5 Sunglass Lady

Earlier that day…

Su Wang Ming was running late to catch his train to Guangzhou. He slept in that morning after staying up late to finish packing for his trip. He regrets procrastinating it to the last minute. He ran across the train station and found his gate just in time before the train was set to leave.

He fumbled to find his ticket and quickly boarded the train, mentally memorizing his seat number. The train was fairly empty. Only around half the seats were filled. He looked at the numbers on the seat to find his seat - 10B.

The person sitting next to his seat had their belongings spread out across the whole row, covering his seat as well. He mentally grunted, knowing that he had to sit beside this person for the whole 8-hour ride. He was about to ask him to move when the lady sitting by the window a row behind caught his eye. The first thing that caught his eye was her long hair which was dyed red. Next was her designer sunglasses and bold lipstick.

He weighed his options and decided to sit beside the sunglass lady. 'I'm pretty sure I'm the last one getting on the train anyway,' he thought.

"Is this 11B?" He asked to avoid suspicion.

"Yeah," Xiao Gao replied.

He quickly put away his luggage and got settled into his seat. He got his printed script and started working on it.

Wang Ming has a hobby of people watching, but not in a creepy way. He likes observing people and create a whole backstory of their life in his mind. For example, his original seatmate became a tired old man who did manual work to make ends meet in his mind. He finally saved enough to visit his children in a different city and decided to use the long train ride to catch up on some long-deserved sleep.

In his peripheral vision, he sees Xiao Gao snuggled comfortably in her seat, snacking away.

'This one is a mysterious one. The sunglasses are either to hide her identity or to hide her eyes because she cried all night over some stupid guy.' He decided to go with the latter. 'She had her heartbroken and wants to run away from her problems. She's an emotional eater.'

An hour later, a cart lady came with a buffet of food. It seemed like it was for sunglass lady, so he helped pass it along. What he didn't realize was ALL the food was hers. Now he's stuck holding a bowl of noodles, with no room to leave it.

"That's a lot of food," he couldn't help but comment.

"Yeah, I guess I ordered too much on impulse."

'Impulse? Does this lady have a black hole for her stomach? Maybe she's not an emotional eater… maybe she's just a glutton.' He was fascinated by her appetite and couldn't help but steal glances at her eating while reading over his script.

She was halfway through her fourth bowl when she suddenly stopped. 'Ah, she's finally full,' Wang Ming thought. He snuck a quick peek at her only to see her staring at his script. 'Huh? Did she stop because she got distracted by his script?'

He turned the page while watching her reaction. She's still staring at his script. 'Hmm… so script > food… Interesting…'

"You like what you're reading?" He couldn't help but ask. He was curious about what this lady thinks. He tried not to laugh at her startled expression when she was caught red-handed. She then made an excuse for answering the phone to avoid answering him.

'Classic,' was what he thought until he realized someone actually did call her and was yelling at her in Cantonese. It was so loud that he pretty much heard the whole conversation.

'Hmm… I was right. It was heartbreak,' he beamed. He stole another look at the lady. Her eyes were puffy and pink behind the sunglasses. Her face looked more and more tormented as the call went on.

For some odd reason, his heart ached for her. He had the urge to do something to take away her pain. He reached into his bag to grab a box of Oreo Pocky. When he was going to offer it to her, she moved and bundled herself like a burrito. 'Guess she doesn't want to be bothered now… maybe later…'

- - - -

"Hey, isn't this seat 11B?" a middle-aged lady asked him.

Wang Ming internally cursed. 'So close… we were only one stop away and I finally got to cheer her up.'

He feigned confusion and took out his ticket. "Oh my, I'm so sorry, I read my ticket wrong. I was supposed to be in seat 10B. Since I've already settled in, do you mind switching seats?" He gave her an embarrassed smile.

The middle-aged lady glared at him before going to seat 10B. By this time, the old man had left. "Young people these days don't even know how to read," she said under her breath.

He suddenly heard a giggle to his right. He looked over and Xiao Gao was trying to cover her laugh. "You're such a bad liar. Who misreads a 10 for an 11? Trying to make an excuse to sit beside me?" she teased.

"No, there was a man taking up two seats. Figured he deserved a break." He retorted.

"Oh, you were actually lying. I was just teasing."