It’d been agonizingly slow today so far within the first hour of our shift which allowed us to chat for so long. But just as I was thinking the rest of our shift would be a snooze fest, a devilish entity with purple hair opened the door.
“Well, well~ it looks like it’s pretty slow today~ this is peeeerfect~” Those ominous-sounding words were the first thing that came out from her mouth as her eyes locked onto me.
I trembled internally as the current look on her face never led to anything good.
“Owner, what do you mean slow? We’re hard at work right now.”
“Cut the bullshit. The store is barren right now.”
“That’s a coincidence. Right before you showed up it was packed.”
“Should I review the security footage?”
“Uh…” I averted my eyes to the side and shot a pitiful glance Yuna’s way, but she outright ignored me. She wanted to make her presence as minimal as possible to not get wrapped up in whatever the Owner had in mind.
“Don’t go looking to Yuna to bail you out on this. She can’t replace you for this task. That additional responsibility I mentioned before, it’s finally time for you to take care of it. It took a while to get what I wanted with a high enough quality, but they’re finally here.”
“My… additional responsibility? Uh, is it a new product we’ll be selling that you want me to be in charge of?”
“No, it’s not a new product. Come with me to the back and you’ll see. They arrived late last night and are in the back.”
“What arrived exactly if not a product to sell?”
“Heheheh.” Her chuckle was truly sinister.
She approached the counter, grabbed my hand, then forcefully dragged me out from behind it.
“I don’t want to! Yunaaaaa! You do it! Switch with me? This is too scary!” I extended my hand out toward her, but it was futile, she was already out of arm's reach. I could only look back at her pitifully as her figure grew smaller into the distance. She peeked my way and our eyes met for a brief instant only for her to heartlessly look the other way out the window to the side.
‘Take one for the team.’ That was what her gesture meant.
Traitor. I’d been abandoned. Sacrificed to the Owner to be used however she pleased.
“Heheheh, this should definitely help bring in some business on the slow days and best make use of any down time~” Contrary to my despair, the Owner sounded like she was in a great mood.
After we entered the back room, she stopped in front of three boxes stacked on top of each other.
“What are in these boxes exactly?”
“Your future~”
“Are you telling me I’ll be living inside cardboard boxes in the future? Doesn’t my future look pretty bleak?”
“Bleak? No, these boxes are filled with hopes and dreams.”
“Whose hopes and dreams exactly? They definitely aren’t mine.”
“But of course, the lost little lambs who aren’t yet aware of the greatness of our fine establishment.”
“That sounds pretty shady to me.”
She cut the tape on the top box with a utility knife then opened the flaps sequentially to reveal the contents inside. With each flap lifted, I felt the despair and dread as it slowly encroached upon my heart.
When she lifted the contents up out of the box, that was when I thought… I’m fucked.
“Well~ what do you think? Don’t you think it’s cute? When they first sent it over I just wasn’t satisfied with how it came out so I had to send it back for adjustments which is why it took longer than I initially expected.”
I looked at it with dead, hollowed-out eyes, and asked listlessly, “Uh… is this supposed to be…”
“One of our three mascot characters I’ll be introducing into the store for advertising and marketing purposes.”
“Right… and who’s going to wear that exactly?”
“Why would you be standing here right now with me?”
“To help you dress the person who’s supposed to wear that?”
“Wrong~”
“To help you get into it?”
“Wrong again~ you sure enjoy denial.” She smiled cheerily like she was taking great pleasure in my misery.
“I sincerely apologize for getting ahead of myself back at our interview. Please let me off the hook.”
“Let you off the hook? Heheheh, you need to remember who’s in charge here, brat~”
“Haaaaah. So, you expect me to wear this?”
“Yeah.”
“I see.” I was slowly coming to terms with reality.
“Any questions?”
“Why?”
“To advertise ongoing sales outside the store when business is slow and lure unsuspecting new customers in.”
“I get that much even if you don’t say that. That’s not what I was asking.”
“Oh? Then what were you asking?”
“Of all things… why choose this as a mascot?”
“Why not?”
“I’m going to sweat to death in this thing when it warms up more.”
“You only need to do it for an hour. When it picks up inside the store you can return inside and help out.”
“Haaaaah. Well… at least nobody will see it’s me inside it I guess. I also don’t need to talk or interact with customers when I’m doing this, right?”
“Correct, you just hold up the sign and spin or wave it around a bit to catch people’s attention. It’s perfect for someone like you who doesn’t like to interact with customers much, don’t you think?”
“Well, you’re not wrong… but for mascot characters… it’d be way less embarrassing to wear an animal costume.”
“What are the other two characters? Are they just as bad as this one?”
