The afternoon rush had ended, leaving Jane and her coworker Chidori to restock and clean the store in the interim. The brunette normally didn't mind working with the slightly younger blonde. Their personalities were distinctly different, but Jane didn't necessarily have a problem with that. Of course, some days she could do without her habit of chatting constantly about gossip and topics she didn't give two shits about.
Like today. And for some reason, her topic of conversation just happened to be the one person she hadn't been able to stop thinking about for the past week since meeting him face to face. Her thoughts had fleeted between second hand embarrassment and the recurring irritation of having something very personal to her seemingly insulted. He hadn't appeared all that serious at the time, but still! It was the morals behind it all.
"...no other hero quite like him. I mean, he's so selfless, always going out of his way to do what he can for his fans, and just being so brave like that to go out and protect people? Ugh, it's so cool." Chidori was saying somewhere behind her.
"Mhm..." Jane hummed distractedly, staring off into space as she swept the second aisle of the store. Three quarters of the words went in one ear and out the other.
"I've tried so many times to call into his station but there are so many people who call, it's almost impossible to." Chidori continued, leaning over the register's counter, head propped up in her hand and elbow on the counter's surface. "Just being able to talk to him for a second would be, like, a life-changing experience. I could die happy after that, you know?"
"Uh huh..."
There was a brief pause in Chidori's talking, though Jane was so focused on her own thoughts and mindlessly completing her task that she hadn't really registered that fact. The blonde noticed Jane's demeanor and scoffed.
"So, anyway, I'm quitting and moving to the Bahamas to be a professional mime. Wanna come with me?"
"Sure..." Was her lackluster response. Not even a snappy comeback that she'd been expecting.
The blonde finally shook her head. "Jane!"
Her shout snapped the brunette from her thoughts, and she turned to look at her coworker. "What?"
"You haven't been listening to a word I've said this whole time!"
"Sorry...just distracted, I guess." She uttered a half-assed apology, stooping down with the dustpan to sweep up the dirt that she'd collected from the aisle. "What were you saying?"
"Ugh, figures..."The blonde pouted. "I was talking about Present Mic."
Oh, right. Not really something she particularly wanted to discuss, but apparently Chidori just would not shut up about it today. Best to let her vent, she supposed. "What about him, again?"
"You're impossible." She glared in response. "But he's THE best hero, if you ask me. I mean, who else works three jobs like he does? It's crazy!"
"Three?" She frowned, trying to put that number together in her head. Hero work, DJ for the radio station...she may be bad at math, but those numbers just did not add up. "What's his third job?"
"He hosts the radio, does hero work, and teaches at the school during the day." The blonde ticked off on her fingers. "I can't remember what he teaches, but it has to be some awesome hero-related stuff."
"Huh." Well, would you look at that. Something she hadn't known about him that was mildly interesting. She walked over behind the counter and emptied the contents of the dustpan into the trash, tapping it against the side to rid it of the leftover dust. "He must be busy all the time.
"Yeah, totally. But that just makes him so much cooler than the other heroes. He does so much for so many people."
Someone had a major case of celebrity worship. Jane wasn't impressed by Chidori's apparent obsession with the radio host, and merely shrugged her shoulders indifferently, putting the broom away in the small back room. "I mean, I guess."
"You seriously didn't know he was a teacher?"
"Uh, no?"
The blonde pulled a face as if she'd never been more insulted in her life. "Do you live under a rock?"
"No." Jane retorted in a huff, starting to get defensive by her tone. "I just don't keep up with hero stuff. I don't care all that much about it. Never have, and I probably never will."
"You're life must be so boring..." Chidori muttered under her breath, but Jane ignored it to grab the box of candy bars she still needed to restock on the shelves.
It ended up this way most of the time, Jane taking on the actual job of restocking and keeping the store tidy, whereas Chidori tended to hang back behind the register and not move until her shift was done. It hadn't taken long to realize that no matter how many times she complained about it to the girl, there was no changing her.
Jane held the box of candy bars in one hand, taking them out and setting them in the correct places on the shelf with the other. Jeez. They'd knocked out quite a few of them. Her calculating gaze panned the rest of the aisle and saw that several other items needed refilling too.
The door's bell jingled as it opened. "Welcome!" Jane called automatically from her place in the aisle.
A high-pitched squeal pierced the silence that had settled and Jane nearly stumbled over into the shelves at the sound. It had come from Chidori, based on the tone. Worried that they were in the process of being robbed and she was currently being held at gunpoint, she rushed to the front of the store, heart hammering in her chest.
Jane would have to later reassess what her plan had been in that moment, rushing straight towards where danger could have been, but hey. Her decision-making skills mid-crises weren't top notch.
"Yo!" Present Mic called his signature greeting, looking all the part the hero he was with his leather jacket, flashy glasses, and swooped hair. Chidori was behind the counter covering her quickly-reddening cheeks like she'd just been proposed to or something.
Oh. It was just him.
Deflating and settling the rising panic that had started in her chest, Jane gave out a sigh and crossed her arms. "Welcome. Can I get you something?" She repeated neutrally. With any luck, she could get him out of the store as quickly as possible. She didn't want a repeat of last time.
