“Thank you for your purchase, have a nice evening”, said the man behind the counter with a dispassionate voice.


    “...Yes, same goes for you”, the highschool girl vaguely answered while leaving the convenience store.


    Sirius’ dropping eyes lingered for a little while on her bouncing ponytail that quickly disappeared as she got farther and farther away from the convenience store. It was one of his rare customers on this cold winter day and it had slightly pulled him out of his lethargy.


    Looking down at his phone, the displayed time was 7:30 PM. His colleague would soon arrive to take over his shift. Contrary to him, Veronica was full of passion and ambition. She was in her last year of highschool and worked at the convenience store to save money to help pay for her studies since she was planning to go to a bigger city.


    Veronica and Sirius were like days and nights: one was always cheerful and smiling while the other was always gloomy and dejected-looking; one had a supportive family while the other had long cut ties with his family.


    At the convenience store, only Veronica seemed to not mind working alongside Sirius. Unlike the other workers of the store, she didn’t care about his lack of reactions when one talked to him nor did she care about his dull appearance.


    It was also one of the reasons why Sirius always had more patience with her, and would sometimes take the initiative to interact with her. Even if he was mostly indifferent about others judging him behind his back, he still felt a bit uncomfortable doing small talk with people that, he knew it, kept ill-talking about his lack of ambition in life when he wasn’t there.


    It was true that at 21 years old people were usually full of ambition and energy but… Sirius lacked all of this. He was often dispirited and when he looked at people, his gaze was so bleak that it made one wonder whether or not he had done something wrong to the other.


    It wasn’t like Sirius was a total dummy, unable to understand the simplest thing. When he was younger, he was a top student and was the pride of his family. However, the more brilliant he was, the less he could understand why he was doing all that.


    His parents wanted him to become a doctor and at first, Sirius was determined to follow their wishes. After all, his father and mother both worked in this field and were renowned in their profession. Sirius didn’t want to disappoint them and for the longest time, he thought that he ought to follow their footsteps. Maybe there was some sort of twister logic behind this, having evolved in an extremely comfortable lifestyle, he might have wanted to thank them by fulfilling their expectations. Furthermore, he had a somewhat brightmind which, coupled with his constant studying, made him able to always be among the first of his classes.


    Until high school graduation, this confusion about his own desires and those of his parents kept growing but it was more similar to a chrysalid than a full butterfly, unable to totally break free from this childish need to make his parents proud.


    Actually, the realization sort of appeared from nowhere. He remembered very clearly, it was after finishing a tedious exam that would have let him integrate into one of the most prestigious universities of the country. He had come out among the last of the participants and while others were worriedly wondering about some part that they hadn’t been able to finish or hadn’t understood, Sirius was just blankly contemplating the peaceful night.


    Except for the moon, there were no stars and the black abyss of the sky made him think that, in the end, compared to the universe, his desires and his parents’ desires were nothing more than a mere dust in the vastness of billions of forms of life.


    Surely, his hasty decision could have been considered as a form of teenage rebellion in the eyes of many, but even looking back at it, Sirius never regretted once having chosen this path. Though he had to admit that forcefully cutting ties with his parents would sometimes still hurt, like a nearly imperceptible open wound that wouldn’t heal.


    Ever since he was born, Sirius has been at the center of everyone’s attention. From a good family, with good grades and with a handsome appearance, it was impossible for him to not attract the gossip of people -be it from admiration or jealousy-.


    But Sirius had never liked this kind of attention. He was more of a quiet child and didn’t really like to interact with others. And his parents’ education didn’t help with it at all. Though they loved him, they were especially strict with him. He wasn’t allowed to talk unless they asked him to, he wasn’t allowed to go out and play as studying was more important and they kept repeating that Sirius would make friends later, when he would be a successful doctor.


    In the end, Sirius was never given the opportunity to develop a friendship with anyone and with this mentality, him growing up as someone asocial wasn’t that surprising, all things considered.


