Lip Balm | Wooyoung

35

Sunday

Hyunmi doesn't feel lively at all as her heavy eyelids drag open. Her muscles ache from the uncomfortable position she slept in, and she feels horrible after sleeping in her suit. But moving proves to be a hassle for her. She can't bring herself to get up yet, there's nothing to get up for.

But then she remembers that she has to tutor today and her legs automatically move to get her up. She's actually grateful for her students. Without them, she'd probably sulk around in bed all day.

After washing up and getting dressed, she finally enters the kitchen for a light breakfast. Disappointment settles in when she can't find milk for her cereal. Whatever, she'll just have toast instead. But very quickly she learns that there's no bread either.

She nearly turns her fridge and kitchen upside down looking for anything to eat or cook, but everywhere is empty. Should she just have ramen?

To her horror, there isn't even one ramen packet left either. She groans as she remembers that she ate the last one for breakfast the day before, planning on going grocery shopping today. Though she doesn't want to do anything today, she has no choice. She'd rather not starve so she shoves her shoes on, beyond grumpy for having to leave her house so early in the morning.

She pulls the hood of her puffy jacket over her head as it is below the freezing temperature outside. The sun is still low in the sky, only having risen minutes ago. It's sunny, but not quite bright yet.

The supermarket is open though and Hyunmi speeds in with her shopping bags in hand, mind already whirring with things she wants to buy.

She scurries through different aisles while throwing items into her cart. Should she buy vegetables too?

Her eyes travel down to her cart and she grimaces at the abundance of processed and unhealthy food. Okay, maybe a vegetable or two would be a good idea.

She enters the vegetable aisle with her eyes trained to her shoes, observing how they move beneath her. Everything works as entertainment for her right now as her mind is still in the process of waking up.

At last, she decides to firstly take some onions. She adds a bunch into her cart and moves on to the next basket, adding random vegetables to her cart at this point.

She eventually comes across the fruit section and starts contemplating on which fruit she even likes. As she's staring at the oranges, a familiar hand comes into view to pick an orange up and Hyunmi's heart stops.

She slowly looks up and her suspicions are proven to be correct when she finds Wooyoung standing there, mind also deep in thought. She can't tell what he's thinking about, but he stares at the fruit intensely.

He looks up at last to move forward and hops back quickly when he sees Hyunmi right in front of him. "Oh, h-hey," he stutters, eyes suddenly flying all over the place. The girl also feels nervous suddenly, not having talked to him in a while.

"Good morning. How have you and your girlfriend been?" she asks, not intending for her voice to come off as so bitter. Wooyoung flinches slightly at her words and looks away again. "We're good. And how are you and Hongjoong?" he wonders.

Hyunmi's smile remains on her face, though it now looks forced. "We broke up," she simply states, adding more fruit to her cart to distract herself from the suffocating atmosphere.

 Wooyoung drops the orange from his hand into the basket again. "Really?" he exclaims, excitement making its way through in his voice. When he notices how eager he sounded, he clears his throat and tries to contain his expression. "If it's not too intrusive to ask, why did you two break up?"