The Worst Day of My Life

I was in the back of Celestia, the area where only employees were allowed. With a smug grin, I walked up to the woman who'd been wishing for my downfall and greeted her.

"Hello, Erin."

She looked at me with a puzzled expression. "You…why are you back here?"

"You should know the answer."

"No…it can't be…"

Yannis happened to be nearby, and Erin called him over for questioning.

"Explain this!" she exclaimed. "You actually hired him? A jobless leech?"

The way she talked to her boss was deplorable. But then again, it seemed like everyone treated the poor guy that way.

"Well, yeah. And he's not jobless anymore. To tell you the truth, he didn't really seem to have any useful skills or qualifications, but he was just so much like me that I felt obligated to give him a chance. I feel like he'll do great things for us."

So he has such high expectations of me…just because I remind him of himself? He must be a narcissist.

Erin probably wanted to give him an earful, but she instead simply wrinkled her nose in response.

"You shouldn't do that," I said. "If you wrinkle your nose too often, it'll stay that way."

"Really?" she asked, concernedly touching it.

"No."

"I'll kill you."

She'll kill me?!

"Whoa Erin, don't start making threats! I need everyone here to get along." Yannis turned towards me. "Speaking of that, I should probably introduce you to your coworkers."

With those words, he practically dragged me away. The first person he brought me to was none other than Nox, my old friend from high school.

"You somehow already know our talented head chef, but he'll be the one giving out orders and instructions in the kitchen. You will pretty much work directly under him," said Yannis.

Nox, who seemed to be preparing for service, stopped and grinned at me.

"Be prepared to work like hell. We're insanely understaffed."

If he was trying to intimidate me, it was working.

"Do you guys have any other new hires besides me?" I asked.

"Nope, you're the only one."

That's a bad sign.

"...I've been wondering about something," Yannis remarked. "Aren't you considerably older than Adriel? Were you both really in high school at the same time?"

"I'm only twenty-five, you dirty old man. Adriel is three years younger than me."

Yannis chuckled. "Dirty old man? Harsh. What you're saying makes sense, I guess, but an age gap like that is pretty abnormal in a friendship between teenagers."

"It probably is, but Adriel here was quite precocious. That's why I didn't expect him to end up working in a place like this."

"You were pretty precocious as well," I commented. "In the world of culinary arts, everyone knew you as that one gifted highschooler."

"Yeah…" Nox said, sighing. "I guess we both suffered a fall from grace."

"Come on, you're acting like this is some dead-end job!" Yannis exclaimed.

"Well, it sort of—"

"That's it! I've heard enough out of you!" The dirty old man grabbed my arm and dragged me along once again. "Let's go. You have more people to meet."

A part of me wanted to stay there and continue the conversation with my friend, but I suppose I had no choice in the matter. It would have to happen some other time.

"We'll talk later, Adriel!" Nox called out. "I have so many things I want to say to you!"

I smiled, and it was the most sincere one I'd worn in a while.

"Sure. I do too."

As we walked away, Yannis spoke. "That Nox is so full of himself. Just because he's young and cool and smart and handsome and talented, it doesn't mean he should be able to criticize the place I so graciously offered him the opportunity to help run."

His description of Nox was surprisingly complimentary. It was also…well, accurate. He was a little cool, I guess.

"So you asked him to help you start this place up?" I questioned, overlooking the pontification.

"When you put it like that, it sounds like I begged him to do it. But yeah, I pitched the idea to him, and once he agreed, I used the last of my funds to invest in this business. And I think it turned out pretty well. Celestia is fairly successful, wouldn't you say?"

It seemed like he took a major risk by putting everything he had into the restaurant. He definitely was the type of person to do something like that. I doubt he had a wife or kids, or anyone at all who was dependent on him for that matter. So he probably made decisions by himself, solely for himself.

"Here we are," he said as we went to a different part of the kitchen. "This is our sous chef, Isadora."

I laid my eyes on a lady who was about, I'd say, a few years to a decade younger than Lyra. In other words, she was quite old, but not at hag level just yet. The woman was also a bit familiar, but I couldn't exactly put my finger on who she was.

"Oh, hello! Are you our new hire? I didn't think it'd be someone so young and handsome!"

She seemed much nicer than Lyra.

"I'm Adriel. It's nice to meet you."

"Why, thank you! My name is Isadora. You're so well-mannered compared to that pompous Nox. I'm glad not all young men nowadays are like him."

Pompous?

Yannis laughed. "I was just saying the same thing. He's so easy to hate."

Things were starting to make a little more sense. Everyone would always say that Nox had character issues, and I'm sure that he came off as conceited to most people. Isadora appeared to be the oldest employee here as well, so the fact that someone half her age exceeded her in position likely irked her to end.

