ARIBELLA’S POV I try to pull the “push” door of the Bubble Tea Boutique open.Nope.That definitely does NOT work. Realizing my mistake, I give the glass door a small shove, and it immediately bursts open in seconds, if not less. I walk up to the pastel-cyan colored counter, expecting the usual cashier lazing around,instead seeing a new girl in her place. Guess the other cashier must have called in sick. Opening the menu, I carefully narrowed down the pearl tea options for me to drink today. Meanwhile, Ma places her cat purse down on a nearby bench. As I place my order, a different girl emerges from the kitchen. “A large matcha milk tea with pineapple popping boba pearls, please.”I say, ordering up. “Coming right up!”The girl from before, with long, brownish hair takes my order cheerily. Huh, that’s strange. She looks around my age, presumably a few months older or younger than me. I wonder what she’s doing here, I question, as I clasp my hand around the cold, hard plastic. I pick a seat near Ma, at our usual elevated bench by the tannish-colored window where we always sit. We come here every Saturday, usually for our lunch( the shop mainly sells boba, but it also sells other foods, like sushi), but since it’s a special day, she allows me to get bubble tea to celebrate( my half-birthday, to be exact). The sunlight spills through the soft glass, covering the polished wood in a blanket of warmth. Carefully but swiftly, I stab my red-and-white striped straw through the soft plastic-paper mix covering. I take a small sip of my boba tea, the little transparent yellow pearls slipping through the large, round straw.Yum.SO good. “We should really get bubble tea more often,Ma”I inform her in Korean(which basically translates to “우리 버블티를 더 자주 마셔야겠어요, 엄마”.) “내 취향엔 버블티가 너무 달콤한데 왜 굳이?”She questions me.(Bubble tea is too sweet for my taste,so why bother?) I groan.Ma always thinks she’s right,and she kind of is,for the record, one way or another. “I guess we should go now…”I suggest in a jumbled mix of English-Korean sound like “내생각엔 we should 가다 now..” Ma obediently nods, then turns away swiftly. She usually likes to be the one in charge of making the decisions.
