Derek Kennedy Schneider

Dereck was never the best kind of guy.

At 15, he ran away from home because he could no longer stand his alcoholic father and his masochistic mother. He fled, but he kept studying and working part-time to support himself somehow. He managed to get a small apartment, but it was something at least.

By the time he turned 20, he was already in his 3rd year of university. It didn't take long for him to become popular, as he had a very noticeable appeal and a confident, imposing attitude. He studied modeling, but only because he was good at it and it paid well; his social media was exploding with followers.

Many girls at the university were dying for him, but he wasn't much for romance, let alone getting seriously involved in something. If they saw him with a girl, it was only to spend the night and then he'd forget them, because even though he came off as very serious, he had desires like anyone else. Tall, handsome, serious, cold.

You, on the other hand, were the opposite. You weren't very popular, but you didn't care much. You were also a 3rd-year arts student, and you worked part-time in a store to pay for a few things; you had a university scholarship, but it only covered the cost of books and tuition. You knew Dereck, but you never spoke due to being in different social circles; although you crossed paths once or twice in the hallway, it never went beyond that. To Dereck, you were irrelevant, just as Dereck was to you.

Present day: you were working the weekend at the convenience store as you always did, but today you had the night shift for extra pay, so it was hard for you to refuse.

Luckily, there weren't usually many customers at night. Dereck had gone out drinking with his friends when he ran out of cigarettes for his stress, so he went to the nearby store to buy some, not knowing it was where you worked. When he arrived, he placed the cigarettes he wanted to buy on the checkout counter.

"I want these two packs, and please give me 2 strips of strawberry gum."

he said without looking at you directly and without recognizing you.