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A few days later, the magic of a new year (or at least it finally being January) wears off--leaving a kind of weird, not-quite disappointing, but not-quite exciting feeling in many people's stomachs. Work still has to be done, whether for a job or for school, families mostly stay the same, and with this static-ness, comes moping for some.

For Zitao, the new year meant tons of customers came to the store that he works at to return unwanted presents and complain about the slow service. Two open registers on his side of the floor and long lines of people that gave him and his co-worker the evil-eye when there was nothing more that they could do...it gets him irritated even now.

Currently, it's the fourth day of January, and he's stuck folding too many freakin' clothes during a closing shift, and contemplates stuffing a shirt into a customer's mouth after he sees them mess up a display table without taking one thing. Eventually more time passes and he's just about finished folding five more T-shirts when out of nowhere he hears an Excuse Me? Do you work here? from behind him and flinches. He quickly turns around with wide eyes before cursing the person in his mind and simultaneously letting out a Yes?

A thin, Middle-Eastern man with a nice-looking beard faces him and his eyes lower to the phone in the man's hand before looking back up at him. "Oh, you do. Good," The man says, smiling in relief while Zitao simply blinks at him. "So, uh I was looking around for this but I couldn't find it--"

The man leans in closer (causing Zitao to flinch again) and angles his phone so that he can see a purple suit on the store's website. Zitao frowns as he listens to the man talk about some party he's going to next week, but lets out a Really? Cool anyway. He'll have to work another closing shift that day.

"...So, yeah--" The man leans back. "--I was wondering if you have any in the store. I kinda just got here and I thought, well, who'd know better than an employee, eh?" The man laughs at the end and Zitao gives an awkward Heh back before bracing himself for possible anger.

Another customer came here earlier to ask about the same suit but it's already been out of stock since the afternoon.

"So um...we don't actually have any more of those in stock," Zitao says.

Don't ask me to check in the back.

The man frowns at that. "Aw, really?"

Zitao's eyes widen. He expected either to get asked to check in the back, call for a supervisor, go to hell, or all three.

"Yeah, but uh--" Zitao feels more nervous somehow now that the guy just looks disappointed. "--the cashier over there--" Zitao awkwardly points to the general direction of the check-out counter. "--they could help look to see if other stores have some, or, you could try to order it online there too."

"But does it come in quick if I order it online?"

"Yeah, like...five days or so. With the standard shipping, at least."

The man scratches at his hair for a second. "Five days? Eh, that should be enough time." He looks down at his phone to text someone real quick before looking back up at him. "Okay. So just there?" The man points to the check-out counter.

"Yeah."

"Alright," the man says, a slow grin appearing on his face. "Thanks, man."

Zitao nods his head down a bit while smiling and says, "Welcome."

Inside Zitao's ing laughing in shock. Then, the man turns to walk off towards the check-out counter while looking down at his phone to text someone again and Zitao smiles a bit before turning to go back to his folding. As time continues on, and his mind wanders, his expression turns neutral or--'y', depending on who sees him.

A customer soon walks between a few clothing racks from the right and stops by his table to look at the shirts, but when they glance at him and see his natural glare, they quickly avert their eyes and keep moving towards the left. He inwardly smiles and continues folding the shirts for several more minutes before he moves on to another table. Then, out of the corner of his eye he sees movement and turns to see a little boy grabbing the shirts he just freakin' folded and then whipping them back and forth onto the table while clutching onto a plushie cowboy with his other hand.

Zitao blinks, at the kid, at the kid's parents, and then turns back to his work while trying not to cry.

-------

The following day, Luhan's just in the middle of chatting with Minseok via a video call when his phone suddenly rings. The ringtone set for unknown numbers is playing, and letting curiosity get the best of him, Luhan looks down at the number and decides to accept the call after telling Minseok that he'll be right back.

A light-sounding voice greets him on the other end when he answers, asking if she's speaking with a Han Lu, and he frowns and confirms that she is while looking at Minseok who's watching him on the screen. He breaks eye contact to turn his head and furrows his eyebrows--wondering if he's about to get a spiel about some totally-not-but-really-is-a pyramid scheme.

Instead of that though, the woman on the other end starts talking about his application to the pizza place and he gapes when she tells him that she'd like for him to come in for an interview. Minseok starts typing on the screen after seeing his expression and Luhan turns to read his message and mouths the news before he quickly responds back to the woman on the other end.

"An interview? Uh what time would you like for me to come in?"

-------

The same day, Junmyeon's relaxing at home by himself and has barely done anything that he had planned to do so far. As soon as he woke up, he wanted to do at least three things: continue reading this one French book he bookmarked about a month ago, clean his room for once, and work out for at least an hour.

But instead of all that, he's been browsing the internet, looking up with a box of tissues by his side and also watching fighting anime. Now it's mid-afternoon and he's watching another video when out of nowhere his phone goes off--leading to him furiously wiping his hands on his boxers and answering the phone as it continues playing the ringtone he set for Sehun.

He gets up, placing his phone near his ear with his shoulder tilted up, and walks towards his bathroom to wash his hands while greeting Sehun with a Hello?

"Yo, did you hear what happened?" Sehun responds in surprisingly confident-sounding Korean.

Junmyeon barely washes his hands for even three seconds before drying them off and heading back to his bed. "Hear what?" he asks in Korean just before sitting back down on his bed.

"About a d-drunk...uh driver? Hit a man...on a cross?" Sehun responds back, sounding like he's reading words from a page.

Junmyeon laughs a bit to himself and knowingly replies, "Did you put the words in right?"

"I...yeah," Sehun says, sounding sheepish. He lets out a puff of air and switches to English. "It's close anyway--stop judging me."

"Pfft, I'm not, I'm not..."

"Shut up."

"I'm not--honest," Junmyeon laughs. "So what were you trying to say before, hm? Something about a drunk driver...?" He stretches his legs out a bit. "Where?"

"In my neighborhood..." Sehun responds and Junmyeon's eyebrows lift. "They...the um, the driver hit this one old lady on the crosswalk...but it was like a hit-and-run."

Junmyeon switches to speaking in Engl