"I am taking the room with balcony." Alice declared when Gerald had already left with the paperwork.
"No. I am taking that one, you can sleep with me if you need the balcony so much." Ian scoffed and pushed open the door to the room.
"What? Shut the fuck up, disgusting!" Alice shouted, "Be a gentleman and give the room to me!"
"I am a gentleman." Ian turned to look at her, "But only to ladies, not brats."
With that, he shut the door to her face and opened his luggage on the bed.
'The apartment's decent but damn, it's costly. We need a good part-time job for both to pay for it.' he thought.
The room already had a wooden wardrobe in it, so unpacking the luggage was hardly a task.
"Right, I had this too."
While unpacking, Ian found the packet of weed between his clothes.
In his city it was priced around 1000 bucks for this packet, but Ian knew it can sell for a lot around here.
Since weed was legal in Pearl City, but not in Gangtok.
And every illegal thing costs a hell-ton.
And the packet of weed gave another idea to him, as he opened the door and found Alice's door was open as well.
He quickly headed to hers.
"What?" Alice, who was unpacking her own luggage, asked him with mild annoyance.
"You see in my house, mom was there when I was packing my shit, so I was unable to sneak in anything." Ian lied blatantly, "But I was wondering did you manage to get something costly that we can sell for a decent price?"
Alice hummed hearing the question, "My mother was watching over me too, but since my sis distracted her, I sneaked in my make up, perfumes and a Philipe limited edition watch."
Seeing the happiness on Ian's face, Alice interrupted him.
"I am definitely not selling any of them."
"Oh come on! The watch alone can cover at least two months of rent!" Ian said.
"Yeah so? Earn and pay for rent like your dad told you to. I will cover my half using the 'watch'." Alice flicked her hair with a smirk.
"Using your calculations, I will be able to pay 'at least' 4 months of rent, no?" she said, "And don't forget you are already in debt since I paid for this month's rent."
"Well I gave 500 from my pocket, you gave 4000." Ian pointed.
"And the 50$ of the cab? Split it properly if we're splitting."
"The fair was 91, not 100."
"Are you seriously crying over 9 bucks? Okay, give 45 instead."
"Alright." Ian, feeling indignant, instantly transferred 45$ to her bank account.
"Good boy~ Now you're 1750$ in debt."
"Alright." Ian turned around to leave, feeling like this was the worst decision he could've made.
He had lost more than he gained this time.
He found out that Alice had managed to sneak in expensive goods, but that didn't do anything good to him.
Hell, it only made it worse since she doesn't have to work anymore while he needs to work for his share.
'What should this weed be worth?'
This was the only thing he could count on to save himself now.
'It should be at least 5000, I think. I can sell it for more if I find someone rich and stupid… someone like me when I was in Pearl City, I guess.'
At least he was self aware.
Since that was better to be sold with more knowledge and care, Ian decided to browse a few part-time jobs he can get and the minimum wage of those.
'10$ an hour for a cashier at some fast food chain. So low?!'
With his pocket money from his mom being over 10 grand, 10 dollars an hour looked pitiful.
'Hell I can't get my pocket money even if I worked a month for 24 hours a day!'
He found some more jobs he might be able to take, but none of them exceeded the pay of 15$ an hour.
After all, he was just a recently legal teenager with zero real-life skills.
At that moment, the words he said to his father resurfaced.
'Life's easy?' Ian chuckled to himself.
Now he knew why his father laughed about that.
Alice still hasn't understood the real difficulties of life, but Ian could vaguely feel how difficult life could be.
Still… just vaguely.
Though he forgot to notice that his grandfather's ring had started to shine a little brighter when he got such thoughts.
'My university classes are from 10 to 2, which means I can work after that.' he thought, '4 to 9 sounds decent enough.'
Ian ran some calculations and frowned.
'Fuck. Even with a 15$ an hour job, working 5 hour a day for a month nets to 2250$...'
And what was his share of rent again?
Right. 2250$.
'I hate you dad! Couldn't you have at least paid for the dorms!?'
Ian felt like crying.
Of course, he still had no idea that the apartment he lived in was worth 1500$, not 4500$.
"Okay! I will prove that I can do it! Just 3 years." Ian rubbed his eyes and nodded to himself, 'Let's work from 3 to 9.'
Still, that was just a pitiful increase of 15$ every day.
And these whole calculations were based on the fact that he could actually GET a 15$ an hour job.
But regardless, Ian was feeling motivated to get started, and thus, he was back on the streets after finishing the packing.
Alice decided to tag along with him, as she wanted to venture more around Gangtok and the university.
For the first target, Ian tried to get hired at the food chains that were opened inside his university.
Alas… the reality was painful.
"Are you even legal, boy? And for a cashier job, we can offer you 12$ an hour. Your salary will be deducted if you're late or slacking."
"Uh, we don't need any part-timers currently."
"You? You don't seem like someone who can work much. 10$ an hour is the max I can go."
"Man, we're in a loss ourselves. Work for 8$ an hour or we are fine with overworking ourselves."
"15$ an hour? Hah, you would be lucky if you can find a job for 10$ an hour."
After inquiring at the most stores on the university campus, Ian managed to find a kind lady who offered him 15$ an hour.
But the store was a general store… the one that was the busiest around here.
"Thank you, I will take the job."
And thus, Ian became a cashier at a general store under the sound of Alice's mockeries.