In a middle class cafe, in the staff room
Splash! Splash!
Kai was drenched by the water spilled on him by his boss, he opened his eyes and looked at him. Howard a middle aged man in his early forties.
"You destroyed my dream, you destroyed it and everything with it, you little piece of crap" Howard said with a face full of rage and a tone full of hate with tears firming in the corners of his eyes.
Kai didn't say anything and simply bowed his head down, he knew it was meaningless to speak something now.
"You were my best employee but why did you have to stop us from rising" Howard spoke with gritted teeth. Seeing Kai silent his anger flared, he raised his hand and with a swift motion struck Kai's left cheek.
Kai's head turned sharply towards the right from the impact, the stinging pain in his cheek made him clench his fist tightly, he still kept his head down refusing to show any emotions or retaliate to any attack.
"Why are you not saying anything now, speak" screamed Howard, " ahhhhhh, now that you have destroyed us you must be very happy right" he scoffed.
Looking at the still non reactive Kai and his calmness, Howard felt he was wasting energy by screaming on a piece of emotionless and lifeless rock.
He turned towards the table and poured himself a glass of water to calm himself down. after drinking he looked at Kai " you understood that how much important that guest was to us right, or did I not made myself clear enough earlier".
For the first time since the fight started Kai spoke" I understand, this was our big chance if we had impressed our guest he would have agreed to invest in our cafe then we could have transformed it from a middle class cafe to a high class one, I'm sorry boss for causing trouble but it wasn't intentional" Kai spoke in a slow, controlled and calm tone.
"If you knew things could go out of hand, couldn't you have been more careful, look at what you have done, spilled the boiling hot soup on him, it's good that he didn't blamed otherwise you would have nowhere to go in this entire city".
Kai didn't say anything, he merely looked at the reflection on railing, it showed a smirking young man looking towards them.
"Kai leave, I don't want to see you any more in this cafe" Howard said as he turned to the side while waving dismissively at Kai.
Kai stood like a statue and didn't budge.
Sensing no movement Howard turned towards Kai and spoke in an even more harsher tone "didn't I told you to leave, get the hell out of my cafe and never be seen again".
Kai turned to leave, he went to the locker room and grabbed his worn out jacket. He had just turned towards the exit when he saw the same smirking young man waiting for him — Ron.
"Who would have thought the great employee of every year Kai would be fired, now you could be the employee of the streets" mocked Ron. Kai smirked "even if I leave you'd still not become the employee of the month ever" Kai spoke in an smooth and even tone. "Afterall with a smile as disgusting as yours you are always going to have bad customer reviews" Kai smirked.
"Unless you would have a plastic surgery, but I doubt any surgeon would be able to make you look good" Kai spoke after a moment.
Looking at Kai's confidence and hearing his ever word that came out of Kai's mouth Ron's face sank further and further until it became very ugly and dark. "Get the hell out of this place unless you wish to be thrown away in the garbage bin by the guards, pheasant" spat Ron before leaving Kai alone.
Kai left through the exit.
Just as he kept his foot in the streets he was greeted with a cold breeze flowing around him.
The streets were quiet lively with hustle and bustle of people. It was only around 6 o'clock in the evening which is the initiating hour of night life.
Kai looked around the people before sighing in dejection. He started walking forward with his hands in his pocket.
"Kai, Kai stop" Kai had just walked a hundred meters when a voice called him.
Kai stopped in his tracks and looked back. It was a young man with average looks, tall height and a very lean physique.
Kai smiled looking at the man "bro you could have just made a phone call and I would have came to you, why did you waste your stamina when you are already very poor with it anyways" he joked looking at his friend from the now ex workplace.
"huhh..huhh..huhhh" John started panting heavily when he reached Kai, trying to energize his cardio vascular systems.
"That idiot Ron is telling everyone that he's going to be the new head waiter now that you're gone, tell me Kai is it true, did Howard really fired you from the job at cafe" John asked Kai in a concerned tone after catching his breath.
"Sigh, it's true" Kai said while looking down.
"Whattt.... but why.. why were you fired, it makes no sense.. you were the best performing employee there" John said with a stunned look in his face.
"Well that's how it is, of course I didn't expect anything better than being fired after spilling hot soup on the golden egg laying goose like guest anyway" Kai spoke with almost no change in his emotions.
"But why should you be fired, everybody saw it was Ron who tripped you, that bastard has been jealous of you for a long time, and also eyeing your position" John said in a tone of rage.
"I am going to leave as well, if you're not here then there's no point working in there all by myself" John said after a moment.
Kai was surprised by the decision he made.
"Are you out of your mind, didn't I asked you to stop idolising those brainless porn stars, this stupid mind of yours is the result of your bad addiction, if you leave your job who's going to pay for you mother's medical bills, did you even give it a thought" Kai scolded John in an angry tone.
John was stunned, after being reminded by Kai, he then remembered, he has a sick mother to take care of as for his other accusations he straight up ignored them.
"Hehe, you're right, it's just that I wanted to support you and be on your side".
Kai smiled "you don't have to lose your job too afterall we worked hard for it". "As for me being fired I am not concerned at all, I had already noticed, Howard's increasing closeness to Ron and distance from me, so I had already seen a day like this coming, I just wasn't expecting that I would be fired" Kai spoke with a sigh.
But Kai soon raised his head and spoke with a smile "now go back, I don't want to hear you saying that you were fired for being out jogging and taking a cold bath in evening mist" Kai spoke in a joking tone.
John stayed silent and simply looked at Kai's eyes, his friend has always been like this, he understood Kai's circumstances well, that's why he was worried that now that he is fired how was he going to manage his already hanging by a thread type life, but here he is still pretending as if nothing is wrong.
"Take care Kai, I would help you if I can". John spoke after a minute of silence.
John patted on Kai's shoulder before turning back and walking towards the cafe.
Kai stood there for a while looking at his friend's silhouette that was moving away.
After a moment he turned and continued marching ahead with his eyes looking forward, he looked indifferent with a detached and emotionless expression in his face, but if looked closely, in the depth of his eyes there was visible signs of worry.
As he was walking he soon arrived in front of a public park, this is a place for free dates, the meeting office of the elderly and the playground of the kids, also the time and season were quiet romantic and energizing so there were quiet a lot of people around.
The laughter of kids, the soft murmurs of the elderly, the chattering of kids mothers made the environment quiet lively, even for depressed people.
Kai although worried about his problems, he found some comfort in the presence of these people and surrounding environment, he let out a smile and entered the park, found an empty wooden bench and sat there looking at the people.
In the always continuing life with ups and downs he always finds these type of moments peaceful and very comforting for his soul and mind.
After enjoying the peace for a few moments he started to think about his life.
He had dreamt of making it big just like any other children when he was a child. He studied hard for good grades, to make his parents proud and to create a beautiful future ahead in life.
When he grew up and graduated from high school he noticed his mother's struggles to shoulder the responsibility of their family as his father was away. His father was a sailor so he had to be away from the city for quiet a long time.
He couldn't even send them money as there was no way for him. So his mother carried the heavy burden to educate the children and give them life.
To lessen his mother's burdens he started doing small time works from his upper high school.
He did small works like completing his classmates school projects, doing their homework or selling some part time snacks to them, it earned him some money but that wasn't enough.
When he was eighteen, with some hard savings from his mother's works and father's sent money, his mother was able to send him to a small university in the nearest city.
At that time he finally entered the society to earn more money to pay for himself.
With all these thoughts going in his mind Kai looked at the sky above, they were clear with bright stars shining.
Kai gave a mirthless smile while enjoying the beautiful scene and reminiscing his hard life.