Joey was a car girl, which was great as he was a car guy. He was planning to go to the annual Retro Havoc alone, but thought walking around and looking at cool cars would be a cool first date to get to know her more. He picked her up with his car, well, his mom's car that she lent him, and headed to the train station.
"Why aren't we driving straight there?" She asks.
"Parking is always a nightmare at that mall."
"Smart." She taps her head a few times.
On the way there, they discussed their favourite cars, what they thought about EVs, and how bad the new BMW design language is. After getting there, they rated every car out of 10, well for the first 20 cars, until they realized there's way too many cars for them to rate, so they started rating groups of cars instead. At the end of the day, Zack treated her to dinner, and they rode the train back to his car, and he drove her home. The date went great, and Zack felt happy with how it went, except...
He didn't catch any feelings for her. He doesn't know if she did either, but really, she was a great friend to hang out with, and he very much would like to hang out with her again. But to date her as his girlfriend? He doesn't know why, he just didn't see it happening. "Maybe this is why Jian told me to go on a bunch of dates. Maybe this is why he goes on a bunch of dates." He thought to himself.
And so, that's what he did.
With his newfound powers, he brought Rachel to a petting zoo because he knows that she likes farms and animals. If anyone, Rachel would be the girl he's chasing, but until he goes exclusive, might as well treat some of the other girls in his life.
So, he also brought Ari out to the movies. Showing her appreciation for all the times she made his group assignments so much easier and stress free.
He even approached the girl he always see on the badminton court when he plays on weekends, and brought her up a hiking trail. Although, he found out that other than badminton, they didn't really have anything else in common. It was at this time that Zack realized that he has a bigger problem that has replaced his lack of Rizz: his lack of money.
...
"I don't know what I'm doing. I'm spending money, going out with girls, most of which I don't really like in that way. Putting up a facade of coolness. Like I wish I'm as cool as I act, but when I'm alone, I much rather nerd out about cars or sit in a room full of cats, you know what I mean?"
Zack looks at Mail the cat, who only stares back at him, before resting his head on his lap again.
"Man, you're so cool Mail, you can pull girl cats without spending money or pretending to be someone with rizz. You have real rizz." Again, Mail looks at him, this time almost like he actually understands him. Of course, that was impossible. "Anyways, I've got a bigger problem." He gets up and pulls out a bag of food for Mail, attracting Nick who had apparently walked over from campus. "If I don't stop going on dates, I won't be able to buy food for you guys." He pours the food onto the floor, and the cats enthusiastically chows it down, their purrs audible. "... Or myself."
...
"So what makes you think that you can juggle between part time here and university work?" A man in a blue striped button up shirt and red tie asks. On the pocket of his shirt was a tag that read: "Ming, Manager"
"My time management is good sir. And my only co-curricular activity is being the social media guy of my badminton club, which doesn't take much."
"Maybe we should get social media for the coffee shop as well." Mr. Ming jokes.
"Sure, I can manage it for you. Make memes and stuff off peak hours."
"Memes?"
"Jokes basically, stuff that kids my age are into."
Mr. Ming puts his hand to his chin for a moment. "You promise to stay off that shit if there are customers?"
"Of course sir, but because it's essentially 2 jobs, I expect a little more, naturally."
"How much more we talking?"
"RM15 an hour."
"What? Forget it!"
"How about this sir, you pay me RM12 an hour first, then if the numbers improve enough after the first month, you give me RM15. If not, I stop the whole thing and default back to RM10."
Again, Mr. Ming has his hand on his chin. He's inclined to want Zack in this cafe because unlike many other students starting out in part time, he had prior experience working for a caterer before enrolling in university, means they don't need to train him as much. "Alright deal, if you're so confident that you'll get immediate results."
Zack smiles and they shake hands. He hopes that this social media thing will work, because in his previous job as a catering staff/barista. He was bored out of his mind off peak hours. With this, he's allowed to bring his laptop into the break room and make memes.
The coffee shops name was "NOT Coffee". Despite the name, they do indeed sell coffee. Although they sell a lot of other beverages too. It opens from 8:30 am all the way to 9:30 pm, and the part time slots are split into 2 shifts. Because all of his classes are in the morning, with some in the afternoon, Zack would come in for the second shift. To say that he wasn't nervous would be false. But it isn't his first part time job and Mr. Ming was happy to teach him everything he needed to know. He gelled well with the other part timer there, which was only a girl with purple hair named Krystal.
