The Breakout Project - Hwang Hyunjin

Chapter 26

There was no ramen. Our entire cupboard was empty.

It was reasonable, considering my father hadn't been going to his workplace and instead has been working at home these past few days. He must have had forgotten about going to buy groceries. In fact, I was slightly surprised we had lasted this long without buying anything.

I shut the door and walked towards the end of the stairs, cupping my hands around my mouth and screaming, "Dad, I will go to the convenience store because our kitchen has turned into a black hole!"

"Okay, son! Don't take too long!" I heard him reply, his voice sounding muffled from his room.

Without saying anything else, I grabbed my phone from the counter and shoved it inside my pocket, taking my father's long black coat from the perch and sliding it on, doing the first buttons. I also took my scarf from the couch and wrapped it around my neck before going outside.

The beige scarf had been my mother's and I found it comforting to wear both my parents' clothes. Sue me, I felt protected, like nobody could hurt me while I wore this. When I was young, my father used to tell me that if I had an item of his and something bad happened to me, he would know, because we would be connected.

It's not like I still believed that because the longer I repeated it to myself, the dumber it sounded, but still... a tiny part of me wanted to feel closer to my parents. There was something comforting about wearing items that belonged to them.

Once again, the streets were deserted and not a single soul could be seen on either side of the road. It wasn't that late anyway, the sky was painted a dark orange colour and a few clouds were still adorning it. Luckily, the closest convenience store was only three blocks from my house and it wasn't that big so it wouldn't take me long to find what I needed and get back home.

The wind was howling and I dipped my chin into my chest, walking faster this time.

I reached the store several minutes later and let out a sigh once the warmer air hit my face. Here I didn't feel like I would turn into a living popsicle. With a smile, I loosened the knot in my scarf and walked towards the food corridor.

Just like I imagined, there were only three other people in the store, not that crowded. A woman was standing in front of the ice cream fridge with her son as he chose which flavour to take, meanwhile on the other end of the food corridor was a girl my age, her hair had blue highlights and she was wearing black ripped jeans with a neon orange bomber jacket. Her gaze was focused on a perch full of keychains.

I grabbed three packets of spicy ramen and one packet of regular ramen, a bag of dried seaweed, two packets of Jjapagetti and two sodas. I picked up some jars with spices that my father usually needed for cooking and hurriedly, I went to the counter, pouring the contents in front of the cashier.

The woman greeted me with a tired smile and started registering the items.

"That'll be $35000 KRW."

When I went to take out my wallet, I heard someone snort behind my back.

"So you were the one who took the last packet of spicy ramen."

I turned around and saw the girl from before, the one who had been checking out the keychains. She was giving me a funny look as she pointed at the items in the bag.

"Care to replace one of those? Just one?" She smiled innocently, making me laugh.

"What will you give me in return?" I asked, pretending to follow her game.

The girl perked up, clearly thinking I was actually considering it. "What about a packet of cheese jjapagetti? I see you like those." She nodded towards my own bag.