Chapter Text
One
Again and Again Saturday (Week 1)
“Ma’am, I’m sorry but I do not have the authority and license to issue the prescriptions. Only my manager is allowed since he’s certified and more qualified than I am. Unfortunately, he’s currently on his break and won’t be back for another fifteen minutes.”
Lies, he’s not coming back until the end of shift.
“But I need my meds now.”
The small smile was straining.
“Ma’am, I’m truly sorry.”
“I’ll write the worse review for your store!”
“Ma’am, sorry for your frustration, but there is nothing I can do when my manager is on his break.”
The old woman grumbled expletives under her breath and waddled away, the dull thud of the cane disappeared toward the front of the store.
“Next customer please,” another elderly but with a much sunnier disposition, “how may I help you sir?”
An exchange of receipt and ordered pills, the man trudged off with his medication for the next two weeks.
Nolan glanced at her watch. Business was always slow after 7 pm for Yamaguchi’s Happy Store located a little ways away from the city central. Sandwiched between a ramen shop and an empty parking lot where rebellious teens hung out every evening. She worked at Yamaguchi’s long enough to be on friendly terms with the gang that owned the turf.
The trip to her part-time consisted a ride to the end of an underground line and then cycle for twenty minutes. Fortunately, it paid well enough to cover her rent and bills. Since it was so far out, she only worked three days a week, and had another job closer to her apartment in the city, dividing that salary to cover her food expenses for its meagre pay.
The sound of tape ripping filled the silence as hands reached down to refill the shelve for earplugs. Then stopped when she saw the large pink strip of the manufacturer’s sticker identification tag. Nolan checked the time again. Her shift ended at 11pm. With plenty of time to kill, she hauled the cardboard box onto the counter to start the stripping process.
The job was tedious and bland. Consisted of occasionally dealing with annoyed customers, restocking shelves and managing the logistics of new stock in the warehouse, then distributed the appropriate supplies to the front of the store and the pharmacy located at the back. Once or twice, she was given the responsibility to prescribe medication by following the instructions left on colourful Post-Its when her manager couldn’t be bothered to deal with irritated elderlies.
It didn’t last long when the owner of the store stopped by one day to check their progress.
How she retained her job was a miracle and quickly realised that they couldn’t afford to fire anymore staff, considering it was nearly impossible to coax anyone to take a long journey for their part-time. And the fact that barely of the teenagers in town could hold down the repetitive job for long. Nolan had merely raised a brow when she saw the transfer of her salary into her bank account a few thousand yens more than the agreed.
The sounds of loud shuffling broke the stillness of the pharmacy section. Nolan looked up from scrolling through Twitter on her phone and noticed the time. It was another regular customer coming in at roughly the same hour, and this time he looked slightly worse for wear. He dropped a handful of bandages, gauze packets, solutions, needles and threads, and bandaids onto the counter.
She remembered telling him when she first started two months ago that the cashier was reserved for medication purchase only, and he should use the front of the store. And again. And for the third time. By the fourth, Nolan relented and wordlessly rung up his purchases and bagged the same items. She watched him limped off with them and noticed the blood staining irregularly on the tiles. Another glance at her watch indicated that she could possibly drag out the cleaning chores in time to get off her shift.