『Ah, I forgot. I bought nothing for tonight.』

He glances at the fridge, knowing it is empty without a single morsel. Martin decides to buy a ready-to-eat meal at a convenience store, down a street from where he lives. Grabbing his jacket, his wallet, and his phone, he descended the apartment to head to the convenience store while blaming himself for the blunder. He quickly arrives at the place, a bright, incandescent white, sparing no time in making small talk with the cashier. 

『Everything here tastes like crap.』

Taking a curry-flavored pork meal from the cooler shelf, Martin hands it over to the cashier to be reheated. He finds a spare table to sit beside the window. Characteristic of his habits as quite the petty man he is, he travels his eyes to look for other people in the store to pass the time checking them out and calling them names in his head.

 He set his sights on a lone woman opposite the table he sits; copper hair and pinkish lips, inviting eyes and shapely eyebrows along with light tan skin and a petite build. Busy fiddling on her phone and laptop, she seemed heavily preoccupied with work, as her table was filled with various papers of menacing thicknesses. 

『Oh? It seems like she’s not like all those stupid kids at work huh?』

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Martin snickered internally on why she’d brought so much stuff to a convenience store, but thought that 『She’s probably a dumb-ass who forgot to buy dinner like me.』

He observed her for a while until the bell rang, and the cashier called out to him. He settles down in his seat to eat. Going out nearly every night for cheap food has been Martin’s routine for the past 7 months. 

Tasteless. Colorless. 

He puts down his utensils after eating. Somewhat satisfied, a long sigh comes out of his mouth. Martin’s eyes unconsciously gravitate towards the quaint young woman in front. SHe was on the phone with someone, and what they were talking about granted enough satisfaction to her that it animated her expression and seemed to lift her spirits. It was like a splash on a canvas, a spread of exploding colors. He couldn’t help staring. Then, the two of them met eyes. Martin looked away immediately so she wouldn’t misconstrue any meaning from his gaze. 

Inwardly, he thought, 『What a sweet smile.』

Must be nice to be happy and carefree. The woman suddenly fixes up her stuff, gets up, and leaves through the door with a skip in her steps. 

His eyes follow her walk from beyond the glass window of the store. 

Under the silent radiance of the moon, pondered the moment she smiled. It reminded him of simpler times when he was young and full of dreams.

With a vaguely familiar feeling of warmth, Martin sank into his thoughts.