    This desire of living a peaceful and calm life, far away from being at the center of the storm was thus the result of having to carry a weight that was far too heavy for a child that only yearned for the affection and acknowledgment of his parents.


    By now, Sirius rarely thought about his parents. To some extent, he had made the bereavement of this unsolvable relationship. He was also quite satisfied with what he had achieved with his efforts.


    Thanks to his job at the convenience store, he was able to rent a two bedroom apartment and live a comfortable life. He had no expectations to fulfill and when he was off work, he could either doze off at home or go out to take a long stroll.


    Since he didn’t have huge aspirations, he wasn’t planning on ever changing jobs. However, the fact that he had been working for nearly five years at the same convenience store didn’t go unnoticed by his colleagues. It also raised some gossip.


    For the elderly generation, they didn’t bother to hide their disdain for this “youngster” who didn’t understand what it meant to work hard and criticized the fact that when he would be older, he would probably be homeless due to not having accumulated enough richess.


    For the young people that mostly worked at the convenience store for pocket money, they often looked at him with veiled disgust, probably scared that they would end up like him, a “sad loser” who could only ever do odd or ungrateful jobs.


    Another reason why Sirius was disliked was due to his lack of sociability. Indeed, his default gloomy expression made it look like he was perpetually scornfully looking at people. Paired with his very rare answers, it really made him hard to talk to.


    But for Veronica, it seemed like such things didn’t matter. She would naturally blabber on her own, seamlessly giving the impression that she was actually having a conversation with the person in front of her -though when she was talking with Sirius, it was more accurate to say that she was having a one-sided conversation-.


    At some point, Sirius had wondered whether for Veronica, it really mattered to whom she was talking to. While she appeared as the optimistic and gentle girl, Sirius often had the feeling that she didn’t really look at him when she was talking.


    Another thing about Veronica was that she had one obsession: playing otome games. She wasn’t shy about it and for some reason, she seemed to have the wrong idea that Sirius was also interested in this subject.


    It was probably partly his fault, having never interrupted her passion-filled speeches.


    Today was no exception: as soon as Veronica had changed into her working clothes and arrived near him, she barely greeted him before talking about her new favorite otome game -every two days, she would find a new one-.


    “Yo Sirius! Guess what, I found my favorite otome game of ALL time!”, she enthusiastically started talking, throwing a fleeting glance toward her apple watch. “Oh dear, we only have 30 minutes to talk today… Well, I’ll try to be as fast as possible because this one is really really good!! I’m sure you’ll also be amazed by the storyline!”


    While Veronica had a very delicate and doll-like appearance, her speech didn’t reflect it at all. Indeed, she was a fast talker and when she was passionate about something, her words would come out like a deflagration of never ending bullets.


    Usually, Sirius wouldn’t really pay attention to what she was saying, mostly nodding here and there in a vague attempt of showing her that he was still paying attention to her speech.


    But today had been a very long day and Sirius welcomed her energetic demeanor with relief, thinking that it would ephemerally pull him out of the boredom that was gnawing at him, menacing of devouring him at any moment.


    At first, he truly tried to listen to everything that Veronica was saying but he soon started to treat her voice as background noise. It was truly hard for him to make out most of the words she was saying and her fast flow didn’t let him time pierce everything together.


    In the end, Sirius only understood the basic story of the otome game.


    Named My white knight, the game was set in a heroic fantasy setting. The heroine which Veronica played as was a poor commoner. At some point, magic started to manifest and the heroine was thus able to enrol into the magic academy. However, what awaited her here was contempt and discrimination. But despite all those hardships, the heroine never gave up and always did her best. Thankfully, she showed unusual affinity with magic, which caught the eyes of 4 outstanding men. Nevertheless to say that it triggered the jealousy of people, making it even harder for the heroine to find true love as well as graduating.


    “...So of course I choose to date the crown prince! But believe it or not, I keep getting a bad ending! Tonight when I get home, I must absolutely get him, you understand? As a seasoned otome game player, I can only succeed”, Veronica solemnly said.


