"Ahhh-ahhh!!"

For a start, this was rather unsurprising.

White directed his eyes to the insides of the store. The shriek came from a female clerk tending to the counter.

Looks like the robbery had just started to take place, it wasn't long since that man had entered the store.

Panic button? No, there was no time to do it.

White had already seen the weak-willed woman raise her hands up helplessly.

He did not think of it as anything but an act of self-preservation over her own life. His own feeble emotions would show more than the woman inside, that he was sure of.

Naturally, if he was the main character of a story, protected in a world with protagonist correction, maybe he would have attempted to save her. The ability to gamble away his life, to yield returns of giving himself the title of the one vigilante who appears at night around this neighbourhood. White held those kind of foolish thoughts for a brief moment despite the tense situation inside.

In that sort of sense, White was a youth who had a case of mild schizophrenia. While he was a person who thinks before he acts, it conversely meant that he was someone who overthinks more than half the time.

That was just some kind of commercial filter the guy had, but the cold air that tickled his skin even now, jostled him wide awake.

...This was the real world. More than anyone else, White knew the grim reality that awaited him if he tried to do anything foolish. While he technically had a few ideas to disarm this situation, he did not have the obligation to raise any kind of flags here.

More often that not, the people who acted like a hero in real life, were the first ones to die. That was something he knew very well.

His hands trembled. Was it because of the cold? A bit of both, maybe. White was nervous as the scene before him became even more unfavourable. White was at a blind spot where the robber would not be able to see where he stood, as long as he had his attention on that clerk over there. ...So leaving slowly, inching backwards from where he had come from, that was the wisest choice he could make.

He should leave now before he was seen.

Closing his eyes in order to shut out the nagging conscience on his mind, White had essentially granted himself a reprieve.

While giving his condolences to the woman in his heart, the youth moved a step away, lurching his back as he did so in order to not draw any kind of attention to himself. He went a step further by holding on to the pockets of his black pants so that the keys inside would not jiggle, and tiptoed away from the convenience store, a step at a time.

An unreal situation, as White would call the things that were happening right now.

It happened, and then it ended.

There was no reason to stick his nose into places where it didn't belong. That was okay, he had made the right call. He was going to live through this unexpected event. A robbery that he had left, maybe he would be able to brag about it online.

..

Ah.

White felt that it had been strangely silent since a while ago, so he had looked back up.

But-

"Ah...ahh..."

The burly man who acted as the instigator of the robbery inside was looking straight at him blankly, the woman included.

(Dangerous. Dangerous. Dangerous. Dangerous.)

Those words rang in his head like crazy, forcing his feet to move even if he had been frozen still by that silent intimidation. The terror as he noticed the eyes of the burly man, appraising him like a predator before a helpless prey, it was unbearably dangerous.

Run? He only had a second to think about it.

Run. He had to run.

No way in hell should he stay.

So the decision was made.

...

...

...

But his feet stopped after the first step back. His eyes seemed just as timorous as before, but a cold glint could be seen in them for just a brief moment, before it disappeared.

What... was he doing?

What was he thinking?

He had stopped.

He had stopped moving.

Why?

Why?

Why?

Why?

Why?

Why?

Why?

Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move.

But he couldn't move. He couldn't budge.

(Fuck... fuck... fuckkk!!! Move!!! What the fuck!!!)

That was when he had finally noticed, he was not looking at the robber any longer.

His eyes, they were fixated on the clerk. They exchanged a silent eye contact, hers filled to the brim with tears. A tearful expression that sought for help, expressing distress towards him.

White felt a sickening punch in his stomach. He had been resisting himself to not feel anything for the woman, but now that it had come to this, the youth could not help but feel a sense of self-reproach. What on earth was wrong with him?! He was prancing around danger right about now, he had no time to look after someone else. No, he did not even possess that kind of strength to protect himself anyway!

Then what was this? Why wasn't he moving?!

White grit his teeth, no. His teeth chattered.

..

He realized that the man was moving towards the exit of the store with his pace quickened.

His expression turning even darker by the second.

And because of that frozen state, White had been caught and dragged back into the convenience store.

An idiot. White had been an idiot.

Since he had been thinking so much about the victim inside, he was going to become one himself too.

Reckless bravery? Or the simple fact that he had short-circuit on the spot because of his piling thoughts in his head?

...In any case, he was caught too.