Message In A Bottle ↬Markson

Chapter 4

The next day came quickly. Jaebum promised to take over Mark's shift at the grocery store and Youngjae would help Jaebum when he was done with his classes for the day.

Mark starts his day at the grocery store around 7.30am. He was usually alone, sometimes Jaebum would be there too but he had morning classes today so he wasn't there.

He starts the day of with putting the stands with fruit outside and he prepared the rest of the store to be presentable which included cleaning the floor, his least favorite thing to do.

After a short while the delivery man came, Mark thanked the man and put some things in the store. The remaining stuff he put away next to the counter or in the cool cell.

The store wasn't too big but it wasn't small either. Besides the usual fruit and vegetables he also sells salads and instant meals. Of course he also sells herbs and even self-made smoothies. All the foods were from around the world so he had all kinds of things in his stores to sell.

After cleaning the floor, Mark proceeded to prepare some instant meals. He took out the ones that were too old and he prepared the new ones and put them in the see-through fridge so the costumers could see them.

In between preparing the meals he helps out some costumers. They are usually the people he sees often and since it was quite early he talks to them for a while. Some costumers he sees often he really knows and feels connected to them.

The people who came to the store were usually people from the age 35 and up but he also has some customers who are his age or younger. For example there were these two boys, a few years younger than him, Yugyeom and BamBam.

The oldest of the two came here from Thailand and because Mark sells foreign fruits and vegetables they come here every once in a while to buy some Thai fruits. They would usually show up around 10am, when the store would still be quite placid.

All of the boys would talk for a short amount of time and Mark knows a lot about their history together. They have been coming at his store since BamBam moved here which was three years ago.

The two younger boys still lived at Yugyeom's parents house, but they had plans on moving out when they both had their diplomas for high school. Or, they would atleast work first and maybe one of them would go to college, but anyway they would find a way to be together and completely independent.

When Mark finishes the meals, he turns on the coffee machine and takes a cup of coffee, taking a little break. The thought of meeting Jackson would linger his mind, he was nervous to meet the other boy. He doesn't exactly know why but he feels some tightening feeling in his stomach which makes him feel nervous.

He tries not to worry about the meeting too much, I mean it's just a casual meeting right? Just a cup of coffee and talking. Mark himself isn't much of a talker, he prefers to observe things and listening to what the other has to say. This was especially the case when he met new people.

The fear of saying something wrong and hurting the other person's feelings always overtakes him when he meets new people. It's one of the reasons why he can't really meet new people well and only has a couple of close friends.

It's a weird thing. Mark wasn't ever nervous when he was in the store and had absolutely no problem in talking to costumers.

Somewhere it was different.

When you meet new people it's as if you're obligated to get to know the person and you can't just let your opinions out like it's nothing because you never know what battle the other person is fighting. Atleast that's how Mark thought it was, other people might disagree with this.