Third Person's POV
A short chubby woman messily eating a chocolate popsicle while squatting on her apartment's squeaky wooden floor and watching her favorite anime in her cracked phone.
She is Remae Feran, a 28 year old maiden and a lazy part-timer who loves taking long bathroom break just to scroll on her phone.
"Ughh! Stupid b-tch! Why still choose that ugly a-hole? Your prince charming is already beside you! " Remae annoyingly scolded the character of an anime romance she's watching.
Because of Remae's frustration to the female lead's stupid choice, she threw her phone to her unorganized bed which made it bounced twice.
"Why do all female leads are blind and stupid? Gosh! They are so irritating! " she said to herself while rolling her eyes from irritation.
She stoop up and walked to her messy little kitchen to get water from her second hand and rusty refrigerator.
While furiously drinking the cold water directly from the pitcher, her phone suddenly rang.
She put back the pitcher inside the ref and lazily walked towards her bed to get her broken phone. She answered the call without looking at the caller before sitting on her bed.
"Yes?" She answered while scratching her earlobe.
"REMMMM!!!" A loud voice suddely answered which made Remae winced.
She looked at the caller then rolled her eyes when a name 'B-tch Friend' appeared as a caller.
"Hey, Nerisha! How many times do I have to tell you that shouting when calling me is freaking annoying? Next time I'l hung up on you" she threatened.
Remae heard Nerisha scoffed on the phone.
"You're so evil to your one and only best friend. Tsk! Tsk!" Nerisha said with a hint of disappointment.
Remae just rolled her eyes.
"So? Why are you calling me ? " she asked.
" Well, I just ask if you will accept a 6-month contract as my substitute teacher. You know I just got married right? So my husband and I will be travelling to different countries for our honeymoon. And I need a substitute for 6 months. " Nerisha explained.
Remae raised her right eyebrow like saying 'are you for real? '
"B-tch, I may be am education graduate but my patience is lower than my height and the intensity of my laziness is as high as the Eiffel Tower. You are asking the wrong person Nerisha" she explained while making wry smile.
She heared Nerisha made a 'tsk' sound behind the phone.
"Gosh, Rem. I don't know how you made ends meet because of your laziness. Your salary in your part time is like 1/4 only of my salary here in the university. You may have less patience and you may be lazy, but I know you always do a great job on your work. Just grab this opportunity. My school will give you a promising part-time salary since my husband knew the owner of this school." Nerisha convinced.
Remae just shrugged her shoulders.
" Nerisha, you I am not a liscensed teacher. I don't have any experience at all in teaching. And i know you have so many deliverables which make it worst. " she explained.
Remae is a type of woman who prefer easy work with good salary. That's why she only took one part time job in a law-firm as encoder which offers good salary. She only works 5 hours a day and use the remaining time to procastinate in her shabby apartment. All she need is a salary that pays her low rent, food , water and electricity bills. She doesn't have any family so no one will be sharing her salary but herself.
" what a lazy b-tch!. Okay, so how about I'll do all the deliverables, quizzes or activities, the tutorial videos for my students and the ppt's that you will be presenting? All you have to do is show up at school for 7 hours and give little instructions to my students if necessary? The salary will still be thrice as your current salary as a part-timer. How about that?" Nerisha explained and making an agreement for Remae to accept.
Remae was about to declime when she suddenly remembered that 3 of her favorite anime will have a film showing this year of its live adaptation. Base on the comments, booking the IMAX will be the best choice. And there will be merchandises that they will be selling there.
While calculating the money she needs to save, seems like she really need to accept Nerisha's offer to enjoy the upcoming shows.
With a deep sigh, Remae made a forced smile.
" okay, I'll accept it. Just make sure you will not break the agreement. And put our agreement into paper so I can let my boss who is an attorney to notarize it. " she suggested with confidence.
" you're such a - tsk! Nevermind. Don't worry, I never break a promise when it comes to you . Also, I was assigned in the graduate school department so all my students are around our age or a bit older than us. Anyways, I'll inform our deparment's Dean about you. So all you have to do is show up on monday,next week so I can introduce you to my students. See you b-tch, byeee! " Nerisha explained before hunging up not even waiting for her to reply or say goodbye.
Because she got annoyed, she sent a middle finger emoji to Nerisha where she only replied with a laughing sticker.
A few minutes after their talk, she received an email from Nerisha about her employment contract. She reads the contract and she saw her name and her job title as Probationary Part-Timer. What shocked her the most is the salary. If she is just in a cartoon or anime world, her eyes were already in money sign. Her salary as part timer in a law firm os only 12,000 pesos but in the university her bestfriend is working, it is offering around 40,000 pesos as part timer. How much more for a full time teacher right?
