I grabbed a shopping basket and entered the supermarket. Ahhh the A/C jsut cools me down. It was sure very humid out there. I took out my phone and went through the list of things my mom wanted me to buy. It was sure a long list.

List of things to buy:

1) Sanitary Pads

2) Ramyeon

3) Kimchi

4) Gochujang

5) Rice

6) Apples

Apples! Yay my favourite fruits! Anyways..

7) Bananas

8) Chocolate

9) Detergent (Sorry, dear. I know it's heavy but I ran out of it. Need it urgently)

Hmm.... Mom, I wonder how I can carry all this stuff back. It's okay, I'll manage somehow. Okay, maybe I shall proceed to the Kimchi section first since it is the nearest to the entrance. I took the cheapest one there is. Not that my family is really poor or anything like that. It is just my mom is a single mom and she works very hard to earn money. It pains me to see her working very hard to pay my school fees. We do have money left enough for us to survive with food for a month and a half, so I guess my financial situation is not that bad. I even have an older brother who is studying Medicine overseas. He paid for half of his expenses though so it wouldn't be such a heavy burden for my mother. I'm glad I have such a reliable brother. I do miss him a lot. It's been 4 years since he went overseas. I'm excited that he is going to come back home next year! Okay, back to shopping. Hmm, maybe I should get gochujang since it is in the next aisle. Getting the next few items was not a problem for me since I am quite used to running errands for my mom. 

Now, it's time to get my apples! My favourites! Urghhh, the basket is sure getting heavier and heavier, especially with the detergent and rice. It's okay, I can do this! Just the apples left! You can do this, Ara! After much struggle, I finally got to the apples section. The sight of apples just makes my mouth water. Weird? I know right.  

"Oh! Is it you, Ara?" That voice sure sounded familiar! I know I have heard it somewhere. Oh wait, I know who that voice belongs to! Why must I meet this person here? 

I pretended not to hear and just proceeded with choosing the apples. Please don't approach me, please don't approach me! Just then, I felt a tap on my shoulder. Oh man, just my luck. He just had to approach me. I turned around to see that familiar face again. The familiar face that I never wanted to see again. 

"I was right! It is you! Didn't you hear me call you just now?" he asked as he looked at me from head to toe. 

"Uhh, I didn't hear anyone call me though," I said as I looked at the floor. There goes my habit again. 

"Or were you just ignoring me?" he asked again.

"No, why would I do that?" 

"Yeah, why would you do that right. You didn't change at all, huh? Still rude and ugly as ever. Your face still filled with acne. I could recognise your face from far away because of the amount of your acne! No wonder you had no friends in middle school. I wonder why I became friends with you when we first entered middle school. What was I thinking?" 

There he goes again. I sighed inwardly. He's been insulting me ever since middle school. I don't know what made him change so much. He was such a nice and friendly person when I first met him. But we suddenly just grew apart after he found "cooler" friends. I was fine with that. In fact, I was happy that he found new friends but one day, he became extremely mean to me. He kept throwing insults at me in front of everyone. That was when one by one, my friends started leaving me. Everyone started avoiding me like I was a plaque. I would hear gossips about me whenever I walk down the hallway to my locker.. Some of them didn't make sense at all but some of them really hurt me. There was once a rumour of how I was a sl*t where I would go around seducing the guys. (RIDICULOUS, IKR?) Then there was a rumour of how I backstabbed my friends. Just because of that, I came to fear having too many people around me as I'm afraid of being watched. I looked at the floor whenever I talk to someone. 

"I highly doubt you even have friends in high school right? Why would anyone want to approach you? You will still be that loner and loser at school. HAHA!"

I looked around me. He was getting louder and louder and people around us were starting to watch. I wanted to cry right there and then. I wanted to run away but my feet were rooted to the ground! Damn! Why can't my body move when I really want it to?  

Don't cry, Ara! Don't cry! Please, just don't cry!