I met you on a gloomy friday night. A night where I had nowhere else to go to except for the nearby convenience store. I paid for my drink and a bowl of ramyun and headed out the store to sit and have my meal in peace. That’s when I saw you, sitting alone at the table that was vacant a little while ago. My first thoughts were ‘oh sh*t where do I go now’ as I stood outside the door of the store with the wooden chopsticks in between my teeth. I didn’t make a sound or maybe I thought I didn’t but nevertheless you turned around and saw me standing there. You stared at me blankly as I did the same and just when I was about to act like I was heading toward who knows where, you gestured towards the seat opposite you and said,

 

“It’s okay. You can take a seat here if you want to. I’m about to leave anyways.”

 

I nodded my head and walked over to that seat, putting down all I had. I thanked you before I sat down and you nodded your head and smiled at me before taking a sip of your drink. As you drank your can of coke, I took a look at you in between my slurps of ramyun. Your long hair was tucked behind your ears and the sleeves of your gray hoodie covered your hands. It looked cute when you held your can of coke and the only thing I could see were those long sleeves covering your hands. Did I think you were pretty? Well at that moment I wasn’t sure and to be honest, I didn’t think much about it. I guess I was more concerned about finishing up my bowl of ramyun and filling up my empty stomach.

 

“Is it that nice? I’ve never tried that flavour before.”

 

I glanced up from my bowl and saw you looking timidly at me waiting for my reply. I guess I was confused for a second because I never expected you to talk to me. Maybe that’s why I turned to look behind me before looking puzzlingly back at you.

 

“Ah am I disturbing your meal? Sorry. I was just wondering what it tasted like.”

 

You gave me an apologetic expression followed by a warm smile and I felt flustered for not replying to you.

 

“No it’s okay. I just thought you weren’t speaking to me. It’s a nice flavour, my favourite actually. You should really give it a try.”

 

I gave an awkward laugh and then I popped open my own can drink because I felt like I had to hide my face because that laugh was embarrassing and why did I even make that sound?

 

“You make it look really delicious though. I feel tempted to buy it now.”

 

And then she laughs. A short sweet kind of laughter unlike my awkward one. Her laugh made it seem like we were friends hanging out and having a drink after a long day. On that gloomy night, it felt refreshing. Like a gentle breeze passing by as I walk down the chilly streets late at night. Or maybe I’m just exaggerating everything? But I had no doubt that her laugh was the thing that captivated me. I didn’t know it was going to be a trap and even if I knew would I have avoided it though?

 

Was that it? Was that the start of the lie? Her laugh. Did it draw me in and refused to let me out?

 

Maybe that was it. Maybe I was captivated by that laugh thus I somehow blurted out a sentence without giving much thought to it.

 

“Would you like to try some?”

 

At first she looked a little stunned and I would have felt the same if a random stranger asked me the same thing. I guess she wasn’t expecting the offer and truth be told I didn’t expect myself to do that either. But it would have been weird to take back my words so I just looked at her and gestured my chopsticks to her.

 

“Oh really? You’ll let me taste it for real?”

 

“Yeah. I mean unless you don’t want to then it’s okay. But you’ll regret it cause this flavour is really really nice.”

 

She looks at me and I merely nodded my head to say ‘go ahead’ as I push the bowl of ramyun towards her. She hesitates before taking the chopsticks from my hands and with one final look at me for confirmation, she took two slurps from my bowl of ramyun. She pushes the bowl back to me, handed me my chopsticks and thanked me before downing down her can of coke.

 

“So how is it?”

 

“A little spicy but it’s really good. Especially on a night like this. You have excellent taste my friend.”

 

And she does her little laugh again. And I think that second laughter was the one that pulled me entirely in. At that moment I took a good look at her. Her hair was now untucked and it hung nicely a little below her shoulders. Her gray hoodie looked a little too big for her with its long sleeves. She looked warm and huggable even though her eyes were starting to get a little teary and her nose was starting to turn a light shade of red. She gave a little sniff and her nose got even redder.

 

“Are you okay?”

 

“Yeah I’m fine. I’m just not that good at eating spicy food even when they taste really good.”

 

She smiles at me and fans her face by flapping her long sleeves as an attempt to cool it down.

She looked kinda adorable as she did that and I must have smiled a little because she then said,

 

“Is my face really red now? My nose probably looks like a tomato.”

 

I shook my head and pushed my can drink towards her.

 

“Ah no it’s okay. I can just get another coke.”

 

She pushes the can away but I just push it back to her as I say,

“I take spicy really well. Drink it. Your eyes are getting teary.”

 

“Ah really? I told myself I wouldn’t cry earlier, what is this?”

 

She laughs at herself in disbelieved and I’m not sure what to say in response so I just smile at her while she slowly cups the can in her hands and bring it up to her lips.

 

“If you insist then I’ll drink it but I’m going to buy you another can.”

 

I nodded my head in reply and watch as she downs the drink. She finishes it up without stopping to take a breath and thanked me as she placed the can down onto the table. Her phone that was on the table starts to buzz and as she takes a moment to stare at the screen, I take the time to drink up the remaining soup left in my bowl of ramyun.

I drank it all up and with a satisfied sigh, I lightly slammed the bowl down onto the table.

 

“That must have been really good for you to sigh like that.”

 

“It is. I never get tired of it although if I keep eating it I might go bald.”

 

She laughs politely at my lameness and I don’t know why she keeps laughing. I want her to stop doing that actually but I didn’t mind her laughing at me. That’s what I wanted then but now I want her to keep laughing with me instead.

 

“Oh. Your phone keeps ringing. Is it a call?”

 

She takes a look at the screen before flipping the phone onto its cover.

 

“It’s not. I just keep getting messages from this person.”

 

I nod my head in reply and my mind starts to wonder who that person might be just out of curiosity.