Smiles from Strangers

"I'll give you five months, cast it within that time."

-Serised

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"Can't you remember me? My friend used to hit on you," Blake talks to Shiela, leaning with his hand on the table, another hand at his lap.

"Hmmm...I don't remember, sorry," Shiela replies with a blank expression.

"But I do remember that you were the guy earlier who shouted, saying you can't hear the professor," Shiela says with the same expressionless face.

"Pffft..." Iris failed on hiding her laughter, she puts one hand on her mouth, laughing without a sound, vibrating like a phone.

Ken decides to fix his eyes on the table, tightly close his lips, avoiding himself from remembering that embarrassing moment of Blake.

"What? it's not for the professor, it was efhiejdjalxjfejciaeotockekdhlulhpht--haaa..." Blake frustratingly clench her teeth, unable to explain himself.

Blake looks at Iris who's enjoying to see both the irritation in his eyes and him being lost for words.

"Then her, do you remember her from earlier?" Blake says towards Shiela pointing his hand at Iris who's find it difficult to breathe out of laughing too much.

Iris stops laughing when she heard Blake. She stares at him, eyes turning from happy to cloudy.

"Her question was related to the topic, and it seems personal so I think, you shouldn't make fun of it," Shiela replies to Blake after reading the air.

"Ah..right. That was too much. Sorry about that, Iris," Blake says, sitting awkwardly with a serious tone.

"Pffft..." Iris went back to having fun.

"Hey, why are you laughing again, I stopped already," Blake utters feeling betrayed.

"I wasn't laughing at you, even earlier, my laugh's for Ken's expressions, 'cause he tries his best not to make fun of you. You just assume a lot," Iris rebuts, before giving him a silly face, then bursting into another laughing fit.

"Okay, okay, I get it. Just calm down. If you were eating pasta, it would've been in your nose already," Blake responds, putting his both hands in front of Iris, gesturing for her to stop.

After some time, the aroma of their ordered pasta reach their nostrils.

"Here's you're pasta, enjoy eating!" an enthusiastic server brought their food in their table, which lit up the faces of four of them.

"Thank you," everyone gratefully greets the server.

"Yey! They serve food fast, what a nice place," Blake expresses, starting to devour his pasta.

The two girls and Ken also start to eat, slower than Blake, which is the normal pace.

"Do you always eat here, Ken?" Blake asks, preparing to eat a mouthful of pasta.

"I used to," Ken replies shortly.

"With a girl?" Iris asks wide-eyed while tucking some pasta on her fork.

Blake gives Ken a silly smile, and raised a thumbs up to Iris.

Iris and Shiela both gave Ken a curious look.

"Ah..y-yeah. A girl friend," Ken stutters.

The three curious listeners had their eyes bigger than normal, especially Blake.

"I mean, a friend that's a girl!" Ken hurriedly clears himself out.

"Hmm..." the three said in unison going back to stuffing themselves with pasta.

"This restaurant seems expensive for a college student," Shiela states.

Blake and Iris' eyes perk up for another interesting question.

"I graduated last year," Ken answers which left the three in amazement.

"Woah! You're older than us?" Blake shouts as if it was the greatest discovery he had today.

"Most probably for a year," Ken responds.

Ken brings back his attention to his plate, only one fourth is consumed compared to Blake's last bite.

"Therm wham dum myoo dum nawm?" Blake babbles while trying to fit the pasta going out his mouth.

The two girls in front snicker at Blake.

"What?" Iris asks with sarcasm.

"I'm...jobless," Ken replies to Blake, releasing a deep sigh with a serious face.

Blake taps Ken's shoulder softly, and gently whispered, "it's okay."

The two girls look at each other, unable to process what's happening, asking with each other's eyes how Ken understood Blake.

A phone ring cut short the ambience.

"Oh, that's mine," Iris says. She opens her sling bag in a hurry to answer the phone.

She clicks the green button and put the phone on her ear.

"Excuse me," Iris excuses, she then went outside.

"What did you ask him?" Shiela returns to the last conversation.

Blake takes the glass of water in front of him, then sipped some of it.

"I asked him what he does now," Blake reiterates putting down the empty glass.

Shiela nods with eyes down, after realizing why Blake comforted Ken.

"For sure it's not that easy to find a job after graduating. Mostly, they look for experienced employees," Shiela speaks, empathizing to Ken, the way Blake did.

Ken tilts his head while eyes at the ceiling for a moment, then looked back at Blake and Shiela.

"It's actually not the same as you two think. It's pretty complicated, but the thing is, I have two degrees," Ken explains.

Iris went back from outside and sit down quietly, then asked Shiela in a whisper what they were talking about, Shiela told her what Ken said.

Iris gives Ken a curious expression, as well as Blake and Shiela.

"In your young age?" Iris asks masked with disbelief, scooping her pasta at once to eat.

"I enrolled simultaneously to two different programs, one in a community college and another at a private university," Ken details.

Blake notices Iris' hurried demeanor to swallow all her food, so he asked her, "What's with the rush?"

"Aoi gaowt am cwawl wrom Imtermshwip," Iris replies chewing the food in her mouth.

"She said, she got a call from internship," Ken interprets what Iris said, showing off his skill in deciphering every babbling talk in their table.

Iris although in shock at what Ken did nods her head in agreement to Ken's interpretation raising a double thumbs up.

"How do you do that, really?" Shiela asks, all amazed.

