5% Experimenting
30% Battery Life
Apparently the wonders of the world to the girl was all held inside of a large super market.
“Can you smell that?” She took a deep breath and smiled, “That is the smell of food and plastic mixed together. Beautiful.”
Zelo scanned the selection of the store and breathed in like she instructed, “Actually, what I smell in the air is 78.09% of Nitrogen, 20.95% Oxygen, .93% Argon, .039% Carbon Dioxide, 2% water vapor, and .003% of other gases.”
The girl nodded her head, ignoring his little chemistry lesson and continued to walk down the aisles in bliss. A variety of different colored packages of food surrounded the two. The white tiles of the floor reflected the florescent lights of the store and the ground shined brightly. She bypassed some of the other busy shoppers and ogled at the several different options of snacks. They were currently in the chips and drinks part of the section.
Zelo stored away all the brand names he passed by and memorized each price. He happily trailed behind the girl who made multiple grabs for different flavors. She had a red plastic basket in hand, inside were cheddar, barbecue, sour cream and onion, and many more kinds of junk food. The basket was already full and they hadn’t even been in the place for ten minutes.
He followed her as she moved to the soft drinks. With each step she took the bags in the basket squished together creating a ruffling noise. It was quite a pleasant of a sound if he had to say. He recalled that the sound of a plastic bag being crinkled together was soothing to a child, as the crunch of it reminded them of the time they spent while developing inside their mother’s womb. Something about the plastic melody brought them back those unformed memories. Zelo concluded that perhaps he himself found the bags of chips charming since the clanging of Yong Guk’s tools were embedded into his own circuitry.
“Do you drink?” She asked him, holding up two large cans of tea. One was peach flavored and the other was just green tea. She was comparing the two to decide which one she should purchase, but before Zelo could respond she placed both inside her basket. “I guess we’ll find out later.” She smiled.
The girl felt like she was grocery shopping with Yong Guk again, except this shopping partner was less eager with cleaning the shelves empty with her. Zelo was more observant and quiet and she could appreciate that. Yong Guk was more of a hands on learner and the change in pace was interesting. Though it looked like all her choices of food was mainly for herself, she was actually choosing so many to test what kind of palate Zelo had. From the manual she already knew he liked cherry tomatoes, but what else did he prefer? Yong Guk did mention that Zelo didn’t really eat, but when had she ever really listened to Yong Guk before? Zelo may have been his little project, but Zelo was now in her hands, making him her own experiment.
She smirked spotting a bottle of ketchup, she definitely wanted to see Zelo’s reaction to tasting the condiment.
She continued to walk and grab several items until she spotted Zelo had stopped in the middle of the aisle. He was crouched over and leaning in to look at something on one of the shelves. She backtracked to his location and cocked her head to the side, wondering what had so earnestly caught his attention.
“Problem?” she stifled her laughter, understanding his confusion.
“How do you put fruit in a can?” he asked her with a pout, “Fresh food can’t possibly be stored in such a way.”
There was no doubt in her mind that this boy clearly understood quantum physics, but not the simplicity of canned fruit.
“Like I said Zelo, we’re here to discover the beauty of the universe. Canned fruit is one of those things I don’t feel like explaining to you however.” She grabbed one of the cans of pineapple to have Zelo taste later. She tugged on Zelo’s jacket, dragging him to the refrigerated section where the yogurt was all held. A blast of cool air hit the two and the sight of many various kinds.
Her eyes glazed over with joy at seeing the shelves hold the fruity blends. She grabbed strawberry, blue berry, lime, and other types of yogurts. So far she had enough food to hold a small little party.
“Hey, noona, are you sure you should keep shopping? You basket has $14.95 worth of food so far.” Zelo calculated.
“Is that with or without tax?” She asked, contemplating if she should purchase Greek yogurt as well.
“With.” Zelo replied, quickly taking a second to recheck his math.
“Let’s buy a few more things then.” She placed the large container of Greek yogurt inside the basket. “Is there anything you see around the store you think you might want to try?” She walked around the rest of the market’s grand selection, passing by the frozen meat and bakery. Zelo shook his head, not finding any of it all very appetizing. He wasn’t like a normal person who received cravings or was an impulse buyer.
“Mmmmm...” the girl hummed, looking around herself. She glanced at her basket and shrugged, “‘Kay, I guess this is enough food to last us a day or two.” They made their way to the cash registers when the girl stopped in her mid-step. Zelo crashed into her back while he read the ingredients to one of the items she had picked.
