The quartet's down to three T.T

Following several fake last meeting with KC, KC eventually flew off to New York City to have his 3 weeks long vacation. In my heart, I was secretly worried. For me, a team dynamic changes whenever one person leaves.

"Would the absence of KC, the party-in-the-house guy, prove fatal to our buddy hood? What would happen to the dynamic between me, ange and hc? "

Which is why, I invited hc to our shopping trip, despite knowing that most guys would hate shopping. I even asked the group if guys hate shopping and they said 'YES!'. Expecting a 'No' from hc, I was pleasantly surprised that hc would agree to go shopping with a bunch of girls. Isn't he afraid that we will bring him into a makeup shop... or a bra shop or something?! For someone with a grandpa-ish image, hc sure is full of surprises.

The night before the Shopping Trip 
Just returning back from Malaysia at 2am, I turned on my whatsapp chat to see if hc or ange had set a meeting time for the shopping trip yet. (of course not, since im the jio-er). Fighting off my exhaustion, I quickly considered a good timing which everyone will wake up at (supposedly 12 noon) and set the meeting time at 1pm (who would be late for a 1am meeting... except me and kc who sleeps till super late right?! )

That Saturday morning 
 I woke up, grabbed my phone and expected replies regarding the meeting. Good because HC replied and said he is playing dota. Strangely, angela has yet to see my private message. Brushing it off, I set off to my very first tuition class with my new tuition kid. It turned out that I messed up the tuition timing and there wasn't any tuition at all! 11am, angela still hasnt replied my private message. Maybe... she doesn't have an opinion on that so I texted her more stuff expecting prompt replies. None...

The curious case of the missing Angela

I went back home to rest my feet. Nearing 12pm as I am about to set off, Angela still remained dead in all whatsapp groups. This was weird. I called angela..and no one picked up.

"Angela would have woken up at latest 10am usually. Did I missed something? I did tell her about the shopping trip. There wasn't a clear yes or no. Does that mean... Did she go overseas without tell me?Maybe she felt bad about pangseh-ing us? Hmm... maybe not.. must be something she did not expect! OMG DID SHE FALL SICK? SHE MUST BE IN A HOSPITAL THAT'S WHY!"

 Worried, I quickly texted ange's mum to check if angela was alright. Lucky this bestie knows ange's mum's number by hard. Angela's mum was super efficient. A few minutes after, Angela finally picked up my call!

Turns out... it was just that off day that Angela decided to sleep late and wake up uncharacteristically late.  Phew..

Lunch with HC
I waited nearly 30mins for hc and ange since both of them were late. Knowing they would be super late, I purposely took my time to get plasters etc. Lunch with hc turned out to be not very awkward after all! HC was more chatterbox than expected. I can't remember what we chat about, but we were never out of topics. That's a relief. I guess we are fellow case budz for a reason! We have the same insecurities about being insensitive after all XD

P.S. I am glad I did not order the chicken noodle HC suggested. Oh my god, that strong chicken taste really killed me. I guess that means I only like to eat lousy tasteless chicken then :P

We ended up meeting up at 2pm to shop
Feeling like the sacred punctuality ranking should be upheld, I had angela treat me and hc $1 each for drinks :D Given my cheated feelings of unfounded worry, it was already a big discount. We took into consideration the fact that she read the message very late too. If not... would $10 drinks each you know! WOW

I think I am secretly a shopaholic. I used to play the game named "Audition". In audition, I am the leader of the group called "Shopaholixs" - its a group i created with my secondary school friends. Its where we have thing rule of collecting all the non-Acash clothings in the game store. We also used to have an annual playoff where we fight for Acash reward. (its Acash that my brother put into my account HAHA). So end of sidetracking, I turn out to be the only one carrying bags and bags of stuff after the shopping trip (AGAIN!) This is not even the first time! When I go malaysia with my sister or with my ex-colleagues, I will be the one buying things. Maybe I'm a closet shopaholic... or I'm just a really decisive shopping who goes shopping trips with a plan.

I left Bugis happy - cleared my shopping list, shopping has never been more fun and I found out that the trio dynamics works super well. Our trio have similar insecurities and we can talk about them together! There are two regrets though:
1. We did not manage to get anything for HC. HC has to wear that same pants for every outing! And...
2. We did not find our totoro group tee shirts T.T

Looking forward to more outings,
Jojo

P.S. I miss you too, KC :D