Bee⋅&⋅Sam's [bee-and-sams]
1. an object under sam and bee's possession
2. a clothing chain store in the North End Mall run by a miss Selina Ren, fit together with odd little people from here and there.

see BEE & SAM's [CANADA]; SELINA REN [ARTICLE].

--

"Listen, kiddies, there's a new employee here at Bee & Sam's. This is Ella. Say hi and get to work," Selina says dryly, her face straight as always, ushering them all back to their positions as soon as they finish introducing themselves. Ella looks around with a slightly disdained expression on her face. Her mom never told her that she'd have to work HERE, among these strange people, after she graduated high school with flying colours.

Firstly, there's Hebe, with the short bob and the blank expression. She stares out the window instead of folding the clothing. There's also Calvin, who looks as if he's ready to become her footstool at any given moment. Genie is filing her nail, a phone pressed between her shoulder and her ear, and she laughs at something someone says on the other line. Rainie and Aaron have taken to making out in the extra clothing closet. Chun is basically asleep at the front desk, with his feet up at the counter, and Selina has her back turned to them all as she reasons with an early-morning grumpy customer. Ella gawks at them.

The customer leaves huffily, his face in a deep frown. Selina's face is a frown as well, and she turns back and sees them all slacking off. Her head bobbing as she looks around the room, she then shouts, "WHERE IS JIRO WANG?" Everyone looks up from what they're doing--for Aaron and Rainie, it requires a little more time, seeing as their faces are stuck together. They all shrug before resuming their former activities.

"Sorry Lina," another voice comes from the front. A boy with messy, long hair and a pretty face comes in, dropping his sports bag down onto a pile of unsorted clothing. "I woke up late." He smiles lazily, and Selina rolls her eyes and lets out the most expaserated sigh Ella has ever heard.

"Jiro Wang, you have been late four days in a row this week! And it's Thursday!" Selina raises her hands as if to throttle him, but he pats her hands and calms her down before she can do anything that might cause anyone trauma.

Ella watches this scene with disgust. Late for almost an entire week?! Tardiness wasn't allowed--it was ranked of the same importance as finishing your homework and studying hard for all your tests. Being the straight-A teacher's pet she was, to Ella, tardiness and irresponsibility is unacceptable.

"Oh hey," Jiro says, gesturing Ella casually, as if she's not actually alive, but just a new chair or something. "Who's she?"

"If you'd come on time like you were supposed to, you'd know by now," Selina grimaces. "That is Ella. She's your new co-worker. In fact, for being late, you get to stay after work with her everyday this week and help her get to know the job." Jiro's face stretches into a frown, then a pout, and he lets out a huge sigh.

"And this time, you can't threaten me with telling my boyfriend about--" Selina blinks quickly and looks around, and when she continues on, her voice is muted and only Jiro can hear her. Ella shakes her head. This was the guy who is going to show her the ropes around here? She'd rather be stuck with the couple making out in the closet.

Apparently, Ella's showing the distaste for Jiro clearly on her face, because he's making an uncomfortable face back at her. Finally, with a last glance at a stone-faced Selina, he walks over, stumbling on his own feet. Ella hides her amused smile as she watches him make his way across the floor, somehow finding various things to trip on although there's barely anything in his path.

"My name's Jiro." He says, once he painstakingly manages to make his way over to her.

"Ella," she says back, squinting her left eye at him as she inspects him. Up close, he's even prettier. He has lazy brown eyes (not lazy-eye), and a straight, long nose over top loose lips. If she didn't know what he's like, Ella would gladly kiss him right there, his lips are so lovely. He's handsome, and since Ella never bothered to find time to date during high school, and he's one of the first guys she's interacted with since then--it's only been a month since she graduated, mind you--, she finds him handsome, even though she doesn't like his off-handed personality.

"You're making me uncomfortable. Can you stop staring at me like that?" Jiro asks, his expression strained as he turns his head a little each way. Hebe finally realizes he's there, and grins widely, running with long legs--nearly strange on her small figure--to him, and, as if watching in slow motion, she jumps onto his back. Calvin watches jealously as she hugs him from behind.

Jiro chuckles as he shakes her off. "I've only been gone for the night, Bee."

"Yah, but you were SUPPOSED to be home last night. I watched Resident Evil without you, and it was scary." As Ella watches the two sweet-talk each other, she turns away. There's some weird feeling in the pit of her stomach, and she doesn't like it. It makes her feel...off.

"BACK TO WORK!" Selina yells in a hindered voice.

--

After half a week of after-work seminars with Jiro, Ella is starting to get the hang of things. She never ventures outside of what they have to discuss for work, and Jiro doesn't mind--not really. On the fourth day of their after-work seminars, Jiro goes on to talk about certain people to be avoided on certain days.