“Noona, why’d you stop?” he asked, following her gaze to a blond male at the only open cash register.
Zelo stared at the girl and that back at the boy, reading her expression.
“Your pupils are dilated.” He observed. “Do you like that man?” he asked, taking in every detail of the boy.
His hair was a mess of blond locks. His body and face were slender and thin. The bridge of his nose was well defined, but what was the most eye catching about him were his eyes. Depending on the male’s expression they could either look very large or small. Zelo could tell that he was one of those people whose emotions could turn on a dime and probably liked to over exaggerate his gestures.
“No, how could I love such a devil?” His noona scoffed and decided to go to the self check out line. Occasionally she would send glares to the cashier.
“Stupid loser.” She grumbled under her breath while she scanned her items. If she was paranoid, which honestly she kind of was, she would have believed Him Chan was trying to invade her life. Why did he have to be hired at one of her favorite places? Of all the places to work...
She was about to scan the last of her items when Zelo spoke, “The price is $16.53.”
“What?” she asked, confused by his sudden outburst.
“The price of all the items is $16.53.” He repeated again, pointing at the monitor.
The screen flashed $13.21 and she wondered what he meant until she scanned the box of cupcakes. The walking talking calculator was unsurprisingly correct. “Congratulations, your prize is getting to carry everything home.” She bagged the items and shoved them into Zelo’s hold. With one final dirty look thrown at Him Chan she and Zelo took the longer way out as to avoid being seen by him.
When they stepped out it was very dark, only street lights and the occasional head lights of a car passing by lit up their walk. Her hands were tucked deeply into her pockets as they stepped along the concrete sidewalk. They walked in a comfortable silence. Her earbuds were in and she was glad the only sound she could hear was that of her music and cars driving over the pavement. She was happy Zelo wasn’t the talkative type, as small talk always made her feel pressured to constantly keep the conversation up. Even with Yong Guk she was nervous about causing an awkward silence.
The only time when she never felt the burden of chatting was with Him Chan. They always argued, so things just came out naturally of course. They weren’t always like that, but that was a topic she would rather avoid.
When they had returned home her parents were already sleeping or watching tv in their bedroom, leaving the entire kitchen free to them.
She sat Zelo down on a tall stool next to the kitchen island and lined up all their food.
“Pick your poison.”
“None of these look poisonous.” Zelo replied.
67. I found figurative language a bit tedious to in code within him.
Picking up a small glazed donut hole, she popped it into Zelo’s mouth to shut him up. His expression was sour at first from the foreign and new taste. It was very sugary and rich. The sweetness of it lingered on his tongue after swallowing the chewy confection. The boy his lips, noticing a bit of the donuts coating stuck to the corner of his mouth.
“Wow, that was really sweet. I think I tasted hints of-”
“No time to talk. Just eat.” She grabbed an Oreo and twisted it in half, handing him the one with the cream. “ it off.” She took a bite of the chocolate cookie. Zelo did as told and took a swipe at the white frosting. He found it the taste similar to that of the doughnut, but softer. He took an experimental bite of the cookie with the cream and found the two fit together wonderfully. Zelo made a grab for another cookie, however his hand was slapped away.
“Don’t spoil your appetite, we have a lot more food to try.” She reached over for one of the bags of chips and opened it. The pungent smell of onions overcame her senses. She reached inside and grabbed a fairly large chip and offered it to Zelo. She grabbed a napkin to wipe the grease off her fingers. Her ears perked up at the crunch when he took a bite. His reaction was like earlier and he scrunched up his face, undecided if he liked the taste of it.
“Do people enjoy eating such things?” he coughed, the chip feeling scratchy against his throat while he swallowed.
“They love how bad it is.” She gave him another, “It’ll grow on you.” Zelo was hesitant but took another bite of the junk food. The second time it tasted much better. She gave Zelo another and to his surprise it was tastier than before. Faster than the girl could stop him, Zelo was already through half the bag.
“Wow, wow... hold it there. We have a lot more food to try.” She said while reaching over the bag, but Zelo wouldn’t let go. She pulled harder at the bag, to no avail. Soon the two were wrestling over it. Crumbs flying all over the place.
“Let go, Z-zelo.” she grunted finally getting him to release his claws. Most of the food was turned into crumbs by now. She wiped the sweat off her brow and checked the clock. She groaned. It was probably best to go to sleep now, but she wasn’t sure if she trusted going to bed and leaving Zelo alone with his new found lovers.
“Come on Zelo, it’s time for me to sleep and you to charge.”
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