The night was quiet—just the way Juno liked it.
A few days had passed since her last run-in with Ren, and she found herself wondering if she would see him again.
Juno sat behind the counter, hunched over an old sketchpad, completely absorbed in the page. Her pen moved quickly, sweeping across the paper, bringing her latest character to life—sharp eyes, messy hair, a confident smirk. She'd been working on this one for a while, trying to pin down the perfect look for her protagonist. This wasn't it.
The chime of the automatic doors rang out, but she didn't look up at first—just waved a hand in lazy acknowledgment.
"Hey, welcome to the finest purveyor of disappointing snacks and broken dreams," she said, not glancing up.
There was a pause.
Then a voice—familiar. Cautious.
"You forgot the coffee that tastes like liquid sadness."
Her pen froze. Juno looked up and grinned.
"Oh, but that's our best flavor!"
Ren stood near the entrance, hands stuffed in his pockets, a faint flicker of amusement tugging at his mouth. He looked the same as before—blue jacket, dark T-shirt, that massive sword slung across his back like it was just another accessory.
Juno blinked.
"Wow. Three times in one week. I think that makes you a regular."
He stepped closer, eyeing the counter.
"You were drawing again."
"Yeah, I do that sometimes." She shut the sketchpad reflexively. Not defensive—just habit.
Ren tilted his head slightly, like he was trying to decode something deeper.
"You keep your drawings secret?"
Juno shrugged.
"Not everyone gets it. I'm not very good and art's kinda personal, y'know?"
He nodded slowly, but she could tell he didn't quite understand.
Not the art thing—something else.
His eyes drifted back to the sketchpad. Curious. Not politely curious—truly curious.
Juno hesitated for a moment, then flipped the book open again and turned it toward him, tapping a page filled with notes and character designs.
"Just some ideas for a graphic novel. Character work, mostly."
Ren leaned in slightly, studying the drawings with a kind of reverence. Like it wasn't just ink on paper but something precious.
"You drew this?"
Juno smirked.
"Nah,I keep a child hostage under the counter and force him to draw for me."
That earned a real smile. Small. Brief. But it lingered longer than the others.
"It's good," he said—and he meant it.
Juno blinked.
There was something about the way he said it. Like he hadn't seen something made by hand in a very long time.
"Thanks," she said, her voice softer than she meant it to be. She scratched the back of her neck. "I mean, it's not about the drawing, really. It's the design, im trying to get this idea out of my head but its kinda stuck."
Ren nodded, eyes tracing every line like he was memorizing them.
It almost looked familiar to him.
"You read much?" Juno asked, tilting her head.
He hesitated. That split-second delay again, like he had to double-check his answers internally.
"Yeah," he said finally. "I do."
"You had to think about it though?"
He paused again.
"...Never had to think about it before, nobody ever asked.. It's just something you do, right?"
There it was again—that quiet sadness he wore like an old coat.
Juno leaned her elbow on the counter.
"You read comics too?"
He froze.
Barely—but enough.
"Yeah, I guess so," he said.
She frowned slightly. Not 'yeah, I like X or Y.'
Just... I guess so.
"That's vague," she teased, watching him more closely now. "You got a favorite?"
He shook his head. "Most of the ones I liked are gone."
That was an odd way to put it.
Not 'out of print.'
Not 'I grew out of it.'
Just—gone. Like they'd been erased.
"Are we talking 'lost to time' or 'left in a public bathroom' kinda gone?"
Ren actually laughed at that.
A little too hard.
"Something like that."
Juno pointed her pen at him.
"That's your go-to line, isn't it? 'Something like that.' You say it every time you don't want to answer."
He opened his mouth like he might deny it, but thought better of it.He suspected she would only challenge him further.
"Maybe," he admitted.
Juno narrowed her eyes, still smiling.
She wasn't mad. She was intrigued.
This wasn't a guy who got tongue-tied or nervous.
He spoke like someone trained not to talk too much.
"Let me guess," she said. "Raised in a secret government facility? Trained to protect the president and never reveal personal information?"
He gave her a look—one part amused, one part impressed.
"Close," he said.
Juno blinked. "Wait, seriously?"
He didn't answer.
Instead, he turned his attention toward the coffee machine, walking with cautious purpose. His fingers still hovered over the buttons a second too long—still reading, still translating.
Juno leaned against the counter, watching him with a mixture of amusement and suspicion.
"Alright then," she said. "If you won't tell me where you're from, tell me something easier. Favorite food. That one's not classified, right?"
Ren stilled, his hand hovering over the sugar option.
"...I'm not sure," he said quietly.
Juno straightened a little.
"You're not sure?"
He glanced at her, serious.
"I didn't really grow up with a lot of choices."
That stopped her cold. She hadn't expected an answer that raw. And somehow, it was worse than evasion.
"Okay," she said softly. "That's... kind of a bummer."
He gave her a small smile. Faint. Real.
The room felt still around them, like the noise of the world had stepped back.
Ren filled his cup and moved back toward the counter.
Before he could question her, Juno pulled a hotdog from the warmer, wrapped it in a bun, and slid it onto a tray, covered it in onions, ketchup and mustard before pushing it toward him.
He looked down at it like it was some strange object.
"A new favourite, only the best in garbage food." she teased, trying to keep it light.
Ren nodded, but his eyes lingered on the hotdog for a moment too long, as if trying to figure out what he was supposed to do with it.
It was just a hotdog.
Not exactly alien technology.
Juno opened and closed the register, the loud 'ding' breaking the silence. "Alright, Ren. On the house. But you owe me a secret in return. Tell me one normal thing about yourself."
