You sighed, lazily swirling the water in your Dasani water bottle under the sticky theater counter. It was Halloween night and you were stuck working the night shift in the unkempt movie theater of your town, wishing you were anywhere but here. Why did you sign up for it? You needed the money but now you were stuck watching your friends have fun and party online during your breaks while you’re bored out of your mind. If you weren’t being watched through the security cameras, you would totally watch some show or something as you work, but you were being watched and that was against the protocall. Looking around, you saw one man stumble his way towards you. He walked strangely, taking small shuffling steps punctuated by larger steps that ended in him stumbling for half a beat. His walk made you anxious that at any second he might fall and break something. The man’s arms were also uncommonly short but you didn’t think too much of that since that could be a disability.

“One popped corn and… a sour kids packet.” He said in a chocolatey deep voice that took you back slightly as he looked like someone who would have a higher voice. What he said took you by surprise and forced you to think for a second before you realized that he wanted popcorn and sour patch kids.

“What size?” You asked, hand hovering over the most expensive size.

“Uhhh… the one on the left.” He muttered, pointing at the small size. You sighed and grabbed the small as well as the sour patch kids from the case.

“That’ll be 1000 won, Sir.” You said absentmindedly as you tapped out his order on the cash register.

“Won?” He asked, eyes wide.

“Money. I need money.”

“Oh… nevermind then.” He said, turned around, and walked away, making you anxious that he’ll fall once again. In that moment, you were reminded of those cartoons where children would stand on each other’s shoulders and dress up as a human… but the man was definitely your age or older, he got into the theater after all.

Maybe he was a midget and just shy about his height?

But you live in a small town and knew that no midgets lived here so he’d have to be foregin… which wouldn’t make tons of sense because your town is not a tourist trap. Shaking your head, you cancelled his order on the register and went back to waiting for some other non existent customer to come and order something.

It was only when you went to the theater room the man walked into  to clean up after a show that you got your answer: The man sitting in the back, giggling in a higher pitched voice, the pants and shirt he wore resting on the seat next to him (a shirt and pants that were fitted on him now), his legs swing back and forth, not even touching the floor. You were shocked to say the least and the loud “” that you dropped seemed to scare him too. The little man fell off his seat with a loud scream.

“I-I-I didn’t expect to see someone here at this time.” The man stuttered out in the same chocolatey deep voice, crawling on the floor and trying to gather all his clothes and… were those stilts on the floor?

“I knew you were a midget.” Slipped out quietly as you moved to help him pick his things up, not forgetting some of your common decency.

“Yeah! I am not a midget! I am a leprechaun! How dare you call me a midget?!” The man’s face reddened, “Name’s Taehyung!” He shouted and jumped up to point at you (him standing up was barely the height of you kneeling).

You stared at him in quiet for a little before his eyes widened and ran out of the theater room

You knew he didn’t pay for a ticket… you just didn’t think he’d claim to be something magical.