Drive-Thru

The Yellow Candy

The boy had a weird habit of buying that yellow candy with a smiling face engraved on it.

He almost never eats it. He replaces it every week just to make sure of its 'freshness'. Who wants to eat melted candy, anyway? The candy would lose its smiling face. That's the changing factor for the boy.

He saves it for special occasions. Say, when he sees a bunch of strangers in the same table with him and he doesn't know where he belongs. He would excuse himself in the bathroom and drink the candy like a medicine pill. When he goes back, he was reborn as a jolly person. Those strangers would eventually be his friends again, thanks to the candy.

Say, when he walks alone and sees couples on his way. He wonders, "When will I get meet the one?" And he'd lose his smiling face. Only the candy would bring it back. Then he asks himself, "When will I be contented with myself?"

Say, when he sees his failing grade at one subject. Nope, not the time to breakdown. Go eat that candy. The candy would make him think that he did his best. Smile, and don't look down. It's enough that his grades are low.

Or just when that sinking feeling gets him, he felt the need to eat that candy. The smiling face in the candy had this magical power of making him smile as well. It doesn't last that long; he just needed to eat another one.

These days, he just wanted to eat a pack of those candies, wondering if that light feeling of happiness will come back. But a pack won't suffice. Or maybe the feeling won't just come back.

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And I'm back, I think. I missed writing!