Back To Real Life

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"Meow…"

"Unh…"

"Meow…"

"Ah!"

I woke up to find an adorable black cat sitting over my chest, it was Blackie… Oh right! He ended up sleeping inside the house. He must have wanted to go out or something. I found myself waking up twenty minutes earlier than the alarm, but that's for the better.

"Blackie, you want to go out? Or are you hungry?" I wondered, sitting over my bed, and stretching. The adorable black cat walked around the room leisurely and then plopped down over the floor

"Meow!"

The black cat guided me towards the little plate where I served him food, sitting near it. His beautiful green eyes glanced at me, they sparkled like two wonderful emerald jewels. I couldn't help but pet him a few more times.

"You're so cute and smart, Blackie! Hey, wouldn't you mind becoming my cat? I'll give you good food every day!" I said.

"Meow!" Blackie began to rub his face over my hands adorably. I couldn't resist such a cute cat, so I quickly brought him some food and refilled his water as well. He quickly began digging in quickly.

Now that it was finished, it was time for me to get ready for the day. I moved to the bathroom, took a quick bath then quickly got dressed. Since I was going, I decided to put on some light makeup before I quickly moved to the kitchen. I prepared some toasts, waffles, and bacon.

The delicious scent of bacon quickly lured my daughter outside of her room, as she seemed to have just taken a bath as well, and was ready to eat with her high school clothes on.

"Good morning, Elena! How are you doing?" I asked nicely.

"Good morning mother." said my daughter, as she walked towards the seat and sat down to eat.

"Hey! You didn't come this morning to cuddle with me…" I said while pouting.

"That was… a special occasion." said my gorgeous daughter, she really looked like a model sometimes, how did I even give birth to such a beauty?

"O-Oh, okay…" I sighed. "Well, I am happy as long as you're healthy and wake up every morning…" I quickly walked towards my adorable princess and kissed her cheeks.

"Mooch, mooch! Mommy loves you!" I said.

"M-Mom, I am eating…" She sighed, trying to move away from my hug.

"I know but I want to show you how much I love you each morning, so you never forget that mommy is always thinking about you!" I said.

"I-I know…" She pouted while blushing. "C-Cut it off, I know…"

"O-Okay, sorry… I-I am too clingy?" I sighed.

"A bit…" she said.

I sat down at the side of my daughter and enjoyed the food with her while watching TV. Nothing new today either it seems, well, there was some weird news actually, but I didn't know if I should even care about it because it was the problem of our neighboring country.

"A powerful earthquake hit a large part of Texas USA today in the morning, the local authorities have managed to evacuate the people, but many of the larger buildings were left in ruins, and people have been left without houses. Additionally, the locals have said that they have been seeing strange things…" The reporter said, as they suddenly moved to a clip of a very old grandpa talking nonsense as if he had gone senile.

"I-I saw it! It was a man floating in the sky! He appeared right before the earthquake! It's aliens! Aliens I say! They're finally attacking humanity! You must tell the government about it!!!"

And the clip ended right after that.

"The man named Hubert affirms to have seen a mysterious man wearing white robes floating in the sky right before the big earthquake, and attributes such a catastrophe to this strange figure. Other people had also said they saw someone floating as well, but authorities have yet to find any concrete evidence." The reporter said, as the news moved towards something different.

"In other news, with the decline of Etherium prices in the crypto currency market, NFT prices have plummeted down and many of its creators have started to pull back their money, leaving many investors and people that were getting involved without any money. Most of these victims have started to report to the authorities about this and…"

Wow, now that's weird… a floating man in the middle of the sky that provoked an earthquake? What was that anyway? And not only that man saw it but several people! What does this even mean? Was this actually real?

…Probably not, these things are never real anyways.

My daughter didn't even pay attention to the TV as she browsed her phone. I took a peek at it and saw that she was looking at anime art on Twitter, and then at new events for the Game. Should I also follow Twitter news too to see what's new? Hm, I wasn't really sure, I didn't like using twitter, it was a weird page for social media, I would rather just not.

After finishing our breakfast, we were ready to depart, so I brought my beloved daughter to her high school across the streets. This morning it was just as cold as yesterday.

"Take care, Elena. Make sure to behave," I said, as I gave her a big hug and a kiss on her cheek.

"You don't have to bring me to school all the time, you know?" she said while blushing.

"But my job is just to the other side of the street so it is not hard, right?" I asked.

"Hm…" My daughter groaned angrily a bit, as she walked away without giving me a kiss…

Geez! Why was she so angry sometimes? Maybe she didn't like me to be affectionate? But if I was not, how could I cope with it everyday? I needed to receive my daily dose of cuteness from her or I would literally die.

"Take care!" I said while waving my hand, as Elena ignored me. The other students looked at me with surprise and some began to talk about me between each other, so I guess I was a bit cringy… I quickly decided to run to my job.

