Count yourself lucky

A pair of hazel eyes skimmed through her body's reflection in the mirror, her fingers worked up on her hair to comb through them, trying to figure out how it could look better and more voluminous.

Her hands soon moved to caress the fabric of the shirt, looking to smoothen out the non-existing creases.

Taking a deep breath, she took two steps back and looked at her overall outfit. 'Everything looks fine, nothing over the top, right?'

She wore a beige oversized shirt paired with sleek black pants, finishing the look with a pair of casual sneakers. 'Yep, looks good.'.

She reached for her favorite perfume, spritzing a delicate mist onto her wrists and neck, the scent subtly enveloping her.

Next, she grabbed her lip gloss, applying an even layer on her lips. Looking at the soft shine on her lips made her grin but soon her smile dropped down. 'I don't look sick though'

Grabbing a piece of paper towel, she gently dabbed it on her lips to tone down the tint a bit. 'Looks better'.

Looking at the bedside table, her gaze fell on the clock, and in the next second, her eyes widened. There were only five minutes left till the clock would hit 7. She swallowed down the scream she wanted to let out.

Her legs moved swiftly to run out of her room and make her way downstairs, but just as she was about to reach the living room, she cursed inwardly before making her way back to her room.

She grabbed her phone and the paper bag placed on her bed and in the next minute, she was already out of her house.

Five minutes passed by as she continued walking, her heart skipping a beat once the tall gates of the community park came into her view.

Entering the place surrounded by lush greenery and some food stalls, she went a bit further where several benches were placed under tall trees.

'There he is', she thought, glancing at the silhouette of his back. She moved further, taking note of how he was heavily engrossed in his phone.

Wanting to give him a slight jump scare, she leaned down a bit, her face just a bit far from his head as she whispered in his ear, "Hey"

'Wrong move'

In the next second, Tian had moved his head in her direction, the distance between their faces reducing to mere inches as the pairs of brown and hazel eyes widened simultaneously at the unexpected closeness. 

Cynthia visibly gulped down her nervousness, her eyes falling to his shoulder, unable to maintain eye contact with him.

She moved back, her action slow at first and then she chose to stand up straight.

It didn't take more than a moment for her face to put on fire, her eyes closing for a moment to berate herself.

She glanced down at the boy, noticing that he hadn't moved an inch which startled her. 'Is he offended?', she frowned, 'But this was truly an accident.'

She cleared her throat and smiled, "I am sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

Tian jerked his head up and looked at her intently before dropping his gaze to the ground, the tremors in his heart still refusing to calm down, "No, no, it's fine."

He stood up as he gestured for her to come forward and take a seat. She sat down and Tian followed suit, with some distance between them as neither chose to speak for some time.

Cynthia broke the silence by asking, "I hope you didn't wait too long?" Tian refused with a breathy chuckle, "Not at all. I just got here."

"How's your headache?", he asked further, tilting his body toward her. "It's a bit better. I guess, the discomfort is because of the heat.", she answered.

"Of course, not everyone has a friend like me who knows some techniques which could help them. I am the lucky one.", she joked and this prompted him to chuckle.

"That's true. It's not every day that I share my techniques with someone. So, count yourself lucky.", he spoke, instantly creating a lighter air around them.

Cynthia jokingly rolled her eyes at him, her lips pulling up to form a smile, "Yeah, sure. Now, what was the technique you were talking about?", she asked him.

She stared at Tian's face as she saw the smile on his face slowly dropping, revealing an almost embarrassed expression.

"Give me your hand."

She did a double take at his words, the tone in which he spoke that sent her mind into overdrive. "I mean, I would have to hold your hand for that."

She slowly nodded, her hand raising to place hers onto his stretched-out palm. Now that she was super conscious about him because of touch, she realized that their knees had come to touch as they sat next to each other closely.

She sighed, her heart beating a bit faster, and she could a blush creeping up on her cheeks.

Her breath hitched when he placed their connected palms on his knee. She won't deny that she wanted this moment to last. At least a bit longer.

"It's called He Gu." His voice brought her out of her stupor, as she stared at him while he focused on her hand.

"This technique, I have used this on myself a lot. There's another called Tai Chong but it is done on the feet so we will just focus on this."

"Alright.", she affirmed and watched as his skillful hands parted her index finger and her thumb to form a 'L' before he gently started to massage the fleshy area between them.

Soon, his fingers started to work on pressing the base of her fingers until the tip.

Heck, she honestly didn't even need any techniques, just looking at him from so close, cured everything for her.

She released the breath that she was unconsciously holding, as she stared at his face, looking extra charming as he focused on her…palm.

Her wandered off to glance at the other benches and her face flushed further when she realized that most of the people surrounding them were couples and they sat just as they did- while holding hands.

Obviously, the reasons were different but well…her gaze focused back on the man next to her. He was so close.

She focused on the subtle show of his neck, her gaze traveling up to focus on his lips- the upper one being a bit thinner than the lower one. She swallowed. 'No dirty thoughts, Cynthia'

Her eyes moved upwards to look at his nose, his eyes which were casted downwards, his silky brown hair, pushed back but even then, a few strands came to fall on his forehead.

'He looks ethereal', she thought, her gaze traveling downwards, wishing to gaze at his features once again but this time, her gaze didn't see his eyes cast downwards.

They were looking at her.

Chocolate brown orbs met her hazel ones, her breath turning shallow when she realized that they were just staring at each other without breaking away.

Her gaze moved downwards, her eyes taking note of how his Adam's apple bobbed up and down as he visibly gulped.

"It's done."