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They all split up and went on their ways home after this. Expectedly, Ron and Laila lived in the same direction. They walked together as they left the group. They remained silent through the journey. Ron didn't seem to mind but Laila found it hard to bear the awkwardness. She tried to launch a topic to chat about: "So, are you excited about tomorrow?"

Ron nodded with a smile. The truth was that he was indeed very excited about it. He would finally start school for real, with real lessons from which he would learn things. Useful things to live a good life on this planet. This was a way for him to make sure he wouldn't ever have to work as something like a miner. It had a lot of significance behind it.

That wasn't all either. He would also start work. He wondered he would be asked to do. He hoped it wouldn't be too difficult. He wondered who he would be working with as well, he wondered if he would be lucky enough to meet someone as nice as Ivan there. That would be great.

He answered Laila easily by telling her all this and from there, they had a nice chat while they walked home. Laila split off not far from his apartment. It seemed like she lived in one of the buildings a few streets away. It was rather close-by.

He bade her goodbye but didn't go home right away. Instead, he went towards a supermarket he found the other day. He went to the back and waited there. He was waiting for someone…

A few days ago, he found this supermarket on his way home after a meal. It was already dark and the place was closed. He saw an employee overseeing a bunch of robots moving carts filled with food outside. He got curious, wondering what this was all about and checked things out.

There is a saying that 'curiosity killed the cat' however, without curiosity, how can one discover new things? Ron was a very curious young man. As long as it didn't seem dangerous, he would try to satisfy his curiosity. And so, he followed and watched. What he saw left him perplexed. The group of robots was emptying the carts into an incinerator. At the same time, the man was sighing.

The stuff seemed fine so, Ron wondered what this was all about. He couldn't help but be noticed by the man. That man waved at him in a friendly way and asked him: "First time seeing this?"

Ron nodded.

The man nodded back before he sighed and continued: "Can't be helped. No one want to buy those. Just because the expiry dates have been reached…such a waste… "

Ron walked closer and as he reached the man, he asked him what he meant by this. The man frowned before he decided to explain things to him. It would require a few minutes for things to be finished anyways and it could relieve his boredom. He picked a package. It was Moraug's steaks, a kind of meat. Ron had a few of those since coming here and they were quite tasty. The man pointed to a date written on the package and explained: "That's the expiry date there. See, it's today. Now that it hasn't been sold, I'm legally forbidden from trying to sell it and required to dispose of it"

Ron frowned. He didn't see what was wrong with the meat there. Even if it was a day later, would it really matter? He asked and was answered that it did depend on the food but the producers always placed earlier dates on their products, to make sure the demand remained stable in time. Due to the wealth of the planet and the abundance of resources in space, things developed in this way with a lot of things being wasted.

After they chatted for a time, Ron asked if he could get the stuff instead of it being thrown out. The man shook his head sideways as he explained that he could be legally arrested if he did so. It was against the law. After a few more rounds, Ron figured out a small loophole. He was forbidden from selling those after the day ended. That meant that he could sell them at the moment.

The manager pondered for a moment before he asked him how much he would be willing to pay for them. Ron put out a finger up, trying to mean to give him a moment to think. However, the manager misunderstood it for him trying to say he would buy things for a single spatial coin.

Those things were going to be incinerated anyways and if he could get even one coin out of them, it was better than nothing. Not many would be like this weirdo, ready to buy expired stuff. The manager quickly agreed to sell him the products he wanted for 1 spatial coin each whenever he came by. And from there, they exchanged contacts.

Today, he came here to buy things. He believed that cooking for himself would cost him less than going out to eat every day. That's what the aunty that lived in the building told him. Though he didn't know how to cook, he had the required things in his apartment and he could always consult the galactic network through his wrist-com. There weren't just games in there but a lot of interesting knowledge available for free.

After patiently waiting for some time, he saw the manager come out along with a few robots pushing carts filled with goods. They both waved at each other with a smile on their faces.

Ron spent quite a lot even though he only paid a single coin per product. From the start, the goods weren't that expensive themselves alone. It was the cumulative cost that was high. He learnt it the hard way as he passed two one-hundred bills to the manager who sported a wide smile.

At least, the manager was nice enough to let him take two carts home as well. He wouldn't have been able to take everything otherwise. He only needed to get them back here the next time he came by. The manager was certain the kid would return when he saw the pained expression on his face as he handed him the money…