Tryfon froze, as he hadn't expected her to initiate a conversation after staring at him from such a close distance for so long. In his mind, even if she had not quickly turned away after realizing that he was conscious of her actions she should have at least been a bit awkward about being caught.
His expectations were quite clearly projected to Cerin and somewhere inside her that was exactly how she was reacting, but such a reaction, after being filtered through the multiple life experiences that she now possessed would never come to be.
Infact with a combined age of over a hundred years she found it quite ridiculous to even entertain the thought of being flustered by a guy that surely couldn't be older than 19.
Cerin smiled even brighter and Tryfon painfully realized that she had been waiting for a response for quite a while.
" Hello, I'm Tryfon. Nice to meet you."
The guy ended with a curt tone and effectively ended the conversation before it even started but how could that stop Cerin?. If not because she wanted to keep talking to him and enjoying his awkwardness or because her pride was a tad bruised at being brushed off she was determined to keep the conversation going.
She gracefully raised an arm and offered him a handshake but his hands stayed glued to his side and he awkwardly stared down her extended arm. Finally Cerin reached out and grabbed his hands since he had refused to do so first and locked their palms into a deformed handshake with both hands.
The poor guy who had never been approached so aggressively by a girl in the past froze and his mind went into overdrive. He full out glared at their interlocked palms and barely registered what the woman in front of him was saying.
" Nice to make your acquaintance Tryfon. I see you are applying to become a model? That's rather impressive. I entered the competition to try my hands at becoming a fashion designer. Can I ask why you chose to apply as a model?"
Although it could be easy to take offense to her words she kept her tone lightly curious rather than condescending as she asked as well Tryfon was still focused on her delicate hand that somehow managed to hold his still despite the disparity in size.
He slightly tried to budge his hands away but found them locked in place and could only look back up at her large eyes and pointed features to respond.
" No particular reason I could tell you… it's sort of a mission that I gave myself. I found the ad in my mail and for some reason felt that I would regret it if I didn't at least try."
Although that was what he said his tone showed far more determination than his words deserved and through his wrist Cerin felt his pulse speed up as it would when one lied about something important.
But as to why he would bother lying to a stranger was beyond Cerin's knowledge, even without the influence of the other women Cerin found it tiresome to lie to strangers that she stood a high chance of never seeing again.
Still she showed no signs of calling him out on it, after all it was none of her business, and she had soothed her wounded pride by making the guy completely frazzled by her presence.
Yes, that was a bit narcissistic but not much more could be expected from Cerin who for six lifetimes was simply just not born pretty and for the other two wasn't allowed to fully use it to her advantage.
Cerin let go of the awkward man's hands and quickly finished writing in her application then handed it in and left the venue in a whirlwind of movements.
Tryfon, who she left behind stared after her lithe figure and gently pressed his slightly cool hand to his forehead and wondered if he had just hallucinated that encounter.
'She couldn't have been...hitting on me could she?'