She walked into the shop and a small bell went off.

The girl manning the cashier briefly glanced up before returning to the book she was reading. It seemed to be one of those classic novels, if the fancy bounding, imitating leather, was anything to go by.

Taeyeon went briskly past, avoiding eye contact, as she walked to the end of the shop where she hoped the cashier wouldn’t be able to see her. Standing outside in the rain, she had thought ,maybe, she’d be able to take shelter in the store, until the rain passed or if she was very lucky, until sunrise. She had even plotted to hide amongst the large piles of toilet paper rolls and sleep- if the adverts were anything to go by, it should be like sleeping on a double-plied cotton cloud. Worst come worst, she could at least grab a cardboard box to shelter herself as she went on journey on par with the Lord of the Rings, trying to get back home.

Her eyes got lost in the mountains of canned food and cup noodles. Most were over 100 won but a few seemed to be within her budget. There were noodles of every flavour, from pork to beef to some weird tropical mix including pineapple. Maybe in that faraway galaxy where she actually had enough money for even a taxi, she might have considered buying them, just for the laughs, but right now she couldn’t afford to be experimental. Actually, she couldn’t afford to be much anyways. She kept staring at the brightly coloured packages hungrily. That stupid run from before had only made her remember her last meal had been six hours ago. She had felt lightheaded even as she entered the store.

‘What to do, what to do? If I buy something, I can eat it. Well, yeah, great logic Einstein. But then the girl will see me and I’ll have to go out into the rain…’

As if on cue, a thunder clap was heard.

Right, she thought, yes we starve.

She began to look through the aisles for some gap between the products. At this point, she wasn’t even going to be picky about the toilet paper being double-plied. She saw an empty space between the sugar and rice flour, at least big enough for her to fit even with her legs bent. Being small had to be good for something. She went into the next aisle, careful not to make any sounds and hoping that the girl would forget she ever came in. She soon found what she was looking for- a six roll pack of toilet paper. She brought it back, placed it her newly built food shelter and then settled down. She leaned back against the toilet paper and covered the rest of the body with her jacket, hoping that the dark colours would somehow conceal and make her blend in.

A few minutes later, she was fast asleep.

***

‘Excuse me’

‘Excuse me’

‘Hey, you!’

‘You’re excused’ Taeyeon mumbled.

‘Great, another piss-head’

She felt her jacket being ripped roughly from her hand as the bright store lights blinded her. She slowly opened her eyes and saw a dark figure looming over head.

She screamed.

‘AARRRRGHHHHH’

The dark blur looked largely unimpressive. Somehow.

‘Consumption of hallucinogens is punished by prison in Korea.’

She bolted right up as soon as she heard ‘prison’.

‘Wha- OUCH! My head!’ she rubbed the spot where her head had collided against the upper shelf. ’Ouch, ouch, ouch, that really hurt’

‘Look, I’m feeling nice so if you get out within one minute, I won’t call the police’

Her eyes had adjusted to the light and by now she could make out that the dark looming figure was actually the cashier girl. She crawled from under her makeshift bed.

’50 seconds’

‘Huh?’

’45 seconds’

‘Wait, wait, what’s going on!’ She peered at the girl’s name tag. ‘Tippani- geez, what sort of name is that’.

‘It’s TI-FFA-NY you moron. And 37’

Taeyeon looked around confused.

’37 what? I haven’t bought anything’

‘Precisely. 28’

‘Nice to meet you. I’m 23’

‘15’

‘Hey! You just said you were 28. Come on, there’s no way you even look fifteen, now you’re just being delusional!’

‘8’

‘7’

‘6’

‘Wait, wait, you’re counting down! But-I mean, what, I-‘

The girl called Tiffany kept counting.

‘0’

She turned around abruptly, her dark hair flowing, and her sneakers squeaking against the tiled floor.

‘Right, I’m calling the police’

‘The police…No, wait!’

‘Wait?’ she scoffed without turning around ‘is that the only word you know how to say when you’re high?’

Taeyeon opened but no words came out.

She got up and walked to where the girl was.

‘B-b-but’ she stammered.

Tiffany turned around.

‘I have money…'

She showed her her 75 won.