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Shion had ALWAYS L O V E D bread. Not in the way most people did—casually enjoying a warm roll with dinner or savoring a croissant on a lazy Sunday morning. NO, Shion’s love for bread was all-consuming, an OBSESSION. It started when she was 4 years old, standing in her grandmother’s kitchen, watching in fascination as the old woman kneaded dough.
The warmth of freshly baked bread and the crisp and golden crust that crackled just right when she bit into it...it was the closest thing to MAGIC she had ever known. From that moment on bread became her everything.
Her obsession with bread had only deepened when she started with highschool. She had spent every single moment researching different types of bread, testing recipes, and sneaking bites of baguettes or croissants during class. Her locker smelled like a bakery because it was always stocked with secret stashes of breadsticks, pretzels, and more bread.
Her friends tried to understand. REALLY tried to understand her.
“Shion why are you eating plain white bread like its some kind of delicacy?” her best friend Hayeon asked one afternoon.
“You dont get it” Shion replied as she closed her eyes in bliss as she chewed. “The simplicity. The texture. The way it melts in your mouth with just the right balance of fluff and chew. It’s a masterpiece.”
“You need serious help” Hayeon said, shaking her head.
But Shion didn’t care. She dreamed of bread, lived for bread. She even had a secret journal where she wrote love letters to her favorite breads, her pages filled with poetic descriptions of breads and breads and breads and...yeah breads.
Then came the I N C I D E N T.
It started when the new bakery, Le Pain Modhaus opened in town. It was said to have the BEST bread in the entire universe. The recipes passed down through generations of ultra legendary bakers. Shion could hardly contain her excitement, SHE NEARLY EXPLODED. The day it opened, she camped outside the store at dawn. She was the first in line. Her hands trembled with excitement.
The air was filled with Thick and Intoxicant scent of fresh bread when she stepped inside the bakery. Rows of golden loaves lined the shelves. Each one a masterpiece. But then her eyes landed on it.
The PER-FECT Loaf.
It sat behind the glass counter, an artistic croissant with a crust SOOOO perfect and SOOOOOO beautifully golden-brown, it looked like it had been baked by the bread gods themselves. Shion’s breath hitched. Her knees went weak. She had to have it. She NEEDS it.
But just as she reached for the PER-FECT, Majestic, Beautiful, Pretty, Magnetic and whatever other words exist, another hand grabbed the loaf.
Shion froze.
The hand belonged to a tall, elegant woman with piercing brown eyes. She examined the loaf with appreciation, a small smile playing on her lips.
Shion saw RED.
“Excuse me” Shion said as she tried to keep her voice calm.“I believe I saw that bread first.”
The woman raised her perfectly plucked eyebrow. “I don’t think so.”
Shion clenched her fists. This wasn’t just ANY bread. This was HERRR bread. The bread she had spent her ENTIRE LIFE searching for.
A normal person might have accepted defeat. But Shion was NOT normal.
Without thinking, Shion lunged.
A gasp echoed through the bakery as Shion wrestled the loaf from the woman’s hands, her fingernails digging into the crust. The woman put up a good fight. They tugged back and forth as both refused to let go.
“LET. GO.” the woman hissed.
“OVER MY DEAD BODY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Shion growled angrily.
The bakery staff watched in horror. Someone screamed. Someone else pulled out their phone to record and post it on twitter.
Then—RIP.
The loaf tore in half.
A stunned silence fell over the bakery.
Shion stared at the jagged pieces in her hands. The woman looked down at her own half.
“You monster....” she whispered.
Shion felt something deep inside her shatter. She had ruined it. The PER-FECT loaf. The one thing she had spent her ENTIRE GODDAMN LIFEl searching for. And in her greed, she had destroyed it.
The woman sighed and dusted crumbs off her hands. “I hope it was worth it, you maniac.” With that, the woman turned and walked out of the bakery, leaving Shion standing there humiliated.
Things were never the same from that day on. The video of the incident went viral on twitter. She was forever known as “The Bread Maniac.” Her friends distanced themselves. Even the bakeries in town began giving her suspicious looks when she walked in.
But worst of all?
She couldn’t taste bread the same way anymore. Every bite carried the bitter taste of regret.
And so Shion swore to herself one day, she would repent for her sins. She would find a way to redeem herself in the eyes of the bread gods.
But until then she would carry the weight of her obsession, her love, her downfall, her curse.