Hana sat on the bus, feeling very uncomfortable. Even though she’d run off after thanking the annoying bar guy, he and his loud party of friends clamored on her same bus. They laughed out loud and raved about bar hopping until they reached their stop. While most of them exited the bus, he-Teal Man, she named him, seemed to stay on the bus to shoot glances at her.

She caught his eyes a few times when she had to look at the other side of the bus to make sure she hadn’t missed her stop. ‘Why is this bus ride so long today?’ She thought as they rounded another corner. Hana perked up at the sight of the glowing sign of her neighborhood convenience store. ‘Finally!’

She rang the bell to get the bus to stop and stumbled out of the door. She'd rushed to the bus entrance before the bus came to a full stop. Teal Man had gotten caught by the bus driver for trying to follow suit in Hana’s dangerous bus antics. Hana sighed and meditated on the fact that she was about to throw the whole day away with her precious six pack.

Even though she speed walked to the store she still glanced back a few times to make sure no one was behind her. When she entered the almost empty store, she grabbed a basket and window shopped the aisles. Her basket grew heavier as she picked up snacks and toiletries she forgot she also needed. When she neared the back of the store, she a heard the ding of the door opening and closing. She didn’t think it mattered since she saw the bus drive off with Teal Man. But to be cautious she waited a few seconds and peeked over the shelf to check out the entrance. When she saw the door close behind an old man walking out of the store she did a disjointed jig. ‘My day is having an upswing. No more headache...' she listed off mentally. ‘All I need now is my cozy bed and a nice movie.’ She started to feel the itch of someone watching her and stopped dancing. 

One of the convenience store workers she would sometimes see was smirking at her. He was hard to miss considering he was taller than Hana. His domineering face was also memorable too. He was a large reason the candy and makeup aisle were no longer ransacked by kids and teenagers.

She nodded at him and rushed past him to another aisle with her head bent to ignore the mirth in his eyes. She spun back around the corner, forced by what she saw.

Teal Man had escaped the bus driver.

She peeked from the endcap to see him trying to decide between which soup he wanted. ‘He lives in the same neighborhood as me?’ She panicked. Hana staggered back and dashed into a random snack aisle as Teal Man put back the can he didn’t want. ‘Wait, this might actually be a good thing. If he lives in this neighborhood that means he wasn’t following me.’

With her renewed confidence she grabbed a bag of chips laughing to herself. ‘I should leave this day behind and pig out. It’s the weekend for goodness sake.’ 

Hana straightened her back and strolled to the fridge to pick up her beer. She walked past Teal Man’s aisle straining her eyes to the side at the exact moment Teal Man decided to exit the aisle. Hana reacted by ducking her head and sped up to the fridge. Once there she swung the door open and stuck her head in, struggling to find her usual brand. After her eyes landed on her favorite six pack, she used her body to keep the door open and cut off her view of Teal Man. She grabbed at the case ignoring the whistling patron who opened the fridge door to her left. ‘That’s not him, get your drink and leave.’

“Oh, I like that brand too,” Teal Man closed the fridge he was looking in and stared at Hana through the clear door. Hana glanced at him and nodded, taking note of the singular can in his hand and no drink in the other.

“Hey, it’s you from the bar.” He said, pretending he hadn’t followed her. Hana’s head throbbed from the stress of the situation catching up to her.

She squeezed her eyes shut. ‘If I don’t say anything he’ll leave.’

Despite her not responding, he stood there watching her. Hana looked over again and realized his closeness to her. The only thing keeping them apart was her opened fridge door. “I-I don’t think I know you.” Hesitating as she spoke.

“It’s me, from the bar?” He closed her fridge’s door and she had to step to the side instead of backwards to avoid getting backed into a corner. He showed her his stained sleeve. “See?”

“Oh yeah, sorry about that, if you want I can pay for the dry cleaning.” 

He shrugged it off, “That’s okay.”

She nodded and attempted to walk around him. She'd assumed their conversation was over, but he stepped in front of her, cutting off her exit.

He pretended to think and pulled his phone out. “Your number would be a good trade.”

She took a step back trying not to let her distress show on her face. “No, I’d prefer to pay for it.”

“What about buying me a coffee?” He suggested, taking a step forward. She began stepping back to create some space, but for every step back she took, he took one forward. Her back touched the closed fridge door, he'd backed her back to the fridge. She was now blocked off from the aisle.

“I’m not interested, could you please move?” She tried.

“I’m not doing anything, what’s wrong with me standing here?”

‘What the hell?!’ She thought.

