In Johnson House

In one of the second floor rooms of the said house, a person stirred in their bed when the Sun shone strongly at their face.

"mm..eggs..andwich..icken," mumbled the sleepy head.

"Ah, where's the food gone?" the person looked around confused, "Oh, it's morning? Already? That was a tasty dream," a pair of droopy eyes drifted off to a laptop and realized something. "Holy STUPID LIFE of the deadline!," the person screamed and hurriedly started typing something. Few hours after completing the desk job, while lying down on the bed again, eyes wandered around the room and regretted not cleaning for a while. Everyone in the household were responsible for cleaning their personal spaces, there's a lot to do but this person hardly wants move about.

*BANG BANG*

"Mom, is that you?" The lazy person asked alertly, "I'll come down for breakfast in a while~"

Oh no, what if she sees the condition of my room, done for good. The person inside the room thought.

With a cinematic slam a lean man in grey pajamas barged into the room, "you better clean this stinky room or I'm snitching on you!"

"Brother? Why do you need to scare me like that? You didn't feel the need of permission before entering my room again! And do you even wash your grey pajamas? You've been wearing that for so long it stinks," the person in bed threw a tantrum.

"Well Elina Johnson! I can't open my window for the sick stench from your room! Clean up within an hour or it's getting dirty for real," he slammed the door shut before leaving.

Yeah better do it before all hell breaks loose, Elina thought.

In the afternoon, Elina changed out of her nightgown into some casual wear, put on some sunscreen and set off for grocery shopping. On her way out something she feared happened, she met the gossiping matchmaker ladies of the neighborhood.

"Ohh our poor Elina, how have you been child, your parents doing fine? You don't seem like you are out on a date, where to?" asked Lady A.

Here we go again, thought Elina.

"Yeah they're doing fine, I'm out to run some errands, so later." Elina replied.

"Are you twenty already? Should we introduce some boys to you?" asked Lady B.

".. you're probably mistaken for my body size, I'm almost 40 this year," the young Johnson lied with a meanacing smile and stepped away.

The ladies' face turned red with anger towards her sarcasm. "Well listen up little lady! You better start applying makeup appropriately to your wrinkly old face or you'd never find a groom in this lifetime!" Lady C yelled angrily.

Elina turned back, held Lady C by her chin infront of the eavesdropping neighbours and told her in a seductive voice, " You hurt my longing heart, if only you knew what I felt for you, you'd never understand my unrequited love for you it seems." She brushed off a non existent tear from her eyes and turned to leave for good.

Lady C after recovering from the shock stomped off from the place to avoid further embarrassment.

The gossiping ladies made a trip to the Wood's Salon to get their monthly spa, pedicure, manicure and seasonal makeover. Unfortunately, they are one of the loyal regulars of the store. Why unfortunate one may ask, because they kept up with their routine of sexual harassment towards the store staff yet nobody reported them because they were some influential clients.

Lady A hit off a conversation with the masseur asking for uncomfortable favours. Lady B started flirting with the manicurist by tracing her finger nails over his hands. Lady C let her pent up anger off infront of the only makeup artist of the store.

"Hey MUA, don't you think keeping one's makeup updated with the seasons one of the highest priority?" chimes Lady C.

"Sure is, ma'am," replied the MUA.

"Nuh-uh come on darling you're supposed to call me by my name, don't be shy~" cut in the Lady C.

"We have to abide by certain rules during duty hours, forgive me for not keeping your request, I'll definitely call you by your name off-duty!" he consoled the elder woman, like I would ever, he thought.

"Then why don't we go on a date tonight? Just the two of us?" she buttered up.

The uncomfortable MUA panicked and explained, "Being the only one from the makeup department, I have long shifts, cannot let a lady like you to wait too late into the night, ma'am."

The elder woman backed off but added, " If you can make me happy, then I can arrange a meeting with a daughter of a rich person, you wouldn't need to be working long hours like this, but you'd have to prove your worth first," the woman winked wickedly.

"Why thank you for asking but my family already got me engaged, don't think you would need to worry your delicate self for that milady," the male tried to refuse her politely.

After completing these women's makeover, this MUA sent them off with a wave and cheerful face.

Things we need to do for business, disgusts me to the core, he grimaced.

"Hopefully they wouldn't be around here until another month?" asked the manicurist while walking towards the entrance.

"Some regulars can be so scary, all we wanted to do was flourish a normal business," the masseuse followed behind with a sour face.

"It'll get better, give it some time, we can't really blame it, our faces are our selling point at the moment, once we can get enough loyal customers, we'll make it stricter!" Consoled the MUA.

"But Parker~ you're the owner, why do you keep your identity hidden for so long? Shouldn't we shut these people up who show pity on you, the owner," whined one of the younger males.

"That's a marketing strategy, people would gather more to know the identity of the mysterious owner. Why are you so childish? Let's get back to work! The store is going to be busy after a while," the young Day Spa owner, Parker Wood, ordered his colleagues.

author's note:

*MUA\= Make-up Artist

**Hope everyone can go easy on my poor writing skills, have a nice day~

"Why must it be such a stupid day!? First I meet those gossiping trio, then I forgot to send the data I worked so hard to complete, somehow made the deadline. Whew!" Elina sighed.

By the time she set off for shopping again, she looked nothing like earlier, face moist with sebum and perspiration and sweat stain on armpits of her baggy T-shirt made her seem like she returned from war.

Must clean my face ...and all set! Elina mumbled in her mind, who cares about what the other gender thinks, the lesser they bother the greater my safety. It's quite late, better hurry! She set off for the second time on the same day.

Everything on the grocery shopping list was conquered, other than the daily hygiene necessities like hair and skin care products for the Johnson ladies. Having understood everyone's needs better, she's always taken care of this section of the shopping with pride. Elina chose one shampoo for colour treated hair. A male voice suddenly turned up "I don't think you need that product, you haven't gotten your hair any sort of colour treatment it seems"

Sales representative? She thought to herself.

Elina turned around to reply as politely as possible, "It's fine, I didn't get that for me and I'm aware of my products," only to register that this wasn't a sales representative of the shopping centre. She shifted around uncomfortably, "umm thank you though," she excused herself.

Why would someone strike up a conversation with a stranger, creep alert! She kicked herself mentally to get sweaty palms from a random stranger.

...----------------...

Okay that didn't work, she got self-conscious, why must I scare off a potential customer? Parker beat himself up in his head. Scrutinizing the girl infront of her, he observed things like her clothes, face and hair. Having noted down all those, he came to the conclusion she was either too young or her skin is maintained very well, from her hair he concluded she's never gotten any kind of treatment for her mane, he could sweet talk her into making her a new client. He reached out his business card to talk more with their to-be customer, "Little princess, you must come over to our Spa, we'd turn you into the Barbie from whom no prince can turn their heads! Come over with your Mom whenever you want to," he ended the speech with a business smile.

"Thank you for the card," Elina accepted the card, "I'll pass the word to my family members, but why do you feel everyone wants to be a Barbie?" She questioned not too eagerly.

Parker didn't ever face such rude customers, she must be going through puberty, maybe my efforts went to a waste, sigh, he was let down. "Sorry for bothering little lady, have a nice afternoon!" Parker paced off.

...----------------...

How dare that punk with weird fashion sense call me little! I am 22 already, and he called me that, he thinks being taller gives him the license to treat others like kids, creep, like hell I would recommend such salon to my family! Elina had enough. She got her products and headed for the billing counter while tearing the business card she got from the stranger.