❛ SECRET DAY JOB STRUGGLE ❜→ ʰˣʰ ᶠᵃⁿᶠⁱᶜᵗⁱᵒⁿ

First Day ♔ Part One

      Kurapika sighed heavily to the sound of his alarm clock, knowing instantly that today wasn't going to be an easy or pleasant day. The one job that accepts him, and it had to be there? The blonde wearily got out of bed and started his normal routine. He groaned as he got dressed into his new uniform, a pair of black jeans, red dress shoes, and the iconic Sephora shirt, which he put a black, collared button-up underneath. Oh wait, excuse his language. He was 'donning his costume'. How stupid the terms at his new job was.

      Kurapika grabbed a snack from the fridge and a pre-packed lunch, he was going to be there all day. Hurrying out the door, he made his way to the freestanding Sephora several miles away from his apartment. The train he traveled on was silent and packed, as if it knew what a rough day it would be for him. He clutched his papers and lunch tightly, not wanting to lose them. However he had read the manual in his hand over and over until he completely memorized every policy and rule to the last detail. He was sure he missed nothing.

      Once he got off that train, he walked the short distance to the store and opened the double doors. Blinding lights, huge posters and several assortments of make-up, hair, and skin products greeted him, and he nearly turned around. As many remarks he got about being feminine, this was not the place for him. He never wanted to work here. He simply gave his resume to whoever was hiring and hoped for the best. Nobody could know that he worked here. Nobody.

      The store was a little bigger than a normal Sephora, and it took him a minute to get to the back. After taking a long, deep breath, he went to open the door handle, but someone beat him to it.

      "Hello! My name is Yuzu, I'm the assistant manager. You're Kurapika, right?"  A girl that appeared to be in her late twenties greeted him, with short white hair and pink glasses. 

      "Yes, I am." Kurapika was taken by surprise at the girl looking up at him, but he wouldn't show it. She continued to smile and gestured for him to follow her into the back. 

      "I'm glad you're here early, the director wants to give you a bit of training before you go onto the stage."  Yuzu used the Sephora terms. Director meant manager, and stage meant floor.

      "Alright."  Yuzu opened up one of the doors in the hallway and walked into what looked like a meeting room.  Another woman sat at the end of the table, focused on the laptop and several beauty products in front of her.

      "Amane, he's here." the silverette said, grabbing the attention of the director. She looked up from the screen at the male and gestured for him to come sit next to her.

      "Hi, Kurapika, right? I'm Amane, the director, glad to have you here. As you know, we're a little short on staff, so it's refreshing to know someone new is helping out. Come sit next to me, we'll start you training right now."  She spoke very fast, and seemed very busy. Her dark blue hair was in neat high ponytail, but she couldn't seem to keep her bangs under control.

      "Alright."  Kurapika responded, sitting down in the chair next to Amane. She pushed all of the products toward him and started to speak. Yuzu left the room and went to finish setting a stack of hair products on the stage. Does he ever speak more than a sentence at a time?, she thought. 

      Yuzu was glad to finally have a male cast member, when she heard someone was coming to replace the people who had left, she was thrilled to find it was a guy. But he seemed. . . off. She sighed and hurried to stock the stage with the hair product, making sure it would be visible to every customer that walked into the shop. 

      I hope he doesn't quit. . .

      "Alright, Kurapika, do you have the papers I gave you two weeks ago?" Amane asked, once again looking back at her laptop. Kurapika handed her the stack of papers and she flipped through them, checking to make sure she didn't miss any. "Do you have the costume pages?"