Lin Que didn't want to make it look awkward or uncomfortable for her, so he quickly snapped out of his stare and pretended to check messages on his phone. Once in a while, his eyes would subconsciously wander and look up to see the girl either fanning herself or blowing air through her mouth from the spiciness. Short strands of her fringe would then follow the direction of her exhaled air and fly upwards.
Although the ghost peppers and chili sauce in her bowl made his eyes water from a distance, she didn't seem to be affected by it at all. She bravely devoured strands of vermicelli noodles and other vegetable toppings in the deep red soup.
The scent alone was enough for his stomach to reverse the tangle dance and stop growling. The corners of his lips curved up when he saw how much she ate and how she could care less about her surroundings. With the apron tied around her neck and waist, she literally gave no shits of eating like a lady.
Unlike the girls who are always conscious of their appearances, she was very carefree. 'How adorable.' He thought to himself and held back his smile. He spread the menu again to hide his smirk.
Minding his own business, he started to distract himself with Alan's text messages. Oddly, the chewing movements had suddenly stopped, and he didn't hear anything from across the table anymore. Curiously, he looked up after a few more minutes of silence. When he looked up, he saw the girl's reddened lips sucking on the thin straw, trying to use the lemon ice water to cool the temperature in her mouth down.
When that didn't work, she took another piece of clean napkin from her side of the table and covered her face. A soft chuckle left his mouth as he thought, 'That's not going to help with the spiciness. Hehe.'
Suddenly, her right arm reached upwards to press the napkin down onto her eyes area. Through the thin layer of the napkin, he could see her taking slow deep breaths. Something didn't seem right and he observed for another minute before taking a bunch of napkins to give to her.
His eyes were settled on the spicy bowl in front of her. Should he applaud her for her courageous act of finishing up the ghost peppers all at once? Even if someone has a stomach made of steel, their stomach would burn like hell later.
"Miss, are you feeling alright?" His furrowed brows and concerned tone made her sit up almost immediately. Covering her flushed ears with her hair, she said, "I'm feeling fine. Thanks."
She took the napkins that he had handed over and pressed the server button to get her bill. Reaching into her handbag to look for her wallet, she didn't realize that her new case of business cards had dropped onto her seat. Using the machine on the table, she successfully paid and tipped the waiter.
Without another look, she stood up to leave in a hurry. The reason why she had left was because the last express bus that would bring her straight to her block departs around this time. When she removed the napkin earlier, she saw the time on her watch and gasped at how late it was.
Watching her leave in a rush, his eyes followed her track and saw her running to get on the express bus. He let out a sigh, "Ah, she's trying to catch that express bus." His eyes wandered back to the empty seat in front of him after she had gotten onto the bus on time. The image of her breathing through her bruised lips and trying to fan out the spiciness appeared in his mind again, making him laugh to himself.
As he reached out for his glass of lemon water, he realized that she had left something on her seat. "Clumsy," he whispered and held the case of business cards in his hands. Snapping his neck sideways, he noticed that the bus had long left its spot and there was no way in catching up to it with this traffic.
He sighed and decided to open the case to see if there was an information on it that he could contact. "Hmm...Blogger agency. Lily Jiang.." A mischievous smile curved on his face as he noted to himself that they will meet again.
Soon, the waiter brought his serving of spicy bowl and placed it in front of him. For once, he took a picture of his late-night dinner and posted it on his social media. Within seconds after the picture was uploaded, he received a text from Lucas and Alan. They were spamming him nonstop.
Due to the annoying flood of messages, he created a group chat with the two chatting devils in it.
Lucas: "Oh my god! Bro, you created a group chat!!!"
Alan: "Wait, wait! What?!! Are you at that spicy bowl restaurant?! Who are you with? You never post pictures to your moments!"
Lucas: "^ Exactly!!! What happened? Did someone have you take that picture and upload it? Hmmmm? Suspicious! Are you really my big brother?"
Alan: "Maybe his account got hacked."
Lucas: "Or maybe he is dining with my future sister-in-law!! Damn, are you already feeding me dog food this early in the morning?"
Alan: "What? Who? Who?? @LinQue since when did you get yourself a wife and I didn't know?"
Lucas: "@Alan, she was the girl from brother's graduation picture! The one who coincidentally got captured by my amazing photography skills! Look, look. I forwarded the picture!"
[Graduation picture]
Alan zoomed in and said, "Oh!!! Isn't she that girl we met at the Anime Convention? Wow, wow, wow!!!!! And I thought you lived under a rock for all these years. Didn't you say you weren't going to get involved because she had a boyfriend or something?"
Lucas: "What?! Which jerk could compete with my brother?"
Lin Que read their amusing messages and finally responded, "We only met by chance. I'm eating alone."
Lucas: "!!!!"
Alan: "...Lin Que, pass me some of that luck too."
While Lin Que was being bombarded with more messages in the chat, Lily was sitting in the bus with earphones plugged into her ears. Watching everything pass by in slow motion, flashbacks of her and Hawk's happy memories started to float in her memories.
Back then, when they used to get out of school and hang out...
Back then, when they used to share one Mcdonald meal happily...
Back then, then they thought less about the future and where their relationship was going...
...Back when everything was much simpler...
'When did the content feeling fade and everything become the way it did today?' She asked herself throughout the entire ride. Little by little, she passed by the places that they once walked by while holding each other's hands happily. Those were good times.
Pressing the stop request button, she got off the following stop and walked home alone.
Turning around to see the bus driving farther away, an acceptance smile appeared on her face.
"It's not that anything had changed. It's just that we're already on separate paths and seeing two different goals. When a puzzle piece doesn't belong in the puzzle, no matter how much one forces it in; it would never fit. Even if the puzzle is trimmed to fit, it'll never be the perfect match. Hawk, it seems like time really taught us a lot." She whispered and walked into her apartment building.
Her warm palms reached to her lower abdomen and slowly, wrinkled on the hoodie that she was wearing. A thin layer of sweat highlighted her pale expression as she waited for the elevator. 'Argh, must be the ghost peppers from earlier.'
Bending slightly forward with her hand against her stomach, she knew she was heading towards a doomed end when Ginny and her mom see her like this.