[CONTENTID1] Moonlight Walk [/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]27/12/16[/CONTENTID2]

[CONTENTID3]AshHossain[/CONTENTID3]

[CONTENTID4]

“Leo? Are you still here?”

A sultry voice sliced through my thoughts and I looked up. Looking straight into her eyesmy head nodded in an uneasy motion. Her fingertip swirling on the edge of her coffee mug, as her eyes filled with an unknown kind of sorrow. Thinking this was the same lady a few days ago, trying desperately to get me into her bed surprised me greatly. I took another sip from my coffee.

“We have been going out for two weeks….. But you still haven’t said anything about yourself to me….neither have ever contacted me on your own accord,” her finger came to a halt while she darted her gaze away from me.

“Am I really not that appealing to you? Do I lack in beauty or style or anything?”

This time Ipaused. I haven’t actually noticed what she had worn when she came to visit me, neither had I ever taken any notion of knowing what she was trying to do. What I did was what I was told to do by my father. And ‘going out’ was an understatement that I agreed to use with her.

“Will you say anything?” her voice winced and I put down my coffee mug. According to father, there were a few rules I had to follow. Among them number one was  

I was not suppose to make her cry.

It seems I had disobeyed rule number one because she seemed at the verge of crying.

“Sophie-sshi, I-”

“It’s Sophie for you,” her voice was firm.

“Hm….”

Rule number two, she is valuable so treat her properly as to act according to her words.

“Sophie-sshi, I do not have any interest in you,” I sternly said and her eyelids dropped.

Rule number three, never let her realize that you are there because of business purpose.

“Why are you here then?” she whimpered.

“The same reason why you are here,” her weak already seemed hurt by my words-eyes looked straight into my icy black one.

“Business purpose…” And I took another sip of my coffee while she gulped at my words.

“We are both lambs to be sacrificed.”

She didn’t say anything after that, her gaze avoiding me the whole time she sat there. In case a drop of tear fall and she becomes the weaker party among us. I didn’t ask her anything either. All I did was drink my coffee silently and hoping her to finally give me the long desirable break that I had been waiting for.

I looked out of the glass wall to the opposite side of the road. The middle aged lady on the second floor again poured dirty water on some passer by, and the teenage waitress kept on jumping around everywhere for orders. The scenarios never change. It has been the same for the past year. I looked down at the table and a few old memories flashed back, making me smile a little.

I was always alone when I sat here before, this seat was always reserved for me. And sitting here with someone was out of my idea at a time. So when did it change?

My trails of thoughts drove me back two weeks ago when I first reserved this seat to meet the passport guy. Even his thoughts had me smiling and my mind started to wonder how he had been doing all these times.

Rule number four, return your cell phone and use the one that I give you. From now on you will only contact those that I allow you to.

I lost my contacts. I wonder if he had ever tried to contact me after that day instead.

“Hyung, somebody is already seating here.”

A rather loud cheery voice shouted by my side to disrupt me from my own thoughts. I looked to that direction, finding an young man around or probably Younger than me with blonde hair yelling at the front door. Well, I suppose it was not only I who was observing him, but also all the eyes gawked at that man , after all maybe to his oblivion but he was loud which had troubled a few.

The young waitress came running towards him,

“Hello there! How are you?”

The girl's voice that was filled with enthusiasm caught my eyes. It was rather rare to see her in that state. After all coming here this often all I managed to notice from her was that tired face that only filled with complains, and looked for someone to pour those troubled talkings into. Seeing her that excited had even by the slightest made me curious, that in my own subconcious I started prying on their words.

“Ah! Part timer! Long time no see! It seems you have a lot of customers today,”The jittery guy replied.

“Is teacher with you?” her voice sounding extra bright at the mention of teacher.

And the jittery man nodded while his head pointed at a man ordering food,wearing hoodie. To my own surprise, for an unknown reason I became curious to know about that person. I tried to find a reason for the unknown irrational behaviour of mine, and my gaze automatically diverted to the happy face of the the waitress.

Is it because of her? Why?

“Shall we leave?” Sophie’s voice distracted me.

