After the woman Marga left, Yana's working day continued normally. At noon the store was empty and closed for the lunch break. The perfect opportunity for Luka to set all his knowledge into motion he wasn't able to do because of all the customers.
Luka casually followed Yana to the breakroom and just like the day prior seated himself next to her. Then he stared at her, waiting for the perfect opportunity to pull out his phone and put it in front of her.
With an unfazed voice devoid of his hidden excitement said, "Here, order yourself something to eat."
Luka tried to be as unbothered as possible while he looked out of the window but his insides were twisting with anticipation.
Yet again destroying his presumed joy, Yana gave him an eye roll before she pulled out her lunch and started to eat muttering, "Should feel lucky enough I'm tolerating you next to me. Don't get too ahead of yourself."
And so Luka's heart shattered. He embarrassedly put his phone away and said aggrieved, "Can you give me some of your lunch? I forgot mine."
Luka knew that Yana never easily shared her food, not back then and not now, so he tried to look as pitiful as possible.
Yana didn't know how she could make it any clearer to him that she wanted him out of her life! No matter how cold she acted, how much she ignored him, he stuck like sap to the tree to her. Shouldn't he get conscious by now? Yet here he was trying to get her attention. Yana couldn't help but feel it was because of his ulterior motives.
"Just ordered yourself," Yana absolutely brushed him off ignoring his sad gaze and his lowered puppy eyes. Truth to be told, it wasn't easy for Yana to endure a big puppy next to her.
Every time she was about to give in and shower him with some attention, she instantly reminded herself that Luka wasn't who he seemed to be. The pretence of his feelings for her weren't genuine.
And so Yana was able to control herself and remain iron in front of him.
"But it'd take too long," now Luka was sulking.
Yana's lips turned into a fine line, when she asked, "Then why did you even ask me to order."
"Because if it's for you, the food will come faster."
He actually had the face to say that cringy stuff! Yana's face remained blank as she shovelled more food to escape this situation. She knew that Luka most definitely would force Bao to speedrun through the city since a car couldn't possibly get through because of the protests. That poor assistant.
"Bao would go fast for you too."
"…" Luka was caught. He coughed once before shamelessly asking for a second time, "So, please share with me."
Yana looked Luka dead in the eyes before she stood up and walked to his locker. She opened it, rummaged a bit before pulling out Luka's lunch. Luka's face now blanked. He coughed again.
"It's not good to lie."
"Ok," Luka obediently took the lunch and started to eat. His face was really thick so he didn't mind this awkward lie of his. But now he was in a dilemma. Luka constantly looked at his food then at Yana's. He wanted to share his food with her but yesterday taught him that she only ran away. He wanted to taste her food but she rejected it.
Life was too hard on Luka. No, his romantic life was. No matter what he did, he could never earn Yana's affection. Maybe Luka didn't try hard enough. He followed the love advice, the romance books but that wasn't enough. Luka wasn't well-versed in relationships. He has never received love from his family since a young age, so he was at a loss how to show it.
Despite this, he still desperately tried to convey his love, care and genuineness for Yana but it just didn't work, and this made Luka incredibly sad. If he knew how to easily capture Yana's heart, he wouldn't need to rely on all those words written by someone else. Luka hoped Yana saw his sincerity and come to appreciate it but why did he feel like a pest?
Well, the answer was clear and Luka knew it because Yana found him annoying. The mere words he casually used to describe Yana back then and unintentionally hurt her were attached to him. How ironic. Luka watched how Yana quickly ate her food and stopped. It's been only 10 minutes of the 2-hour break, yet Yana wanted to be away from him as fast as possible.
Seeing Yana like this, her face that was turned away from him, her brilliant eyes that mesmerised everyone but him, her smile that was never directed at him, the stinging in his heart only grew more painful until Luka finally couldn't take it anymore.
Just when Yana was about to leave, he caught the rim of her shirt and dropped his head. The next words that came out of his mouth not only shocked Yana but also Luka himself. It was so helpless and lonely.
"Can you please be a bit nicer to me? Just a bit?" it was a soft beg, a hopeless prayer and an endless void of desperation. Just a single wish that has hardened his heart, caused ripples of longing and suffocating weight to bury him.
This was all he wanted. For them to even take it slow, to even take baby steps, Yana had to be willing to acknowledge his presence.
When Yana heard these words, something inside of her started to crumble. She has never thought that Luka, the Luka she always thought to be evil, teasing and mocking could actually be so vulnerable.
Yana slowly turned to him. His fingers still gripped a tiny piece of her clothes not wanting her to leave while his head was lowered and his hair fell over his face, making it hard to discern what face he made at the moment.
Luka's words seemed to be of true helplessness and pain. It almost caused Yana to immediately hug and coax him but at the last second, she stopped herself. This was all just an act. Calm down. Yana took a deep breath and then swatted Luka's hand away. Neither too gentle nor too harsh.
Yana really needed to finish this mission as soon as possible. The more she stayed with Luka, the more she was swayed and bound by him. Once again, Yana only thought that Luka was dangerous.
Thus, she brushed off this pitiful form not noticing the sadness and pain on his face when she coldly said, "I'm already nice enough to you. So stop bothering me. I don't want to have anything to do with you. When can you understand?"
And then-
BAM.
The door slammed shut leaving only devastation and agony behind swirling around Luka biting into every part of his skin, to seep into his bloodstream and curse in his veins.