    “I see”, Sirius answered her for the first time, though he regretted talking as soon as the words left his mouth.


    Seeing that Sirius had answered for the first time since she had arrived, Veronica smiled mysteriously and said in a confidential tone, “You see, the villainess here is OP. She’s originally the fiancee of the crown prince and has a lot of power. You don’t know how many times I was framed by her…”


    Sirius surreptitiously looked toward his phone: he only had 5 more minutes and he could go home. He couldn’t believe that he had thought of her long and boisterous speeches as a lifeline in his boredom.


    While she was still rambling on about the “horrible” villainess, Sirius casually wondered about what was wrong with those types of games. Even if the crown prince really did fall head over heels for the poor commoner, it probably wouldn’t be appropriate to just dump his former fiance to pursue this new girl that came out of nowhere. Furthermore, why would the original fiancee of the crown prince be the villainess? It would be more appropriate for the “heroine” to be the villainess since she’s the third party in this situation…


    Oh, well. It wasn’t his issue and in the end, it was just fiction.


    Sirius soon relegated his thoughts in the back of his mind and rather impolitely cut Veronica in her monologue, lying without batting an eyelash: “Sorry Veronica, it’s the end of my shit and I have some urgent things to take care of. I’ll be on my way, have a good evening.”


    “O-oh”, Veronica disappointedly answered.


    Sirius politely nodded toward her and threw a laconic, “See you tomorrow.”


    “Wait, that’s right!”, Veronica energetically called out to him. “I forgot to tell you but I won’t be here tomorrow. We’re going on a school trip so we’ll see each other in one week!”


    Sirius who was already at the door of the convenience store didn’t turn back toward her, he merely hummed to show that he understood and raised his hand to signal her that he was leaving.


    The temperature plummeting around him, Sirius felt a bit cold and regretted not having dressed more warmly. The lingering warmth of the store quickly disappeared after performatively fighting for a commendable three seconds with the penetrating cold of the night.


    On this side of the country, winters were always particularly harsh. The nights were also pretty early, starting to fall only shortly after 6:30 PM. Alongside night, a harsh cold that didn’t mingle with snowflakes would also appear.


    Sirius had read that some people thought that winters were the perfect setting to talk a walk and feel melancholic and he would have liked them to come here and “take a revitalizing stroll” and dare to say that their desolate and glacial winters were the best place to feel melancholic.


    Only brave people would go out of their own initiative during their winter nights. Most of the time, it was teenagers, boys or girls that felt that they ruled the world. By tomorrow, they would be sick like a dog but it still didn’t prevent them from going outside and then get scolded and punished because of their recklessness.


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Sirius was one of those people who liked to take a walk after leaving work but he wasn’t stupid enough to do it when it was winter. Most of the time, when he didn’t finish too late, he would go straight home and lay down on his hamilton chesterfield sofa with a warm plaid. There, he would either scroll on his phone or read a book with a nice cup of coffee, laid on the ground at arm-length.


    Tonight, he already knew that as soon as he would enter his small apartment, he would go take a warm shower to shake off his lethargy -half due to his boredom of the day and half due to the cold that kept prickling his skin like a bunch of fine needles-.


    Regardless of Sirius'' painstaking efforts to go faster, the cold kept slowing down his limbs, making him feel as if what he was moving wasn’t his own body but rather, an unknown mass that he could only clumsily try to move forward the way a child tried to walk when he first stood up on his two legs.


    Knowing that the apartment he rented was near his job made him inwardly thankful about his old self foreseeing.


    In the familiar deserted street, Sirius found the force to go a bit faster, knowing that the desired warmth of his home was only a matter of mere minutes.


    At last, Sirius reached the entrance of his building. Swiftly composing the passcode, the electric lock opened with a ‘Bip’ and Sirius quickly entered with a victorious smile.


