Author's Note: Hi my lovely readers! It was a spontaneous idea with this story. Your comments and subscription is highly anticipated and appreaciated. It is definitely a drive for me to update fast! Happy reading :)

 

 

 

Her hands clenched tightly on the handles.

 

Her body moved forward.

 

Her legs getting ready for the battle.

 

“Ladies and gentlemen! The Year End Sale for Ssoom Departmental Store starts… NOW!” All hell breaks loose as people shoved their shopping carts to enter the departmental store ever so small sliding doors.

 

“Mats, towels, 3 months supply of cereal!” Dara shouted as she charged with all her strength in her body. It didn’t help that her small frame was frequently pushed aside as people were trying to get in. But if there is one thing that Sandara Park is known for, it would be determination.

 

Definitely, her eyes filled with fire of determination.

 

Once she stepped foot in the store, she ran like her life was depending on the sale. Not far from the truth. She could only afford her essentials during the seasonal sale period.

 

She ran aisle from aisle, cart to cart, category to category.

 

“5 more minutes!” The staff hollered through the PA system. An hour is not enough, Dara thought sourly. Her cart was not even half-full as all the ahjummas took most items of the racks.

 

Why would someone need 3 rice cookers anyway?

 

She ran towards the cashier line to avoid queueing longer. Dara looked at her cart and sighed.

 

“It’s OK. I can live with these,” she picked up two towels, and patted the 4 boxes of cereals in the cart.

 

And it wasn’t even her favourite.

 

“Dara-yah, I am very disappointed.” Bom, her best friend/cashier, gave her a pointed look and glanced at her cart.

 

“Thanks, Bom.” Dara rolled her eyes and proceeded to take out the things from her cart so that her best friend could scan the items.

 

“What happened? I was expecting you to be the first in line before the store opened.”

 

“I got the same dream and could not sleep after. What supposed to be a nap after breakfast turned into a 4 hours snooze.” Dara sighed again.

 

“Aigoo. Thank your lucky stars the sale starts in the afternoon. You wouldn’t get a chance to buy any of these if it was in the morning. Crunchy Captain? Since when you changed your taste in cereals?” Bom scoffed and bagged Dara’s items.

 

“Only ones left.” She shrugged.

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Dara plopped on her sofa with her 3 bags of items and huffed. She honestly thought that she would bring home more with the money she saved for the past few months for this sale. At least she had something to be grateful for.

 

She could walk home as it wasn’t that heavy.

 

As she turned to look at the bags, her eyes widened at what she saw through the translucent plastic bags. She took out one of the boxes slowly and stared at the packaging.

 

Instead of Crunchy Captain, it was a box of Magic Loops, which is her favourite cereal. She took out the rest of the boxes and gasped. All the Crunchy Captain cereal boxes were swapped to Magic Loops. Her lips pursed, and she blinked rapidly.

 

“I must have taken someone else’s.” She stood up and placed her cereal boxes on her kitchen counter. Thinking that there was no use returning to the departmental store and exchanged them with whoever took her bags, she returned to her room and got ready for her shift.

 

An orphan since 3 years ago, 22 year old Dara survived, though with hardships, still survived. Her parents were involved in a terrible crash involving a bus and a very drunken driver on another vehicle. All they had left her was their insurance money and a small two-bedroom house. She had kept whatever that was left of the insurance money after she paid her father’s loans and could not pursue her education. Her teachers viewed it as a shame. Dara was one of the top students in her high school.

 

That did not deter her will to live. Sure, she had it tough after the passing of her parents, but she stood back up and charged on.

 

She brushed her worn out jeans and put on her pink sweater. Her long hair was pulled to a ponytail and she wrapped her wrapped a blue scarf around her neck. She grabbed her old sneakers and head out to work.

 

Unknowingly to her, there was someone walking right beside her, making sure she reached her workplace safely.