There was another girl next to Isadora, and she, so ever gracefully, performed the task in front of her while paying no mind to our conversation. It was abrupt, but Yannis gestured towards her and announced, "Adriel, meet our prized possession—the one who is credited for bringing back fifty percent of our clientele, the one who charms all who look her way, the one who was asked out by every boy in her high school class—Elara!"

This girl, Elara, suddenly turned her head in our direction, but only when her name had been mentioned. It was like she ignored everything else that Yannis had said about her hitherto.

"Uh, hello," I said, slightly waving my hand. "My name's Adriel."

"Hi…" she responded. "Welcome."

The way she talked was, admittedly, cute. And she was about as attractive as they came. I could see why Yannis said all of those things about her (even though they may not have been true). She was the type of girl that every man wanted to hug and keep by their side for all of eternity.

Nothing but a few brief seconds of awkwardness followed, and then Yannis pulled me over to the side.

"It might take a while for her to warm up to you. She's not very comfortable around men."

"Why's that?

"Well, she's had bad experiences with them. I guess some guys just don't know the difference between flirting and harassment."

"So is she uncomfortable around you and Nox too?"

"Nah. My personality is contagious, so we didn't have any problems getting along. Nox's case was a little different, though…"

"What'd Nox do?"

"Well, I thought it was weird, but he made her a promise. He promised to never fall in love with her."

I chuckled at the absurdity of those words. "That's all it took? Can I do that too?"

"Nah, I doubt it'll work a second time. Sorry."

Nox was like a robot that had gotten really good at blending in with humans. Most would think that he didn't have the capacity to love someone, so it made sense as to why Elara believed him. That wasn't weird. What was weird, however, was Elara's attitude towards it. She supposedly saw it as safe to interact with him solely because of his lack of attraction to her. I assumed what Yannis said was right, and that she really did have some bad experiences with men in the past that were attributed to this behavior.

I pitied her for that, of course, but the cute, guiltless demeanor she wore still struck me as disingenuous.

"Anyway," said Yannis, "that's everyone you need to know. There are a few others, but we can just call them irrelevant side characters for now."

What a manager…

"Isn't the dinner rush soon?" I asked.

"Yep. You'll be serving for the first time. Get ready."

I gulped in anticipation. For the time that I had before the rush, I went to the bathroom, put on my uniform, and mentally prepared myself.

This is actually a pretty nice outfit, I thought as I looked in the mirror.

My heart suddenly dropped. I saw something.

No…you've got to be kidding me…

Inching closer and closer to my reflection, I began to lose all hope.

Of all times, why now? Why?!

I placed my hand on my forehead and slid it upward, pulling back my hair and revealing my hairline.

"Am I…balding?"

Was my hair thinning? Or were my eyes playing tricks on me?

"T-This can't be! Even my father still has a full head of hair!"

It might not have been noticeable to the imperceptive, but because balding was one of my biggest fears, I frequently checked for it. And now I saw a potential sign of it.

In the bathroom of Celestia.

On my first day of work.

I slowly sunk to the ground in agony, thinking about how unfortunate I was. God had forsaken me. It was now evident.

Knock! Knock!

"Adriel, it's time!"

Yannis was signaling for me to come out and begin working.

Curses. Curses, curses, curses!

I took a deep breath and left the bathroom, but that miserable thought still lingered in my mind.

"For today, all you have to do is bring people their food. That's it. Got it?"

I responded with a perfunctory nod.

From there, everything was a blur. I couldn't remember what I was serving or who I served it to. I just tried to do as I was told and forget what I saw in the bathroom. I do remember dropping a plate and being laughed at by Erin, though. And I couldn't seem to pay attention, so I dropped another one soon after. And then another one.

But why did it matter, anyway? I was going bald.

Nighttime came, and we all eventually left. Since we were going to the same place, Erin and I walked in the same direction. I lagged behind. She was a considerable distance ahead of me.

Seconds passed, and her strides became smaller and smaller. She came to a stop and turned to look at me.

"What's wrong with you? Why are you walking like you've got all the time in the world?"

The face of a woman really was quite interesting. With just one glance at it, a man's entire perspective could be changed.

I understand, I mused. I need to get married.

It was simple. Before I went bald completely, I could find a woman and make her mine. Even if I were to lose all my hair after that, it wouldn't really matter anymore, would it?

There we go. Problem solved.

I tried to remember the days of my youth where I'd easily charm every girl in sight. I needed to gather every last bit of my energy and summon that Adriel right here and now.

So with a smile, I spoke:

"You're cute when you get all worked up like that."

A few seconds of silence. Had I done it?

Gradually, Erin's face began to contort. She looked…disgusted.

"Ew," she said, turning back around and quickly walking away.

No way. Did I just fail? But how?

I gritted my teeth in frustration.

Damn you, woman. I won't let you humiliate me any longer.

No matter what it takes, I will reign triumphant.