“Look, you’re bothering me and it’s starting to get on my nerves, move out of my way!” She shoved at his chest with her heavy basket, and he yelped in pain.

“I was being nice,” he rubbed his chest, “but now you’re pissing me off. You don’t think I noticed you giving me the eyes at the bar, on the bus?” He got in her face. “Now that I’m giving you the attention you wanted, you want to pretend like it was just me?”

“What are you talking about? You did most of the talking.”

“So you do remember our chat.” He waggled his bushy unkempt eyebrows. “Look, if that idiot hadn’t sat between us we could've kept talking and I would’ve gotten your number then.”

‘Like I would’ve given you my number, you weirdo!’ She attempted to bump him again with her basket, but he dodged.

“Hey, how did you change your hair and eye color?” 

She froze in place. ‘This guy is crazy.’ Feeling panicked and helpless, Hana closed her eyes. ‘What do I do?’

“I mean I like your hair this way, but the pink was cute too.” He caressed and held her hair in a loose grip near his face, almost as if he were smelling it. She kept her eyes closed but whipped her head to the side so it would fall from his hand.

From nowhere Hana heard a grunt and a loud thump as if something had fallen. She opened her eyes at the sound to see him sprawled on the ground. There was a big tall back in front of her. The convenience store worker had stepped between her and Teal Man.

“What the hell?” Teal Man said, getting up. “What do you think you’re doing?” Teal Man yelled, getting more upset as the shop worker continued to stand in front of her.

“She said you’re bothering her.” She felt relieved and started to calm down. He opened up a path for her to leave and motioned for her to go while keeping Teal Man at bay. She sang his praises in her head as she rushed off to pay and leave. With one last glance back she saw Teal Man continuing to struggle with getting past the shop worker.

After getting home Hana put away her groceries and jumped into the shower. When she got out she stared long and hard at the mirror. 'Hazel eyes, check. Pink hair, check.' Her features that matched her father’s were present and accounted for. She shook her head. ‘Why am I taking that drunk serious?’

Hana leaped into her bed and cracked open the beer she'd put on her desk before showering. She wrapped herself in her blanket and put on a movie on her laptop, though she couldn’t focus on it. Her mind kept wandering back to Teal Man. ‘That was so weird,’ she thought, yawning.

She wrapped her blanket tighter around herself and yawned again. 'I guess I was more tired than I thought.' Hana tried for a while to focus on the movie by blinking the sleep away, but her tiredness was winning. ‘I should at least get up and turn the lights off.’

Hana blinked one last time as she was about to get up, but opened her eyes to confusion. She was no longer laying in her bed, in her lit, bright room. She was now standing in the middle of a dark unfamiliar space.

She looked around and caught sight of herself in a mirror at a corner in the room. In the moonlit mirror she managed to see that her hair turned purple and her eyes a golden looking hue like her mom’s.

 ’Is that me?’ She looked further down and saw she was wearing nurse scrubs and had a house slipper in her hand.

“Nurse, aren’t you going to punish me for being awake when you told me to rest?” Her head whipped around at the familiar voice.

Teal Man, tucked in bed and looking up at her waiting for...something.

In her head she was screaming.

'Why is he here?’ Why am I here?' Despite her inner monologue, she felt calm, and words started trickling out from her mouth. “Of course because you've been very bad, not listening to your nurse. Hmmm, were you hoping I’d find you awake?”

His head did a furious shake left to right, “no.”

“Are you lying?” She smacked the slipper in her hand.

He did a furious shake up and down, “ yes.”

“And you’re a liar too? Oooh, bad patients deserve punishment, right?”

He threw the covers off and flipped over, poking his pajama clad butt in the air.

She lifted her arm up readying to strike his butt. She swung her arm down to slap his bottom with the slipper as she counted aloud down from three.

“Three,” she was getting closer.

“Two,” she was almost at his butt.

“One!”

As she smacked his butt on one, he squealed face down into his pillow. Hana delighted in the power she felt at his response. “Should I give you another shot?” She asked. He nodded and squealed again in response.

Yawning, Hana rubbed sleep out of her eye with one hand, and reached around to shut off her alarm with her other. Once it was off, she stretched and shivered in her bed. She reeled in the warm rays pouring in from behind her blinds refreshing and relaxing her even more. ‘Wow, this feels so much better than yesterday. Note, more sleep, it always makes everything better.’

She closed her laptop and looked over at her phone. She saw missed calls and text messages from her mom, asking how far she was from the shop. ‘Oh yeah, I'm helping mom at her shop today.’

She texted her mom she’d be there in a minute, then got cleaned up and rushed out the door.