Jimmy's gonna work!

Although Jimmy initially considered Piers' suggestion to go to the X-mall, he later thought otherwise and stayed back in Piers' house. However, since staying in one place for a prolonged time bored him, he started walking towards other rooms. That's when he noticed that Piers lived alone in the house. He kinda wanted to ask him about it once he comes back, but he was afraid that it might trigger some bad memories that Piers wanted to avoid. Anyway, even with him being alone in the house, the house was well maintained. He had to give props to Piers on that.

After a lot of searching around, he also learned that Piers had no means of entertainment. Like, he didn't have a television or any games lying around. By the looks of it, the most entertainment he had was the English textbooks that had stories on it.. It's kinda sad when you look at it. At that very moment, Jimmy felt thankful for the life he had. He wanted to go back to his home and reconcile with his parents, but his stubborn behavior didn't allow him to do so.

Anyway, he searched around Piers' house for quite a while, but found nothing worthwhile. In the end, he started to consider his suggestion and set his way towards the X-mall. But before exiting, he searched for his enchanted Santa costume which was technically X-mall's property. He was kinda worried though, since he was pretty sure that the costume would be bloody after his fight.

However, he was pleasantly surprised when he found that Piers had washed the cloth beforehand. By the looks of it, Piers washed it quite a while ago. Feeling grateful for his actions, he was reminded of him and thought of what he might be doing in the school. Although he won't have Jimmy messing with him in the school these days, there's always someone else looking for an opportunity to bully people and Jimmy was worried about that. He didn't think of his actions from before as anything other than being an asshole. But, after last night's event, he felt protective towards Piers for certain reasons; especially because he received the helper system from Santa. He's supposed to help his subordinate, right?

In the end, after packing the costume in his backpack, he headed to the X-mall, looking to relieve his boredom.

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Jimmy stood before the X-mall, reluctant to enter for some reason. He couldn't find the reason at first. But then he realized that he never locked the mall when he went out and got himself into a fight. The subconscious fear that he felt in his mind was the fear of facing the employee's faces since by now they might have learned of his blunder.

Jimmy admitted to the fact that he had always been irresponsible and never admitted to his mistakes. But now, he wanted to own up to it as he stepped into the mall.

However, he didn't expect what happened next. Rather than gazes filled with rage or anger, the employees welcomed him in a cheerful mood, since they were thankful about Jimmy stepping up at a crucial moment. This pleasant mood made him relieved as well. So, it didn't take him much to admit to his mistake and apologize. The two employees who invited him to the mall last night talked as if it wasn't a big deal because it really wasn't. He learned that the room that he was in wasn't actually connected to the main part of the mall, so the thieves couldn't have possibly broken in, even if they tried. This made Jimmy a bit more relaxed since he learned that his mistakes didn't mess things up on a major scale.

Anyway, it had been a long time since he's been this apologetic about something. Usually, he tried the rough and tough delinquent way, but now that he tried apologizing, he felt like he went back to his roots. After that event he asked their permission to take the Santa costume for himself, which the employees felt like it was the strangest decision taken by anyone they had ever seen. Like, they knew of many people who wore this costume and they knew for a fact that no one has ever washed the costume in a long time. Hell, they knew a few people went full commando on this costume, which the boss of the mall felt like it was the wrong thing to do, since kids were supposed to sit in the lap of Santa. So, when they heard that Jimmy is seeking the ownership of such a costume, they were genuinely surprised. However, they also felt like it wasn't their decision to let him do so; hence they showed him to their boss. Although, if it was on their hand, they wouldn't even hesitate to dump that costume to Jimmy.

When Jimmy headed to the X-mall's boss asked him the same, the boss seemed like he was in a dilemma. He couldn't decide or at least he acted like he couldn't make one. However, after a lot of back and forth debates with himself, he ended up "gifting" the costume as thanks.

After this exaggeration of an act from the boss, Jimmy decided to loiter around the mall window shopping through each shop. After circling around the mall for about five times though, he got bored and fixed himself to a bench in the middle and focused on things going on around him. He saw the employees having their fair share of fun. Seeing this, an unknown feeling crept Jimmy's mind. He believed it to be some sort of jealousy because he never got to experience such a fun experience in anywhere other than his home. However, he could only see it as his parents doing it out of pity because no one else seemed to care about him at all. Back when he was a Santa believer to the recent times when he was a delinquent, he never got to experience any sort of comradely. Everyone back then treated him as a lackey. So, seeing the scene before him for once made him feel refreshed.

While he was gazing towards all the employees in the mall, the one of the two with whom he was really familiar with came in and introduced himself as Larry. And then he asked if he would be interested in working there as well.

Jimmy hadn't thought about working until now because he was spending his time being absolute trash till the day before. However, now that he received an offer, he really wanted to accept it. He was suspended from school for a month and has no place to live. If he was to ask Piers to crash in his home, he knew that he would agree, unlike all his "friends" from before. However, if he is to stay in Piers' house, he has to contribute to the household as well. The current Jimmy was an unemployed person with no housekeeping skills. So, rather than polishing his non-existent housekeeping skills, he thought it would be better if he is to change his unemployed status to employed. So, he accepted the offer.

Once he did accept, it wasn't that difficult for him to actually get the job. The manager didn't hate him and desperately needed some extra hands, so he welcomed Jimmy with open hands. And from that day on, Jimmy officially became an employee of the X-mall.

The mall job wasn't exactly that simple for him. Jimmy was basically a pampered kid with no extracurricular skills in his hand. So, for him to run through the supermarket aisle of the mall whenever someone messed up the arrangement of certain products was certainly taxing. However, as he ran those distances, he learned that his stamina stat increased by 0.5%. Seeing this slight increase made him happy and sad at the same time. He was happy because he learned that making efforts paid off, but he was sad because if this is the rate of increase, who knows how long it would take to get to a 100% and get the +1 stat on stamina!

Anyhow, even though the work was taxing, it was honest work, so he felt satisfied when he was able to do even the smallest thing. Meanwhile, he saw Piers in the X-mall and learned that he worked part-time in the mall as well. However, he wasn't the only one who was surprised. Piers was surprised to see Jimmy in the mall's uniform because he originally asked him to visit the mall just to get some fresh air , so he never expected him to actually work. However, Piers was satisfied with this, since he believed that the mall's atmosphere would do good to Jimmy's mindset as well. And he believed that it would be fun as well.

Since it was a daily wages job, Jimmy was happy with whatever money he got by the end, because it was honest money. And with that, the day came into a peaceful end.

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