At an Ice Cream Shop
"Why are you still here?" Aileen asked, making me pause and stare at her in shock.
Uh!
What should I tell her? Should I tell the truth that I initially came to see her because I wanted to clear up the misunderstandings for the past two weeks. But, after seeing her who returned to behaving as usual made me reluctant.
If I brought up yesterday's problem by asking what the problem was, would she answer me openly?
Because as far as I knew, usually a woman liked to tend to answer with the sentence 'I'm fine' or 'It's okay' and in reality it was far from good but I couldn't guess what was not good.
"I.... I come to see you just to tell you that I'm leaving and I'll leave you money for your dinner later."
At the end, I decided to lie and again because I felt that I had no bond with her and we were just strangers to each other was the reason I wasn't honest with her. Whereas that was not what I wanted to say at the beginning. I didn't know where my courage went when I was still in the apartment.
Aileen's face, which was originally excited, turned gloomy again, making me speechless with the strange expression on her face.
"What's wrong with her? Shouldn't she be happy, because I'm still thinking about her," I thought confusedly.
"Oh, I thought it was because...." Aileen said softly and didn't continue her words, but instead ate her ice cream and showed an unenthusiastic face again.
"Because of what?" I asked curiously.
"No just forget it."
Silence...
After that the atmosphere returned to silence and felt awkward. I didn't think it would be like this again.
I thought our awkwardness would melt away and we would be full of chatter back because just a moment ago she was back like she used to be. But it turned out I was wrong, even Aileen ate her ice cream not with enthusiasm.
What should I do?
Until our ice cream was gone, Aileen was still silent.
"It's time for me to go back, Glenn." Aileen said suddenly, startling me so that I snapped out of my daydream and looked at her with confused blinking eyes.
"What? So fast," I replied spontaneously.
"The ice cream is finished too," Aileen continued with an awkward face.
"Then we can order one-
"No!! Um, I mean.... I'm afraid Miss Indy will looking for me," Aileen interrupted and gave an explanation.
"But you said you guys are done," I replied quickly and looked suspiciously at Aileen who was moving awkwardly.
"Ah! I hav-
"Aileen." I quickly interrupted her, making her pause and looking at me questioningly.
"Aileen, I think that we need to talk. It seems, we have a misunderstanding here," I continued and still looked at her seriously, making Aileen silent and also looking at me but with a different look.
Her gaze was filled with various expressions but I could only catch one, which was a disappointment.
"But why?" I thought confused.
"What do you mean, Glenn?"
Before answering, I took a deep breath and convinced myself that I really had to ask this, regardless of our unrelated relationship or anything.
"Aileen.... Actually, what made your attitude change in these two weeks towards me? What's wrong with you?" I asked and looked at her deeply.
I saw her flinch in surprise, but she quickly changed her facial expression back to normal.
"Me? What's wrong with me? I'm fine," Aileen replied calmly.
Huft, and that sentence came out.... I certainly didn't believe her.
"But I don't think you're fine, Ai."
Aileen returned to her shocked face, before sighing and finally looking at me, but this time she looked at me seriously.
"Huft…. I don't know, Glenn," Aileen replied in a strange tone, making me wince with her sigh as well as her answer.
"What do you mean, you don't know?" I asked immediately.
"I don't know, I even don't know myself, Glenn," Aileen answered again with the same answer.
"Then why did you inhabit me?" I asked not understanding.
"I'm not the one who inhabits you. But you did. You didn't reprimand me when we arrived at the apartment after dinner that day," Aileen said angrily, making me pause to absorb her annoyed tone.
"I'm not reprimanding you-
"And you shouldn't be silent when that woman is accusing you. You should also explain who that woman is to me. But you just kept quiet, not talking to me after I humiliated that woman. Are you angry with me because of that?"
"Not to mention many of friends were asking me about you. Who are you, where did I know you..., huh! Annoying."
It took me a while to process what she was saying, because I was confused about what Aileen was actually angry about right now.
Why was she bringing up about Zoya as well as her friends asking about me? What was my business with her friends asking me?
Please could somebody explain it to me.
"Wait a minute," I said.
"Hmm." Aileen muttered and looked away.
"Actually, what are you talking about? Why did you mention, that woman and your friends in our conversation?" I asked confused.
However, Aileen fell silent and reluctant to look at me.
Good grief...
I fell silent again, to digest what she meant at this time. Then I inhaled, exhaled slowly and tried to calm down.
"Earlier you said 'that woman'. Did you mean the woman who interrupted our dinner?" I asked which Aileen responded by nodding.
"Yes."
"In that case, I'll explain it to you. You listen to me carefully," I continued and she turned to me.
"Ok."
"So, she's my ex who asked to break up with me. The owner of the room before you occupied it, did you understand?" I explained then asked with Aileen who nodded again.
"Then?"
"Then why I didn't respond at that time the answer was because I didn't want to prolong the problem. That's all," I replied with a shrug.
Aileen was not satisfied with my answer. She was still looking at me with a demanding look like a wife who still didn't believe her husband's explanation. Even though I told her the truth, she still wasn't satisfied.
"Then?"
"Oh.... Looks like I really have to explain it thoroughly." I thought to myself.
"Then, I'm not angry with you. Instead I'm proud of you, because you act mature when dealing with her, not childish or replying with anarchic things."
"Hmm...."
"For the reason I didn't reprimand you. I don't know. At that time I saw you looked annoyed and you should know, Ai. If I'm not a person who likes to meddle with people's problems, so I think it's better to leave you alone at that time."
"...."
"I thought it was you Ai, who was angry with me. Your face looked annoyed." I continued and asked back about her face that looked unsightly the last two weeks.
And immediately Aileen's expression turned nervous, when I asked about the strange expression on her face that seemed annoyed with me.
"Now it's your turn to explain why you seem angry with me. What did I do wrong, so that you inhabited me for two weeks?"
Aileen didn't answer my question right away, but remained silent with a panicked face and eyes rolling left and right, as if she was currently confused how to answer my questions.
"Ok, supposedly, you are really annoyed with me, then you should tell me immediately, Ai. We are not children anymore. You always say you are not a kid anymore, right? Now tell me, what is the reason you are showing an annoyed expression to me? And what do I have to do with your upset to your friends. Explain it everything, Ai."
Again, Aileen only displayed her anxious expression and I didn't know why, but it made me have nonsense thoughts.
"I don't want to hope, because your future is much more important and your journey is still very long. I don't want to be an obstacle for you, Ai," I thought in pain in the midst of her silence.
To be continued.