To The Market

11

After what was like a decade, it was finally Dino's turn to be next in line. He goes to grab a tray from the racks beside the stations of baked goods.

'Ah, what am I supposed to get?' He thought, unsure if any of them were good. 'She said their coconut cream bread was good..'

He tries to find the section for the bread only to see that it was all out. He lets out a soft sigh. He then takes a whiff of the fresh, baked sweetbreads and gets in a daze.

It was as if the soft smell carried him home.

Dino slowly exhales, closing his eyes as he became immersed in the moment, letting himself be led into a trance, as if the sweet smells were actually taking him home.

As while, the people waiting in the line were beginning to get annoyed at this random boy who was holding up the line, as he stood in the same place, not moving an inch.

The sounds of a toilet flushing resonate from the restroom and out comes an annoyed Jinhee. She was unsatisfied at the results that didn't reach to her expectations. She shook her head, thinking it could have been bigger, but no, it had to be only a few toots and a few brown pieces she called nuggets.

She shakes the ridiculous thoughts away and goes to find Dino. She chuckles to herself as she finally found him simply standing idle at the tray station, obviously holding up the line of crabby customers, with an empty, plastic tray in his hands.

Jinhee steps into the line, cutting through while excusing herself.  She waves a hand in front of his face and gets no reaction in return. She rolls her eyes and takes the initiative of choosing for them instead.

'Gosh, maybe I put him up to a job that wasn't too easy for him to do.' She feels bad, thinking that maybe it was too soon to just put him out there in the open, without her supervision.

She grabs from a bunch of random stations three platters of cakes, and two milk drinks, and places it onto his tray. Jinhee gently places her hand on his shoulder and examines his blank face, still seeing no reaction from him.

"Dino! Earth to Dino the human!" She exclaims, suddenly shaking him awake by the shoulder. The daze he was in became shattered like glass, as his thoughts went bouncing everywhere.

"Ah! Jinhee! T-there wasn't anymore of that coconut cream bread you said that was so good, and I just didn't know what to get, and the baked goods smelled so good that I started spacing out, and一"

"Dino, it's fine. I got us some cakes and drinks." She says, calmly. "Let's just move up to the register to pay, cause we've got an angry mob on our hands behind us, and I kind of don't want to get sued or anything soー" She swiftly takes his shoulders from behind with both hands and maneuvers him to where the register was.

"Um excuse me, can you please just bag this one?" Jinhee quickly tells the worker, pointing at the chocolate slice platter on their tray. "And just leave the rest out since we're going to eat here."

The worker nods and grabs for the platter, swiftly placing the cake in a plastic container, handing it over to her.

"Thank you." Jinhee says, grasping for the container to place into one of the plastic bags she was holding. She then continues to maneuver Dino by his shoulders toward the dining area, away from the growing crowd of people coming into the bakery.

-

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