documentary about rich people and their lifestyle from the outside, when Johan set foot inside then...

It was as if a new world full of possibilities opened up before him.

And at the same time, as if a bottomless pit opened beneath his feet, filled with creatures hungry for any trace of pride and dignity the young man could have in him.

The eyes of each of the employees there were filled with a veiled gleam of greed, waiting and gesturing, talking, nodding, patiently preparing the ground to fill their pockets with the certainly fat commissions that the sales of those pieces of clothing would guarantee them. .

However, Johan stopped for a moment to ponder, breathing in and out slowly and evenly, absorbing all the possible information about that place.

Suddenly something clicked in his mind, a thought connecting to an idea, and that idea connecting to a sense of understanding that made Johan have to hold back a scoff.

Even though he couldn't hold back the grin that spread across his face.

'Commissions may be good, but employees are still just that. Employees... If they earned that well, as they suggest by the greed in their eyes, and the way they behave... They wouldn't be working.' Johan thought, feeling as if a knot around his heart was slowly unraveling. 'Yeah... They're nothing more than people like me, slaves to this system that forces those below, even if very slightly, to submit to those above.'

Johan scoffed.

"What it was?" Erick asked, frowning at the strange smile on Johan's lips, which certainly wasn't there before they entered the store. "Dazzled by what you see?"

"No." Johan replied in a whisper. "I'm just relieved to understand something."

Erick's brow furrowed even more.

"Would you mind enlightening me with that understanding?"

For the briefest of brief moments, Erick felt a shiver run down his spine as he looked into Johan's eyes.

Erick was, without a doubt, someone dangerous. Even Johan had noticed this.

But in that moment between breaths, Erick's instincts said the same thing about Johan.

The rich young man almost gasped, but a store saleswoman came to his aid, as if unconsciously taking a cue.

"Hello..." She said with a yellow smile. "I must kindly ask you... Gentlemen... to leave the store, please. You are making customers uncomfortable."

Erick looked at the saleswoman for a few seconds, measuring her from top to bottom.

Then he looked at Johan, and completely ignoring the words of the woman with her arms crossed, chin raised, and very elegant uniform, he asked.

"Is this the kind of feeling you go through every day...?"

Johan, already used to this type of treatment, just smiled a little and nodded.

"Man... What shit, huh..."

"Would you guys not ignore me? I'm going to call the police! Guards?!" The woman spoke loudly, gesturing toward the front door.

Johan wanted to stick his head in a hole.

Erick, however, had much more resourcefulness to deal with this type of situation, and, in a fit of laughter that brought tears from his eyes, he said.

"Sorry Miss... Lindner." Erick wiped away a tear, looking at the pin with the saleswoman's name, pinned to the chest of the green jacket, elegant and well cut. "We're not leaving, we came here with one goal in mind, and if my card can't purchase the items from this store..." A wide, mischievous smile spread across his face as he took out his wallet and showed his black credit card. , with the owner's details in gold relief, and a holographic seal present only on a few very specific cards from that bank. "...Then I guess I'll have to talk to the owner, and buy the store itself. How about that? Would you like to work for me?"

Johan almost laughed, but managed to hold himself back.

He wasn't able to know if the astonishment and amazement in the saleswoman's expression, clearly seeing the guards at the door shaking their heads as she gestured toward him and Erick, was because of the implications of working for someone the woman simply had just disdained, or perhaps because of the prospect of having lost an important and renowned client of the National Bank.

Either way, the look on the saleswoman's face was priceless.

The woman with blond hair - tied into a bun so tight that it looked like the strands of hair were going to pop out of her scalp - and green eyes, took a deep breath and stuttered, trying to formulate a cohesive apology, but Erick simply stood up. hand, demanding silence.

"I don't want to be served by you. Bring me the manager... Please." The last part dripped with sarcasm. "I want to be attended to by him, personally."

***

Not even five minutes later, the department store manager was apologizing to Erick - and to Johan, to his complete and utter surprise - saying that Miss Lindner's days as a professional were over.

"... It is an absolute pleasure to have someone of your caliber in our humble establishment. How can I help, gentlemen?"

Erick seemed to be thinking about saying something, but Johan asked before he got the chance to say it.

"Didn't you say no one knew you on this side of town?"

Eric laughed.

"I did, but I didn't say anything about them not knowing my last name..."

Of course.

Johan felt slightly offended by his own naivety in that matter.

Of course, a personally unknown member of a rich and important family would be recognized somewhere - anywhere - by the family name.

Erick, as if he were close to the manager of that store, put his arm around the shoulder of the little fat man, who looked like a ham wrapped in a green piece of fabric that barely fit, and with a smile that would certainly leave women drooling over him. he said, as if it were as natural as breathing.

"My brother here needs a complete rework. And I... I need a new shirt."