[Rosemary and Thyme]

[ 02 ]

Coming clean about the broken phone wasn't so bad. Her parents did scold her and told her to be more careful, but it went well! It was just another moment of overreacting and her mind getting too ahead of itself. She would have liked to thank Kenny, but when he was over, he was always very busy hanging out with Chance. Which made sense since he and Chance were friends, not her.

Even so, Lotus had promised herself that she wasn't going to go out for the rest of the month. There was no way she wanted to stumble across another fight. No way!

Then her mom forced her to go with her outside just to get the phone fixed. Yeah, she knew it was her phone and therefore it was her responsibility, but she didn't want to socialize more after what happened. Yet she needed to swallow all those meddlesome feelings. She at least had her mother by her side so there was absolutely no way she would run into trouble.

The wait for the phone was an excruciatingly long thirty or so minutes. There was nothing to do but be dragged around to do the quick errands that needed to be done around the area. She was just happy to have not run into an embarrassing nor dangerous situation.

By the time they went back to pick up the newly fixed phone, she felt a tiny bit better to be out. Her good mood continued into the supermarket where her mom dragged her to get groceries. Not the best task for her when she was forced to go, but not the worst nonetheless.

Her phone was in her hands since her dress didn't have pockets and she didn't think to bring a bag. She didn't bother turning it on as she trailed after her mom, grabbing whatever she was told to grab for the woman. They had started with the dry goods and ended up in the snack aisle because her mom would always leave with something for Jin and Paz so they kept up their good work in school.

Honestly, it was probably because she didn't want them to end up like Chance and Jeongsoo. Chance was a barely passing student who always got in trouble and was basically a lost cause while Jeongsoo had dropped out to try to pursue his dream as a hairstylist. She just wanted sons who could be average citizens.

While her mom was deciding on what snack to get Jin, Lotus turned to the other side of the aisle, staring at the selection of candies that had begun on the shelves in the aisle. There were so many delicious looking ones and each package was attention-grabbing. Maybe it was just her candy-loving heart causing her to almost be love-struck at the sight of them lined on the shelf.

Her index finger tapped the fresh screen of her phone as she stared at each one, contemplating what to get if her mother allowed it. She had narrowed it down to a peach candy and a chewy milk candy. Yet, she couldn't choose just one out of those two.

'I haven't had peach flavoured anything in a longtime...' She trailed off in her mind.

She turned to ask her mom which candy was better only to slowly blink as she was staring at the back of a dark brown coat which was very much different from her mom's plain business casual fit. It was concerning to her that her mom was suddenly replaced by another person. She looked to the side before looking back.

One of the boys had turned his head, briefly glancing at her. All she had to say that he was tall. Tall enough to cause her to want to be in the next aisle over.

She almost twirled on her heels so she could speed walk away. Almost. A chuckle caused her to pause in her movement.

It wasn't just a chuckle of amusement, no, it sounded of cognizance. The tone was slightly hubristic, she had also noted. It confused her to the point she looked back towards them.

The other boy she took notice of this time. Blonde hair, tattoos peeking from his collar, those red eyes. He was that scary boy who she had seen fighting. This was enough to ruin her mood, changing it from okay to consternation.