john owned a bookstore in the outskirts of robloxia.
doe’s damn good books, it was labeled. most of the labelling had faded off, or had been broken off during past rigorous storms. despite its decrepit condition worsening in the recent years, john had stuck with this profession, even if the job didn’t pay much money, if not any at all.
he didn’t stick with this job for the funding, or the lifestyle really. the placing of the store was horrible, on the outskirts of town where gang attacks were frequent. he’d been robbed a couple times himself, but still he didn’t give up his business.
all because of one customer. one frequent customer, who always came on the daily but never bought anything.
1x4.
1x4 had a rather controversial past in robloxia, which led to many people hating him. he didn’t really have a choice, though; he was born as the creation of hatred, born to be the bane of many peoples’ lives by nature.
he wasn’t all that hateful himself nowadays, despite almost destroying robloxia as a whole in the past. he was just this ordinary dude who looked a little too corrupt for his own good, trying to get by living an ordinary life despite the resentment he got on the daily.
john figured that 1x4 frequented his bookshop because of the lack of customers present there to give him nasty looks. john himself had never grimaced in the face of 1x4, not even once..
instead, he rather found himself staring across the store at the mysterious & silent figure, his mind drifting away in thought.
1x4 never bought anything.
but john wished he would, just so he could take a good, long close-up look at that face for once.
one rainy afternoon, 1x4 paid his daily visit to john’s bookshop, as he had done every day for the past few years or so without fail. he & john had come to a head-nodding greeting basis so far, & so after dealing his respect to john he went to his corner of the bookshop, where john stacked the books about self-love & personal enrichment about.
over the many years that 1x4 had visited, john found that 1x4 visited that section the most.
“hey, sir!” john suddenly calls out from his counter, stepping out from behind the dinky register & making his way to where 1x4 stood, a bright smile on his face.
brighter than anything he’d worn nowadays.
he stood by 1x4’s side, hands held behind his back, looking up at the taller man while not-so-subconsciously rocking back & forth on his heels.
“i notice you’ve been browsing this section for quite a while, so may i recommend you a good book on self-development?”