    However, his relief was only short-lived: the inside was even colder than the outside. Blame it on the fact that the owners of the building didn’t have the money -or maybe didn’t feel like wasting the money-, to heathen it up.


    Under his cursing, his breath flew out of his mouth like a little cloud and quickly disappeared toward the ceiling. Meanwhile, Sirius had already started climbing the stairs with big steps. The owners of the building also seemed to not have enough money to repair the elevator as it had been three months since it stopped functioning and despite some tenants’ complaints, it had remained this way ever since.


    Usually, Sirius didn’t really pay attention to the elevator but today, he would have loved to take it. Moving his body around didn’t warm him up at all and his frostbite limbs kept protesting against the forced movement.


    It was only when he reached the 4th floor and strugglingly opened the door of his apartment that he dared to relax. Closing his door with a ‘Bang’ without any hesitations -he was the only tenant of the 4th floor-, he slid down to the floor like a disarticulated puppet.


    Waiting for his mobility to progressively return, Sirius closed his eyes. Though he was always a bit reluctant to program his heather to start one hour before it came back because it costed him more than it would have if he only turned it when he was home, Sirius had to admit that it was the only way for him to not drop dead from cold during the horrible period that was winter.


    The freezing cold having mostly dissipated, Sirius could finally move again without feeling that he could shatter at the slightest touch.


    Standing up, he got rid of his long coat and casually hung it up on top of the heater, not caring whether or not it was a hazardous casualty in case it fell. His fingers were still a bit stiff so he rubbed them together and without even turning on the light, hastily crossed the living room to reach his bedroom.


    The bedroom was small but gave off a cozy feeling. Mostly occupied by the bed there was also the habitual wardrobe and bedside table. The room was currently extremely messy. There were random and sparse piles of books, notebooks and pens thrown here and there.


    As for the bed, it wasn’t made so the different blankets he used to keep himself warm at night were still half falling off the bed, a sign that its owner rarely slept still. Quickly rummaging through the blankets, and despite the disorder, Sirius easily retrieved his pajamas.


    Then, without further ado, Sirius started to undress before even reaching the adjacent bathroom. He was impatient to feel the warm water run down his limbs. Despite feeling a bit warmer than before, he still felt that the chilliness was still stubbornly clinging to his body, like a leech.


    Shoes and clothes casually thrown onto the ground, Sirius distractedly made a note to himself to pick them up after he had finished showering while turning on the shower.


    Just like the rest of his apartment, the bathroom was cramped so it was easy to trip on the clothes he had previously thrown. The bathroom was very simple, it consisted of a shower that took nearly all the space and a pitiful sink with a mirror on top. The mirror also served as a small cabinet and Sirius put in it his medicine essentials.


    Now naked, Sirius couldn’t control his small shudder and hoped that it wasn’t the early sign of cold. He waited for a bit before carefully testing the temperature of the water. The water wasn’t hot yet so Sirius resolved himself to wait a bit more before finally fully entering the shower.


    Feeling the water gradually washing away the tenacious permeating chilliness, Sirius sighed with contentment. While washing himself, the scent of warm milk progressively enveloped him and his body felt as light as a feather.


    “...Feels so nice”, Sirius muttered to himself.


    Maybe it was due to living alone, but Sirius had taken the habit to talk to himself. Sometimes, it was to say some benign remarks, sometimes it was to make a decision or reflect on something.


    ***


    After a little while, Sirius reluctantly turned off the shower. His damp hair fell rather comically on both parts of his head and he noted that he shouldn’t delay going to the hairdresser or else, he would scare people away.


    His chestnut hair was usually very straight, but due to not having been cut for a while, they were now at shoulder length and started to get wavy at the tip of his hair.


    Sirius distractedly played with the tip of his hair while drying his body. Upon doing this, his gaze fell on the mirror that was in front of him and he looked at his reflection like one would look at a stranger.


    The man in the mirror gave off a lackluster countenance. His faded gray eyes were perpetually terse, betraying the staid lifestyle of its owner, and his slightly waifish appearance made it perpetually look like someone that was on the verge of giving up on life.


