Non-chan: What's wrong, Hal?.
Hal (shakes his head): Nothing.
Non-chan: You're a little quiet.
Kay: He's always quiet.
Bee: Maybe a little quieter than usual, though.
Non-chan: So, what's on your mind?
Hal: Well, I'm thinking about something that happened at the sūpā today.
Bee: What happened?
Hal: The guy in front of me in the check-out line was apparently overdrawn on his credit card.
Kay: So you had to wait while he argued about it?
Hal: He didn't really argue, but I guess he asked to have a manager check.
Kay: I'll bet he was buying a case of beer and a big pack of steaks.
Hal: No. Just bean sprouts, coffee, and orange drink.
Non-chan: That's what? 400 yen? And his card couldn't cover that?
Hal: Apparently not.
Non-chan: Poor guy.
Kay: Well, he shouldn't let his card get overdrawn. Very inconsiderate of him.
Bee: What'd he do?
Hal: He had enough pocket change to pay for the bean sprouts and the coffee, apparently.
Kay: Che. Bean sprouts!
Non-chan: Poor-man's vegetables.
Kay: Huh? Bean sprouts've got nothing in 'em.
Bee: Amino acids for a little protein, a little of the proto-B vitamins.
Non-chan: Not much, but better than plain rice.
Hal: Four bags, so I'm guessing it was for his family's dinner.
Kay: How much of your time did he waste?
Hal: Not that much, really. I admit I was a little impatient at first.
Kay: I'd've been a lot impatient.
Non-chan: It's still two weeks to payday.
Hal: Exactly. Overdrawn this early in the month.
Bee: With the virus lockdown --
Kay: It's not lockdown.
Non-chan: For a lot of people, it might as well be.
Bee: He might not be getting a paycheck at all.
Kay: But he shouldn't be wasting other people's time in line.
Hal: I thought about offering to pay for the orange drink, but I wasn't quick enough.
Bee: Hard to figure out what's going on in time.
Hal: Yeah.
Non-chan: I think he probably needed other things more than the orange drink.
Hal: I wanted to buy him tofu, cabbage, carrots, and an onion, at least. But I only had enough money for the bag of rolled oats I was buying.
Kay: You bleeding heart.
Non-chan: I think the world needs more bleeding hearts.
Bee: More billionaire CEOs and members of the board who'll let their books bleed a little, if you ask me.
