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candy-store-apothecary · 1 month

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Chapter 1: A Gentle Push

“Remember, even monsters enjoy eating sweets, and the gods have to take their medicine when they're sick.”

It was what Su Anjing's grandma told him constantly. It was to cheer him up, whenever he felt down or believed he wasn't "good enough". Admittedly, it was a silly saying, but it meant a lot to him.

Having been abandoned by his own parents after their messy divorce, and pretty much raised by his maternal grandma. He tried his best to make her proud. Especially seeing how much his grandma was struggling to make ends meet.

‘Waipo [1] should be enjoying her retirement, instead of having to work so hard to support me.’

He thought to himself, keeping his troubles in his heart. As much as they did sting, he tried to ignore them, smiling a bit when remembering his grandma's words. Although, his smile was hidden behind a blue medical face mask. He sighed to himself, as class ended for the day, and he quickly left. Pulling over his black, somewhat worn out hoodie, and headed off towards the bus stop near his school.

With the little money, his grandma secretly gifted him for Chinese New Year, knowing he’d put up a fuss about abiding by old traditions and not using the money for herself. He used it to buy a pair of cheap earbuds for himself, and a scarf for his grandma. Noticing it had gotten colder recently, he worried greatly about her health. Like grandma and grandson, she made a fuss about spending money on a scarf, when she could easily make one herself. Despite her harsh words, Su Anjing spotted her fondly wearing the scarf on multiple occasions. Whether she’d admit it to his face or not.

The earbuds he had bought were definitely the quality that he had paid for. Given that, only within a couple of days of purchasing them, one side broke, and so he could only really hear his music on his left side. Yet, for what it was, it kept him in his own little world and shoved aside the often long wait times for the bus to arrive.

‘So sweet like caramel~ Oh so refreshing and crisp! One bite is all it takes. My candy apple~♪’

An upbeat, cute pop song began to play in his ear, just as the bus arrived, rather early. Getting on and finding a seat near a window, he couldn’t help but feel rather tense. He nearly slipped on the metal floor and felt his cheeks burn a bright red when the other passengers were looking at him. He quickly pulled out his phone and delved himself deep into it, trying to not overthink on the matter and move on… if only that was so easy.

The bus ride home was rather long, over an hour, but thankfully it was the only one he needed to take. Staring out the window and at the scenery that flashed by, he thought how much he owes his grandma for everything.

‘I’m almost 20 now, I should be working and saving up for college and help waipo.’

Though the reflection of himself against the bus's window was not entirely visible, he noticed how messy he looked. He knew his grandma would’ve raised hell at him for leaving the house in such a disheveled state. He closed his eyes, listening to the bus’s metal walls shake as the bus drove across the uneven roads. The bus’s scent was a bit disgusting if he had to be honest, with what smelled like faint skunk spray and cigarette smoke. His grip tightened around his backpack, which he held on his lap, trying to shake away the memory of him almost slipping.

‘That was so embarrassing, why can’t I just walk normally? ’

He internally groaned at his mistake, pinching his arm to make him come to his senses. Only realizing afterward, that he had the same song playing since he got on the bus. Changing it to a calming instrumental melody to soothe his nerves, his mind continued to wander a bit as he glanced at the passing scenery.

‘Maybe I am stupid.’

He confessed to himself, wondering if his parents were justified in abandoning him. Yet as soon as that thought came to his mind, it was as if someone else had heard his thoughts and began "speaking" to him.

'Hey, that's not right! You're plenty smart, they're the stupid ones. What kind of parents abandons their own child?'

'I know that, but they're not wrong, are they? Who am I kidding, I'm talking to myself. I'm stupid AND insane.'

He silently laughed at his thoughts, yet there was a part of him that knew that his delusional thoughts were right. As if, responding back to his “friend”, he shifted closer to the window making room.

'I guess you're right, Abyssal. Thank you. Good thing you're here and not Divine.'

He held back his laugh, thanking his imaginary friend, as he thought she would've nodded at his response. Knowing full well that if it were her brother, he would have agreed and teased Su Anjing first, before offering a few kind words... if he wanted to. It seemed childish to still be thinking about, much less relying on an imaginary friend as a coping mechanism at his age. Especially given there were people his age, or close that were getting promotions, dating around, or simply "adulting" and here he was still playing pretend.

He fiddled with the sleeves of his hoodie, feeling how cold and slightly stiff the material was. He wondered why he couldn’t just believe in himself, like his classmates. At times, he wondered if his name was a bit of a curse, with two characters that basically mean the same thing: quiet. Yet no matter how many times he wished for a magic spell to change him into another person, reality was as cold and stiff like the sleeves of his hoodie.

‘That’s enough, I should look for any jobs nearby that I can apply for.’

He thought to himself, trying to strengthen his resolve, though he figured he would end getting rejected for one reason or another. But he tried to not let any of his other thoughts distract himself, even if they did pass the time on the bus, he disliked how they zapped away at his already subpar energy.

Opening up his phone, he looked through various jobs that were hiring, but many were too far from his school and home to be even viable to begin with. Ideally, he didn’t want to be too far away from his grandma, in case anything were to happen to her. After tweaking with the search results, there was one company that caught his eye and one which he recognized passing by on his way to and from school.

“The Sweet Abyss ”, a new candy store that opened up recently and had relatively positive reviews. All except for the fact that the job listing was rather confusing to say the least. It had two store names listed on the application for a stocker/cashier position. One being, The Sweet Abyss , and the other being “Divine Flower Medical Hall”. A part of Su Anjing wondered if the store owner or whoever in charge of publishing the job listing had made a mistake and included the name of the company that owned the building prior. But that doesn’t make sense, and Su Anjing couldn’t recall ever seeing a Divine Flower Medical Hall.

