“Well, lookey here. I'm glad you’re finally up.” Behind me was samcheon with little puffs of delicious and aromatic smoke coming out from the pot in his hands and a huge smile on his face.

 “What are you doing standing here?”

“Ah… I was just about to enter”

“That’s great, come with me then and I’ll introduce you to everyone.”

He was still smiling and I glanced at what he was wearing and noticed how he was dressed in that homey oversized shirt and blue pajamas

A blush crept behind my neck up to my ear right when I realized my mistake.

Of all days that I to be a total idiot it had to be now. It really wasn’t much but I wore that excessive dress mom insisted so much to bring along with me just in case an occasion comes up, in my case right now, it was my idiocy that came up.

I started getting really uncomfortable under it, fidgeting as I stood at the entrance awkwardly.

It doesn’t suit me at all but I still wore it thinking we’d be having some visitors and judging from how I heard the word ‘us’ from uncle, it almost sounded as though they were prominent figures in the society and because uncle was a school head coach of some sports team of course I naturally assumed so.

Plus the dress itself was weird. How much more if some giant like me will be wearing it?

Mom tried too hard to make me look like a princess but instead, I looked like I must have been thrown into the washing machine with a bag Skittles with all these bizarre colors layer by layer.

“Uh… actually…”

I stuttered, thinking of a million reasons to excuse myself from having dinner tonight or maybe getting back to my room to dress appropriately. Because, damn I just, why did I even think of wearing this?  Who am I even kidding trying to look nice and feminine when deep down, I knew I wasn’t that kind of person. I wanted to kill my stupid self so bad right now.

Samcheon probably noticed how my expression changed.

 “Yeah?” He inquired, as if he wasn’t already weirded out by me. I doubt it though. Anyone would probably be, heck if I was him I’d be weirded out by myself too.

The aromatic smell was still coming out from the pot, it made me think twice about going back to my room and skipping dinner but then again I was reminded that I should really get going as soon as I heard someone from the dinner table come out to get uncle.

In a hurry I mumbled I wasn’t feeling well in Thai and excused myself before uncle could even get to reply. I feared I’d be unable to escape later on.

Slamming the door behind me, I took a deep breath as I pressed my back against it. Glad that I was not seen by any of those boys then realized a second later, that I was already seen by one.

God, the recollection of my memories made me slide down to curl on the floor.

Really, really, rea~lly embarrassing, that scary person must be ridiculing me by now or telling stories to those guys about me.

Or am I not even worth mentioning at all that he’d just dismissed meeting me as if I was a bug.

Considering his not-so-welcoming reaction a while ago, that option isn’t too farfetched…

Deeply sighing to myself, I decided to call it a day and walked over to my closet to change into something comfortable then to my bed.

“Nice seeing you again tonight...” I graciously lifted the tips of my washed out Wooper pajama and did a curtsy to this huge hotdog pillow before cuddling it close to my body as I jumped on the soft matress.

“Haa. How pathetic. My presence itself can cause such reaction to a stranger, probably the reason why I still don’t have friends, my family’s broken and I’m not even sad about it, I’ve stooped so low that I’m even talking to an inanimate object like this pillow.” I tattled in a childlike voice that came out as if I inhaled helium all throughout my life as I caressed my dear pillow friend.

“Grrr….wurghh…” My face distorted as I ignored the growls of my tummy demanding that delicious smelling food Uncle made.

“nope, no uh, I already ran away no way I’m going back out there soldier. So shut up tumtums.”

Minutes later, after a few daydreaming of just food and me, being one together. I was already asleep.

-

Neither did the car engine revving up nor the sounds of footsteps shuffling upstairs before woke me up rather it was the aching pain I felt in my gut.

You really can’t go on for a day on an empty stomach… well for my case I can’t.

The electronic clock on the bedside table flashed 3:00 AM in red digits. The night was so solemn and peaceful it was safe to assume that the urban jungle had already resigned themselves to sleep.

I walked out of my room, slouching and clutching my stomach, trying my best to be as quiet as I can be, at the same time carefully looking out because who knows what I might meet along the way again.  I’ve had it with those incidental encounters.

Once I reached the kitchen safely, I went straight to the fridge like an angry ape with my newfound motivation, and boy…

“Is this heaven?”

I whispered to no one in particular as I wiped an invisible tear in both eyes.

Happy that there were still some carefully wrapped leftovers, I thought about how uncle must’ve worked hard to prepare all this only to be missed out by me.

Not that my presence was significant but maybe he must’ve felt some dismay, right?  Anyone would, right?

I didn’t have enough time to be thinking about that when my stomach let out a dreadful growl again and honestly, I couldn’t recall how I ended up in the floor attacking that innocent chocolate cake.

And then,

“…-!”

I froze.

In a sense, something even more dreadful than a bossy appetite had appeared, standing behind me.

Horribly enough, I instinctively tried to comb my ruffled hair with my bare hands, forgetting about the chocolate smudges on it and now I looked like I had suffered the after-effects of a cartoon bomb.

It was a soft chuckle behind me made me fully turn my head around to see.

And it was the guy I met this morning. Both his hands were on the side of the fridge and on top of the door; trapping me in between…

I visibly gulped the large clump of chocolate cake trapped inside my mouth, partly from the fact that I had no way of escaping now and from that beautiful smile plastered on his face. I had a hard time pulling myself together as I stared dumbfoundedly at the man towering over me and the cake.

And yes, you guessed it right; in the next two seconds, blood came trickling down my nose for the second time because