If I’d known I’d be surrounded by dust, dust, and more dust, I’d have followed the twins with shopping for the new furniture we need for this place or maybe I could have gotten away with sleeping in earlier and get a few more well deserved minutes of rest but what’s done is done and I get to have the clearing duty.

Huffing, I moved the heavy pile of books I was carrying down the dusty coffee table with a loud thud and disturbing the dust that lay dormant on it.

 I inhaled a mouthful of dust.

Blegh! Dust for lunch, no taste, no nutritional value, not recommended for a healthy diet!

I backpedalled out of the dust cloud’s range, coughing and waving my hands in the air frantically in an effort to make it go away. Though, it’s not really working since I’m still choking on dirt but thankfully, it gradually settled down.

I groaned, my shoulder slumping, and looked around the shop. Or, well, the would-be shop. The place was really dusty but considering it hasn’t been used in years, it’s understandable. Not anyone could just get this place because it was a bit... special, so to say, but our Boss had his connections. I sighed tiredly.

The Boss decided to give us this as a vacation, kind of. He said we needed to take our minds off of things and relax. Thought that running a shop would be perfect for that. I’m not really sure I agree with him but he tries and he went all the trouble to get us this.

Though, the others and I still really haven’t gotten around fixing the place up. And by others, I meant the other 11 owners because we’re all gonna be co-running this joint. AKA me, my friends, and the future chaos we’re going to make while trying to manage this place up and still somehow failing. Hah!

Unused items were still scattered on the floor-- either wrecked or super dusty but still salvageable-- and the shelves that should have holding them were broken or full of other random objects, too. There are books even that I’m sure are considered rare and ancient... and highly illegal, I think...

Fortunately, they didn’t look like they had any damage so they could still be sold. To the right hands, of course. Wouldn’t want a war to be happening now, would we?

I heard the door behind the counter open and a head poking out from behind it, saying: “Yo! The others are starting to pick their rooms already. You better hurry up or else they’ll take all the good ones.”

I waved my head at my friend nonchalantly. “Eh, let them pick. The Boss said they’re all the same anyway.”

“Alright then.”  They shrugged their shoulder and disappeared behind the door only to appear back again. “Right, I forgot to tell you. Dent came by earlier to lend you this?”

As they said that, they tossed a something to me and then left. I caught the rectangular thing by reflex and blinked.

It was a book that had ‘Ways Things Can Go Wrong and Will Go Wrong’ written on the cover page in bold, golden letters, with various exaggerated scenarios (there was one that looked like they exploded from eating too much) and misfortunes seen in the background.

I looked around the messy shop then back to the book again. I did it a couple of times before my eyes finally landed on the book. Hm, I could do a head start and immediately start cleaning the shop orrr...

“...Let’s see if this one’s good.”

Who am I kidding? I do great in procrastination more than cleaning.

CallMeAJ

Hello, hello, yes, well, all I can say that this is the first story of mine that I ever wrote (I still have some drafts for other stories in my phone but never got around to writing it), though, not the first story (cause I used to write a fanfiction).

Anyway, this story's been in my gathering dust in my computer for probably around a month now and instead of leaving it to be forgetting, I decided to publish this and try to improve my writing skills.

English isn't my first language so if you find any mistakes or you have any advice for me, I would appreciate it.

＼(￣▽￣)/ Thonks!