I woke up as the alarm in my telephone began ringing. Really, it should not be legal to have to get out of bed at all. It was almost 2 PM. I sighed and swung my legs out over the edge of the bed. Pulling my ‘rap monster’ hoodie over my head, I looked into the mirror. My hair was a mess. I pulled the hoodie over my head and grabbed my bag. My dad had already gone to work, so the kitchen was empty. I usually would never skip breakfast, but since I was going to eat breakfast at Taeyoon’s place, I just grabbed a lollipop headed straight out the door. Honestly, I could eat a lollipop at any time of the day.

“How can there be this many types of cereal?” I muttered to myself, as I was standing in front of the shelves with cereal in the local grocery store. What kind of cereal did the other two like? I usually just went with oatmeal. I’d always wanted to try another kind of cereal, but my mother had never allowed me to try them, because “they’re filled with sugar and it’s not healthy”. The chocolate kind of cereal had always seemed the most appealing to me. I walked back and forth in front of the shelves, trying to find the most delicious-looking chocolate cereal. Suddenly, a loud noise came from behind me. A guy, or was it a kid, was clinging onto a cart. No, it was definitely not a kid; actually he looked like he could be my age. He really looked like a kid though. His hair was a bright orange and his face was just one big smile as he was yelling and drove past me. Once again, laughter escaped my lips and I smiled. Ah, I really couldn’t control my laugh. Somehow, I actually felt like joining him, but it wasn’t exactly my style – I didn’t like the attention I would then get from strangers like myself.

“Excuse me”

I was still looking at the kid with the cart, when someone walked up in front of me. I looked directly into the eyes of a tall, blonde guy, who, for some reason, seemed excited. He was actually taller than me, which I didn’t experience often.

“Can you rap” he asked. It took me by surprise and I answered him with a confused ‘eh’.

Oh wait, he was referring to my hoodie? Oh no, this was going to be awkward, but I couldn’t help but smile. I had something prepared for exactly these kinds of moments. It was a necessity when you decided to have, if you decided to walk out in public with a hoodie like this, I knew that.

“Of course I can rap”, I tried to say confidently while holding back a laugh, but as it came out of my mouth I could immediately hear the awkwardness. Oh god, I hated this about me. The kid from before once again was on the cart and came towards us.

“Rap battle!” he yelled eagerly.

It didn’t seem like he had any control over the cart and he was going so fast. This could only go wrong. Soon enough the cart had hit the blonde guy who was talking to me. It must have hurt, it looked painful, but when I looked up at the guy he was just looking at the kid on the cart, who apologized. His apology almost sounded like he was a hurt puppy.

“Are you okay?” I asked the guy who got hit. He had to have a high pain tolerance, because if it were me I would probably be swearing profusely right now.

The guy nodded.

“Sorry…” the kid once again apologized. I almost felt sorry for him, but at least all this commotion had removed all the attention from me. I was planning on escaping, having already eyed a package of chocolate cereal I could quickly grab, but I was not fast enough.

“Hyung! Rap battle!” the kid shouted while laughing.

I really had to do this, hadn’t I? Well, better to just get it over with.

I smiled at the two guys, who both had turned their attention to me. The blonde guy mumbled something to the younger one, which made the kid look even more excited.

“Then let me do it!”, the kid began pleading, “please!”

The blonde one was checking his sides. Yup, the hit had definitely hurt, but I figured he had probably wanted to keep his pride intact. Somehow, I could relate.

“Whatever”, he muttered, as he was touching his shirt where his ribs were located, “Just don’t embarrass me too much”

I turned my attention towards the orange-haired kid, who seemed like he was about to burst from excitement. Could he really rap? Maybe we should change the rules of this rap battle to ‘Who can fail the most at rapping’? Another guy, also with blonde hair, joined the other two. He said something, but I didn’t really hear what it was, as I was mentally preparing myself – it was definitely needed, since I didn’t want to make myself more embarrassed than what was already the case. I went through the details of what I had prepared in my head. I had really been practicing it a lot, and I had to admit, I was pretty excited to finally get to use it.

“Ladies first”, the kid said to me, while grinning.

I felt my phone vibrating in the pocket of my hoodie before the ringtone came on. ‘The Imperial March’ from Star Wars blasted from my phone and I quickly picked it up.

“Yah, where are you”, Taeyoon’s voice sounded accusing.

“Don’t ‘yah’ me, I’m buying breakfast for you losers, you know?” I said in a tired voice. The other end of the line was silent for a moment.

“I forgot”, Taeyoon said, actually sounding like she was a bit sorry.

“Of course you did. You’re really a stupid loser”, I said, sounding meaner than what I had intended. I just couldn’t help it.

“Anyways, I had to be there at 4 PM right? That’s a really late breakfast, but whatever”, I mumbled.

“Yeah”, Taeyoon simply answered.

“Alright, see you later, loser” I said and hung up.

When I looked up, the three guys were staring at me with confused expressions.

“I’m sorry, I have to go. Rap battle next time?” I said while smiling. Not sure whether I was happy or a bit disappointed that I didn’t get to rap what I had prepared, I turned to pick up the box of chocolate cereal.

“Yeah, next time” the tall, blonde guy replied. I just nodded slightly and hurried down towards the cashier. Okay, I was happy I didn’t get to embarrass myself in front of three guys. It would probably have become something I would regret every night before going to sleep, I thought to myself as I picked up some candy from one of the shelves near the cashier. I really hoped I wouldn’t get any cavities in my teeth from all this candy…

Taeyoon still lived in her old appartment with her family, so it was no problem for me to find it. I had went there often, before that happened and my mother had decided to bring me with her on her travels. I pulled my hoodie down tightly, trying to hide my forehead. It had begun raining a bit and my hair was still a mess. It was hanging out from the sides, and I tried to push it into the hoodie. Of course I failed and ended up looking even stupider than before. As I walked up the path to the apartment complex, I almost dropped one of the two big bags I was carrying. I had ended up buying way too much random food. It was one of my bad habits. But really, who could resist buying one of those packages with straws that changed the flavor of your milk, come on. Those were really the best. And banana milk … oh the banana milk.

“Mali! Get yourself together!” I thought out loud as I lightly hit myself in the face, before I got too carried away. I was now standing on the staircase and I could feel my heart beat fast in excitement.

The sour candy I had bought at the store was in my pocket and I pulled out a piece and put it in my mouth. It felt like my entire face grew extremely small due to the sourness and I closed my eyes tightly. This was one of the reasons I liked sour candy. It made my face feel funny. I opened my eyes, took the last few steps up to the door and rang the doorbell. I could hear a big commotion coming from inside the door and braced myself for the worst.