Chapter 1.1: Vending Machine

Everyone has bad days, but for Louise, having one has become so common ever since she worked for Fantasy Motion Pictures; an animation studio based in Tokyo.

She's a kohai to a team of animators, and simply put, they treat her like trash.

In the first few weeks, she thought that it was just normal, that maybe she was just adjusting to her new environment, where everyone should be polite and follow the rules. She worked so hard in her university days for this job, and she arrived in Japan full of dreams.

But of course, life will always find its way to ruin everything.

It's been four freaking, excruciating months of hell for her, and her seniors' treatment of her isn't improving at all. Assigning her the extra frames to draw they are supposed to be working on, forcing her to work overtime during the weekdays and even on weekends. Making her go to do errands like buying them lunch, coffee, or even toiletry essentials, not to mention she also has her own set of deadlines to meet.

Their studio is currently working on the pre-production of their team's new project: an anime inspired by a real person, an athlete who seems to be famous but whom Louise has never heard of.

And now, just like usual, they gave her one of the odd assignments again: An interview with the said athlete that she assumed the other senior team would use for some future promotions and teasers, which is definitely not her line of work to do.

She walks quickly in her heels, muttering and constantly whining to herself as she goes over the interview details.

Louise doesn't even know what the person she'll meet looks like. They just plopped the papers down on her desk and sent her in to the ice rink center where the meeting will take place; it was all rushed and impromptu.

To make her situation worse, it was too late when she realized she forgot to bring her jacket with her. It's springtime in Japan, and the weather in Tokyo is still cold, at least for Louise.

Only God knows how much she hates the cold. It makes her want to just ditch her job, go home to her apartment, and wrap herself in her futon while sipping hot chocolate.

Arriving thirty minutes earlier at the rink, she falls in love with the rows of blooming cherry blossoms around the area, but her pollen allergy won't allow her to watch the view in peace. She let out an earth shaking sneeze that made her eyes water. Louise considers it a miracle to find a vending machine in a far corner. The cold and her bad mood just made her thirsty for alcohol.

This is one of her favorite things about Japan: there are alcoholic beverages everywhere.

People might think, "Who in their right mind would go out drinking to start the day at their job?" but of course, Louise won't care about that now that she feels like if she doesn't consume a single drop of alcohol at the moment, she's going to lose her mind.

But the beer won't fall in the box on her third try smacking the machine, and that's it; she snaps.

This morning, she burned her tortilla in her stove, her landlady screamed at her and smacked her head with her fan for paying rent past the due date.

Her senior gave her another extra job, and now this.

Not a single thing was in favor of her in the country, not even a crappy vending machine.

"Oh, forgive me, Lord," she muttered. "La Muerte!(Death!)" she yells in her thick accented mother tongue, kicking the vending machine. Losing all her composure that she had learned from her job training, which expected her to act like a true Japanese. Polite, patient, and a role model for everyone.

"Fucking useless, piece of trash—" she heard a crack, and it was her cheap office pumps, starting to peel off from their soles.

She screams in frustration as she slumps in defeat on the plastic bench beside the machine. She notices a tall guy around her age approaching so she sits straight in her seat and switches to her professional mode really quick like she didn't almost had a breakdown a moment ago.

Meeting strangers was the last thing she wanted in Tokyo. She must act like Japanese, especially since she's a gaikokujin(foreigner), or else they'd label her as a weird creep, which she already is.

But no one would know that Louise is a fake unless she sat with poise, minding her own business.

She felt like she almost had a heart attack in her surprise when the guy gave the machine a single, strong kick and the can fell into the order box.

"That's a nice kick you got there!" She's impressed, even though she felt like he gave her a stroke from the loud metal noise.

Too late; sometimes she just can't really hold back her mouth. And now she needs to carry on a conversation with a stranger—the worst nightmare of her introverted ass.

She doesn't even know if it was introversion or she finally got at the point in her adult life where she hates being around people.

"I kind of figured out the trick for a long time now. They might have no plans of changing it to a new one," he casually said, and then paused for a moment when he saw what he was holding and said "This is alcohol," like he just realized that he had picked up evidence from a crime scene.

"Yeah, it is," she agrees in her fake friendly tone as she studies him from head to toe. It depends on whether she'll choose to flee or just get along.

He's wearing a jersey jacket and sweat pants, like most of the ordinary people she saw walking around the rink.

"You must be a regular here," she puts on her best smile and most angelic, saintly tone of voice.

She saw him giving her a strange look for a second, like a pair of horns had grown into her head, but quickly changed into a polite expression, just like everyone does in the country when someone does something weird and pretends they didn't see that.

"Yeah, I..." he paused for a moment to think and then goesn on. "I skate here."

"Oh..." she nods, pretending like she understands that. "Well, that's good. It's not like I'm going to meet you again anyway. Give me that," her once angelic voice changes drastically into the sound of a dude, throwing away all the fake delicateness.

She grabbed the can of beer from him, opened it, and took a swig."Ugh, this kind of legal drug never fails to give me free therapy," she crosses her leg, exposing her black tights, making the stranger's eye bulge in shock.

Louise lets out another sneeze that makes him flinch in surprise, adding to his trauma over her.

"For the love of God, this country is making me sick!" she growls. Its a sound she normaly makes at their home in Mexico, uncovering what she really is.

"Well anyways, you said that you're a skater, right? So you must have heard about this..." she flips through the papers she's holding.

"...Ojiro Korishima guy, do you know him? I'm from Fantasy Motion Pictures, by the way, and they sent me to interview him."

"Oh...that guy," the stranger wonders.

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