Minji's Voice - Bbangsaz

Chapter 3

Hanni's POV

The sky was beginning to darken as I reached Pelion, a small, quiet, almost old-fashioned downtown area. Most of the businesses seemed to be family owned, large trees lining the wide sidewalks where people strolled. I loved this time of day, the cooler twilight of late summer. There was something magical about it, something hopeful, something that told me, "You didn't know if you could do it, but you did it another day, right?"

I saw Haskell's and pulled into the parking lot on the right.

I didn't need groceries yet, but I did need some basic things. It was the only reason I got up. Even though I had slept about five hours today, I was tired again and ready to tuck me into bed with a book.

I was in and out of Haskell's in ten minutes, and walked back to my car. I slung the bag over my shoulder and shifted the plastic bags from one hand to the other when the bottom of the plastic opened and my purchases fell to the concrete, several items rolling out of my reach. "Fuck!" I cursed, bending down to pick up my things. I opened my bag and started to pour in the shampoo and conditioner, when I saw someone stop in my peripheral vision, and I jumped. I looked up just as a woman leaned down and put one knee on the asphalt and handed me the bottle of Advil that it had rolled away, seemingly right in her path. I looked at her, she was young and had long, wavy, black hair. She must be beautiful, but it was difficult to make out exactly what her face looked like beneath her hair that fell over her forehead and around her jaw. She was wearing jeans and a blue T-shirt. The shirt had once had a message on it, but now it was so faded and worn that it would be difficult for anyone to know what was there before.

I took note of all this in the few seconds it took me to reach for her outstretched hand holding the bottle of painkillers, at that moment, our eyes met and seemed to tangle. Hers were deep, framed by long, dark lashes, beautiful.

As I looked at her, I felt like something moved between us, almost like I had to reach out and try to grab the air around our bodies, like maybe my hand was holding something tangible again, something soft and warm. I frowned, confused, but unable to look away from her, when her eyes darted away from mine. Who was this strange looking woman and why was I sitting here frozen in front of her? I shook my head slightly and came back to reality. "Thank you," I said, taking the bottle from her outstretched hand. She didn't say anything, she didn't look at me again.

"Shit," I cursed under my breath once more, returning my attention to the items scattered on the floor. My eyes widened when I saw that my box of tampons had been opened and several of them were lying on the floor. "Kill me now," I thought. The woman grabbed a few and handed them to me and I quickly put them in my bag, looking at her at the same time she looked at me, but there was no reaction in her body, once again, her eyes turned away. I felt the color rise to my cheeks and tried to make small talk when she handed me a few more tampons and I grabbed them and tossed them into my bag, suppressing a hysterical giggle.

"Damn plastic bags," I exhaled, speaking quickly, then took a deep breath before continuing, a little slower this time . " Not only is it bad for the environment, but they're really unreliable." The woman handed me an Almond Joy chocolate bar and a tampon, and I took them off and dropped them into my bag, groaning inwardly. "I tried to be good at using my own reusable shopping bags. I even bought cute ones with fun prints," I shook my head, stuffing the last tampon in, "but I always left them in my car or at home," I shook my head again. I shook my head as the woman handed me two more bars of Almond Joy chocolate.

"Thanks," I said, "I think I have the rest of this," I waved my hand over the four remaining chocolate bars lying on the floor.

I looked at her, my cheeks burning again. "They were on sale," I explained. "I wasn't planning on eating this all at once or anything." She didn't look at me as I picked them up, but I swear I saw a tiny shake of her head, I blinked, and she was gone. I squinted at her, taking the chocolate bars from her hand. "I just like to have chocolate around the house, you know, for a treat now and then. This right here should last me a couple of months." I was lying. Hopefully they would last me a couple of days, or even less, I could eat several of them on the car ride home.