"I'm lookin' for that new energy drink flavor on the sign outside! Voltage? Got any in?" He asked eagerly, standing easy and flashing her a wide smile.
"The afternoon rush wiped my stock up in front. Let me check the back." Jane replied.
"I'd be grateful if you did." He shot back with a suggestive wink, which honestly did more for Chidori than it did Jane. Her lifted brow was her response. Holding up her pointer finger in a gesture for him to stay there, she disappeared into the back room.
From inside, she could hear Chidori's mile-a-minute talking, tone clearly indicating she was overwhelmed and flustered. Mic's amused laughter followed suit. Neither were quiet people, she realized. With an eye roll, she stepped past the shelves of food and went to the drinks section of the inventory.
There was still a few packs of the new drink on a pallet, so she grabbed the top box and ripped the plastic open keeping them contained. Instead of just taking a few, she picked up the whole box and walked back out towards the store front. Might as well stock them now since she had grabbed them.
She rounded the counter to stand beside him, and he perked up. "Here. They haven't limited cans per person, so take however many you'd like." Jane said, presenting the voice hero with the box.
"Alright! I've been itchin' to get my hands on some since yesterday." He said, grabbing two from the box and shooting her another set of finger guns. "Much appreciated, Jane."
She nodded, walking back down the aisle to put them in the fridge at the back.
"You can just have them, on me! You're my favorite hero ever, so just take them." Her blonde coworker claimed with a giggle, which stopped Jane in her tracks.
"Chidori." She warned, turning to glare at her coworker. "I don't care if he's Present Mic or even the president. He's paying. I'm not gonna be the one to explain to the manager why our totals are off at the end of the month."
"It's fine, really!" The host reassured both workers with an easy smile, reaching in his pocket for his wallet. "I'm not a big fan of being given stuff for free, anyway."
Slightly chastened, the blonde took the yen from him and rang up his purchase. Satisfied, Jane turned back around and made it to the fridge.
She was in the process of putting the cans into the fridge by the time Mic had fully paid. He tossed a casual "See you around!" over his shoulder and pushed out the door with a jingle.
By the time Jane had finished her stocking of the fridge and returned up front to get more things from the back room, Chidori was fuming behind the counter.
"I could have gotten an autograph! Why didn't you let me just give him the drinks. It's, like, 500 yen at most."
"I already told you." Jane replied with a shrug. "Just because he's a famous person doesn't mean he deserves free stuff. He's just like the rest of us. Besides, if you wanted an autograph you should have asked."
"I didn't want to come across as super desperate." Chidori pouted, staring at the door as if the blonde hero would come back just to grant her wish.
Jane's amused scoff earned her a glare. "Trust me, you seemed desperate either way."
"Whatever...you wouldn't understand." She muttered, then sighed dreamily with a far-away gaze. "He's just so hot, you know?
"Umm...I guess?" Jane questioned aloud. The thought hadn't ever really occurred to her.
Having seen him in both hero and casual attire, she preferred him in the latter. His larger-than-life outfit to fight crime was a bit too outlandish to her. Acquired taste, perhaps. But the comfortable designer jeans and cardigan she'd seen him in that night made him look all the more...civilian. A wealthy one, sure. But still somewhat normal.
Was his flirty and bouncy personality just another aspect of his hero persona, or was that the real man underneath? Jane gave up wondering, once again realizing that he was overtaking her thoughts. Yet again. At this rate, she'd never be able to live in peace again.
Shaking her head, she pushed anything that had to do with the voice hero to the very back of her head and continued her shift. Thankfully, the rest of the day went by without any further incident. Chidori, however, renewed her gossip and kept recapping her 'life-changing moment.'
That afternoon definitely dragged on.
Late that night, after having retired to her room and allowing Asuka the living room to watch her weird anime tv shows, Jane pulled up her phone and typed in the search 'present mic.' She immediately tapped on images, and a slew of different types of photos came up. Many of which were professional shoots.
His long blonde hair was something she couldn't look away from. He always had it styled nicely, though a cynical part of her wondered who he paid to have it looking that way, before scrolling to the next few images.
Replacing his goofy yellow-tinted hero glasses was a square-framed set, which definitely gave her those teacher vibes. And it wasn't a bad look, really. On top of that, either someone on his payroll or Mic himself had impeccable fashion sense, sporting simple and comfortable-looking clothing that really suited him.
Ok. So maybe he was attractive. So was Chris Hemsworth. And the guy that always came into the store on Saturdays to buy his twelve pack of soda. It didn't mean anything. This wasn't going to turn into a stalker-esque fan obsession on par with Chidori's level. No, sir. But Jane could at the very least recognize a fine male specimen when she was confronted with one. There wasn't any harm in that, right?
Deciding she'd seen enough, she shut off her phone and set it on her nightstand to charge, burrowing into the covers to go to sleep. She used all of her willpower to prevent him from appearing in her dreams. She knew that the mind had a...well, mind, of it's own and could conjure up some pretty horrifying stuff when she wasn't careful.
"Not today, brain. Just sleep. Nothing else." She muttered into her pillow desperately.
ns 15.158.61.6da2
