Occasionally Soojin would be “forced” to go grocery shopping by her mother. “Forced” because that is what her brother would call it when their mother asked him to. That and “unnecessary insignificant task”. Soojin pointed that he would starve if they didn’t go grocery shopping. Her brother never responded to that.

Soojin actually didn’t mind grocery shopping. In fact, she sort of liked it. It was comforting to her in an odd way. Or it could be because that she really liked food.

But she unquestionably disliked shopping for clothes and items like that and found it a hassle. The only exception was grocery shopping.

So there was Soojin standing in the produce aisle, wondering if the broccoli in her right hand was fresher than the one in her left hand. She finally decided to choose the one in her right because it looked greener. 

She looked down at her list her mother wrote out for her. She mentally crossed out all of the items she already got. All she had to get was rice.

She noticed that someone had scrawled something underneath everything. And upon closer inspection, she realized that her brother had scribbled cookies on the list.

She chuckled at her brother’s childishness. Their mother had a dislike for anything that contained too much sugar or salt. So it was rare that their mother would buy any snacks or sweets.

But she decided to indulge her brother because why not.

She pushed her cart towards the snack aisle, looking for any cheap prices. There was another person already there, so she quietly maneuvered around him. She didn’t pay much attention to him; but as she passed him, she heard him mutter something along the lines, “Chocolate or strawberry?”

She stopped a little further down to pick out some chocolate chip cookies for her brother.

From the corner of her eye, she saw the black-hooded boy cover his eyes and point at both snacks in a rhythmic motion.

She grinned because she realized that he was chanting a rhyme to help him decide which one to choose. She couldn’t blame him; she would have done the same.

As she continued watch him, she realized that he seemed oddly familiar. Like she had seen him too many times before, but she couldn’t place where.

His face was covered by his hood, so she wasn’t able to see his face. She stared longer, wondering if she would be able to remember where she saw him, but no avail.

She shook her head in amusement and walked back past him to grab a rice bag from the next aisle.

She quickly picked up a small bag and set in her cart. She then walked briskly to the check-out counters. She glanced behind her and realized that the hooded man was walking behind her.

She didn’t think much about it, and continued to walk to a counter with a small line. She paid for her items and silently bagged them.

It wasn’t until she was completely out of the store that she realized that someone was following her.

From the corner of her eye, she could see the shadow casted by the bright sun of someone trailing behind her. She quickly glanced behind her and saw the hooded man from the store was right behind her.

She didn’t want to make assumptions, but she couldn’t help but to feel queasy in the stomach.

She picked up her pace, hoping that it was indeed just her being paranoid and not actually being pursued by someone.

But even walking for a while, the hooded stranger was still right behind her.

Soojin started to feel nervous. She looked at her surroundings and estimated that she still had a good five minutes until she reached her house. She hoped that she would make it back in one piece.

She paused slightly at her corner where she would turn right and looked behind ever so slightly.

She breathed a sigh of relief. The mysterious stranger was no longer there.

She began to chuckle to herself, more in relief than amusement.

“Boo.”

Soojin jumped slightly, startled by a whisper in her ear and jabbed the person behind with her elbow. She whipped around and was about to kick the person in the stomach who was already clutching it when he put out a hand.

“Wait! Wait! Stop! Soojin, stop!” the hooded man hissed.

She paused with her foot mid-air and slowly lowered it.

“Myung…soo?” she asked hesitantly, recognizing his voice.

The man grumbled, “Yes, goddamn it! You weren’t supposed to react like that!”

She scoffed, “Then how, pray tell, am I supposed to react?”

 “I don’t know! Scream? Yell? Joke around and say ‘Oh you’?”

“Are you joking? I see some stranger following me and when he  comes up behind me, I’m supposed to scream and not do anything else?”

She shook her head. “Oh no. First you make sure that person is incapable of following you by injuring him somehow. Then you run away screaming bloody murder.”

Myungsoo chuckled at her explanation. Truthfully he wasn’t hurt; he had worse. But Soojin managed to make his stomach sting a little.

He removed his hood. “Sorry about scaring you. I saw you in the store and you looked so suspicious of me. I thought that it would be a funny joke to scare you like that.”

She rolled her eyes. “If your idea of a joke is scaring someone like that, then you have a sick sense of humor. I seriously thought that somebody was stalking me.”

