She glanced at the clock—almost 1 a.m. He was staying later than usual. Swinging her backpack out from under the counter, she stepped around with a grin.
"Time for my break. You hungry? I could rescue you from that sad excuse for a sandwich."
Something about the way she said it—casual, expectant, normal—like he had just been invited into something they had done a million times.
"Alright," he said. Should I grab something else?
"Nah, grab 2 sodas, dealer's choice." She flipped the store sign to CLOSED and locked the door while he grabbed drinks.
She motioned to the door at the back of the store and led him through.
They passed through the narrow stockroom, shelves stacked with boxes of snack food and bottled drinks, and then out of a back door onto a small staircase. The staircase led out into the alley, but on the other side was an old metal ladder affixed to the wall.
"Hope you don't mind a bit of climbing," Juno said as she reached for the ladder, adjusting her backpack.
Ren followed her onto the ladder, climbing about 2 storeys of the building until he met the edge.
And then he saw the view.
The city stretched out before them, the twinkling lights of the city mirrored by the stars. The buildings reflected the light, casting long, soft shadows over the streets. From up here, the city looked peaceful, alive in a way Ren rarely stopped to appreciate.
But it wasn't just the view that caught his attention.
The rooftop itself was lived-in.
There were old, mismatched garden chairs arranged around a makeshift table—a crate covered with a cheap plastic tablecloth. A few empty soda cans were scattered nearby, along with some half-broken decorations that looked like they had been re-purposed into a weird attempt at a rooftop lounge.
It was messy, worn down, but... cozy.
Juno plopped into one of the chairs, kicking her feet up onto another. "Welcome to the nightshift staff lounge," she said, stretching her arms. "We don't technically have one, so I made do."
Ren looked around, his lips quirking slightly. "Looks like it's been here a while."
"Oh yeah," Juno said. "This place has been my unofficial break room for years." She patted a chair beside her. "C'mon, sit."
Ren hesitated only a second before lowering himself into the chair.
Juno pulled out the two packed lunches from her bag, setting one in front of him.
"I missed lunch so you can have the spare.. "
Ren glanced at her. "You sure?"
Juno slightly blushed and then smirked. "Well, now you owe me a favour, be careful, I have some vendettas you could be real useful for."
He shook his head and laughed, he was starting to realise she used jokes and sarcasm to avoid expressing her feelings. It worked, he hadn't noticed until now, but he could tell from her face this meant more to her than she was letting on. Him being here, in her space, sharing. He peeled back the lid.
Inside was a neatly packed meal—rice, vegetables, seasoned chicken. Simple, but real food.
Ren stared at it for a second.
Juno dug into hers, glancing at him. "Well? You gonna try it or just analyze it?"
Ren picked up a fork from the bag and took a bite.
The flavors hit him instantly—fresh, well-seasoned.
It was good. Great.
He swallowed, looking at her. "This is... way better than Omnivale cafeteria food."
Juno replied casually. "Zoe doesn't cook?"
Without thinking he replied "she's too busy, and honestly not very good."
His eyes widened. Nobody knew about his relationship to Zoe. She had made it clear since he arrived in the city they should keep it secret.
"I uhhh…"
Before he could form a response Juno said plainly "Sorry that was a dirty trick. It's just so obvious. You don't have to explain, it's none of my business."
He looked her in the eye. Worry forming across his face.
Juno shrugged "I'm not Omnivale, doesn't matter to me."
Ren shook his head, a small smile pulling at his lips. He took another bite. The fact she didn't press further was good. He needed Juno and Zoe to be seperate. This was his respite from that world.
They ate together at first in companionable silence before the conversation flowing as easily as it always did.
Juno talked about work, about the weird customers she dealt with, about the latest sketches she was working on.
Ren, in turn, found a comfortable rhythm in talking to her and sharing more of himself.
Something about this place made it effortless.
He didn't talk about his future, or Zoe, that was a secret, but about small things nobody had ever asked before. About how he spent his days at Omnivale and the people he noticed there, how Vilnius was, things he liked about the city.
It wasn't deep. It wasn't life-changing.
But it was comfortable.
At some point, Juno leaned back in her chair, stretching. "Y'know," she said, watching the city lights flicker on, "I like your company. This feels normal."
Ren glanced at her, then back out at the city. Sometimes she was so direct.
Maybe she was right.
Sitting here, eating, talking, watching the flickering lights of the city against the nights sky with a friend...
This was what Zoe had been talking about, wasn't it?
Experiencing the world he was trying to save.
A world where people could laugh, share meals, dream about their futures.
A world where he could just be Ren—not someone burdened with saving the world, just a guy eating dinner on a rooftop with someone who had somehow become a friend.
Maybe he had needed this more than he realized.
He exhaled slowly, letting himself relax.
"Yeah," he said quietly. "It does feel normal."
Juno grinned. "Well, don't get too used to it. I'm still gonna make fun of you for being weird."
Ren chuckled, shaking his head. "I guess I am pretty weird."
Juno laughed—and for a fleeting second, Ren felt like he belonged.
But the moment fractured as quickly as it formed, splintering under the weight of the question he couldn't answer.
"Ren, why can't you tell me where you're from?" She said it almost as a whisper.
He exhaled. "It's complicated. I'm not hiding it from you. I just... can't tell anyone."
"Zoe knows?"
He glanced up at the sky. "Yeah. We met there."