“Bad? What are you talking about, they’re great. Want to see them now?”
“Haaaaaah. No thanks.” I could already imagine what they looked like even without her showing me.
“I think you might be surprised though.”
“What? Are you suggesting they’re even more embarrassing than this one?”
“They’re cute~ not embarrassing at all~”
She unboxed the other two and I confirmed they were even worse.
A red-haired girl dressed in a teacher outfit with small horns on her head, a pair of black wings, and a tail with a heart at the end to give her a devil-like appearance. The other was a golden orange-haired girl in a police outfit with a golden halo above her head and small pair of white wings on the back.
The first one she’d shown me was a black-haired girl dressed in the store's normal work clothes.
Yes… a trio of girls.
The three were chibi mascot characterizations of Yuna, Rosa, and Alicia. A normal human girl who works at the store, a devil teacher, and an angel cop.
Kill me now.
“The one you wear depends on which one of them is working with you that day. Also, I’ll sometimes get you to help me film an advertisement for the store. They’ll be played inside the store. I may also run some targeted ads around the city or on television on rare occasions if we’ve got a major sale going.”
“That sounds absolutely dreadful.”
“Well, someone’s gotta do it. You were just unlucky and got the short end of the stick being born a gloomy-looking guy instead of a pretty girl.”
“Tell me about it.”
“So, will you put it on yourself, or would you like me to help you put it on?”
“I’ll put it on myself.”
“Oh? You say you don’t want to put it on? Alright, I guess I don’t mind helping you put it on.”
“Uh… did you miss hear what I said? I said I’d put it on myself.”
“Yes, yes. I completely understand that you are vehemently against putting it on yourself, so it can’t be helped. I’ll - help - you - put - it - on~”
“Owner... are you listening to me?”
“I’m listening, I’m to-tal-ly listening~”
I picked up the Yuna mascot costume, then fled for my life. I locked myself up in the washroom and quickly changed clothes on my own. I always wore shorts underneath my long pants so there was no problem there.
I removed my work attire leaving me in only a t-shirt and shorts. Finally, I slipped into the mascot costume, and with a bit of difficulty, I pulled the zipper on the back up on my own. When I opened the door, the Owner was waiting outside with an amused look on her face.
“Wow, you sure are eager to get to work. I’m so happy~”
“Haha… yeah… I’ve never been so eager to work in my life...”
It’d been agonizingly slow today so far within the first hour of our shift which allowed us to chat for so long. But just as I was thinking the rest of our shift would be a snooze fest, a devilish entity with purple hair opened the door.
“Well, well~ it looks like it’s pretty slow today~ this is peeeerfect~” Those ominous-sounding words were the first thing that came out from her mouth as her eyes locked onto me.
I trembled internally as the current look on her face never led to anything good.
“Owner, what do you mean slow? We’re hard at work right now.”
“Cut the bullshit. The store is barren right now.”
“That’s a coincidence. Right before you showed up it was packed.”
“Should I review the security footage?”
“Uh…” I averted my eyes to the side and shot a pitiful glance Yuna’s way, but she outright ignored me. She wanted to make her presence as minimal as possible to not get wrapped up in whatever the Owner had in mind.
“Don’t go looking to Yuna to bail you out on this. She can’t replace you for this task. That additional responsibility I mentioned before, it’s finally time for you to take care of it. It took a while to get what I wanted with a high enough quality, but they’re finally here.”
“My… additional responsibility? Uh, is it a new product we’ll be selling that you want me to be in charge of?”
“No, it’s not a new product. Come with me to the back and you’ll see. They arrived late last night and are in the back.”
“What arrived exactly if not a product to sell?”
“Heheheh.” Her chuckle was truly sinister.
She approached the counter, grabbed my hand, then forcefully dragged me out from behind it.
“I don’t want to! Yunaaaaa! You do it! Switch with me? This is too scary!” I extended my hand out toward her, but it was futile, she was already out of arm's reach. I could only look back at her pitifully as her figure grew smaller into the distance. She peeked my way and our eyes met for a brief instant only for her to heartlessly look the other way out the window to the side.
‘Take one for the team.’ That was what her gesture meant.
Traitor. I’d been abandoned. Sacrificed to the Owner to be used however she pleased.
“Heheheh, this should definitely help bring in some business on the slow days and best make use of any down time~” Contrary to my despair, the Owner sounded like she was in a great mood.
After we entered the back room, she stopped in front of three boxes stacked on top of each other.
“What are in these boxes exactly?”
“Your future~”
“Are you telling me I’ll be living inside cardboard boxes in the future? Doesn’t my future look pretty bleak?”
“Bleak? No, these boxes are filled with hopes and dreams.”
