... met hoeveel letters spel je dat?

The next morning Blaine and Els are heading to the HEMA for breakfast at 8:30am. Kurt is out for breakfast and the interns, so they all had to get up early. Els thought it was a good idea for HEMA breakfast. Although she said “Don't expect too much. It's only one euro.”

They laugh, chat and receive drunk SnapChats from Sam.

‘Good, now the important thing,' Els says when they're done, ‘The HEMA itself.' ‘Looks like a normal store to me,' Blaine mumbles.

‘I heard you, Anderson,' Els says.

‘The HEMA has almost everything. From notebooks to food to Tupper wear –if that's the right term- to curtains to  washing tablets to decorations for your room and so on. Come on, let's go to the first floor.

‘Eh,' Blaine stops her, ‘No offense, but are you really going to give me a tour through the entire store?'

‘Of course not, dummy,' Els laughs, ‘That would be creepy.

‘Thought so,' Blaine says under his breath.

‘I heard that too!' Els elbows him, ‘Believe it or not, but I have excellent hearing. Anne on the other hand is hard of hearing.'

They're at the bathing products. Yes, Els kept her promise, but it's still a long tour. Blaine studies the languages on the bottles: Dutch, German, French and sometimes Spanish and wonders something.

‘Els?' ‘Hmm…' ‘Can I ask you something?'

‘Ask away,' Els says absently.

‘I like this place, but why do you love it so much?'

‘I…' Els looks down, ‘Wow. Believe it or not, but that's a big question.'

‘Well,' Blaine puts his hands in his pockets, ‘I've got time.'

‘It's so… basic,' Els finally says. Okay, Blaine didn't expect that. ‘HEMA makes 99,9% of their products and look at them! This shampoo bottle, it's so normal. They used this font and this colour instead of trying to turn it into art. And here, shower mousse as spray. I like the designs. I mean, it's 2017. Two thousand –fucking- seventeen. The world changes around us. They try to improve everything. The new Samsung Galaxy Trend 6, the iPhone 8s and 8c, the Nintendo Wii U 3DxL. It's crazy!'

‘HEMA is different. All the other stores try to change their logo, products, working uniform… spirit. Here, it's still the same. Yes, they did change and they also sell new product, drop the old ones and sell stuff for the newer things, like iPhone 8c cases, but they still have the same HEMA spirit.'

‘And I'm not someone who's against change, hell no,' Els looks disgusted by even thinking about it, ‘It's just hard for me to adapt, you see? I got my first smartphone in 2014-‘

'Wow.'

‘I know. And then there's the HEMA. Same old, same gold.'

‘Wow,' Blaine says again. He's stunned, really, really stunned by Els's answer. ‘You really do love the HEMA, don't you?'

~~~

When Kurt comes home – although it's not really home. Not yet – he has exciting news.

‘Hey, babe,' he says. Blaine looks up from a book he's reading.

‘Hi hon, how was your breakfast?' he closes his book and puts it away.

‘Exhausting,' Kurt sighs and joins Blaine on their couch and snuggles against Blaine. ‘Most interns are idiots.'

‘Too bad,' Blaine kisses Kurt's forehead, ‘But less, uh, competition for you.'

‘Hmm… true,' Kurt purrs, ‘How was your morning with Els?'

‘Weird,' Blaine answers shortly, ‘Had breakfast, Sam sent me some SnapChats from him with ponytails, went on a small HEMA tour and Els was saying deep stuff, man. All about change and society wanting to improve everything and the HEMA with their HEMA spirit. She had a point, though.'

‘Sounds interesting.'

‘I got you something!' Blaine jumps off the cough and heads to the bedroom. He returns with a plastic bag with HEMA written on it. Oh no.

‘Three bottles of hairspray?' Kurt asks, ‘HEMA hairspray? I know you love my hair, but isn't this a little bit too much, babe?'

‘No, read!'

‘Hairspray and- oh! Destressing shower mousse and foaming shower gel?'

Blaine nods proudly. ‘Our first dutch purchase. I also got myself a little extra.'

‘A tube of hair gel,' Kurt fives him a judging glare, ‘Of course.'

‘Well, now more about your breakfast,' Blaine rejoins Kurt on the couch, ‘Except for the stupid interns, what happened?'

‘Oh yeah!' Kurt remembers his exciting news, ‘I'll be on dutch TV.'

‘W-What?'

‘I know,' Kurt says excited, ‘Daphne hosts this thing called RTL Boulevard on RTL 4, or something. Tonight at seven and there's a part with us.'

‘Ja Winston, ik ben natuurlijk heel erg bij om dit te kunnen vertellen,' Kurt and Blaine are watching RTL 4, ‘Want onze “interns” van Vogue zijn aangekomen!'

‘Do you know what she's saying?' Blaine whispers. Kurt shakes his head. ‘Not a clue.'

They show some shots of the interns, a lot of history about Vogue, a small interview with Daphne and finally one with Kurt and two other interns: Pedro Giorni from Italy and Peter Joe from Scotland.

‘The only three guys here,' the interviewer says, ‘Is that weird?'

‘No?' Pedro sounds offended, but Peter says “a wee bit.” More questions and it ends with Kurt answering a question about motivation.

Because Ive loved it since I was a kid. Its a part of me.