    Per se, Sirius wasn’t a bad looking person. He had a good figure and youthful features. When he smiled -only on modicum occasions-, it made one can’t help but take a second look. Sadly, his nice features belied his cheerless appearance, and people would usually speak in innuendos -be it directly or behind his back-.


    Shaking his head to break the stillness of the reflection, Sirius casually wiped his hair with another towel. He didn’t feel like blowing them dry but he also knew that there was a higher chance of him getting sick if he chose the lazy solution of not doing anything.


    In a vain attempt to retard this moment, Sirius chose to put his pajamas on and to pick up the clothes he had worn earlier before finally deciding to dry his hair.


    Yawning, Sirius stretched and, as if knowing that its owner would finally give him attention, his stomach grumbled and the sound was especially loud in the silence of the apartment. Patting his discontent stomach, Sirius left the bathroom to join the kitchen, grabbing on his way his phone.


    The “kitchen” wasn’t a real kitchen. Though it had everything necessary to cook, Sirius had had to arrange the living room to make sure that he would have a place to cook.


    To this day, it was still a miracle that Sirius was still able to cook himself a meal without making a mess out of everything.


    The constricted space dedicated to the cooking area was far from being fancy but since Sirius had no one to invite to his home anyways, it didn’t matter.


    Also, if there were two things about which Sirius had been intransigent, not caring whether they would take up all the space, it was the fridge and his cherished Chesterfield sofa. The former because he needed enough space to stock food up to one month and the latter because he liked to have a comfortable place to sit or lay down when reading or watching TV.


    It was already the end of the month so the fridge was nearly empty. Nevertheless, there was still the carbonara pasta he had cooked a night ago so Sirius quickly heated them up. Then, taking his meal and cutlery toward the sofa, he puts them on the coffee table before turning on the TV.


    Sitting down with an audible ‘Plop’, Sirius retrieved the plaid that had been casually thrown on the ground and put it on his knees. Then, turning on the TV, he finally satiated his hungry stomach while focusing on the movie that was playing.


    It wasn’t a very good movie. The beginning seemed promising but the following was executed rather poorly.


    The main character was an orphan teenage boy that suddenly discovered that he could freely travel across different realities when he fell asleep. Everytime he woke up, he would be in a different version of himself. Sometimes he would be a prince, sometimes he would be a vampire… However, the boy didn’t seem to have any precise goal and would just discover a bit of this new world before immediately moving on onto the next one.


    Sirius finished eating just when the boy finally seemed to want to settle down in a world but he didn’t have the slightest curiosity about the end of the movie. Not dwelling for one bit, Sirius turned off the TV without any hesitation.


    Expertly throwing the plaid on the ground, Sirius mechanically raised to go rinse his plate and cutlery before putting them in the dishwasher.


    Then, he habitually made himself some tea and while it was cooling down, he started to scroll on his phone. For some reason, he thought about what Veronica had talked to him about earlier. He wondered if everyone also disliked the villainess of My white knight or if some people also shared his opinion.


    He wasn’t particularly keen in learning more about the plot than the vague idea he already had of it so he rapidly skimmed through the content that didn’t interest him.


    After some time, he finally found a small and mostly ignored forum specially dedicated to talking about the main villainess, Selina.


    Sirius ended up disappointed. There seemed to be no one that cared about why she would oppose the protagonist so harshly. Most people were just complaining about how hard it was to outsmart her due to her huge ressources and backups.


    In the end, only one comment brought his attention.


    [You guys, while I really dislike Selina… I have to admit that it is quite in line with her character to have so many advantages compared to us. She’s the legitimate future wife of Azrael after all… Well, obviously she doesn’t deserve such a man with her psychotic personality but I won’t complain about a little challenge once in a while…]


    The comment had a lot of downvotes and the answers were mostly some brainless complaining about how Selina needed to learn her place as the villainess.


