I picked up a white mug from the shelf and admired its designs. There were poorly drawn gray clouds which curled from one side to the other, where there was an open book with the words ‘I read’ written on the first page and then ‘books’ on the next page. My face scrunched up.

The word ‘books’ was bolded and italicized.

I found this quite intriguing and tried to understand the implication of this oddly phrased drinking container. What was the purpose of bolding and italicizing the word ‘books’? Could the italicizing be expressing the idea that it wasn’t actually about reading ‘real’ books? But then again could the bolding represent the importance of this word?

Could it actually be addressing the issue of literacy then? Was there some hidden meaning to the phrase itself? If there was, who was it directed to? The literate or the illiterate? Was it meant to demean the literate because even though they could read, they weren’t reading materials that were useful enough for contributing to the society?

But what if it was for the illiterate instead? The amount of illiterates was quite a lot. So was there a possibility that this phrase was meant to instill the spirit of reading into those people?

But then there was the issue of education. What if this phrase was actually criticizing the educational system of the country? Were they putting enough effort to help those illiterate people? They were only focusing on the more able people, the people who could actually afford an education. But what did it matter if those people studied but didn’t even graduate within the minimum time? This had caused a drop in the number of graduates recently. Moreover, even if students graduate they weren’t guaranteed a proper job after.

Then it had to be about the ever increasing unemployment rates. Could it be an effect of the economical crisis? This had always been a problem when it came to the working field. Not only that, but some work places require a certain type of graduate simply because there was a lack of manpower in that sector. Heck, even the graduates were being too –

“Be careful with that, customer-nim,” a voice interrupted my stream of thoughts. “If you break it, you’ll have to buy it.”

Looking over to the owner of the voice, I found myself face to face with a young worker of the store. I glanced around me to make sure he was talking to me, and then at his nametag that read ‘Jung DaeHyun’.

“I’m planning to, but…” I stopped myself before I blurted out my thoughts about the graduate unemployment. How did it get there anyway? Then my eyes settled on the deformed drawing of the book on the mug that I was holding. ‘I read books’.

I gazed at the worker, DaeHyun, who was already busy arranging some items on the next shelf. The next thing I knew I was asking his opinion on the phrase.

He eyed me strangely before shrugging, “I have no idea. It’s just a mug, right?” Then he chuckled and shook his head, probably at the peculiarity of my question.

So in the end, I purchased the mug.

Annyeong~

So what did you guys think of the first chap?

Weird? Confusing?

Well, the important thing to note is that this is gonna be a REALLY slow fic.

Because that's how life is. haha

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