"Hmm? I don't know, It just happens?" Ken defends himself.

Iris drinks her water and swallowed everything in her mouth, freeing her to talk.

"I have to go to school now, but I'll regret leaving this pasta," Iris answers Blake's forgotten question.

"You want to come with me?" Iris invites Shiela.

"Sorry, but I'll do internship on summer since I'm an irregular student," Shiela rejected Iris' offer.

"Oh, that's sad. I'll go alone then," Iris replies, looking slightly dejected.

"Why aren't asking me to join you? I'll go with you, I also need to apply," Blake joins the conversation.

"Oh, right, then let's go," Iris accepts Blake's suggestion, while standing from her seat and arranging her sling bag.

"Thank you, Ken for the meal. Also, nice meeting you both, I had fun," Iris awkwardly utters.

"Awww," Blake jokes towards Iris uneasiness, and stands up to his seat too. He went close to Iris and faced Ken.

"We'll leave you two alone, take your time," Blake winks towards Ken, hiding from Shiela's sight.

"I enjoyed today too," Blake adds with a child-like smile.

"Hmm," Shiela agrees to the both of them looking up to see the two. She flashed a smile that reaches her eyes.

"Take care, you two," Ken utters, smiling happily.

Blake and Iris waved their last goodbye and went out, rushing to their feet.

Ken and Shiela's table went quiet.

"It's too obvious that those two were the outgoing people on our table," Ken comments that made Shiela snicker in agreement.

"You're right, this is really not my scene. It's also so out of my character to go out with people I just met," Shiela replies, trying to make long sentences.

Shiela looks around and she realized something.

"Now that we both don't speak a lot, I just notice that people go here in pairs, this is making me feel even more awkward," Shiela voice out her observation with a slightly uneasy smile.

"I'm really no good with this either. Do you want to take a walk outside instead?" Ken suggests.

"Yeah, let's do that," Shiela fastly replies with a faint smile.

They left the bill on the table and left the restaurant.

The two walk slowly from the grassy sidewalk and enjoyed the slight breeze passing by.

"It's a bit cloudy. I didn't bring my umbrella today," Ken worries while looking at the sky.

"I think it won't rain, there are still unfilled clouds over there," Shiela points to the far end space above.

Ken bites the insides of his lips and nods. He looks around and spots a bench.

"I like this kind of weather, not too hot, not too dark. Just enough light for the eyes," Shiela speaks, sounding calm, in contrast to her evident uneasiness inside the restaurant.

"Do you remember us meeting yesterday for the first time? It's much more cloudy yesterday, it even rained," Ken brings up, to give Shiela a clue how they first met.

"Hmm...I'm not really too aware of my surroundings, so I tend to forget if I just met someone unintentionally," Shiela explains herself.

Ken takes out the flyer from his pocket as a proof of their meeting, but Shiela looked to her left and saw the same bench Ken saw.

"Oh, a bench!" Shiela exclaims.

"Will it be fine to sit instead? The view seems good there too," Shiela asks Ken's permission.

"Hmm.." Ken agrees with a soft smile.

The flyer stays in his hand, and when they're settled down, he shows it in front of Shiela.

"You left this when we bumped into each other on your way to your university," Ken details.

Shiela moves her attention from the flyer to Ken, shocked to feel a lot of unexpected things today.

"Oh, now that you say it, I kind of remember hitting on the ground after bumping to a guy. So, it was you?" Shiela speaks with disbelief.

"Yeah, hahaha," Ken gladly replies.

"But, choosing to participate to the event on a last minute was unexpectedly fun. I even end up writing notes in my phone," Ken adds with glinting eyes.

"Wow, that's nice. May I see your notes?" Shiela asks with pleading eyes.

"Ah..well, I might be the only one who could understand it," Ken excused shyly.

"Come on, that's almost everyone's sentiment when it comes to note-taking. How about we swap? I'll show you mine too, I just want to compare some important notes I might've missed," Shiela reasons out so fast.

"Then, ask me everything you won't understand," Ken gives in, taking out his phone and opening the art app he used.

Shiela happily offers her notebook and Ken handed his phone.

Ken looked intently at her notes, and saw a delicate, clean, and colorful notes, he then regretted to show his.

"What the heck?" Shiela says with wide eyes.

She turns her eyes to Ken and waited for an explanation. But Ken just pursed his lips.

"This is no notes, this is an artwork," Shiela expresses her amazement.

"So, is this a hobby or your one degree? This is too pretty for a note, during the lecture at that. I might buy it if the price is negotiable," Shiela passionately praises Ken.

"Hey, stop overreacting. You, yourself has the cleanest notes I've ever seen, it looks printed," Ken sends back appreciation to Shiela.

Ken and Shiela found themselves ridiculous praising each other, and laughed it out.

"I had a degree on illustration in a community college," Ken answers the hanging question of Shiela.

"My other degree was business, but I'm no businessman, it's something I don't want but needed to do," Ken opens up more.

"On the other hand, illustrating is the path I am pursuing but at the moment, I can't seem to create for some reason. Then...I saw you yesterday, a picture formed in my head like before, and all I know was, I wanted to draw," Ken looks straight to Shiela's eyes, examining her soul.

*whistle* *whistle*

Shiela's attention turns to Ken's phone after a sound came from it.

"A text message," Shiela informs Ken.

Ken takes his phone slowly from Shiela's hand and opened the message from an unknown number.

'Come tomorrow for the family's dinner, 7pm.'