An Incident in the Back of a Certain Restaurant."You must have a lot of free time on your hands to be able to do that while on duty, huh"

I jumped for a moment when he unexpectedly called out to me from behind. Fortunately, I somehow managed not to raise my voice, and I hoped that he, who seemed to be giving me a painful stare, did not notice that I was surprised.

'Haha ....... Vincent, listen, I wasn't trying to slack off, it's just that..."

"I'm not calling to hear your excuses."

I tried to tell him - Vincent, the owner of the restaurant where I work - the reason why I'm here in the back of the restaurant, but he interrupted me without a second thought. I felt that if I kept quiet, I would not be scolded by him, so I somehow tried to tell him what happened again as I looked back at him.

"I was not trying to make excuses,I was just trying to help this cat that was hurt. "

Yes, I happened to go to the back of the restaurant to throw out the trash and saw this black cat standing there.
If it was just there, I wouldn't even think of bothering it during working hours. But this time, I couldn't ignore it. Because I knew that the cat was injured. It seemed to be bleeding from one of its limbs, and there was a distorted paw-shaped blood trail in the direction it had probably walked to here. I was trying to give first aid to the cat when he saw me.
I was so afraid to look at him that I couldn't turn my head to face him.
I think I'm acting very suspicious from his point of view, but I can't be bothered to worry about that. If he not only scolded me but also reduced my salary, I would be in a lot of trouble for various reasons.

"Vince, you're right, I'm sorry I was doing something outside of work when it was still working hours, but......"

I was about to say, "Please don't take a pay cut," when suddenly he came up to me. I was surprised again and inadvertently turned my gaze towards him, but unlike what I had imagined, he didn't seem to have an angry look on his face, but rather a look of frustration, like a child who has had a toy taken away. He walked straight past me, who was too upset to move at the sight of his face. He seemed to be heading toward the cat that was supposed to be a little behind me.
I turned around as quickly as I could and suddenly heard a loud roar. Apparently, the cat was threatening him as he approached. I could see his back figure, looking slightly startled, half-heartedly holding one hand toward the cat while he stopped moving, and the cat, which had been so quiet earlier, bared its fangs as if it were a completely different cat, and was literally frantically threatening him. The next thing I knew, the cat was running past me with blinding speed, despite the fact that he had injured his paw.
After only a few seconds, an indescribable atmosphere passed between me and him. To be honest, I had always been a little scared of him because I didn't know what he was thinking so I didn't want to be in a situation like this.

"Um, ...... are you all right, Vince"

I tried to talk to him for the time being to somehow get out of this situation. I was already feeling like it didn't matter anymore.

"...... ah, I'm not particularly scratched or anything."

The only thing that he replied to me was that he had not been scratched, and then silence enveloped us again. The atmosphere is still there. I was a little scared because his dark, bottomless eyes remained fixed on me. I tried to speak, to somehow start some kind of conversation again, but it was only after that that I realized I had made a mistake.
"Well, I think Vince looks a lot like a cat, but it's surprising that cats don't like you,I mean...haha"
I just slipped out and laughed. It was the worst possible thing I could have done.
After saying such a rude thing to my boss at work, the restaurant owner, I'm sure I'm going to have to take a pay cut. In fact, I thought I was in danger of even being fired. I thought about slapping the apron on my waist on his face and saying I'm quitting, before he would get furious with me and tell me I'm fired.
Suddenly, he opened his mouth and said,

"Actually,I can't deny that I'm a hard person for animals to like. "

I was quite puzzled when he started talking happily about how often he was intimidated by animals, as he had just done. I wondered why he was talking as if he could see such a good thing after being threatened by a cat and being rude to me.He must not have noticed my confusion, because he walked past me again and called out to me,

"It's still business hours, and I know you have customers waiting, so let's get back to work."

With that, he disappears out the back door into the kitchen, and I manage to follow him, though I'm a moment late. What was that all about I took a deep breath to calm the unspoken anxiety swirling in my chest and wondered if what I had said earlier might have put him at ease in a good way. In fact, I had managed to avoid both a pay cut and being fired.
I chewed that fact in my chest and went back to the busy restaurant.