Pāhonoa te oro

The bell above the door jingled softly, the kind of cheap plastic chime that had been there since the shop opened five years ago and still somehow sounded tired. Afternoon light slanted through the front windows of Doo-sik’s Stationery, catching on the rows of colored pencils, the stacks of squared…

The bell above the door jingled softly, the kind of cheap plastic chime that had been there since the shop opened five years ago and still somehow sounded tired. Afternoon light slanted through the front windows of Doo-sik’s Stationery, catching on the rows of colored pencils, the stacks of squared notebooks, the cheap plastic recorders that the third-graders always bought for music class. The air smelled of fresh paper, cheap erasers, and the faint metallic tang of the instant ramen he keeps.