Butt down, hands sweating, scale on the floor, weighing each box precisely. “It’s fine, keep going, they’re not close… at least not yet. I’ll alert you when they’re here.”
Henna and I decided to perform our biggest heist yet… our first heist.
So, after every major exam week (midterms and finals), after being locked away in our rooms, slaving away — no entertainment, no social interactions, studying, pen to paper, chat to the GPT — we reward ourselves with a little trip to the mall. But this time, it was different. We weren’t going as law-abiding customers. We were going as soon-to-be mischievous criminals (nothing too crazy), ( no stealing of course (͠≖ ͜ʖ͠≖) )
With the rise in popularity of blind boxes, our lovely go-to bookstore decided to implement a NO WEIGHING BOXES rule.The first time I saw the bold sign above the boxes, newly bought scale in hand, I was shocked. How could they do this to me?! After spending the last of my allowance on THAT SCALE that I’m apparently not allowed to use anymore?! It’s all their fault. Those resellers — curse you meddling kids!!!
I called my personal bodyguard (Henna), and we decided to plan our heist:
- Enter the store separately (make sure we’re not seen together).
- Fill our baskets with blind boxes (an unsuspicious amount, to go under the radar).
- Head to the self-help section (ironic).
- If needed, repeat until we get a box with the desired weight.
- Return all the unwanted boxes (we’re polite like that ( ˘ ³˘)♥).
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Day of the Heist
I woke up bright and early and headed to the mall (scale in hand). We met up, and the scale was finally secured and hidden in Henna’s bag. We decided to check out the toy store as a practice round, but the options there were quite lacking. (What type of toy store has no blind boxes??? British ones.)
It was time. We couldn’t keep beating around the bush any longer. The plan was in action. Henna was ahead (10 steps), and I walked behind, keeping a safe distance. We finally reached the blind box section. Henna went first. And in a span of 10 seconds, all those weeks of planning came crashing down:
“Neo, how does the blind box look like? I can’t find it.”
After showing Henna a photo, she said the blind box I wanted wasn’t there. I pushed Henna to the side and checked for myself — and it was confirmed. Lo and behold, it was not there (as Henna said).
As I experienced the five stages of grief, Henna decided to check if the book series she reads had a new volume.
And then — I struck gold.
I saw the fattest, biggest, juiciest stack of Pop Art figures standing before me. The plan was back in action.
Since we were already seen together, Step One was canceled. Step Two was on.
We each grabbed two boxes and headed to the self-help section (we really needed that lowkey). We pushed the perfectly arranged books to the side, and I placed the forbidden scale on the shelf. My hands were sweating like crazy. I kept glancing over my shoulder, terrified we’d get caught. Every tiny sound made my heart jump. I weighed the first, second, and other boxes, and we got the one that matched the weight of the character Henna wanted. We returned the unwanted blind boxes. (Security and staff members were eyeing the blind boxes like vultures.)
I decided that I wasn’t heading home empty-handed, so I picked up every box and felt around. I was happy with any of them — except the bird. Satisfied, we headed to the cash register and paid.
We didn’t open them straight away. Henna decided to get some snacks from the Asian supermarket first so we’d be completely set before unveiling our finds. After that, we headed to the food court to settle down and finally open our boxes. I set up my phone to capture our reactions. I kid you not — you could see the disgust on my face.
I got the ONLY figure I didn’t want from the series: that damn bird. Henna didn’t get the one she wanted either, but she got a pretty cute one regardless. I, on the other hand, was stuck with that guy.
But after a while, he started to grow on me. He was… kinda cute.
