paracosm

15-gummy bears

Dim streetlights shined into the already brightly neon lit convenience store. Beomgyu had today's 10pm to 2 am's shift and he had about 2 hours left to go. He was growing tired and craving something sweet but he couldn't go away from the counter as his boss was excusing him of being lazy and constantly eating the candies in the store without paying for them with his salary or his own already earned money. Which wasn't true of course as it was actually the boss's child who stole the candy everytime they came to drop by the store to ask their mother something. But who would believe the poor part-timer over a mischievous professional little teenager? Clearly not his boss. Nobody has come in the store for an hour already but that means nothing even if you're on your shift that you get the half of your maximum wage for to be able to buy foods, his parents had said they'll let him move into the dorms of the university and pay for everything school related but that would mean he had to buy his own food and his own supplies.

When the clock struck 1.26am the door bell clinged along to it as someone entered the store.

"Welcome! Let me know if you need my help." Beomgyu greeted automatically. The customer didn't respond and just entered the the candy ail. Although Beomgyu couldn't see the customer's face as his face was covered by a mask, his overall look in the hoodie looked familiar, as if he'd seen the guy somewhere before. "Does he go to my university or something? Why does he look so familiar?" Beomgyu thought to himself. Continuing to just stare out of the damped windows, did it rain? How come he hadn't noticed when it started? Was he really just staring into to the abyss as if someone had just told him something deeply hurtful which would cause one to to stare off to the distant floor tiels? "Whatever I shouldn't get distracted by nothing next time.. maybe the lack of sugar has my brain in a daze.."  Beomgyu said to himself after sighing. He may just have a sweet tooth and really wanted some jellies to snack on but he couldn't so he'll have to wait till he gets back to the university's dorms.

"I'll get these."  The guy said, taking his wallet out of his cargo pants's pocket. "I'll pay with card."

"Alrighty, that'll be 2270.31 won then." Beomgyu showed the machine to the customer and let him insert the cardreader and pay the amount.

"All done!" Beomgyu smilled at the man when the reader beeped for paid-confermation. The customer grinned back at him. "Oh, might I ask if you're a student at Chung Ang University? You just seem like I've seen you before but I'm not sure, that's why I'm asking."

"I may or not be." The man chuckled, taking off his mask. "I'll be going now, thank you for your service, you should head home as soon as you can. It'll rain again later.

"Oh, okay good evening?" Beomgyu bid farewell to the guy, the man turned on his heels and walked towards to exit. Beomgyu sighed, looking down only to see that the man had left the packet of jellies he had bought just a moment ago. The man was already outside, so Beomgyu quickly got up and ran out.

"Wait! You forgot what you paid for!"

"Hm? Oh that's for you!" The man smilled before turning around again and walking away. Beomgyu dropped his gaze onto the packet, a note was sticked onto it? How didn't he notice before? So he read what it said;

"𝙷𝚒! 𝚂𝚘𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝚒𝚏 𝙸 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚕𝚎𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚒𝚗 𝚊𝚗𝚢𝚠𝚊𝚢! 𝙸'𝚖 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝚛𝚘𝚘𝚖𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚞𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢! 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚒𝚙𝚊𝚕 𝚐𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚖𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚒𝚗𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗(𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚗𝚊𝚖𝚎, 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚏𝚊𝚌𝚎𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚍 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚍𝚘𝚛𝚖 𝚗𝚞𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛) 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚘𝚗 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚜𝚊𝚒𝚍 𝙸 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚏𝚞𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚎 𝚛𝚘𝚘𝚖𝚒𝚎. 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚜𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚜 𝚜𝚘 𝚠𝚎𝚒𝚛𝚍 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝙸 𝚑𝚘𝚙𝚎 𝚠𝚎 𝚐𝚎𝚝 𝚊𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐 𝚠𝚎𝚕𝚕 𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚗! 𝙸 𝚜𝚊𝚠 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚢 𝚊𝚒𝚕 𝚜𝚘 𝙸 𝚐𝚘𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚜𝚘 𝙸 𝚊𝚕𝚜𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚐𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛. 𝙸'𝚖 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚋𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚜𝚘 𝚢𝚎𝚊𝚑, 𝙸 𝚑𝚘𝚙𝚎 𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗'𝚝 𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚙 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚘𝚞𝚝! 𝙰𝚗𝚢𝚠𝚊𝚢 𝚖𝚢 𝚗𝚞𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝚒𝚜 𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛! 𝙶𝙸𝚟𝚎 𝚖𝚎 𝚊 𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚠𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚐𝚎𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚎𝚊𝚌𝚑 𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚛 𝚠𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚖𝚎𝚎𝚝 𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚍𝚘𝚛𝚖 𝚗𝚎𝚡𝚝 𝚠𝚎𝚎𝚔, 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚏𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝚘𝚞𝚛 "𝚏𝚒𝚛𝚜𝚝" 𝚘𝚏𝚏𝚒𝚌𝚒𝚊𝚕 𝚖𝚎𝚎𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐.""

"Our principal is so weird, but he's pretty nice to get me some gummmy bears." Beomgyu smilled and walked back into the store. His shift had ended so he'd better hurry 'home' if he didn't want to get soaked in the rain.

-782 words