Granted, his memory wasn’t the best, but such a unique name for a store would’ve caught his attention, or at the very least, his grandma would’ve visited the store at least once. Due to the fact, it sounded like it sold traditional Chinese herbs, which she often commented how there were no stores nearby that sold them. Being the ideal demographic that believes in holistic medicine, he found it strange she never mentioned about a store so close by. Which only confirmed his suspicions, when he couldn’t find any information about it. In fact, his search engine AI thought he wanted to write a story and complimented him how unique sounding the name was. So helpful. Not.

As a last ditch attempt, he even tried typing the translated version of “divine flower”, ‘神花’, into his search bar. Yet nothing about Shen Hua Medical Hall yielded any result. It felt suspicious, but the job offer for The Sweet Abyss was really tempting.

It was the only job that was convenient for him, and its location made it ideal given his circumstances. Although he knew he probably wouldn’t get it, given it was a candy store for goodness’s sake. Most people would want a job like that, especially those who had a sweet tooth like him, and it was a brand-new store. He figured the employer was probably looking for someone with at least a year or two of experience, like with other job listings.

‘I should just do it, right? There’s no harm in applying…'

He agonized to himself, while he began to input his details into his application and when he knew he had his day open for an interview. Moments after submitting his application, a wave of regret washed over him.

‘Oh god, what have I've done? Was putting that I was available to interview for today sounded too desperate? Should I have just put next Monday or Thursday?’

His hand slightly trembling as his head was filled with “what-ifs” situations of things going terribly wrong or him missing the interview. Yet before panic could set in, his phone made a light chime, as he received a notification. He thought it was nothing, but when his phone lit up, the first thing that came up was : “Stocker/Cashier position at The Sweet Abyss/Divine Flower…” , catching him completely off guard. He hesitated for a moment, but tapped on the notification, which led to his email automatically opening.

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[ From Lucius : Good afternoon, Anjing Su [2] I just received your application for the Stocker/Cashier position at The Sweet Abyss and Divine Flower Medical Hall from Y.E.S. Will you be able to attend an interview on location at 2:40 pm? ]

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‘Is this a scam? But how would they have known?’

He thought to himself, wondering if he should respond. When he checked how far away he was from his house, he realized that he was exactly 10 minutes away from The Sweet Abyss . Sure, it could’ve been a massive coincidence, and the travel distance was an estimate. Most of the time it was barely ever accurate, due to delays or traffic. Yet at the moment it sent chills down his spine at how quick the response to his application was, and on top of it, he felt as if the recruiter knew how far he was away from the store. Otherwise, why else would they ask to meet exactly 10 minutes later?

‘No, I must be overthinking things. That’s too farfetched, even for me.’

He shook his head at his thoughts, glancing at the time once again. Three minutes had passed that quickly, and so worried about seeming rude, especially as he felt like he should give it a shot. He quickly typed up a reply, as he got nearer to his stop. Within the last second before he grabbed his things to get off the bus, he managed to send in a reply at 2:39 pm exactly. Sprinting off of the bus and to the front entrance of The Sweet Abyss , just in the nick of time. He panted, trying to calm his nerves and his breathing.

Yet no matter how much he tried to rush himself to calm down, his heart was still pounding in his ears and his brain was a garbled mess. He realized he hadn’t prepared anything, and on top of that, he looked like a disheveled mess. All because he thought he was just going to go to class and return home for the day. So he wasn’t dressed “professionally”, prepared, nor was he even remotely calm to be in any way to function, much less speak coherently. With less than what felt like 5 seconds to try to calm himself, a loud fluttering of what sounded like feathers swooshed by his ears. As gasps from pedestrians nearby him spoke amongst themselves, passing by as a rather large raven had landed onto Su Anjing’s shoulders. Its claws only held onto the fabric of his sweater, barely deep enough to cause him physical harm or discomfort.

He froze, unsure if he should move or stay still. He wondered how in the world did this raven mistook him for a perch and also prayed for it to move so he could enter the store as he was now a minute late. Yet, despite trying to send the Raven desperate eye signals, or trying to remain as still as possible. The raven continued to sit on his shoulder, as if it were waiting for him to move. Taking a deep breath, he urged himself to enter the store, thinking that the raven will fly away. At that moment, a soft chime of a bell that hung at the corner of the door rang. Looking into the store, it was shrouded in an impenetrable darkness, which was odd given it was the middle of the afternoon and the store should be open.

In fact, the door was unlocked, which only led to the situation being rather strange. But before Su Anjing could pull away and close the door, worried that he might be trespassing. It felt like an invisible force was trying to pull him into the store, and though he struggled to resist. Something else knocked into his back, sending him face-first tumbling into the endless abyss.

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[1] - Waipo (外婆）is (Mandarin) Chinese for maternal grandmother.

[2] - In Chinese culture, people tend to refer to each other, unless they are family, close friends or intimate partners, by their -- Last name, First name. However, in this case, the email was written in the Western order of First name, Last name.

Author's note: Although this isn't exactly my first post on this account, this is the first time I'm using Tumblr to share my stories on. I'm not sure if I did it correctly, but I hope you liked this chapter. I posted this on my Ao3 account, with the same horrendously long title. ^^; I figured to give this a shot, as per my friends' recommendations. Ultimately, I wanted to share my story with someone and get outside feedback, as I've spent far too long agonizing and flopping through different ideas. Hopefully, by posting this story here (and Ao3) I might be able to finish it someday, or at least get past the first chapter and not restart… again. Thank you for stopping by!

#original story #original characters #fantasy #candy store #candy shop #apothecary #herbal medicine #writing #guardian angel #supernatural #eldritch #monsters #gods #fluff #hurt/comfort #childhood trauma #ao3 #candy store apothecary

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