Mina exhales a sigh as she collapses tiredly to her seat, head resting on the desk but her eyes still fixed on a certain red haired boy across the room. She massages her ankle with one hand and her knee with the other. The new pair of stilettos is giving her blisters and the amount of walk she’s done today has made it even worse. And it’s not even afternoon yet.

She has lost count the number of the times she’s walked past Mark this morning. Several times, she even made up some ridiculous excuses to call his name or speak to him so he would look up. However he still failed to notice her new outfit, particularly the wine red pencil skirt she has picked out specifically for today. It raised many brows and attracted a lot of attentions of almost everyone’s she walked past, wherever she was. Everyone, except him.

This isn’t going according to her plan, so she ponders over what she did wrong. With another sigh, she sits up straight at last and faces the computer screen after staring at him for a minute longer.

The office has emptied out. Being the last one to leave after finally finishing with the stacked up papers and files on her table (which she got rid of as soon as she was done although she clearly knows she could get into trouble for doing that the next day), Mina switches off the lights and AC and locks up before leaving.

Outside the building, temperature has dropped much lower than usual and she doesn’t have her thicker jacket with her tonight, so she makes do with the one she has and sits all huddled up alone at the bus stop, hoping that the bus would come soon enough. She tries to pull her skirt down as she sits, quite uncomfortable with the length now especially since it’s freezing.

But out of the blue she hears someone clearing his throat, and at the same time a jacket is placed down on her lap to cover her legs. She curiously looks up, only to find the same red haired boy next to her, his ears almost the same colour but she prefers to guess that it’s the cold.

“You haven’t left?” she tries to make a conversation.

“I was at that café. Uh, want some coffee? Have mine,” he answers, and hands her a cup of coffee. It’s still warm when she accepts it, and the weight tells her that it’s barely even sipped.

“Um, thanks,” she mutters before taking a sip. The warmth instantly takes over her body and her system feels refreshed. It is only later that she realizes that he might have placed his lips at the same place and scorns herself for having such thought when he’s right there beside her.

After a short lived quietness between them, he turns to her slightly. “You shouldn’t wear that kind of skirt.”

“Why?” she asks, thoroughly confused and a tad curious.

He bites his lips rather nervously and scratches the hard ground with the tip of his shoe. “Firstly it’s cold,” he begins. “Secondly, well did you see that look on Jackson’s face when he saw you this morning?”

“What look? What’s wrong with it?” she pushes teasingly, mildly amused at his tenseness.

“Let’s just say it wasn’t something that means well.”

She nods while trying to swallow down her mirth. “Well, the third reason?”

“Third reason is…” he trails off.

“Third reason is?”

“Idontreallylikeit”

It comes off as a mumble but she still heard it loud and clear, however being her playful self she pretends to not catch it. “Sorry, the car that just passed by was too loud. What did you say again?”

“Uh, I said I don’t really like the colour.”

“But it’s the colour of your hair!”

“Oh, is it?”

That earns a chuckle from her while he laughs embarrassedly at the awkwardness. They sit for a while longer until the bus arrives around five minutes later. It’s mostly empty but he fills the seat next to hers. She looks away outside the window so he won’t see the ear-to-ear grin plastered across her face.

(But he does see it on the reflection, so he looks away too to hide his.)