Krystal didn't share much with Zack, he studied design and engineering, she studied cyber security. He likes cats, she likes dogs. She doesn't know what memes are, somehow... And she was an extreme introvert despite working at a part time job that requires a lot of interaction with customers. Yet somehow, whether it was a placebo effect, or him getting ahead of himself, or the supernatural rizz powers he somehow got. She seemed interested in him.
During break times, she would sit right next to him despite them being the only 2 people and the table being large enough to sit 6 more people. She had casually offered him drinks, from cups that she has drank from, and would ask for a sip of his drinks as well. She would steal his jacket to the point that he wears his jacket around his waist now every time he isn't feeling cold so she wouldn't steal it, and at night during Mr. Ming's debriefs, she would always touch shoulders with him. Maybe he's overthinking things, maybe she's just the touchy feely type, although she always seems terribly uncomfortable around customers, Mr. Ming, or anyone else he observes. It also certainly didn't help that the manager notices these things and now teases them about it.
Being the inexperienced guy that Zack is, he doesn't know what to do. Tell her that he doesn't feel that way? She technically hasn't confessed anything so it would be dumb for him to assume. Tell her that he's uncomfortable? Where does he start? Besides, he told her that he didn't like her stealing his jacket, but she treated it as a game and kept stealing it anyway. Besides, it's just a small thing that doesn't bother him too much. The rest of the job was great. Mr. Ming is a good manager, his memes are fire, the environment is mostly chill, he's allowed to do assignments and have some casual entertainment with his laptop, and during peak times, making coffee and serving food is kinda fun if he imagines that he's playing Diner Dash VR.
"Heya kid." Mr. Ming pats him on the back. "I gotta admit, ever since you started the social media thing for us, boss has noticed an up in customers." Zack beams with pride, but quickly suppresses any expressions just in case there's a plot twist. "As a result, big boss upped my pay..." Mr. Ming paused. "It's not yet a month, but big boss agrees that from tomorrow onwards, we follow through with RM15 an hour."
"YES! Lezzzgooo! Thank you sir!"
"Hey! Don't have to be so formal with me!" Mr. Ming laughs.
...
"This diagram shows a cars tire thread as it makes contact with the road. This is where the tire is pointing, and the thread that's in contact is warped due to friction. The difference in angle is called slip angle..."
Ari approached Zack after class. "Hey Zack, I don't think I understood the understeer, neutral steer and oversteer graphs, mind if we study a bit more?"
Before the magical rizz thing, Ari has never approached Zack for anything other than wanting to be in the same group for an assignment. Certainly never for a study session or any help. Since the magical rizz powers, it has become a regular occurrence. At first, Zack enjoyed the attention from her and the other girls that join his tuition. But now, he realizes that he didn't like the fact that he needed magical powers for girls to pay him any attention, it felt... hollow.
"Sorry Ari, I gotta go work. I'm doing part time now." He wasn't lying, he had work later, but it doesn't start until a good 3 hours.
"Oh...uhh...where do you work?"
"NOT Coffee. Just 10 minutes walk from the dorms."
"Oh! I seen that place! I even follow their meme page!
Zack smiles knowingly.
"Maybe I'll drop a visit."
"Yeah! That'll be great!"
He bought some lunch and headed back to his room. His mood wasn't very good today. He doesn't know why, it's just one of those days. Bullet walked in through the open door as he was eating. "Hey isn't that Bullet?" Yusa exclaims.
Zack peeks out of his cubicle. "Hmm? Why yes, yes it is! What are you doing back here little guy?"
"He misses you!" Yusa says. The truth is, Bullet has been observing Zack from afar and wanted to cheer him up. Of course he couldn't say that, so he just walked into his room.
Zack then starts to talk to the cat like he always does, saying things that he'd never say to people. "A lot have changed since you were last here. Somehow I got rizz powers, but I don't know, I thought it was what I wanted but now every girl feels fake, like they're brainwashed or something." He shrugs, Bullet looks at him with wide beady eyes and nudged his head against Zack's lap and began to purr.