City Central

"What? Noah, you gotta be kidding me, right?"

"I'm not. I'm serious, Sera."

"But why? I mean this note, it can be just a gag."

"Don't you trust me, Sera?"

"I do . . . But I don't understand, Noah."

"It's not the right time for you to understand everything so just believe me."

"Fine. . ."

"Anyway, I asked you to save my number, have you done it?"

"I haven't. . ."

"Do it now."

I unlock my phone and save Noah's number in my phone, I named it "Annoying Noah". Then I show it to him and he raised an eyebrow,

"Do you really need to name me 'Annoying Noah'?"

"You don't like it?"

". . . It's fine."

I put my phone away and finish my meal. Now I feel so full and I can't eat anything else until night. I wait for Noah to finish his meal and once he's done, we left the restaurant and I follow him to the tram station.

"Where are we going?"

"To the city central."

To get to the city center I need to take tram number 10 and it takes around 10 minutes to go there. I wait with Noah and while waiting there are around 5 people coming in our direction and I can see 3 males and 2 females coming at us. One of the males calls Noah,

"Noah!"

"Jace, Will, Tyler, Sarah, and Monica."

"Don't you have a class to attend?"

"No."

"And who is she?"

"A friend of mine."

"Where did you find her?"

"It's none of your business."

I don't even bother talking to those people, just let Noah talk to his friends. The tram is finally here, I get into the tram and sit at the back. Noah is standing not far from my seat and talking to his friends. I can see he's not that comfortable with his friends.

"City Central Station."

I step off the train and look around. The city center is full of people and there are so many shops that sell jewels, fancy clothes, etc. I walk with Noah and he guides me to a bookshop.

"Sera, can you wait for about 5 minutes in the bookshop? I have to buy something."

"Can I go with you?"

"Unfortunately, no."

"Alright."

Noah left the bookshop and I walk into the bookshop. It's a fancy bookshop where they sell story books, novels, books for education, and stationery. I'm reading a book about gemstones and suddenly someone put a necklace on my neck and I turned around. It's Noah and he's smiling at me.

"What's is this about?"

"It's a ruby and it's said that Ruby is a symbol of protection against bad luck."

"Well, isn't this too much? But thank you."

I put the book back in its place and leave the bookshop. I want to explore the city center so I walk around the city center. There's a big statue at the center of the city center and there are so many people taking photos in front of the statue. I take my phone and take a picture of the statue then I walk to a casino that's located at the end of the street. It's a luxurious hotel with a casino and I enter the casino with Noah.

There are so many people playing in the casino and I just walk around and watch some people playing some games. I find a slot machine and insert some money and try to win some money.

"I never went to a casino before and I always want to try playing this machine."

"Try it."

I press some buttons on the machine and I'm unlucky. I want to try once again so I insert some money and press the button again and the result is the same.

"I'm not lucky."

"I know."

A group of young lady walk past me and Noah and one of them approach Noah and ask for his number.

"I'm sorry but you look so cute, can I have your number?"

"No, sorry."

"Please?"

"I'm sorry, miss but no."

The girl left with a sad look and I act like I don't care. Another person walks toward Noah's direction and this time it's another girl but what surprises me is her voice is a male voice.

"Hey handsome, want to grab some drink?"

I try my best not to laugh after I hear her voice.

"N-No. . . Sera, can we leave?"

"That's too bad."

The 'girl' blow a kiss to Noah and left. I can't hold my laughter anymore and I laugh so hard.

"You're famous, Noah."

"I'm not. . Let's go."

Noah takes my hand and takes me outside the casino. It's too funny for me and I still can't stop laughing. Noah pinch my cheek,

"Can you stop laughing?"

"No, I'm sorry but- it's way too funny."

He let out a deep sigh and walks away, I follow him while wiping my tears. He leads me to an art gallery in the heart of the city center. I walk into the gallery and I need to leave my bag at the deposit counter before entering further. I bring my phone with me and I walk to the second floor. The second floor is the area of Early Renaissance paintings which are paintings from the 15th century. I follow Noah and look around the second floor. I take some pictures of some paintings before heading to the third floor. The third floor is an area of High Rennaisance paintings which are painted from the 16th century, the Mannerist paintings which are from the late 16th-17th century, and Southern European paintings which are from the 17th century. Then we headed to the fourth floor which is the area of French Ancien Régime and Grand Tour & Neoclassical paintings from the 18th century. Noah lead me to a painting and the painting looks familiar to me.

"It's my favorite painting and I always come here just to look at it."

I take a picture of the painting and look at it very carefully. Noah then takes a picture of me and the painting without my knowledge. There's no title of the painting and no information about the painting.

"Noah, why I can't find information regarding this painting?"

"I have no idea."

Well, that's weird because every painting in this gallery has descriptions and information about each painting except this one. I decided to look at it for the last time before heading to the top floor. There's nothing besides some books that are being exhibited. Noah walks to a book that's located in the corner of the room it's one old book written in a language that I don't understand but Noah seems to understand.

"What language is this?"

"It's an ancient language."

"Do you understand what it says?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Well, I think there's nothing else that we can look at so shall we go out?"

"Sure."

I walk outside the book exhibition area but Noah stays for a while, he take a picture of the book before he chase me then we take our bag and left the gallery together. Outside the gallery, there's an ice cream shop that attracts me, there is so many ice cream flavor and I decided to choose vanilla and chocolate.

"Noah, do you want to buy some ice cream?"

"No."

I pay for the ice cream and ask for two spoons. I take the ice cream to Noah and give him one spoon.

"Try it."

Noah takes a spoonful of chocolate ice cream and a spoonful of vanilla ice cream. I taste the vanilla and it's really sweet.

"The vanilla one is too sweet, I think."

"It's not that sweet."

"Really?"

"Yes. There's something that's sweeter than the ice cream."

"What is that thing?"

He leans towards me and whispers, "It's S. . ."