“Huh? Ow… you finished?” My voice sounded desperate as if I didn’t want her to finish.

Okay….my mind is again working on it’s own now…...great….. I need to see a doctor.

“ There was nothing much to eat anyway. A coffee at-” she raised her hand to take a view of her watch, “ 6:39pm. So it is not that of a big deal to finish it so soon..” she sounded as if her voice could cut ice and her eyes could melt iron with the fire burning in them.

It would be a lie if I had said that her gaze had not startled me hence I again started to ponder about what I had done to enrage her this much.

“Perhaps I am too old for your taste. But be sure about one thing, your parents would not allow you to marry, or perhaps to date a teenage girl.”

And her stony tone made it pretty clear to me about what wrong she had just guessed about my intuition of looking at the waitress. I froze as too much perplexed to what should I do next. It was not as if her anger had any effect on me, neither fixing her mistake was of any value to me but I seemed to become troubled again for some unknown reason.

Shall I make an appointment to the doctor tomorrow or today…

She stood up from her seat, eyes still fixed into mine, “I suppose you would be too busy in some work that you wouldn’t care about driving me home?” She sounded oblivious but was hell accurate. Therefore I remained silent. Now it was us who was the center of all the attention of all the pairs of eyes that belonged to men followed by the jealous look of ladies. The way she dressed in an elegant burgundy satin dress with an open back styling and sweeping full-length hemline was not something that was suited for a mere cafe. But she looked attractive while her face screamed wrath and that was all that the men around the area had to care for while I kept constantly biting the inside of my bottom lips.

I hated that unwanted attention.

“Well then, I wi-”

“He never said that he won't take you to your home, did he now?” A voice filled with elegancy flowed towards our direction as we both turned to look at him.

That voice...it’s not….

Taking the hoodie off of his head he flashed me a generous smile,

“We met again, Leo-sshi….”

And I just slowly nodded at his direction. That was all that my brain had told me to do.

------------------------------------

“Who would you be?” the lady curtly asked as I slowly shifted my gaze upon her. Yes, no doubt she was an attractive one, and then my peek darted towards the fair figure sitting across her. Surely, I had no interest in couple things, but admiring what’s great is not something wrong to do, is it now? That’s what I did. I admired how those two looked all perfect together.

“Just a normal kindergarten teacher.” the smile stretched, “An acquaintance, if you mean who I was to Leo-sshi.”

“Ow,” she sent me a smile of her own bowing a little before me customarily, but I did not fail to notice how the smile never reached her eyes.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Sophie, Leo’s..” she inhaled an uneasy breath while her eyes searched for words to describe her current position. It didn’t take me that long to realize that she was the very same lady that I had heard the voice over phone a few days back. The difference was she seemed different from what I had imagined her to be.

“Girlfriend?” curiosity flickered in my tone, “You two look great together,” and I tried to make it sound trustworthy. Her eyes for a brief moment filled with joy while the other pair definitely did not enjoy my uninvited comment on their chemistry.

“Why does teacher know that scary ajusshi?” from behind I could hear the troubled voice of the teen, asking Ken who probably just shuddered at her words.

“Thank you,” she sounded genuine, “but he really doesn’t have any wish of driving me home.” And unknown sadness covered her stare.

“Well he has to,” While I sounded obvious. The quiet one finally found a word to say, “Why?”

Changing my direction at him I saw him frowning.

“It's quite a ruckus that you have created over here. All the eyes are still glaring at you. Now even for a fake courtesy you should do that.” and he didn’t take a split second to reply back,

“I don’t care about what people think.”

“Then care about what the workers here think. It seems that you are a regular here.” neither was I late to retort back. He just clicked his tongue at my remark and I let out a sigh.

“You know, they think you are scary and now you will also turn into a meanie.” I slowly whispered. He didn’t budge and for a moment there I was too sure that I was not in a place to fix this problem. I don’t even wanna color him black….he truly is colorl-

But the moment he stood up, looking out of the glass wall I realized maybe….maybe I wasn’t that out of place after all.

“Please sit here” he quietly said looking at the foods I had been holding in my arm for quite long. Then his gaze moved to her, “Shall we go?” and her ones widened