It had been raining all day and the wet pavement makes the air musty as Joshua walks the short distance from his house to the nearby convenience store. The sun had long gone down, but since he has a paper due the next day for his Art History class, he's still awake doing the final revisions. He needed a break, and his sister evidently needs more tampons. So here he is, walking to the store in a slight drizzle at 11 pm. 

Squinting his eyes from the bright signs, he walks calmly through the automatic doors. The cashier doesn't even send him a "welcome", and is instead snoozing on his propped up arm at the counter. There are only a few other customers, all taking their time and reading magazines. Sighing to himself, he slowly walks over to the feminine products aisle. 

"Crap," Joshua whispers to himself, realizing that he has no idea what kind of tampons his sister likes. He doesn't think she has too heavy of a flow, but he doesn't want to get something that ends up being too small. Looking down at all the bright colors and options, he gets light headed. "Why can't there just be a universal tampon size and brand?" he mumbles to himself again. 

Sighing, he reaches down and grabs a size that doesn't seem like it would be too excessive. Gripping the box, he is startled by another customer that was beside him. Looking over, he sees a gorgeous girl looking at him quizzically. She has long gray-blonde hair and is wearing an oversized purple rain jacket. Her hair is still slightly damp from the rain, but is pulled back into a loose ponytail that has bangs that perfectly frame her face. Looking at her sparkling eyes, Joshua snaps out of whatever trance he was under. 

The girl is now looking at him stranger than ever. Sighing, she points towards the box of tampons in Joshua's hands. 

"Listen, do you even have any idea what you're doing? You look extremely confused, and I can promise you that whoever you're buying those for probably won't be as pleased as you hope." At first Joshua is taken back by the deepness of her voice, but he has known many girls whose voices are lower than you expect. Blinking, he realizes that the mystery girl is looking at him expectantly. 

Glancing down at the box then back at the girl, he raises an eyebrow. "Why would this be so bad?" 

"Because that," she responds, "is a size S++. Which stands for Super Plus Plus. That could absorb all of the blood from a broken nose." 

"Oh" Joshua says, looking back down at the tampons. "I thought that meant Slim plus plus and would be a perfect middle size..." He trails off, setting the box back on the shelves. "What size do you think would be best then?"

"Probably the R which stands for regular. Although I'm not the most knowledgeable since I mostly buy pads." 

"Ah okay. Well thanks, I guess!" Joshua flashes the girl a smile while he reaches for the size that she recommended. Seeing the time from his watch on his wrist, he curses quietly. He really needs to get back to work on his essay. 

"Well, thank you for your suggestion!" he says joyfully, walking backwards towards the cashier. The girl stands up and follows him to the cashier, holding her box of pads. 

"Excuse me," Joshua says, trying to wake up the sleeping employee. Glancing to his name tag, he calls out his name. "Seungkwan. Excuse me Mr. Seungkwan. I want to buy this..."

Jolting awake, the cashier, whose name is apparently Seungkwan, takes Joshua's box and quickly scans it in. Joshua blinks for a moment, surprised that the boy can function so well right after waking up. 

"That'll be 6.99, please." Passing up the money, Joshua gets a large handful of change and must take a few moments to put it all back into his wallet. While he does so, the girl behind him steps up and pays for her pads. Walking out of the store, Joshua looks up and sees that the rain had finally stopped. Smiling to himself, he steps towards his house. 

Hearing the door open and close again, he turns around to see the girl from before also looking up at the sky, the light from the store illuminating her back, a slight smile on her face. So pretty, Joshua thinks to himself.

“Thanks for telling me what I should buy.” He speaks out. Realizing that it might sound sarcastic to someone who doesn’t know him he adds, “I’m sure my sister will be much happier with a normal size. I guess these are things only you girls can understand.” 

The girl turns back to him and gives him a smile mixed with a sort of snort that makes Joshua feel all sorts of crazy. “Sure thing! My sister took the liberty to educate me on these sorts of things a long time ago, saying that us guys just seem to have a hard time understanding it all.” Saying that, she ped her thick rain jacket and took it off, turning back to say another “bye” to Joshua. 

Joshua stood there for awhile becoming very confused as to why his face is heating up and his mind is going crazy like it normally does when he gets embarrassed. Trying to focus in on all the details, his eyes go wide and his mouth drops open once he realizes something. 

The girl didn’t have any s. And “she” just referred to herself as a guy. 

Crap.