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❛ If you really think about it, this complex living organism right here slowly dying just like my overall general mental state really brings us together on a spiritual level. ❜
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THE FIRST THING that hit Soora was the smell.
An uncanny combination of odors that caused her nose to unconsciously wrinkle, said mixture containing the smell of oil and fresh paper, like burnt butter along with undertones of fresh paint, overpowering and of melted plastic. Along with the pungent smells came the atmosphere, nothing but raw, blistering heat due to all the burning lanterns around them. Soora felt as if she was in a microwave, the waves of heat surging through her by every shift and crawling through her skin and injecting itself into her bones and muscles, transmogrifying them into a liquid state.
The fact that she held a carton of tteokbokki in her hands didn't help, and all she wanted to do at that moment was plunge herself into a tub of ice cold water brimmed to the top with ice cubes. Soora could already feel the sweat pooling by the back of her neck, interweaving with the strands of hair by her nape that now stick annoyingly against her flushed skin. She fights the urge to reach her hand to the back of her neck and rake it away due to her hands already holding her food, begrudgingly following her sister who weaves through shelves and shelves of stationary and school books.
She eyes all the colorful back to school supplies and textbooks that for some reason are still out despite school starting weeks ago. Frustrated parents are crowded by the bookshelves and tables as they frantically go through the books and rake their eyes through booklists, lips tugged in between teeth and eyebrows drawn. Bored brothers and sisters whine and tug at their parents' clothes, begging to be carried or to go home. Soora spots a few teenagers here and there casually checking out the lanterns along with a few families exchanging lanterns and purchasing bottles of ink to decorate them.
She almost doubles over as a little girl with braids and a floral red dress bumps into her side and sprints somewhere behind her, clutching a pack of oil pastels as she excitedly persuades her mother to buy said stationary. Her mother's busy at the counter, face dripping with sweat as she rakes her hands through her sweat soaked hair, multi tasking as she balances a toddler boy by her hip, trying to pay for what seems like two textbooks, some notebooks and a pink lantern. Her free hand shifts a stroller to her left that holds a wailing new born girl, back and forth in a somewhat soothing manner to get the infant to calm down. Soora feels a pang of sympathy for her.
She hadn't realized she'd just been standing there, ogling like a blithering idiot until she feels a sharp yank by her palm and she's whisked forward, air whooshing out her lungs. Snapping her head forward, she sends a menacing glare to her sister who's head faces forward, seemingly choosing to ignore her younger sister as she continues to move past bodies and shelves. At last, they reach the end of the cramped store, the lantern section that contained shelves that covered all the walls, packed with paper lanterns.
