"Ugh," I groan out as my brother make his funny face after tasting sour stuff. I literally bang my head on the counter, making sugars flying everywhere.
"Woah, watch it, I'm not cleaning after you," my brother says, but his words were twisted a little as he is still making that face.
"But...IT'S STILL SOUR!" I emphases my point. I hear him sigh and he sits down. "Your sweets used to be sweet and full of love, and now, it's sour. It's like saying that your world is...is...erm..."
"Just spit it out," I mutter to the sugars and blow my hair out of my face.
"Not...lovable," he finishes awkwardly. I slump onto a chair beside him.
"It was still sweet when you went out with that Harold" he says thoughtfully
"It's Heath," I say automatically
"Whatever, the point is, after he dumped you, your world went...sour,"

I gulp and smack him on the arm, “Don’t use harsh word like dump!”

We argue over a few minutes about the red hand mark on his arm until a bell jingle and catch our attention.

“Welcome to Sweet World,” we both chorus.

The customer looks around the shop and catches a glimpse of the messy bench.

“Oh, erm,” I hurry behind the counter, “How may I help you?”

The customer looks at me and suddenly smiles. I blink in surprise and he says, “Hello, aren’t you Ai Tian?”

“That’s my nickname… from Heath, but my friends call me Ah Tian,”

“Because sweets are your favourite,” he concludes. “Hey, who are you?” my brother steps up to the counter and confronts him. The customer grins, “I’m Heath’s friend. Best friend actually,” my heart went down when I heard that he is Heath’s best friend. I smile a little as I ask him he’s order.

“Hmm, sweet peaches, sour coke-“

“You don’t want that,” my brother and I both chime. He looks at us confuse, “It’s…too sour,” I explain weakly. He smile a beautiful smile, “I like sour stuff. The sourer, the better! Not many store have that much sour lollies,” he trails off regrettably.

“Well, in this shop, you can find loads,” my brother mutters. I kick him in the shins, but unfortunately, Heath’s friend heard him.

“You do?” he asks excitedly his eyes looking from me to my brother.

We both nod unsurely.

“Then I want loads of them!” he says happily. I and my brother both look at each other, and share a smile.

“Sure!” I grin grabbing a paper bag and a shovel and piled the lollies in.

Later that night, I smile again and catch my reflection on the mirror. I touch my smiling lips and smile even harder. I haven’t smiled for so long.

“My name is Taemin. I’ll come around when I want more of your sour lollies!”

I whisper to the mirror, “And my name is Ah Tian. But you can call me Ai Tian…” I smile at my reflection once more before falling onto the bed and fall asleep.

 

“I want to try a bag of your new sweet, Ah Tian. Then I’ll order the usual,” Taemin says, then poke his tongue out as I sigh and roll my eyes. “Hey! I’m paying here!” Taemin protests but he smiles all the time as I got his bags of lollies ready. Yea, you heard me, BAGS.

“Here,” I hand him the bags and he hands me the money. He walks to the shop’s door when he turns around.

“By the way, can I bring a couple of friends here next time? They stole my lollies and now they want to know where I bought it,”

“Sure,” I smile at him, “The more the merrier,” I said and throw sugars into the air, earning a groan from my brother. Taemin and I both laugh.

 

And several days later, he bought his friends. And Heath was one of them. We both look at each other, Heath and me. I decide to be civil, but then again, he did cheat on me.

“Welcome to Sweet World,” I say, earning a scoff from Heath. I catch mutters of lame, stupid, why am I here and, “We can hear you Harold,” Taemin, my brother and I say.

“It’s Heath,” he snaps back automatically.

“Oh, whatever,” I scowl.

“What type of lollies do you want?” I ask as I take my stand behind the counter. Chorus of orders comes flying. After we finish the all the orders, Heath bite into a new sour lolly I made and make the famous ‘Oh my goodness, IT’S SOUR’ face.

“It’s sour!” he looks at the half eaten lolly at a distance and glare up at me.

“No Sherlock,” my brother mutters. Taemin and I share a little smile. “What happen to your lollies? It used to be sweet and full of love,” Heath asks, while staring unbelievably at the lolly.

“Well, that changed when you left my world,” I lean against the counter and look at him, bored.

“I pity the guy that’s going to enter your world then,” I flush.

“Too bad, Heath,” Taemin says, “That the guy that’s going to enter loves her sour lollies,” he walks over to me, “Come on, let’s go on for a walk,” and grabs my hand and out into the daylight.

 

We sit on a bench and I fidget, “You don’t have to do that you know,” Taemin shrugs, “I sometimes can’t believe him, even though he’s my best friend,”

“And sometimes you think he will change,” I sigh looking at the ground and look up again,

“Then he changes back in a heartbeat,” we both say. I look at him and he looks back. We both crack up laughing.

“So, who’s the guy that’s going to enter my world and loves my sour lollies?” I

“Me, of course, even I can’t get the sour taste out of my tongue’s memory,”

I sigh in defeat, “It’s still sour, isn’t it?”

He put his forehead against mine, “Nah, I still find that the aftertaste is sweet,”

I smile and he lean closer and closer…

“AHEM,” we both look up. My brother stands there looking down at us

“What,” he crosses his arm “Do you think you are doing to my sister?”

Taemin and I stare at each other and share a secret smile,

“Dating,”