It has been raining all afternoon and the weather was a bit mild. It was not cold but was not hot either. A perfect day to go out. Soon after the rain stopped, she was preparing to go get some groceries done. It was only 10 minutes driving, so it won’t take long for her to finish the shopping soon. The house was so quiet that week as her parents were on overseas duty. Things have been really boring for her living by herself for the past 3 days. She walked to the garage and went straight to her car. She the car and started to adjust her seatbelt, checking the car’s mirror, and finally left the house.

“looks nice” she mumbled while looking at the grove along the way. She lived in a very nice neighborhood where she could enjoy those trees every other morning while walking around and breath some fresh air. The trees look happy to finally get some fresh rain drops after those long humid days. She smiled brightly. She’s been stuck in the house for the past 3 days so it’s so good to finally drive and take a look around.

She turned her car right on the intersection after driving for around 10 minutes. She parked carefully at that big parking lot and run a little to the entrance with her wallet in her left hand. She pulled down her hoodie covering her hair and picked the trolley in the right side of the store. That store is one of her favorite. It’s a bit expensive there but the quality of the product is excellent. And she goes shopping there more than any other groceries so she knows exactly where to go and in which section if she needs something in hurry.

It was Sunday afternoon and the store was basically crowded. People usually shopped for their weekly groceries on weekend so she was expecting that it’s gonna be a bit noisy. She started picking up some stacks of broccoli and went straight to get a bulk of mushroom when she noticed something, little distant away from her. She was surprised and a bit in disbelief to what she was looking in front of her. She turned her head away and quickly finishing her business and moved quietly to other aisle, trying to avoid what she has seen. She pushed over her trolley and she was panicking a lil bit when the trolley hit someone’s back.

“ah, I’m sorry” she said while helping to collect that person’s stuffs. It was all over the floor. Thank God it was only some snacks and some stacks of toilet paper. The person didn’t move at all until she handed out those stuffs and both were caught in silence. She didn’t know what to do when she found out that person was the same person she noticed few minutes ago while trying to run away.

He was her school rival and also her school student council president, Kang Seung Yoon. One of the top 3 people in school she would want to avoid and have no interest to talk to. But she accidentally hit him while trying to run away and she was trapped in difficult situation, she didn’t know how to stop that awkward feeling.

“Eunji—aa?” He finally opened up a conversation after those long pauses.

“hhmmmmmmmm?” She answered quietly not wanting to actually talk anything because she was too embarrassed.

“I didn’t expect to meet you here.” Seungyoon replied to her mumbling trying to calm down her nervousness.

“Yeah, I didn’t either. I didn’t know you know this place too. May be just a coincident.”  She was muttering and making it more awkward for him to answer what she was saying.

“I shop here quiet often. Well, I’m sorry I was blocking your way” He responded to her bitter voice knowing that she seems uncomfortable.

“I’m sorry again” she muttered an apology and then left.

He looked at her back saying almost nothing but putting a smile in his face. He seemed to know that Eunji wouldn’t want to meet him in this strange place while she was shopping. He continued walking around the store after a while hoping that she wouldn’t run because of him again.

Few minutes after that incident, Eunji wasn’t enjoying the shopping anymore (which were not the case) so she went straight to the counter and picked only the stuffs that she really needed for the next few days. When she was stacking her groceries up in the counter, she knew someone was already lining behind her. And yes, it was Seungyoon. She gave him a scary glanced and observing him from top to bottom, wondering why among all other counters, he needed to be standing there, lining behind her.

Seungyoon felt like he had no issue with it because that counter has the shortest line. Other counters had more lines so he had no options other than lining after her. He was pretending that he was okay that he didn’t notice Eunji’s observation. He was trying to act cool about it. Just to make sure that he didn’t create too many fuss because he knew the store was hella crowded and he didn’t want to create problematic debates. The man behind the counter started scanning Eunji’s bags and she looked really uncomfortable probably think that she really wanted to go out soon and didn’t need to see Seungyoon any longer.

“it’s 80 for all, mam” said the man behind the counter while putting in those stuff to the grocery bags.

She swiped her card and strangely, it wasn’t working the first time. She tried once again and it was not working as well. She got a bit panicky because that should not happen in times of emergency like that, when she was trying hard to get this done soon as possible. She tried once more but it was still not working too. And the fact that she didn’t have any cash left in her wallet made her more miserable.

“I didn’t have any cash left, can you keep this stuffs for me? I’ll run to my house and will be back soon, I need to get my other card” She asked that man behind the counter in disbelief, what the is going on with her card. She hated that moment so much. Why it should be at the time when she really needs to move quick?

“I can try with my card first if you want to, just in case there’s something wrong with the reader” Seungyoon came in and offered help.

“No thank you, I can handle this” Eunji responded to him boldly without even looking up to his face.

“Mam, I think he has a good point, why not try his offer? This counter has problem reading card since yesterday. So I was wondering it could be the case.” The guy behind the counter added her confusion on what she should do.

Kang Seung Yoon stepped up while she was still considering his offer and swiped his card in that machine.

And it was working well. He paid the bill and left Eunji in confusion even more.

“it’s not the best time to argue because people are waiting at the back. Also, you can pay me anytime you want. It’s not a big deal. You need to fix your card soon. Don’t think too much and just get back to your home safe.” He helped her with those bags and he didn’t let her talk any single word because he knew Eunji was going to talk gibberish and calling him attention seeker.  She looked at his back walking back to the counter and started working on his own stuffs while apologizing to some