"Wait, Sky High University? Isn't it the top-tier school here in the Philippines? " she questioned in shock after looking at the logo and name od the school attached in her contract.
"W-wait, she told me last year that she was working in Catholic school? When did she tranferred here? " she asked in curiousity.
She messaged Nerisha about it but her reply is "oppss! I forgot to tell you. Sarrrryyy"
Remae just sighed from her bff's reply. Nerisha always surprises her. Even in her Marriage, Remae suddenly received a wedding invitation 3 days before the event as her bff's bridesmaid. She didn't even know that Nerisha had a boyfriend then suddenly an invitation will be emailed to her?
She almost had a heart attack from the sudden invitation. And now, she just learned that Nerisha has been teaching already in this top-tier school. That girl never mentioned anything to her which made her head ache now.
"That Nerisha will be the death of me" Remae said to herself while shaking her head from disbelief.
She stood up and went to her wardrobe cabinet.
"Might as well find a decent attire to wear on monday. At least I'll be prepared on Monday then procastinate after right? " she said proudly.
While checking each of her clothes, she cussed to herself.
"Shit. Why did I buy only variety of shirts and hooodies? And I only have jogging pants and jeans. " she grimaced while looking at her clothes .
She closed her cabinet and walk towards her sling bag hanged beside her cabinet. She took her wallet to check her money.
"Good thing I save some extra for emergencies. Better I visit the thrift store to by pair of decent clothes."
She changed to her outside clothes and went out of her apartment. She rarely goes out in times like this but she needs to since she needs new clothes.
Her apartment is just near the road. And there are a lot of thift shops too. She just walked to the nearest thrift store that she usually visits.
As she reached the thrift store, she went right away to the plus size section and looked for slacks and polo shirts or blouses.
"If only I don't need money for the live action of my fave anime, I will never do this kind of a hassle" she said with annoyance in her voice while choosing clothes.
She spent almost an hour to find the clothes that will fit her. She bought three black slacks and 5 blouses and 3 blazers. The store is selling black leather shoes so she bought one pair.
"That is 1,745 pesos maam." The cashier said.
She gave the cashier her payment then left after getting the change.
While walking back to her apartment, she smelled a freshly baked bread which made her salivate. She followed the smell and it came from a bakery which she never visited before. Since the smell made her hungry, for the first time she went inside to buy the freshly baked bread.
"Hi! Can I have 3 pieces of that bread? And one hot mocha also." She pointed the bread that the baker is putting inside the basket. When the cashier punched her orders, she paid right away.
The bakery is cramped with people. She roamed her eyes around to see vacant seats because she wanted to eat the bread while it is hot.
As she was roaming her eyes around, she saw a man reading a book and sitting alone in a good for two table. She walked towards the man and greeted him with a smile.
"Hi, Sir! Is someone sitting here? " she asked politely.
The man looked at her then looked at the seat.
"What do you think? Do you see anyone sitting there? " he answered in a sarcasic question.
Rem forced a smile while breathing deeply to calm herself . She asked nicely yet this man answered her with sarcasm. If this person is her friend she already whacked his head for being sarcastic.
" Okay. Then I'll sit here. " she adjusted the chair then sat on it after putting the things she bought from the thrift store, on the floor beside her chair.
The man just ignored her and continue reading his book.
While waiting for her order, Rem can't help but to give a glance to the man infront of her.
The man is quiet handsome and looks like he is just 2 or 4 years older than her. She is wearing a navy blue long sleeves where the sleeved were rolled upto his elbow. The first two buttons were open exposing a small part of his chest which looked chiseled.
She looked at the book he's reading which made her astonished. 'Intermediate Algebra III ' is the title of the book.
She scoffed after looking at the book he is reading. He looked like an Elite person base on his looks but seems like this man is still in College. Only students will some to cafe or bakeries with coffee and stuff to academic books.
"Is there a problem with my book? " the man asked while raising his right eyebrow and looking at her with annoyance.
Rem looked at the man then looked at her back.
"Ahm, are you talking to me? " she asked with an innocent look even though she knew already that he is talking to her.
The man just rolled his eyes and grabbed his things then left her giving her an annoyed face.
Rem was taken aback with his reaction.
"Tsk! He started it first by being so ssrcastic and now he will get annoyed by me? What a jerk!" She mumbled while looking at the back of the man.