[Rem x Reader] Re:Reader - REDUX

Volume 1: The Great Beginning

Finally, coming upon an aisle of what appeared to be mostly cheap electronics, he scoured the hanged and boxed goods for a compatible charger. Up and down he looked, pushing aside gimmick projects, more cheap souvenirs, and piles of phone cases. Finding what he knew had to be the hook for a charger, as his eyes looked for the actual product, his heart sank. Hung in their place, was a red sticker that simply read: "OUT OF STOCK. MORE ON THE WAY."

Standing back up straight, he sighed, but looked from side to side, hoping that maybe this wasn't this location's only phone charger for sale he could use.

Gimme something... Anything! Anything that'll just give me a bit more charge!

Being able to use his own phone was imperative, after all.

Part of what went along with him setting out on this journey in the first place was an app on his phone.

It was an educational app of all possible things, and whatever parent company of it, or the owners, had been the ones to offer this opportunity to YN that he was traveling for.

A condition of that though, was that even until he reached his destination, he needed to keep using the app for its once-a-day task it had for him; a lesson, followed by a test.

YN would need to either read something, watch a video, or do some kind of basic puzzle, and follow that up with a test on the material he had just experienced. Never were these particularly long or cumbersome, and occasionally, the "test" was more so just feedback of how he thought the lesson presented the information.

Still though, given his long day of nothing but travel, YN was running out of time to complete this day's task.

Frantically, he looked about for a solution to his dead phone, and finally, at the end of the aisle he was in, on an end-cap, was another gimmick looking display, but presented on it, appeared to be his only solution.

Picking up one of the brightly colored boxes on the display, certainly designed to get your attention more than anything else, YN read aloud the product description to himself.

YN: 'Solar Battery Pack with Phone Charger.'

Flipping it over, a sparse amount of more text was there as well.

YN: "Charge your mobile devices anywhere the sun shines.'

With one single side glance, YN turned his gaze back outside momentarily to the darkness out past the neon light of the fuel station, not amused at all with the timeliness of this item's arrival into his life.

At this, YN took one last cursory look around, but was un-inspiringly confident that this was truly his one and only option.

YN: It's better than nothing I guess. I really don't think this thing will work very well though... This thing looks cheap.

With an armful of provisions for himself and this charger, YN walked up to the counter to pay for these, plus some fuel at this pump, but just like when he entered the store, not a soul remained at the counter.

This sure is weird...

On the window, facing outside, was an illuminated, flashing "We're... OPEN!" sign, so YN was certain there must be someone here working still. Going from one checkout to the other, it was then he saw a popped up sign left behind.

"We'll be right back!" the sign read, but clearly, whoever left his sign hadn't even been here by the time YN had entered, as they showed no sign of getting back soon.

YN: Hello? Anyone else in here? Are you on your break?

Speaking louder, his call did not rouse any sleepy employees from the back.