---

The following Monday, Zitao heads to work via bus with a feeling of something not really being right.

He's not really sure whether it's because of his dream of going bald, or just because of annoying worries that keep building up inside him. But, one thing's for sure. It doesn't seem to be just him that's feeling this way.

Practically everyone around him on the bus seems grumpy, with frowns on older adults' faces and just negative energy all around. (Which actually isn't that uncommon but, he's sticking with his gut feeling.)

Despite this though, when he gets to work and clocks in, he's already in work-mode, which means that the majority of his worries/insecurities get pushed down as he focuses on putting clothes back onto their racks and helping out his co-workers when the line of customers gets too long.

Certain customers piss him off like usual, arguing about prices being this, and sales being that, and he tries extra hard to keep the disdain out of his voice as he calmly responds to those certain people. At one point though, one of the customers on his -list gets in the line, and he inwardly groans before going back to scanning an ugly- dress for an older lady.

"Hmm, do you think it looks good?" the customer suddenly asks, grabbing onto the dress hanger to hold the dress up in the air.

His eyes follow it and he scratches behind his neck while saying Yeah...Then, suddenly he notices his boss walking close by (or more like hears him as the man cheerfully greets the other customers) and adopts a million-watt smile to pretend like he actually wants to be in today.

"Oh...You don't like it?" The customer frowns a bit at his fake enthusiasm and sets the dress back down on the counter. "Because I'm trying to get something to wear for my husband on our date this Friday and I just--I saw this and it just, well, it caught my eye..."

"Oh ma'am, it's--" -ugly. "--not bad at all! I really like the ruffles a-and the flowers at the hem." He glances at his boss again, who's thankfully talking to a cleaning staff lady about a soda spill, before he looks back at his customer. "Though, the pattern right here may not be my favorite but, if you feel nice in this then forget what anyone else thinks. Because really in the end, you're buying it for you, right? My opinion shouldn't matter when you're the one buying it."

She blinks in surprise, seeming to take that in.

"Though, if I'm being completely honest, ma'am, I think you should add like...hm, a cute little silver flower necklace maybe? And um, maybe put like a sky blue vest over it, and yeah...it'd look to die for."

"You think?" she says, looking hopeful again.

"Ma'am, I know." He then smiles when she chuckles a bit at his cheesiness. "So, is this like for a regular date or...an anniversary?"

"Oh...it's for our anniversary, dear. We've been together 15 years," she says with a smile.

"Wow, nice. Um, how'd you two meet, if you don't mind me askin'?"

A cute memory involving Sehun then pops up into his head for a moment and he ends up conversing with the lady for a bit more before she asks if he can hold her dress at the counter so that she can find the items that he suggested.

"Of course," he says before glancing at the line only to inwardly curse again.

The customer who always argues about prices without fail is the only one left now. But fortunately, his co-worker calls for her after handing his now-previous customer their receipt.

Bless, Zitao thinks before he announces to his co-worker that he's going back to putting the clothes out and then swiftly grabs the cart that he left nearby.

Safe to say, he decides to start putting back the clothes/items farthest away from the register as that annoying- customer already asks to speak with a manager.

---

As the time winds down and he heads upstairs to take his break, he spots the lady that he was ringing up earlier, and she smiles and thanks him for the suggestions.

"No problem," he replies before going on the ascending escalator. "Hope it goes well!"

After reaching the break-room, he casually greets two of his co-workers and plops down onto one of the room's couches before leaning his head back and closing his eyes.

Just two more hours...

Then, as he brings his head back down and takes out his phone, the gossip that he hears from the other two, Bianca and Paul, catches his attention.

"... outta here! She dun smacked her , son," Bianca says.

And Zitao, a self-proclaimed hoe for drama, lifts his gaze from his phone and asks, "Wait who--who? What happened?"

And so, he learns that one of their managers got punched by another co-worker (well ex-coworker now) while they were both on the clock. He lets out a Damn, and they pause their conversation for a second as another co-worker enters the room before they start talking again. Then, after hearing what they're talking about, the other co-worker (whose name Zitao doesn't care to know), laughs while asking, You're still talking about that?

"Well yeah, that was crazy! Like, I don' even like her but...still," Bianca replies. "Whew, lucky it wasn't me she was tryna do that too."

"Hey, what goes around comes around," Paul says. "Karma finally did its job. It just took like ten ing years."

Zitao frowns, and the co-worker who's still standing up fills him in on all the times that said manager was a complete -nugget to them and others, while Paul talks about how crazy the ex-coworker was.

Either way, Zitao wonders to himself if all that really means that the manager deserved to get punched as hard as she apparently did. Then, Bianca ends up bringing up the question of why their now ex-coworker didn't do this off the clock, or at least out of the security cameras' line of sight.

In the end, while the other three continue talking about it, he glances at the time and decides to take a quick five-minute nap before he has to go back downstairs.

-------

The next morning, Yifan checks his professional email for the status of the tax returns that he filed almost two weeks ago. This time around, he decided to use a tax app that could make filing them easier and hear