“Whose hopes and dreams exactly? They definitely aren’t mine.”
“But of course, the lost little lambs who aren’t yet aware of the greatness of our fine establishment.”
“That sounds pretty shady to me.”
She cut the tape on the top box with a utility knife then opened the flaps sequentially to reveal the contents inside. With each flap lifted, I felt the despair and dread as it slowly encroached upon my heart.
When she lifted the contents up out of the box, that was when I thought… I’m fucked.
“Well~ what do you think? Don’t you think it’s cute? When they first sent it over I just wasn’t satisfied with how it came out so I had to send it back for adjustments which is why it took longer than I initially expected.”
I looked at it with dead, hollowed-out eyes, and asked listlessly, “Uh… is this supposed to be…”
“One of our three mascot characters I’ll be introducing into the store for advertising and marketing purposes.”
“Right… and who’s going to wear that exactly?”
“Why would you be standing here right now with me?”
“To help you dress the person who’s supposed to wear that?”
“Wrong~”
“To help you get into it?”
“Wrong again~ you sure enjoy denial.” She smiled cheerily like she was taking great pleasure in my misery.
“I sincerely apologize for getting ahead of myself back at our interview. Please let me off the hook.”
“Let you off the hook? Heheheh, you need to remember who’s in charge here, brat~”
“Haaaaah. So, you expect me to wear this?”
“Yeah.”
“I see.” I was slowly coming to terms with reality.
“Any questions?”
“Why?”
“To advertise ongoing sales outside the store when business is slow and lure unsuspecting new customers in.”
“I get that much even if you don’t say that. That’s not what I was asking.”
“Oh? Then what were you asking?”
“Of all things… why choose this as a mascot?”
“Why not?”
“I’m going to sweat to death in this thing when it warms up more.”
“You only need to do it for an hour. When it picks up inside the store you can return inside and help out.”
“Haaaaah. Well… at least nobody will see it’s me inside it I guess. I also don’t need to talk or interact with customers when I’m doing this, right?”
“Correct, you just hold up the sign and spin or wave it around a bit to catch people’s attention. It’s perfect for someone like you who doesn’t like to interact with customers much, don’t you think?”
“Well, you’re not wrong… but for mascot characters… it’d be way less embarrassing to wear an animal costume.”
“What are the other two characters? Are they just as bad as this one?”
“Bad? What are you talking about, they’re great. Want to see them now?”
“Haaaaaah. No thanks.” I could already imagine what they looked like even without her showing me.
“I think you might be surprised though.”
“What? Are you suggesting they’re even more embarrassing than this one?”
“They’re cute~ not embarrassing at all~”
She unboxed the other two and I confirmed they were even worse.
A red-haired girl dressed in a teacher outfit with small horns on her head, a pair of black wings, and a tail with a heart at the end to give her a devil-like appearance. The other was a golden orange-haired girl in a police outfit with a golden halo above her head and small pair of white wings on the back.
The first one she’d shown me was a black-haired girl dressed in the store's normal work clothes.
Yes… a trio of girls.
The three were chibi mascot characterizations of Yuna, Rosa, and Alicia. A normal human girl who works at the store, a devil teacher, and an angel cop.
Kill me now.
“The one you wear depends on which one of them is working with you that day. Also, I’ll sometimes get you to help me film an advertisement for the store. They’ll be played inside the store. I may also run some targeted ads around the city or on television on rare occasions if we’ve got a major sale going.”
“That sounds absolutely dreadful.”
“Well, someone’s gotta do it. You were just unlucky and got the short end of the stick being born a gloomy-looking guy instead of a pretty girl.”
“Tell me about it.”
“So, will you put it on yourself, or would you like me to help you put it on?”
“I’ll put it on myself.”
“Oh? You say you don’t want to put it on? Alright, I guess I don’t mind helping you put it on.”
“Uh… did you miss hear what I said? I said I’d put it on myself.”
“Yes, yes. I completely understand that you are vehemently against putting it on yourself, so it can’t be helped. I’ll - help - you - put - it - on~”
“Owner... are you listening to me?”
“I’m listening, I’m to-tal-ly listening~”
I picked up the Yuna mascot costume, then fled for my life. I locked myself up in the washroom and quickly changed clothes on my own. I always wore shorts underneath my long pants so there was no problem there.
I removed my work attire leaving me in only a t-shirt and shorts. Finally, I slipped into the mascot costume, and with a bit of difficulty, I pulled the zipper on the back up on my own. When I opened the door, the Owner was waiting outside with an amused look on her face.
“Wow, you sure are eager to get to work. I’m so happy~”
“Haha… yeah… I’ve never been so eager to work in my life...”