When I got inside, I found Jenny sleeping over the counter, as always.

"Jenny!" I said.

"UWAH! Eh? Ah! Elayne! It's you…" She sighed in relief, as she was having a hard time waking up.

"It is nice to see your cute face every day…" She sighed.

"C-Cute face?" I asked, just a tad embarrassed.

"Yeah you're pretty cute… The cutest in this place actually," she said with a sleepy face. "You're like our sun, because you always wake me up every morning… Hahaha."

"Geez… Jenny, you shouldn't sleep at work…" I sighed.

"Hehe, sorry Elayne, I am such a lazy person sometimes, so it's hard to become like you, you're so nice and amazing…" Sighed Elayne, praising me for no reason.

"O-Okay, don't praise me like that!" I sighed while crossing my arms. "Are you feeling alright? Maybe you shouldn't take night shifts, I am worried about you."

Jenny looked at me while raising her eyebrows, as she suddenly blushed a bit, she giggled afterwards rather cheerfully.

"Haha, you don't have to worry, Elayne… I am a night owl after all." She said, standing up and stretching.

CRACK!

"Uaggh! Ouch, my back…" She cried, suddenly as she was stretching, her back sounded a bit weird, did she just broke a bone?

"A-Are you okay? Geez, you're sleeping very badly on the counter, your back is obviously going to get damaged…" I sighed, walking behind Jenny and sitting her down into the seat again. I quickly began to massage her shoulders.

"E-Eh? Elayne?!" She asked in surprise.

"There, there… I used to give this to my husband whenever he felt like his shoulders and his back really felt tired and hurt…" I said, slowly massaging her back and straightening her posture, Jenny began to enjoy it a bit.

"Uuooh… Ahhh! W-Wha… T-This is… Ahhh…"

After I finished, she looked at me with an expression of pure bliss, it appears she enjoyed the massage! I am glad.

"Better now?" I asked.

"Yeah… My back feels way better now… AMAZING!" She said, quickly jumping out of the seat. "You got like magic hands or something!"

"Haha, it is just a little thing I learned myself." I giggled.

"Elayne you're just the best… I can tell why Mark is so… Never mind," she said.

"Huh? He's so what?" I wondered.

"Nothing, ahaha, I was just talking without thinking. A-Anyways, thanks a lot, I think I owe you one this time…" said Jenny, as she smiled adorably. Her black hair and cute face reminded me of my daughter. I couldn't help but hug her as she was very close to me.

"Take care, Jenny, make sure to go to sleep now so you can rest well," I said with a smile, as I kissed her forehead.

"O-Okay… T-Thanks for your concern." she said, blushing a bit more as I let her go from my hug. I think that made her feel better, I'm glad.

"Anyways, see you tomorrow, take care, Elayne." said Jenny with a gentle smile, taking her backpack and walking away.

"Take care of yourself too!" I said.

With that done, I didn't have much to do now other than sitting here and… And… What do I even do now? Maybe I could attend to the counter until Mark was here.

After browsing through my phone for a bit, I got bored, so I reorganized the entire shop and also started to refill the areas that were lacking in products. After half an hour of intense work, Mark arrived.

"Elayne? Are you here?" He asked, looking for me around the minimarket.

"I'm here! I am organizing some things, sorry for it, I'll give you a hug after I'm done…" I said.

"Hahaha, you don't have to feel obligated to do that." He said slowly, as he found me. I was kneeling on the ground organizing some rice packets that people always bought, they're always out of stock.

"Geez, why do we put them all the way down here, my posture gets all screwed up…" I sighed.

"Mark?" I asked.

"A-Ah! Yeah, I guess we should put them in a higher place, people tend to buy these more, you're right!" he said rather nervously for some reason, as he helped me out.

I hoped I didn't offend him by giving such a suggestion to my boss.

"Here, you can let me do this stuff, I can't let you do all the work," he said.

"Hehe, thank you! You're so nice as always." I said with a smile, as Mark returned it.

"I can't let you go around doing all the work," he said.

"Thank you."

After we were done with that, Mark prepared a coffee for me, and enjoyed breakfast by eating a small cupcake by my side at the counter.

"Mark, you don't eat anything else for breakfast? A coffee and a cupcake is not… filling."

"W-Well, I came running here so I don't have time to prepare anything… I am also quite bad at cooking."

"Oh… Well, that's bad… I guess I could bring you some breakfast and some lunch in a bento, like the one I make for my daughter, would you want some?"

"Eh? R-Really?" he asked.

"Yeah! There are always some scraps, they get cold after a day, but if I can use them all while they're warm, that's for the best, right?" I said.

"Elayne… Well, thanks. I'll appreciate it."

"No problem~!"

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