Date: July 3rd, 2009/06/13

Location: Taipei, Taiwan

It’s only 5:00am in Taiwan and the sky is still dark but Rainie has been working for two hours already. Right now she is unloading fresh milk and eggs from her boss’ truck. Seeing the sweats on her forehead, Jacky, the boss of the small café rainie works at told her to take a quick break but he knew very well that she wasn’t going to until she finished all her works. After she finished with the unloading, she went into the kitchen and helped her manager, Ah Ya, prepared for the breakfast rush. The small kitchen was chaotic with three people trying to brewing coffee, baking bread, muffins and buns. But there was a smile of each of their faces simply because they have the company of each other.

At 6:00 Rainie finally took a break and sat down at her usually spot by the corner window. Jacky handed her a plate of his special breakfast dish “Smile Rainie”, it was a stack of pan-cakes, two sunny-sides up eggs with two sausages that looked like a smiley face. Rainie recalled the first time she had this and good it tasted. That day was one of the worst days in her life. She had walked all over Taipei trying to find a job with no luck. She couldn’t give up until she found a job because it was there last chance to pay the rent if she didn’t want to be kicked out. She was hungry and thirsty and realized she had gone the whole day without a meal. This was when she noticed a small café to the corner of the street, it was called Rainy Day.

She saw how Jacky and Ah Ya interacted with the customers and how much everyone enjoyed their meal. She immediately felt in love with the place. Rainie worked up her courage and asked Jacky for a job. She never expected him to say yes since the store was small enough to be fine with just two employees. Jacky smiled and went back to the kitchen. When he returned with Ah ya he handed Rainie a plate and said: “only if you finished every bit of food on this plate.”

That was the first time she had “Smile Rainie”.

Ah Ya came over and handed her a cup of coffee just as one of their regular customer came in. Ah Ya signaled for Rainie to relax as she tended to the customer. Although they never talked, Rainie knew the girl worked at a nearby office. She came in every morning at this time to get a coffee of black coffee and a non-fat yogurt. Rainie always wanted to ask her if the breakfast was for her because she definitely doesn’t look like she needs lose any more weight. But the girl always looked to be in a rush. One day, she’ll definitely ask her and maybe even offer her one of Ah Ya’s killer muffin. Then she quickly finished her last bit of coffee and went back to work.

It was 7:30am when Rainie looked at the clock again. Her older sister should be getting ready for work right about now. She smiled at the thought and hope that they would enjoy today’s lunch.

At a small apartment in Taipei, Patty woke up to the sound of her alarm. As usual, the first thing she did was look over at Rainie’s bed even though she knew very well that her sister was already up hours earlier. She put on the outfit Rainie ironed for her the night before and started to get ready. Finally, she picked up the two set of lunches on the kitchen table before she headed out the door with a breakfast sandwich in .