*this chapter is going to contain a not-so-pleasant word (find it yourself)

Chapter 16: Green

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“No.”

Haeri pouted. She tried everything - well, almost, but that’s not the point - to make Hae Young at least mutter “Yes”, but attepting to do that (which seems like it’s easy) was proving to be quite the task.

“Why? Oh, come on. You were simply dying to taste one last time. This is free, Hae Young. I repeat, FREE. No money is to be paid. Plus, I made it. I need to improve, it’s important,” Haeri half-whined, half-begged.

Hae Young eyed the unnappealing red velvet cupcake with slight disgust.

| “This is for you. A little something to seal our friendship, even though it’ll be passed out as green poo - or brown poo, for that matter - at one point of time later on. I hope you’ll like it.”

Hae Young’s eyes became rather watery, a sure sign that she touched by Haeri’s gift for her. It was a heart-shaped sugar donut with one side larger than the other, but Hae Young thought it symbolized something - oh, she couldn’t come up with something at that moment - and just let the matter pass.

“Haeri, this is… so sweet of you. Like, seriously. I didn’t even give you anything!”

Haeri shrugged. “S’okay. I don’t mind.”

Hae Young looked back down at the donut. It looked edible enough in all its misshapen glory that seemed to glow somehow, making it dazzle (when it doesn’t really need to; it’s just a donut).

Hae Young bit into it. It tasted good at first.

She spat it out. The previously golden-yellow colour of the donut bite now turned green.

Hae Young tasted something very familiar in . It wasn’t very pleasant and brought back even unpleasant memories.

The donut’s covered in green stuff!. Green… herbal. Herbal… toothpaste!

“Oh come on. Don’t tell me that you’re thinking back on that incident.”

But how could Hae Young possibly not? Even with the knowledge that Haeri hadn’t included the ‘surprise ingredient’ in her gift on purpose, she still felt unhappy.

Those were the times that Hae Young detested surprises.

The stain on her tongue (which was caused by the toothpaste and some unknown things thrown in) took a week to finally disappear, and even her other classmates noticed the slight tinge of yellowish-green on her teeth. She couldn’t do anything but to take it all in; the embarrassment and the other things that are closely behind it. It wasn’t like she really cared about what others think at that time though. She wasn’t immature like the rest.
 

“No. Haeri look - yes, we’re best friends and I should help you with this and all, but that incident left a huge impact on me. It scarred me for life. So I’m going to have to reject your cupcake. I’m truly sorry.”

And one more thing that Haeri needed to know was that never in the remaining number of years left in Hae Young’s life will she ever try one of Haeri’s recipies, seemingly edible or not,  with a simple reason that  there are other things that taste much more awful than misplaced toothpaste filling in a donut.

But frankly…

That herbal toothpaste tasted like .

-

Hae Young left - or fled, more like - right after Haeri muttered a low-spirited ‘All right’ and placed the red-coloured cupcake back into its little, deceiving box.

She wondered if blood was included in the list of ingredients to be able to make that cupcake.

Ugh. The thought itself disgusts me.      

She walked on, trying to free her mind from blood and gore, swinging her handbag (she still kept it; that little thing sure didn’t come along as cheap, hence explaining why she didn’t get rid of it together with the nasty cosmetics).

“I escaped without making her cry. This is a miracle!” Hae Young’s smile was broad. “I think this calls for a cup of pure black coffee! Is Daehyun at the café?”

She looked back when she heard someone call out her name.

“Speak of the devil.”

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So here’s your update! I don’t have much to say actually. This was updated later than scheduled because apparently, teachers just loove to make us help them out, right? And we get tired when we get home, I’m sure we do :D  <---this is a fake smile     Sure, I should be helpful and what not, but I just feel that I’m resigned to carry a load of books around for them sometimes, then they happily decide to drag me up to their office, which is a good four staircases up. How simply wonderful.

I should stop ranting XD

Strawberry, out!

Sweet like --strawberries