After wearing the outfits she had picked out, and after wearing her shoes and tying her hair into a loose ponytail, Paola also took one of the three purses she owned from the closet, before closing the closet.
That same moment, she went and carried her cell phone from the table and could only sigh in defeat as she weakly stared at her cell phone's broken screen.
It had been a month since the screen of her cell phone broke. She had gone to a repair shop, but the price of fixing the screen was ridiculously expensive for her.
According to the man who owned the repair shop, he told Paola that not only had the screen of her cell phone broken, but the broken screen affected some other stuff in the phone.
Paola felt that the man wanted to cheat her out of the money she didn't even have, so she left the repair shop the same way she entered it. Well, except that she had a very disappointed look on her face.
Anyway, Paola checked the time on her cell phone after struggling to switch it on. She saw that the time was 6:27am, causing her to hasten her movement and leave her bedroom.
She arrived in her kitchen. Although the kitchen was tiny, everything was well arranged and gave off a cozy feeling.
Paola walked to the cabinet and kept her cell phone and her purse on top of it. Then, squatting down, she took out a pack of noodles from the cabinet.
"There you are, my baby". She stood up and was staring at the noodles in her hand as she said this.
Yeah. Noodles were the food she ate the most, as it was fast to cook and affordable for someone as broke as her.
Also, noodles were convenient for her, who had the habit of reporting to work as early as possible.
A habit that grew in her life, because she hoped that one day, her hard work would pay off. And then, she would eventually be promoted and have a better paycheck.
She went and took one of her small pots that were hung close to the stovetop, but reasonably far away from the stovetop.
With the noodles still in her hand, she took the pot to the sink. After keeping the noodles aside, she rinsed the pot, before opening the pack of noodles and putting it in the small pot, without bothering to break it, as she preferred her noodles long.
She put a reasonable amount of water inside the pot too, as she loved her noodles to be watery, and also loved the sound she made when eating watery noodles.
She turned on the gas stove, and put the pot she was holding on top of it.
…
In less than 10 minutes, she finished cooking her noodles and turned off the gas stove.
Her eyes were sparkling as she carried the pot away from the gas stove and put it on top of the cabinet. She did not bother to transfer the noodles onto a plate and began to eat the noodles from the pot while standing.
While eating, she picked up her cell phone and checked the time. Her eyes widened when she saw that it was already 6:40am.
"Gosh. I really should stop waking up by 6am and start waking up by 5am!". She exclaimed, and as she returned her cell phone to the cabinet, she began to eat her noodles faster.
By the time she finished eating the noodles, her mouth was full of noodles, causing her cheeks to appear bigger and rounder.
She forcefully swallowed the noodles and almost choked because of that.
She hit her chest with her fist multiple times in a row, and when that was not helping out, she hurriedly went and carried a cup, before rushing to the water dispenser and filling the cup in her hand with water.
She immediately drank all the water in the cup, and that helped her stop choking.
Cough cough cough.
Paola coughed and cleared her throat, before breathing heavily. Her brown eyes had gotten redder.
Laughing at herself while sweating, especially on her forehead, she casually admitted, "I shouldn't have rushed eating".
She breathed in and out deeply, using her mouth as support.
Afterward, she went and stood in front of the sink and washed her face in the sink, before she grabbed her purse and cell phone and went out of her apartment.
She put her cell phone in her purse and hung the purse around her neck, before she locked the door to her apartment and hurried downstairs, while using the stairs.
Her apartment was located on the fourth floor of the building, but she had to make use of the stairs because the elevator got broken and was under repair.
'What an unfortunate thing. It has been almost a month, and yet, the elevator is not fixed. If it were a rich apartment, in less than a week, they would have fixed it'. Paola thought to herself as she descended the stairs as fast as she could.
Luckily, coming down the stairs was much easier, compared to walking up the stairs.
But, she did not get too happy, because she knew that she would have a hard time getting to her apartment when she returned from work later in the evening.
She just hoped that today she would not work overtime and end up returning home later than 8pm.
…
In no time, Paola arrived outside the building with a proud smile on her face.
She ran to the bus stop and waited there impatiently.
Just in time, the bus arrived, and along with other people, who were also waiting for the bus, Paola quickly got on the bus with them.
Unfortunately, she did not get lucky enough to get a seat and had to stand with some others.
Despite her unfortunate luck, she made sure to keep her eyes fixed on her purse.
She knew that there were not many valuables inside her purse to be stolen, but still, she knew she would shed tears if any of her things got stolen or went missing.
After a few minutes of standing, while holding onto one of the straphangers, she said to the bus driver using a loud voice, "Stop here, please".
The bus stopped, and Paola got down from it. She opened her purse, took out her cell phone and checked the time.
"6:55 am. I still made it on time". Paola said, and returned the cell phone to her purse.
She stared at the skyscraper building that was in front of her, but far away from her.
"I hate this". She muttered to herself, before the blank expression on her face changed to a smiling one.
Whenever she arrived at her place of work, she always did this. Putting a smile on her face and enduring the day, despite hating it.
She wanted everyone to find her approachable, and love her and accept her. Not having a single clue that her actions would only backfire against her and only make people take advantage of her.