He paused mid-reach for the hotdog. That now-familiar hesitation again—like he wanted to change the subject. His eyes darted around.
"...are those supposed to be that color?"
Juno blinked. "What?"
He pointed at a bag of cheese puffs next to the register. "This." He lifted the bag like it was radioactive. "Cheese isn't... supposed to be this colour, right?"
Juno looked at the bag, then burst out laughing. "Oh my god. That's not cheese. That's cheese powder. Completely different species."
Ren nodded slowly, like she was explaining a dangerous animal. "So... people just eat this?"
"Tragically, yes."
He flipped the bag over like he was checking for a biohazard label. "I thought it was some kind of emergency ration. It looks like insulation foam."
Juno doubled over laughing. "Okay, no, stop. You're killing me."
"I'm serious," he said. Still deadpan. "It looks like something you'd patch a wall with. Not... ingest."
The corner of his mouth twitched.
And that's what did it.
Juno froze mid-laugh as she caught it—that smile. Subtle, crooked, too rare to be casual. He had let her in.
"You're not even trying to fit in, are you? You're like some kind of alien pretending to be human." He didn't take it as an insult.
If anything, he looked... relieved.
She was right, he clearly wasn't from here, normal things were confusing to him. It was more than that though.
"I'm trying," he said quietly. "I'm just not very good at it."
Her laugh faded into something warmer.
"Yeah," she said. "Don't worry, I'm not very good at it either, that's why I do late shift." She said it almost jokingly, but there was more to it. Juno wasn't some edgy loner, she liked people, this was clear from how friendly she tried to be. She just didn't know how to be around them. Here in the store she could interact with people, but it was transactional. Simple.
He didn't answer.
He didn't have to.
They stood in the quiet, a fragile understanding settling between them.
Ren picked up his coffee and hotdog, turning to leave.
At the door, he paused.
"Your art," he said, glancing back. "It's worth coming back for. I'd love to hear the full story sometime?."
Juno blinked, caught off guard by the sudden sincerity.
And then he was gone, vanishing into the night like he hadn't just said something weird and sweet and devastating all at once.
Weird guy.
Definitely weird.
But in a way she liked..
The dull hum of the convenience store filled the space again as Juno moved behind the counter, scanning a lineup of neon-labeled energy drinks for a cluster of customers.
Omnivale employees—easy to spot.
They came in at all hours—engineers, admin staff, assistants half-running on caffeine and chaos.
She could usually guess their departments by their snack choices alone.
This group looked like mid-tier tech support—coffee orders, high sugar intake, and the smell of sleep deprivation.
Juno was only half-listening until one line snapped her attention into focus.
"—I swear, it's the weirdest thing," said the guy with glasses, jittery with too much espresso. "There's this dude walking around the building every day. Carrying a sword."
Juno's scanner froze mid-beep.
She looked up.
"A sword?"
"Yeah. Like, a legit one. Full blade. Just strapped to his back like it's normal."
"You mean Ren?" she asked.
All three employees turned to stare at her.
"Wait—you know him?" the guy asked.
"Sort of," she said, resuming scanning. "He drops by sometimes. Is he new?"
The guy let out a quick laugh. "Well he showed up two weeks ago but I couldn't tell you if he works here 'Cause I swear to god, no one can figure it out. He's not on any payroll, he has an all access guest pass. He just shows up. Every day, disappears down to R&D and nobody knows why. And he always talks to the CEO, Ms Harper like they go way back."
Juno raised an eyebrow. "So he's there everyday but...You're saying he doesn't work there?"
"That's what I'm telling you." chimed in another employee, a woman with a high ponytail. "He's not in any department. Not even security. But you see him everywhere—outside, near the training ground, sometimes inside the labs like he belongs there. Always in that same jacket, always with that sword."
Juno's brow furrowed. "Maybe he's friends with the family or something?" she offered.
Glasses Guy shrugged. "I guess? But it's Zoe Harper. She doesn't exactly have many friends and he just showed up out of nowhere. Maybe he met her while she was out of country? She does leave a lot."
"Maybe he's her secret boyfriend. Nobody knows who got her pregnant.," Ponytail said, deadpan.
"Or," said Glasses, grinning now, "he's a government experiment gone rogue. Or an alien. Or a robot!." He threw his hands up, half-joking, half-serious.
Juno snorted, handing over their bags.
"Yeah, sure. I'll ask him next time if he's here to conquer the planet."
They laughed, gathering their stuff.
"You joke, but theres something off about him," Glasses said, bemused. "I'm just surprised you know more than we do, you're just a clerk."
She hated when they did that.
Talked down to her like she didn't matter.
"Yeah," she said lightly. "What would I know about big important company matters?"
She waved them off as the doors hissed open and they vanished into the city night.
Silence returned.
Juno leaned on the counter, fingers drumming thoughtfully.
So... Ren didn't work at Omnivale.
But he was there. Every day.
Walking halls, slipping into labs, carrying a sword.
And no one stopped him. Could he actually be Zoe Harper's boyfriend? She was a very private woman but it was no secret she had a partner because of the pregnancy, just nobody really knew who. Him being a billionaire's bit on the side would make sense, maybe he was some guy who grew up so rich he didn't know how to use a coffee machine?
That didn't feel quite right though. Like his disconnect from the world went deeper than a silver spoon.
She didn't want to be nosy, it wasn't her style. She loved watching people though, and something about him resonated with her.
And Ren?
She hoped he'd come back. It didn't matter who he was, because he had been the first person, in 5 years of working here, that had asked about her story.
She didn't realise how much she needed that.