“Sorry,” he pouted. “I really thought you would be okay with it. I'm really sorry. Forgive me?”

Soojin stared at him and huffed in exasperation. He stared back with such sincerity and regret that she felt like she had to forgive him.

“It’s alright,” she sighed.

He grinned like a little boy. He suddenly grabbed her groceries.

“Hey! What are you doing?” she exclaimed.

He passed her his groceries in exchange. “Here, hold this instead. Mine is too heavy.”

Soojin glanced at the groceries in her hands and back to the ones in Myungsoo’s hands and rolled her eyes.

“Let’s go. I’ll walk you back to your house,” he said.

She shrugged and glanced at what Myungsoo bought. She widened her eyes in shock and opened the bag a little bigger.

“What is this?”

Myungsoo glanced at her and asked, “What?”

She pulled out several snacks. “Why do you have so many snacks? And ramen? You don’t even have any sort of full-filling food.”

He shrugged, “I don’t really cook, so I eat usually eat ramen or snacks.”

She looked him in aghast and hit him slightly on the arm in frustration. “No! You have to eat properly. If there’s one thing I dislike a lot, it’s not eating properly.”

She started grumbling to herself about the negatives about not eating properly.

“Then cook for me.”

She spun her head to Myungsoo. “What?”

He smiled innocently, “Cook. For. Me?”

She turned her head back forward. “No.”

He pouted, “You’re going to let me starve like this. I’m going to be eating ramen every day. And then I’ll get sick from malnutrition. And I might die. And then you’ll feel guilty and start saying how you should have cooked me a meal when you had a chance. Then you’ll feel miserable and…”

“Stop! Stop. I’ll cook you something. Just hearing that makes me sick in the stomach.”

He grinned, “Finally, a home-cooked meal after so long.”

She cocked an eyebrow. “Doesn’t your mother cook for you?”

He paused and smiled sadly, “I don’t live with her anymore.”

She looked at him with a confused glance but decided to not push further.

He changed the subject. “So you promise to cook for me?”

She sighed, “Yes, yes. When I have time.”

He clapped happily and pranced ahead of her.

They walked for a few more minutes when they approached a blue house with a stone walkway leading up to the door.

“This is my stop,” Soojin muttered.

She pushed the bag in her hands into Myungsoo’s and grabbed hers. She realized that her bag was noticeably heavier than Myungsoo’s.

She turned to look at Myungsoo whose gaze wasn’t on hers. She followed his eyes to see what he was looking which turned out be her house. He appeared to be inspecting it rather closely. But upon observing closer, Soojin realized that was gazing at it with sad eyes.

“Myungsoo?”

He snapped his attention back to her and smiled.

“You have a nice house.”

“Erm. Thanks?” she responded confusedly.

He simply smiled and waved her in. “Go on now.”

She tilted her head and said, “Then I’ll see you later? At school?”

She suddenly laughed, “And even though you scared me, thanks for walking me home.”

She walked towards the front door, but was suddenly pulled back. She faced Myungsoo, and he suddenly hugged her.

Soojin stiffened at his sudden action and didn’t know what to do. She hugged people before, so it wasn’t as if she was uncomfortable about hugging. But she usually only hugged people she knew fairly well. It was the fact that Myungsoo hugged her so suddenly, so spontaneously.

He finally let go and smiled at her. “I’ll see you at school.”

She blinked at him and slowly walked back to her house.

At the last second she whipped around to look at him, but he was already gone.

She quickly opened the front door and walked stiffly towards the kitchen.

Her mother popped her head in. “Oh, you’re back. How was it? Find good prices?”

Soojin simply nodded her head and set the groceries on the counter.

“Soojin? Are you okay?” her mother asked, a little bewildered by her behavior.

Soojin didn’t even respond as she walked back to her room.

Her mother glanced at the forgotten groceries and frowned.

“That child. She didn’t even put them away.”

Once Soojin closed the door of her room behind her, she immediately collapsed to the floor.

She put her hand to her head and groaned.

Because she didn’t want to admit that her heart was beating rapidly because of him. Of a boy named Kim Myungsoo.

And there was one thing she was sure of, she didn’t want to fall in love with him.

At least not like this. And not because fate said it to be because right then that red string that she had forgotten about was glowing red.

A/N: Oh look, a plot development. Or at least I think it is.

Haha. But Soojin didn’t want this sort of development.

All I can say is “Too bad.”

Thanks for reading!