Chapter 1

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It's been a few days. You've spent 16 years in that orphanage, your entire life. Nobody liked you there, and the caretakers were neglectful. They gave you less than the minimum. You think they were just doing it for the support money.

You finally got away.

There was enough money in your pockets to where you could get by. There wasn't a roof over your head, but you'll wait until that actually becomes a problem. A thick jacket will suffice for the cold. You have been sitting in an alleyway for a while, and stare at the wall. A police officer walks down the street, carrying posters. You're a good distance away from him to where he couldn't see you, plus you were in the shadows. A wooden pole parallel to the alleyway stood tall, with nails sticking out of its sides. The policeman stapled a poster on the pole, and walked away. Now, you have seen this a few times before, but this time, the poster was faced towards a direction to where you could see the face.

They looked awfully familiar. Squinting a bit, you still couldn't make out details. You stand up, and walk a bit closer. You stop.

It was you.

The policeman was looking for you. The orphanage needed you to stay under the radar. You can't go out too much now. But wait! What if they can't recognize me?  You remember a drugstore not too far from here. You'll need to completely change your identity. But you don't have the money for that now. You're getting low on cash, but you have enough money to eat for another few days. You sigh, you need to get a job. You go deeper into the alley, taking lefts and rights, until you get to a food stop you found your first day out.

Sato-San's Japanese Cuisine. You sat on one of the stools outside, and waited, leaning on the counter. "Hello?" You hear footsteps behind the door. You believe his small restaurant doubles as his house. "You again?"He steps outside. He's a small man, looks a bit grumpy. "I might be coming here more often. "He nods, and hands you a hand written menu, almost illegible. You decide to order a bowl of hot soba. After finishing your meal, you pay and thank him. You're walking away, but remember something you wanted to ask him. "Wait, Sir?" He turns around."Is there a chance that...you're hiring?" He stands in thought for a moment." I could use the help...You're a lot younger than I am." He looks up at you."Can you cook?"Cooking was a frequent chore at the orphanage."Yes." He smiles."Training will start tomorrow afternoon."

You smile to yourself, feeling fulfilled.

Time skip two days

You're getting the hang of this. Mr. Sato officially hired you yesterday after you completed the training. You now work for him. He gives you your pay at the end of each day. Not exactly enough to get your own place, but beggars can't be choosers. 

"Goodnight, sir! See you tomorrow." He waves, and goes back into his house. It's drizzling out, not helping the cold weather. You'll most definitely get sick, even with your jacket. You need shelter. There's no way any of the 24/7 stores will let you spend the night without buying something, or even let you stay at all! Wait a second. That drug store! You need to change your look anyways, maybe they'll let you stay if you're a paying customer. Luckily, they were. The woman at the cash register felt sympathy for you, and as long as you stayed out of sight, you should be fine. You bought some h/c hair dye and some aluminum foil, and got to work. You've seen people do this before! This will be easy!


...


THAT LOOKS TERRIBLE.

You stare at yourself in the mirror, asking where it went wrong.

The hair dye stayed in, thankfully, but it looks awful. Most of your head is h/c, but you have patches of your original hair color all over. You ran out of foil, You might've used a bit too much. You sat on the floor, trying to dry your head with paper towels.

Probably looking defeated, you went back to the register lady. You can see the cringe all over her face. This is so embarrassing.

"...Do you have any scissors, ma'am?"


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IT'LL GET THERE, GIVE IT TIME-

(Word count: 722)

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