Jiyeon never understood the whole reason of this set up. She doesn’t understand why her mom decided to punish her to a shopping trip; why her mom insisted to have L. Joe to be her ; and why her mom told him to bring her home late. What kind of mother does that to her daughter? If her mom’s thinking of matching them both up, then she would better keep that idea to herself. As much as she still has some lingering crush feeling over L. Joe, Jiyeon knows better than to actually go out with him.

            “Feels hot in here,” Jiyeon blurts out, doesn’t realised that she actually say that out loud. L. Joe turns to her, perplexed.

     “But the air-cond’s on,” his brows meet in a collision while his long fingers quickly spins the button that controls the flow of the air-cond. “Are you still feeling hot?”

            “What?” Jiyeon flusters, seeming lost about what she just said.

            “Are you still-“

            “Why?” Jiyeon cuts across sharply, her eyes gazing at him questioningly. “Why did you agree to my mom? Wait, what made you agree? What did she tell you?” Her eyes are getting smaller.

            “Wow you’re paranoid,” he jeers, eyes still on the road.

            “Whatever,” she breathes, crossing her arms across her chest and slouches. “We can’t back out anyway. Thanks a lot though. Thanks to you my mom isn’t that angry with me anymore.”

            L. Joe smiles shortly upon hearing her words of gratitude. “You’re welcome,” he finally says, his eyes secretly glancing at her direction.

***

                    L. Joe and Jiyeon finally enter the grand mall. People look busy hustling about in the mall, and even though it’s still in Christmas spirit, some people decide to spend their Christmas pocket money on the things they need as the year-end-sale is on.

               “There’s sale on everything! OMG 70 % off on that piece of clothing? OMG OMG! Must! Buy!” Jiyeon practically shrieks, pulling L. Joe by his hand and runs over to the nearest boutique.

               “Yah!” L. Joe stops abruptly and pulls back his hand and shrugs both hands into his pocket. “Are you mad? Did you forget to bring your functional brain with you? Did you not hear what your mom told you? You honestly saw that shirt on your to-buy list?” His eyes are intense when they pierce into her face. This is why he refused to do this at first when Hana asked him to.

               “”But it’s on sale,” she drawls, sounding like a scared mouse. Jiyeon pathetically gives boutique her last glance and waves, “See you later.” Then she walks away from the shop. L. Joe sighs, still obediently following behind her.

               “I can’t believe I listened to you,” she mumbles under her breathe, turning to her right to find L. Joe raises his head once, asking her what’s wrong.

               “Nothing,” she would reply.

               They both walk along the booths that sell souvenirs and hair accessories and hats. “Yah! Loot at this cute stuff,” Jiyeon drags L. Joe by his hand, again, and he forcefully follows her leads.

               “Oh my God, isn’t this the most adorable hair clip you’ve ever seen?” She shows the pink with red fluffy ball hair pin that takes a form of butterfly to L. Joe and he literally gives her the what-the- look. Jiyeon turns away from him. “There’s even some glitter on the pink heart. Oh my God I have to have this!”

               L. Joe who has been silently watching her from behind, eyeing all the feminine pink stuff that never made any sense to him. Why would women wear those? They look unpractical and childish. “Ugh,” he would snort loudly and Jiyeon would nudge him.

               “Shut up.”

               “But it looks weird, especially on you, I bet,” he mutters without thinking twice.

               “Shut up, L. Joe,” Jiyeon warns, clenching her jaw. She then quickly turns to sales girls with a small smile and hands her 50$ dollar note. “Here.”

               “But,” the salesgirl wearing pink headband looks hesitate. “We don’t have enough small change for that bug amount. The hairpin’s only 4.95$ dollar. We’re sorry.”

               “Oh,” Jiyeon gasps. “But I only have this, and another note of 50$ dollar.” Her gaze quickly falls on the hairpin she really wants. “I guess I have no choice.” Jiyeon reluctantly puts back the hairpin in its container.

               “Take this.”  L. Joe holds out his hand from behind with a note of 10$ dollar clipped between his long fingers. “Keep the change.”

               “Oh thank you,” the salesgirl nods and takes the money away. She grabs the hairpin Jiyeon wanted earlier and packs it in a small pink plastic bag. Jiyeon, who’s been silent all the time, could only stare at the bag when the salesgirl hands it to her.

               “Miss...?,” she calls out. Slowly Jiyeon reaches for the bag and forces a smile to her. She turns to L. Joe, impressed and touched.

               “Hurry up. Let’s go. We don’t much time you know,” he urges.

               “Let’s- go then,” she stutters. And her gaze slides away from him and falls onto the bag. Jiyeon keeps the plastic bag inside her sling bag. Her heart suddenly pounds alarmingly and she couldn’t stop smiling.

***

               Jiyeon grabs two packets of ramyun and throws them into her trolley. She walks on and reaches the bottled-food aisle. She grabs another two bottles of mustard and ketchup and places them carefully in the trolley. Then, she walks on some more, ticking more stuff off her list.

               “Don’t we need this?” L. Joe finally asks, handing her one bottle of Nutella.

               “We?” Jiyeon catches his gaze.

               “I meant me. I need this.” He puts Nutella in and hesitates for a while. “Wait- I think I need some more.” L. Joe holds out his hand to reach for another 4 bottles of Nutella.

               Jiyeon’s mouth drops open, gasping. “Are you mad? No. This thing is painfully sweet okay. You might suffer from diabetes one fine day. Na’ah.” Her hand unconsciously start working to remove some Nutella off her trolley.

               “Yah! Yah! Stop that!” L. Joe argues and grabs more Nutella and hides then them behind his back. “No. You can’t do this. I want these. I need these, okay.” He then sticks out tongue to her.

               “L. Joe,” she growls, one hand clutched on her right hip. “Are you seriously going act this way? It’s not like I don’t allow you to have any. Two bottles of Nutella is more than enough. Do you breathe friggin Nutella or what, huh?”

               “Yes, I do,” he insists and decides to grab one more Nutella and put them all in her trolley. “And don’t you dare to.”

               “Fine,” she gives in, letting go of her grip from the trolley. “Push this then. It’s getting heavier thanks to your greediness.” Jiyeon walks around the trolley and proceed to the next aisle alone.

               “Yah!” l. Joe shouts but Jiyeon doesn’t bother to look back. Cursing and mumbling endlessly, he pushes the trolley and follows her lead. “They’re just ing Nutella. Geez...”

***

               Jiyeon studies the list for the last time and beams when she has bought all the groceries. “I’m done here in this section.”

               “To the check-out counter?”

               “To the check-out counter,” Jiyeon nods her head and pulls the trolley from the front, leading the way. Sometime she would turn back to check out on him.

               “Is it heavy?”

               L. Joe snorts. “How could you even ask?”

               “Really?,” she purses . Jiyeon approaches him and grasps the trolley holder, gently shoving L. Joe out of the way. “Let me push it then.”

               L. Joe pushes her hands away and grabs back the holder. “It’s fine. I can manage.”

               “Really?” Though she still insists on taking charge of the trolley. “It’s okay. Let me push it.”

               “I said it’s fine,” L. Joe says firmly, his eyes flare momentarily at her. “You can just pull the front of the trolley.”

               “Okay. I got it,” she finally nods, going back to where she first stood. Soon enough a row of busy and crowded check-out counters rise in view.

Part 2 of this chapter is coming up :D

ENJOY <3

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