"So, basically, as a new employee, you have to get to know all the little things around here. Selina can't function without coffee first thing in the morning, so if she ever comes to work without a cup in her hand, I advise you to stay away. She might bite you." Jiro drones on in his currently monotonous voice. Ella nods, bored with this.

"Secondly, uhh," Jiro pauses. They sit on the countertop, going over things Ella should and shouldn't do when there's a fire or when Genie is missing her mirror. "Hebe, right. She likes scary movies, but she can't stand watching them alone. So sometimes she'll come in late, possibly with panda eyes. At those times, you shouldn't go near her, or she can be as bad as Genie without her mirror."

"Are you always the one to watch with her?" Despite her strictly-business policy, Ella is curious of Jiro's and Hebe's relation to each other. While slightly surprised at Ella's innocent curiosity, Jiro shakes it off and answers nonchalantly.

"Basically. She can't find anyone else to, since she always grabs onto your arm with her nails. See?" He shoves up his sleeve, revealing the tiniest of crescent-moon-shaped indents on his upper arm. Ella winces.

"I'd refuse her, too, but I've got a responsibility to it, you know?" Again, that strange feeling tugs at her stomach. The more time Ella spends with him--even a mere three days of half-hour talks--the more she begins to see that he's not as bad as she thought he was. He's a little dense, very clumsy, and nice and laid-back.

"Oh." Ella strains a smile onto her face, still wondering at this weird feeling. It feels familiar, and she flashes back to the time her little sister was born, six years after Ella. She was frustrated because everyone fawned over her little sister instead of paying attention to her. She decides to look it up on Google once she gets home.

--

jeal⋅ous⋅y  [jel-uh-see]
1. jealous resentment against a rival, a person enjoying success or advantage, etc., or against another's success or advantage itself.
2. mental uneasiness from suspicion or fear of rivalry, unfaithfulness, etc., as in love or aims.

see ENVY.

(dictionary.reference.com. >.D)
--

Even after the week passes, Jiro continues to teach Ella in the ways of Bee & Sam's. At first, Ella is suspicious--what's there to earn from continuing to help her? A day later though, he shows no sign of recognition that it's been a week. She's not so sure now. It's as if the days blur together for Jiro--as if he's unaware that a week means seven days, that seven days equals a week, that he doesn't need to help her anymore. And there's still the question of his relationship to Hebe. Ella's been too polite (uptight) to ask about it.

As unperceptive as he may seem, Jiro squares up to her one day. "You could just ask if you're curious, you know," he sneaks up on her.

Ella jumps, dropping her half-eaten granola bar. "S--sorry, what?" She says, flinching at how close they are.

"Aren't you curious as to what Hebe is to me?" Jiro's voice is low, and, seeing as everyone else is off around somewhere else in the mall on their break, she doesn't see why he has to be so quiet about it.

"Well, it doesn't seem appropriate to ask, even if I am," Ella explains, polishing her voice professionally. "And it isn't as if I'm curious for any particular reason, and because I'm not curious for a legible reason, I don't believe it is necessary to ask, seeing as we're simply--"

"She's my half-sister."

"Co-workers and it's not like I'm interested in you in THAT way OH. Really now," Ella laughs nervously, knowing she should have stopped talking exactly ten seconds ago when she started talking too much.

"So you're NOT interested in me 'THAT way'?" Jiro puts on an uncharacteristic smirk. Strangely, though, even though he doesn't look like the type of person to smirk, it still looks good on him.

"Yes." Ella says firmly. "I mean, no. I mean. This question is confusing, please rephrase it."

Jiro sighs. "Do," he pauses between each word, "you, like, me?"

Faced with a scary question, Ella unconsciously reverts to her responsible, business-type self. "Please let me get back to you on that as soon as I can."

"Pfft," Jiro laughs, his eyebrows furrowed in a confused fashion, but his smile real and delighted. Ella's little frown, paired with her raised eyebrows and her confused eyes make for a killer face. "So that's a yes, you like me, right?"

"Yes! Stop asking me questions!" Ella exclaims, caught up in the confusion of the moment. Realizing what she's just answered, Ella turns a fickle shade of pink. "I mean--"

But she's cut off by Jiro, who continues to laugh (in a muffled way) while he presses his loose lips to hers. When he finishes, he lifts off of her.

"I like you, too."

And suddenly, from behind where they stand, everyone bursts in, laughing embarrassedly as they are caught in action. Of course, to this, Ella blushes even darker, and tries to contort her embarrassed face into something more fit to a face of fury that they've been spied on. Jiro, however, just laughs along, watching as she takes Calvin by the ear and scolds him.

And in this sense, no matter how strange and quirkily dislikable these characters of Bee & Sam's are, they seem more like a family than any other.

--
buahaah! finished in a day. ;____;
i like this one. ;)
apparently, people with long backs are lazy.
(guilty~!)

march 26, 09.
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