145 How Not To Deal With An Awkward Situation (1/2)
I walked out through the automatic glass doors at the empty lobby and P.O. box area of our building and stepped foot on the paved road that was underneath the winter sky. All around, there were plenty of lights sourcing from buildings near the ground level as well as the tall residential and office towers that lined the Lumina skyline.
I shivered in the nighttime wind that blew in from the direction of the nearby Helliger river, which was out of my view at the moment as the riverbank and the park trail could only be seen if I were to exit from the other exit of the building. Instead of that exit, the one I used was considered the main exit as it lead to the main city streets of the Lumina district of Palisia.
I shoved my hands into the pockets of my winter coat as I started walking towards the nearest convenience store which was about two minutes in walking distance from the foot of the high rise that I lived in. Since the night was still young, there were still plenty of traffic about on the main road that was separated from the wide sidewalk by safety railings. In addition, there were also plenty of pedestrians walking about on the sidewalk with most being people who were out with friends or couples in order to go shopping. There were also some office workers who were returning home after possibly staying behind to work overtime at their workplace.
Upon seeing these fatigued office workers, I was reminded of Loriana, who was also forced to stay at her workplace to work overtime hours. It would appear that the research that she was doing is one of the most important in her career, and apparently, it is highly valued by the government. I guess I can understand why she's opting to work overtime in order to make sure that she get everything right...
As I continued walking down the bright nighttime streets of Lumina, I saw the bright illumination of the convenience store sign up ahead. One thing that I noticed as numerous cars passed me by, shining their lights on me for a brief second before they drove right by, was that every convenience store chain, no matter if it was Hawson, Zero-Eleven, or Family Market, all had these illuminated lining patterns running across the little section outside of the building they were in at the spot of their roof. Like if you've seen any of these stores, you would know what I'm talking about.
I entered through the automatic sliding glass door that slid open as it sensed my arrival. A soft notification music played as the doors slid open to notify the employees of my arrival and I was quickly greeted by the single employee who manned the cash register. As for the other employee, the young man seemed to be restocking the shelves at the moment of goods. The employee at the counter was a young girl who appeared to be in high school and the young man seemed to be in his first year of college. I believe these two were part-time workers who are working for spending money.
The inside of the convenience store wasn't particularly busy as it was simply just me and a couple other customers who were in a line at the cash register to pay for the items that they chose to buy. Since I didn't want Luna to be waiting for too long, I made my way as discreetly as possible over to the travel use section in the corner of the convenience store that was away from the refrigerated food items such as pre-made lunch boxes. Then, I started scanning the shelves for the product that I was after.
I blushed as I came across the one-time use panties for woman and was reluctant to pick it up. I just realized that since the cashier was a high school girl, that'll make things awkward for me. Well, it'll be awkward for the both of us, but more so for me. Like if it was a guy at the register and he sees another guy approach the counter to buy panties, then the male employee at the register might just assume that it was for academic purposes, which is abbreviated as FAP. I know this might sound like a stretch, well... it kinda is in a way.
With an embarrassed blush, I closed my eyes and quickly grabbed the white one-time use panties that was in the plastic packaging and quickly walked over in the direction of the counter in order to pay. I shook my head and closed my eyes in embarrassment as I walked, knowing that a scene of great awkwardness will be happening soon. Why does it have to be like this? I should've gone to a different convenience store instead of this Hawson. This Hawson is the store I usually go to since it's so close to my house, and almost every morning I would buy a pre-made lunch box here to eat during lunch break at school. This means that people here have seen me around quite often, and in fact, I do recognize the two employees that were currently working at the moment.
”Welcome back to Hawson,” the cute high school girl employee who worked at the cash register smiled as she greeted me.
”H-huh...” I looked away as I brought up the plastic package with my trembling right hand and placed it on the counter. ”G-good evening...”
”Good evening,” she responded, but that was before she looked down to see what it was that I was buying. ”Um...” She glanced up at me with a troubled frown on her face and then back down at the product that I had placed on the counter. ”Are you sure that this is the product you wish to purchase?” She asked professionally albeit with a forced smile on her face.
”There's... situations,” I sighed and confirmed.
”Okay...” The girl then brought the bar code scanner over and scanned the product with it while having a look of creeped out disgust on her face. ”That'll be 35 Vil...”
She gestured over towards the scanner and I brought my phone to it, allowing the money to be deducted from my virtual wallet. Then, following a beep, the transaction had went through and I had bought the one-time use panties.