She nodded slowly, like she could feel the edge of the line he wasn't ready to cross—like she knew this was as close as he'd let her get.
He leaned back in his chair, the cool night air brushing against his skin as he glanced around Juno's makeshift rooftop lounge. It had a strange charm—messy but intentional, like someone had tried to make something cozy out of scraps. The mismatched chairs, the half-broken decorations, the way the table was nothing more than an old crate —it all told him something.
She spent a lot of time up here.
Alone.
His gaze drifted back to her, watching as she absentmindedly twirled her fork between her fingers, eyes fixed on the skyline. She had an easy way about her, always quick with a joke, always filling the air with conversation. But now, as she sat there, not speaking, just staring into the city, he realized something.
She doesn't have other people up here.
That thought sat strangely with him.
He hesitated for a second before speaking. "You ever get lonely?"
Juno blinked, turning to him in mild surprise. "What?"
"You have this whole setup," he gestured around them, "but I get the feeling you don't bring other people up here."
She exhaled through her nose, setting her fork down. The playful energy she always carried seemed to fade, just a little.
For the first time since he met her, she looked serious.
"Yeah," she admitted, stretching her legs out in front of her. "Sort of. I mean, I like being alone. I can entertain myself just fine. But..."
She trailed off, drumming her fingers against her knee, searching for the right words.
"But I guess I just got used to it," she finally said.
Ren stayed quiet. He understood that. More than she knew.
After a moment, he asked, carefully, "You don't have any friends here?"
Juno hesitated. Then, with a small shrug, she shook her head. "Not really."
Ren frowned slightly, watching her. "But you've been in the city for a while, right?"
"Six years," she said, leaning forward, resting her elbows on her knees. "Came here for university, but that didn't really... work out."
Ren raised an eyebrow. "You dropped out?"
She let out a short, humorless laugh. "No but I wish I had, I'm going to be paying it off forever."
She sighed heavily. "I attended university, I actually have a degree in Actuarial Science and Mathematics… y'know, stats and business stuff. While I was doing it I spent a lot of time drawing and kinda wanted to pursue that instead." She exhaled. "And I dunno... I just never really found my group? People had their cliques, their plans, their lives all mapped out. I was just kinda... there."
She picked at the hem of her hoodie. "So I guess I just stopped trying."
When he finally spoke, his voice was quiet. "Me either."
Juno looked at him, brow furrowing slightly. "Huh?"
"I never had a group," he said, staring at his hands. "Or friends. Not really."
Juno tilted her head. "Not even as a kid?"
Ren exhaled. "When I was very young, yeah maybe, but things changed when I was around 10. Mostly it's always been me and my mother. We wouldn't meet with people long enough to really form close friendships. "
"Homeschooled?"
He blinked, caught off guard—she was scarily good at picking up on things he hadn't even thought to mention.
"Yeah.. how'd you know?"
Juno's expression softened—whatever his past looked like, it clearly hadn't included much normalcy.
"I don't think you're unsociable," she said gently. "You just seem like someone who hasn't had much chance to practice."
She offered a small smile, like she was letting him off the hook. "That's not a flaw, by the way. It just means you're still learning right?"
Ren looked away, his fingers tightening around the armrest of his chair. "Maybe.... I guess I just got used to being on my own. You're right though, it's not that I don't like being around people," he said slowly. "I just stopped expecting them to stick around… and eventually, they stopped coming at all."
Juno didn't say anything right away. She didn't give him the usual empty platitudes, the "I'm sorry" or the awkward reassurances.
Instead, she just... nodded. Acknowledging what he had shared but casting no judgement.
They sat in silence for a moment, the sounds of the city below filling the space between them.
Then, quietly, Juno spoke.
"Well... we're friends, right?"
Ren looked at her, caught off guard.
Juno shrugged, her expression a mix of curiosity and something almost cautious, like she wasn't sure if she was overstepping. "I mean... is that what this is?"
Ren didn't answer right away.
He thought about it.
Every day, he came to the store, even when he didn't need to. For over a month now she had become part of his routine. They talked. They ate together. She made him laugh—really laugh, not just those small chuckles he gave out of politeness.
He never had anything like this before.
But maybe... maybe this was friendship. Maybe that's why he kept coming back.
"Yeah," he said finally, nodding. "Feels like it."
Juno's lips quirked into a small, genuine smile.
"Good," she said.
He took a sip of his soda and gave her a wry smile. "For someone with an education in Maths you're pretty bad at it though, your stock checks are… interesting."
She slapped his arm mockingly "Hey, if I do too good a job the store manager will ask me to do it more and the last thing i need is more responsibility at minimum wage".
He ran his hand through his hair as if unsure whether to ask. "You don't have to tell me.. But why do you let Omnivale staff treat you like you're less than them when you have a degree like that?"
Juno replies with a mouth full of food, waving her fork around as if dismissing everyone at Omnivale with a single gesture "Because who cares what they think right? It doesn't matter."
She swallowed then looked at him, her eyes lit up as she said it "Plus, you do the same thing. I don't know what you're hiding, but I suspect you're more than they realise too"
She didn't say it in a questioning tone, it was completely accepting, a fact.
He smiled and nodded. She was the strangest person he had ever met. At the same time, other than Zoe, she was the only person who made sense to him.
He relished this. This is what he had been looking for. This connection.
And for a moment he forgot that it couldn't last. Choosing to ignore that he would have to go home, and he could never see her again.