It was Mei’s first job ever in the town that housed her guild. She needed to make some money, after all. She couldn’t just rely on her family like she always does. Although you could say that she is a bit young to be working and earning money on her own. Sixteen, that is how old she was at the moment. Maybe if she started working now, it will become a habit later, no? She wouldn’t have trouble trying to adapt to the life of relying on herself and being independent. She still lived under the roof of her parents’ home. That meant she wasn’t independent yet. But being an only child, she knew that her parents wouldn’t be able to let her go like how her friends’ parents’ had planned to when they were legal. They told her that they were going to rent their own apartments and live on their own. Which all sounded very simple and fun, but Mei actually thought about it and realised how difficult that was. Living all alone meant that you were more vulnerable to harm than when you were with your parents. You would have to do your laundry on your own, cook for yourself, do the dishes by yourself, clean your place on your own, and what else? Just thinking about it made her want to kill herself. She would rather share the burden of doing all that with her parents than have it all for herself.

Not only that, but she would also have to take care of herself in case of sickness. What if she caught a flu? No one is going to put the blanket over her or bring the medicine to her with warm soup or porridge. What kind of a horrible life was her friends looking forward to? Maybe they were more prepared than her to lead an independent life. Plus, the fact that she was only child comes in play as well. The more pampering she received, the more difficulty she will have to let go of it. Sighing, the short haired teenager kicked some debris on the sidewalk as she made her way to the location of her job. The client had a name that sounded like an electrical appliance to her. ‘Dacon’. She thought she was reading wrong at first, but it was right. His full name was Dacon Lubex. Mei arrived at the place, looking around and then spotted a middle aged man with a chair next to him that had a stack of fliers on it. He seemed to be expecting someone, and that someone was Mei, so she hurried over to him and greeted him. “Hello, I’m Suyin Mei,” she said with a smile. The man greeted back with enthusiasm, introducing himself although she already knew his name. “I’ll take it from here?” she asked, but the man began to explain everything and it felt like an hour had passed before he was done with his instructions though they were already written on the sheet.

Luckily for Mei, Mr. Dacol decided to give one of the travellers a tour and the traveller accepted the offer so they left the girl in peace after making their little agreement. She let out a sigh as soon as he disappeared out of sight and organized the flyers before holding them and giving them out to people passing by. It was kind of boring, not that she didn’t already expect it to be boring, since what fun is giving out flyers, right? But she tried her best to keep a cheerful smile on her face and greet everyone who passed by while holding out the flyers for them to take. Most of them took it, but some of them made a fuss. Not like just refusing to take it and leaving, but actually making a fuss about it. One of them actually said, “Get that shit out of my face, hoe.” That left Mei pretty speechless, but it’s not anything she hadn’t heard before so she shrugged it off. You could say she was pretty tough for a sixteen year old. Most teenage girls her age would probably cry after hearing such rude words that were directed at them. Mei completely ignored those people and averted her gaze, greeting other passersby and giving them the flyers instead. “Have a nice day,” she said, for God knows how many times that day. She liked it, though. She liked making people happy. Not that she could see if they were genuinely happy or not but a smile back at her could suffice.

Mr. Dacol got back after about five people taking her fliers, asked her how she was doing so Mei told him that she had given flyers to about five people. She didn’t share the part where she was called a hoe because that would have been awkward. Mr. Decol smiled at her and patted her on the shoulder. She smiled politely at him too, then organized the flyers again so that they were neatly stacked. Mr. Dacol and Mei gave out the flyers together this time and finally he decided to show someone else around again. This gave Mei some alone time that she was dying for because Mr. Dacol couldn’t stop going on about how she looked like one of his nieces abroad. That she had a crazy hair color too. Mei was born with this hair, though, but she didn’t mention it. So when he left she was all alone again, greeting everybody and passing the flyers out. There were nice people and there were rude people. Mr. Dacol got back, and then left again to show people around. This happened a couple of times but after a long time, he decided to reward her. Mei grinned and gave a polite bow when she said ‘goodbye’ to him and left with her money. She was going to save this money for something big. Something that she would treasure. Something she wouldn’t regret.