It was a rather cloudy Saturday morning. You got up from bed groggily as you proceeded to start your day. After getting ready and eating breakfast, you decided to browse the internet as you waited for Mark to arrive. About an hour later, you heard a knock at your front door and went to go answer it. You expected to be greeted with a smile by Mark, but instead, his face gave off a rather serious and tired vibe. "Hey, Mark" you greeted. "Hey." Mark entered your house and took off his shoes. He then turned to look at you. Waiting for you to lead him further inside. "Let's set up in the living room." You decided to ignore his change in behavior, thinking that he was probably just having a bad day. Mark followed you and plopped down onto the sofa. He got out his laptop and set it on the dining room table. You sat down rather close to him with your laptop in front of you. Mark could smell the scent of raspberries coming from you due to your close proximity and decided to scoot himself away from you. "Okay, then." He heard you say to yourself. , maybe I should have listened to the guys and made up an excuse not to come today. "Why don't we start with just researching the topic first and then we can discuss our findings afterwards." Mark just silently nodded his head at you.

The two of you worked in silence for about an hour. You turned your heads towards Mark and asked if he would like to discuss about how the paper should be written. "Whatever, you want." His nonchalant replies were slowly starting to get on your nerves, but you decided to just ignore it. "I'll set up a google doc. You can just add your part in and then we'll arrange it later." Mark noticed that you were starting to give him the cold shoulders, causing his heart to twist in pain. I'm sorry, Aria. I know I must come off as a douche right now, but I need to control myself. Especially today of all days. I'm afraid that if I don't keep my emotions in check I'll end up doing something that I might regret. The two of you continued to work without speaking to each other. After awhile, you interrupted Mark to ask him about the order of the essay. "Do you think this part should go here, or here?" Mark gave you another nonchalant reply "Whatever is fine." Frustrated that he wasn't giving much of an input, you finally lost your temper. "Okay. You know what, Mark? Maybe it's better if we just work on this paper by ourselves since you don't seem to want to talk to me." At your cold remarks, Mark finally turned to face you. "That's not it at all, its just that" Before he could finish, you interrupted. "Just what?" It's just that if I so much as look at you I know I won't be able to control myself. Instead of choosing to answer, Mark just turned his head away. 

"I get that you're probably having a bad day, but that's no reason to act like this. You know, you could have just told me that you wanted to stay home instead if you weren't feeling well." Mark knew that you were speaking the truth. He should have just stayed home instead of forcing himself to come. Since you weren't getting a response from him you decided that you've had enough. "Just go home, Mark. We'll just finish the paper separately and put it together online" you said with a sigh. It was hurting him to see you push him away, but he knew that it was best if he left you alone. "Alright, I'll go home then." He proceeded to pack his things and walked towards the front door. You sat in your spot on the sofa, not even bothering to walk him out. Before leaving and without turning to look at you, Mark gave you an apology. "I'm sorry, Aria." And with that, he left and closed the door behind him. You sat still in your spot for a good minute before letting out a loud sigh. You got up and headed towards the front door to lock it. Your mood for the rest of the day was anything but joyful as you tried to finish the paper.

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The next day, Mark decided to head to your house to formally apologized to you. He approached your front door and knocked a couple of times as he waited for you to answer. However, there was no reply. He knocked a couple more times, but you never came to answer the door. Is she not home? He decided to head towards the river where the two of you had gone previously, hoping that you were there. However, when he got there you were nowhere in sight. Out of options he decided to text Yuri to ask if she knew of your whereabouts. Five minutes later, a reply came back. I know of one place where she might be. There's a clearing in the forest not too far from her house with a small pond in the middle. It's one of her favorite places to visit when she wants to be alone. Hope that helps! Mark texted back a "thank you" as he decided to backtrack to your house and tried to find the clearing from there. As soon as he made it back to your house, he looked around to try to find a path that could lead off somewhere else. After walking up the road past your house for a bit, Mark noticed a small dirt path and decided to follow it. As he walked through the forest, his keen ears picked up on the sound of a kalimba being played somewhere off in the distance. He decided to follow the sound and come upon the clearing that Yuri mentioned. He saw your figure sitting beside the pond as he slowly approached you.

You were focused with playing your kalimba that you didn't notice or hear someone approaching you, until you saw a pair of feet in front of you. Startled, you gave a small yelped and turned to look at whoever approached you. Seeing that it was Mark, you gave a frown and turned to face the pond. "What are you doing here?" you asked while trying to avoid eye contact. Mark proceeded to sit himself down next to you. "I was looking for you. I figured you were probably still mad about" he paused for a moment "yesterday, and I wanted to apologize to you in person. I texted you to let you know I was coming, but your phone seems to be turned off." You remained silent for awhile before you decided to reply to him. "That's because I didn't want to be found." It saddened Mark that you were still upset with him. "Aria, I'm really sorry about what happened between us yesterday. You were right about everything. I was having a bad day." More than you would know. "And I should have just stayed home instead of forcing myself to come. It was never my intention to start an argument with you." The apologetic tone in his voice was very sincere which caused you to turn and make eye contact with him. Seeing the pleading look in his eyes for your forgiveness made you feel slightly guilty. "I accept your apology, Mark. I just hope that you could be more honest with me going foreword." Relieved that you were no longer angry at him, he answered to your promise. "I promise I'll be more honest with you in the future." I just hope that when I do tell you the truth you won't push me away. I don't think I could bear it. 

Mark decided to change the subject now that the two of you are on good terms again. "So, what song were you playing on your kalimba?" he asked, eyeing your kalimba. "It's called River Flows in You by Yiruma. Have you heard of it?" you asked. "I don't think I have. Can you play it for me?" he asked, once again giving you his charming smile. You smiled in return as you got ready to play. "Sure." For the rest of the day, the two of you sat as you played while he listened. Both enjoying the other's company.