    Uninterested, Sirius exited the forum and drank his tea that had cooled down while he was scrolling on his phone.


    The sweet taste of hibiscus was warm but not to the point of burning his mouth. It was the only tea that was left and it wasn’t his favorite due to his dislike toward overly sweet things.


    Distractedly dissing the tea inside his mind, Sirius also couldn’t help but marvel at the mind of those passionate girls.


    After all, he really couldn’t understand how their likes and dislikes worked. He was pretty sure that if it was something that happened in real life, they would rally behind the original girlfriend and diss the third part girl who had dared to make a move on a taken man.


    “Though if I’m being completely honest, the so-called crown prince really deserves the title of scum… Knowing he has a fiancee, he still let himself get seduced by someone he only got to know for a short while…”, Sirius softly said.


    Ultimately, it wasn’t like Sirius had a strong sense of kinship with this pitiful villainess that got robbed of everything. He was merely confused about why she was considered as the villainess.


    Maybe it was due to the fact that it wasn’t her story? After all, from the point of view of the heroine, she was probably a vile and unreasonable person that made her life harder despite the fact she didn’t do anything to her… Well, except for unawarely stealing her future spouse.


    Sirius amusedly thought that he was getting a bit too much invested in something that was by nature unrealistic and didn’t hurt anyone.


    If those girls were happy playing those types of games, then let them be. It was harmless and it’s not like it had a strong influence on their everyday life.


    Well, maybe except hurting the ears of people that had the unluckiness of having to listen to their never-ending rambling.


    “Whatever.”


    Having finished drinking his tea, Sirius was hit by a wave of drowsiness. Holding back a yawn, he put down the cup on the counter and upon hitting the ceramic, it produced a crisp sound.


    In a zombie-like way, Sirius spinned toward the bathroom where he started to sluggishly brush his teeth.


    After he was done with this task, he finally got to go to bed. Hastily gathering his messy blankets into a somewhat acceptable way, he got into his bed and found a comfortable position.


    When he was all set, Sirius decided to check on his mail before going to sleep.


    He had received new mail from the owner of the convenience store. It was about Veronica’s absence and about how they would need to work a bit more than usual. Probably feeling a bit sorry about having to overwork his employees, the owner added at the end of the mail that it would be counted as overtime. There was also the new schedule attached to it so Sirius clicked on it and wearily looked at the hours he would have to do.


    After he was done with it, Sirius, whose eyes started hurting, gently rubbed them and the rim of his eyes adorned from a red hue, making it look like he was either drunk or sick. Looking at the time displayed on his phone, he realized that it was nearly midnight and understood why he was starting to get so sleepy.


    Sirius rarely stayed up past midnight unless it was forced by external events. He liked to go to sleep early and to rise early.


    In the morning, his favorite activity was to go outside and take a long walk, a portable of steamy hot coffee in hand. He enjoyed this brief moment of stillness where the borders between light and day were blurred. No matter whether it was cold, hot or rainy, he would do this walk.


    The peaceful town that had not yet awakened was something precious to him. It was a reminder that life was simple and that it was better to simply enjoy it, to not uselessly complicate it with issues that, in the end, weren’t really issues.


    Already thinking about his morning walk, Sirius put his phone on the bedside table and turned around to nudge against his pillow.


    Another thing about Sirius was that he was a fast-sleeper. So no sooner had he closed his eyes that he was already sleeping like a log.


    However, somewhere in his distant conscience, a persistent beeping sound disrupted the calm expression on his face, making him frown.


    The sound was similar to the one made when a device connected to another device.


    It was extremely unusual since the only electronics that Sirius possessed were his phone, the TV, the toaster and the microwave.


    Not even a micro-second after, an expressionless and emotionless voice was heard in the silent apartment.


    The system is loading…


    Please wait patiently…


    1%...50%...80%...99%....


    Beep! Beep!


    The ‘wronged villainess also deserves happiness’ system has come online!