Apparently not one person shops for groceries at 8:00 am on a Saturday morning, so I had no trouble finding a spot and pulling my car in to sit between the lines in the empty parking lot.

I turned my car of, pulling the keys out of the ignition as I grabbed my wallet and headed for the sliding doors of the grocery store. As I walked inside, a cool burst of wind greeted me along with a chipper voice of one of the employees, welcoming me inside. I didn’t pay much attention though as I knew I couldn’t reciprocate that level of energy this early in the morning; I just quickly nodded at him as I turned to get a shopping cart.

I rummaged through the aisles, picking up this and that, comparing prices, and checking items off my list. After successfully finding the last item on my list, I finally headed to the checkout lines where I nearly knocked over a candy display on my way. Embarrassed, I looked around to see if anyone saw, and sure enough, my eyes met with the cashier’s in line number 2. I could see her eyes shrink into little slivers as she quietly laughed at me.

I figured now that I had made eye contact with her I should probably go to her line to checkout; so I steered my cart -more carefully this time- into her lane. She was still smiling when I began to place my items on the counter and I couldn’t help but realize how cute it was. She had the cutest little dimple on her cheek I had ever seen and I didn’t realize I was staring at it until her soft voice broke my gaze.

“Watch out next time,” she said playfully “if you knock it over you’ll have to set it back up.”

“Haha…yeah, sorry about that. Usually I’m not that clumsy.” I replied almost nervously, trying to continue with my earlier activity, but hearing her small giggle in response made me feel like all the food I had picked out suddenly turned into jelly. I couldn’t pick anything up.

I needed to get a grip –literally and figuratively.

Why was this girl affecting me so much, I met her not even 30 seconds ago and I already couldn’t focus on anything but her sheer presence.

My brain finally kicked back in and I continued unloading my items for her to checkout. I looked another time, careful not to start staring again. I knew I was doing the ‘glance-and-look-away-quickly’ move and I was pretty sure she realized that I was doing that as well because of the small smile forming on her face in response to how obvious I was being.

“Y-you are so, so pretty.” I spoke to her slowly, watching her brown eyes slightly widen before turning into little crescents once more when she shyly smiled, a light flush painting her cheeks. ‘I’m sure she hears this all the time’ I had thought to myself, but seeing her reaction, it seemed so genuine and pure and I couldn’t help but feel something warm up inside me.

“Thanks” she responded quickly as she turned back to the register to continue pricing my items.

It gave me the impression that she didn’t really believe what I had told her. And that, for some reason, discouraged me. It’s not like I wanted anything out of it. Not her number, not a date, not a compliment in return. Not anything. I just had such a pure feeling of wanting her to know how beautiful she was.

But I didn’t want to impose further so I left it at that, hoping the girl heard my sincerity and hoping that she didn’t perceive me as a wierdo for staring at her.

While I was waiting for my change my eyes started to wander again. I looked down at her nametag and FRICK. Even this girl’s name is cute. ‘Wheein’. She moved slightly and her straight brown hair fell over the nametag, turning her name into just ‘Whee’ and I almost choked because of how cute that is.

She finished counting out my change and I let her drop it into my hand, too nervous to try and take it from her because of the possibility of our hands slightly touching. At this point I didn’t know what would happen to me if she physically touched me. ‘Honestly, I might have a heart attack.’ I thought to myself while putting the loose change into my pocket and reaching for my cart to leave.

“Thanks for shopping with us today,” Wheein sweetly spoke, “have a great day.”

“Thanks… you too.” I replied, still looking straight into her eyes, an unexplainable feeling of sadness slowly making its way into me with my realization.

I knew I would probably never see Wheein again, but man, was I glad I had picked that checkout line.