The calm ambiance of the small grocery store was comforting after having come down to the lobby of the hotel in the morning. Even seeing my causal clothes, the mother of the bride tried to flag me down. Her face was full of outrage. 

What is it now, Shimizu-san? I am not on duty, but how can I help you? No, we can not prepare finger foods for forty people right now. The restaurant is serving breakfast. The room that you want is booked for another party, Shimizu-san. I'm sorry, Shimizu-san. I'm sorry. Bow my head. 

Even saying that to her would have been overstepping my place. I ducked out of there so fast. 

I'd intended to buy a few things, because even at an employee discount, the food at the hotel was too expensive. I'd do fine microwaving my meals. But, what I found at the grocery store around the corner was entirely different.

In front of giant tanks full of fish that were much too big and numerous, I crouched with my jaw open. They were enormous, no idea what they were called. I'd seen fish before, of course, but none like these to eat. Who were they for? They even looked too big to be pets. What kind of family was having a feast with this? 

My little shopping basket on my arm was forgotten. Any sorry foods I would have gotten were out of the window. 

Speaking of windows, even the front window was full of wonders. Entire chickens and ducks were on a rotisserie. I wanted to take a chicken home, but there was no way I could eat an entire one. The more I found inside, the more I realized that this grocery store was not for the single guy. It was catering to whole families, and big ones. There was hardly anything in here that one could take for a single meal. Long sausages, bags of shrimp chips that were half the size of me, fifty pound bags of rice. And the other items. There were so many from different Asian cultures. Every aisle was a wonder, full of products that I had never seen. 

As I stared inquisitively at a gallon jug of soy sauce, I heard a familiar voice and ripped around a corner, now faced with jelly candies in enormous containers shaped like ducks and frogs. 

"I need ten pounds of almonds. Three pounds sliced, seven pounds whole. Not salted." 

As I peered around the corner, the boy from the coffeeshop was at the checkout counter talking to an old woman wearing an apron. She nodded and went in back by lifting up a cloth that barred the average person from looking back there. 

He stood around, gazing up at things, smiling to himself about something. He fiddled with his hands. He wore a pastel lavender sweater vest over a light pink button up shirt. Smart looking khakis with a black belt completed this, with black dress shoes. He was wearing his name tag from his shop. His hair was messy, but styled to be that way. A theatrical bedhead. I could never imagine myself going to work with hair such as that. Those colors again, too. I could never wear such colors.

As I stared at him, someone else came forward to help him from the back. An old man was carrying two bags, presumably of almonds. At this, the boy lit up, his smile so grand. Like those almonds were the best things on earth, his greatest desire. His hands went out and they grabbed at the air.

"Ahhh, Nguyen-san!" He exclaimed, being handed the bags and holding them in his arms like babies. "This is exactly what I had in mind, thank you!" 

Where would those almonds go? In a cake? Cookies? In the chocolate almond candies that I'd spilled all over the floor of his store? My eyes widened as I realized my ears were burning. This memory made me get a little less close to the shelf I was leaning against. Imagine if there were an avalanche of jelly candies right now? My ears burned worse.

He managed to pay the man named Nguyen-san, and he happily went off, positively almost skipping in delight.

I wanted to get that excited about almonds. 

Still thinking about him and how bright his face got upon seeing those almonds, I went around the store trying to find things that were small enough for me to buy. Anything. But, all I could think about was his face, those almonds in his arms. 

I eventually left the store empty-handed. My feet were now taking me in a familiar route. Around the corner, keep straight. Go past the hotel. Keep going up the street. Go around another corner. Go down that street. Keep going. See a cute light blue and white awning with the gold fancy script that says "French Cup" in an oblong medallion. Hesitate to go inside the light blue door with the pane glass. Put hand on the bronze doorknob. 

The bell chimed, and the boy looked up from counting the cash register. I froze in the doorway, the doorknob still in my hand. 

"Welcome to French-!" He started, then his eyes went wide, too. "Uh- Cup!" He finished. 

If he kept staring at me like that, I'd have to start a diet consisting completely of French pastries and cakes. 

"Forgive the intrusion," I said, bowing a little. "I finished the chocolates from yesterday, and came to buy more," I managed to lie. 

"Did you like them?" He hurried over, wiping his hands on the light blue and white apron he was wearing. "Do you want to try a different kind?" He led me over to the display, and I made sure to keep my hands to myself this time. 

I'd gone entirely too quiet. "Uh- um, I don't know. I was thinking..."

"How about trying the almo-"

"Almonds," I said, finishing for him unintentionally. 

This caused both of us to go quiet. I pressed my lips together, knowing this was making my embarrassing dimples show. The ones that Seo-Yoon always poked and said were dumb. 

The boy was just staring at me with his mouth open. I'd definitely said something wrong, interrupting him like that. I shoved my hands into my pockets, entirely too awkward.

"Uh, sorry," I said, too quiet.

He smiled at me anyway. Carefully, he brought down a box of chocolate almonds. He presented them to me with two hands. "Try them," he offered, eagerly, so proud. "Tell me what you think of them...when you come back."

I took them with both hands, too, to show my respect of these chocolates he'd made. I bowed my head. "Six-hundred yen, right?" I went for my wallet.

"On the house," he said quickly. 

"Oh, but-"

"Try them, and tell me what you think."

The blush on my ears was threatening to spread elsewhere. I couldn't let him see that. "Oh- oh, thank you," I hesitated. "Well, I have to be going now." My shoulders were going up, my heart going too fast.

"Okay. Going to work, right? Thank you for stopping by." That smile, all for me.

I nodded rapidly. 

"Okay. Good-bye, um...what's your name? I never got-"

"It's Gyeong-Wan."

"Ahh." That smile made a beautiful grin, just like the one that he'd given Nguyen-san, except now I was the almonds. 

I nodded again, then turned an about-face just like when I was in my military service. If I didn't have more self control, I would have ran out of there. By the time I was at the door and the little bell was chiming, my face must have been as red as a tomato. 

As I hightailed it down the block, the small chocolates box in my hand, I could think of nothing else but that boy's face. That smile just for me, up close. That smile, like I was almonds.