Chapter 36
A tall girl in a black maxi coat, a red turtleneck sweater, and dark jeans came out of the bus. Her long hair was gathered in a messy bun on top of her head.
"Erlig! It's always nice to meet you in person." She shortened the distance between us.
"Mara, why are you coming out of the bus?"
"What do you mean by that?" she looked back at the bus and back to me. "I shouldn't use public transport?"
"No, it's just that I thought you would come here by car."
"Oh, so you think I'm a spoiled girl who only knows how to spend her parents' money?" she squinted her eyes while her hands were in the pockets of her coat.
"No! How did it come to this?" I rubbed my nose. "It's just that I'm already used to you using a car."
"And?" she bared the side of her teeth in a smirk.
"Forget about what I said," I waved my hand, "Now that we've met, what do you want to do?"
"That's a good question. You yielded the right to choose for me, didn't you? So I should choose something interesting."
"I guess?"
"But you know, I've already chosen something interesting for tomorrow. What do you think we should do right now?"
I stood up and started slowly walking in the opposite direction of a gym. Mara went after me without a single question.
"I thought you had something planned."
"I don't want to look overbearing. I am considerate of your feelings after all."
"That's… good."
What should we do? I've had no idea what I wanted to do alone, much less entertain someone else.
"You know, we can just walk for a while if you don't know what to do." Mara interrupted my thoughts.
I was surprised by this, so I glanced in her direction.
"Are you sure about this? Don't you want to do something fun?"
"And what is fun?"
"I don't know." I shrugged.
She quickly took her hand from the pocket. There was an expensive-looking wristwatch on her left wrist. Then her gaze had shifted from her wrist to my face.
"See, this is what you were talking about yourself, didn't you? We should take our time and talk about ourselves."
We avoided a few passersby and took a turn from the main street to a side one. It was much less crowded here.
"In the end, it's just me not knowing anything about you."
"I don't know about this one. After all, you turned out to be a different person."
This interested me. Will Mara talk about the previous Erlig if I ask her? "And what's so different about me?"
"Everything!" she didn't even look at me, yet I saw her eyes twinkling. "The sheer fact that you are walking with me right now, side by side, is an unbelievable event."
"What else?" I hope she will add something more.
"Else, huh? I thought that you are much more gloomy and quiet. I also thought that you would commit to your non-aggressive attitude to the end. Yet you started working out and training on how to defend yourself, good for you."
"That's all?"
"The rest is all minor details, and so, I would propose something for you."
We stopped near the road to wait for a traffic light to turn green.
"How about we ask each other questions in turns. And answer them honestly?"
Because we had an almost identical height, she peered right into my eyes.
"I've got no objections. Who starts?" I was the first one to break our eye contact and look at the traffic light.
"As I proposed this, you can have the first turn."
The lights turned green, and we continued our stroll. I didn't know where we were right now. There was something like a park here. Numerous trees stood behind the fence, on the side of the road we were walking right now.
"What do your parents do?" It was probably the question that interested me the most.
"Went right after the most boring question, huh?" she sighed, "Well, we agreed to answer honestly. My mother is a housewife, and my father is a businessman."
"You've already said it before."
She twisted her neck. "Gosh, okay. My father is an owner of Sobol Enterprise. Very original name, don't you think so?" she scowled, "It was founded by my grandfather, and it specializes…"
"In making different high-tech stuff." I continued Mara's phrase by myself. "I've read about it. It's one of the biggest companies here in Wagria. Why are you wasting your time here?"
"Oh, look at you, asking the second question in a row!"
"No, but…" I did want to learn why she is studying here instead of being a princess in the capital city.
"No buts. It is my turn to ask a question," Mara brought her fist closer to her face and coughed, "Ahem, why did you decide to start your training, couldn't you just ask for help from me, or this girl, Jessie?"
"Hmmm..." Why did I start training? "Because Jessie won't necessarily defend me all the time, while you, I don't know anything about you. And I don't like to have debts."
"So you don't trust me?"
"I thought we can't ask two questions in a row," I smirked while Mara grunted. "So, my question is, why are you here in Kibryn?"
"Because it's fun here."
"That's all?" I couldn't believe this question.
"Yes, I have friends here, and I can easily relax from all the fuss of the capital. What, you thought I had some hidden agenda here?"
I shook my head.
"Anyway, now it's my question. What do you usually do with your friends? And as a side note, if you excuse me, what have you done with that girl?"
"I don't do anything with my friends."
"No way? Nothing at all?"
"I don't have any time to hang out with them, him." I hit the can that was lying on the road. "I train every day and do the homework just in case anything happens, so I can get a job."
"Hah, and you were talking about friends quite arrogantly. In the end, you are just a loner."
"Hey, I'm not a loner! Okay, what do YOU do with your friends?"
"Easy! We like to party. I know a few places where we can drink and dance all night long. We sometimes go to tournaments together to cheer on each other. We may spontaneously go for a ride to the countryside. We like to play party games, we…"
"Spare me. I understand you've got great friends. I'm envious you all have the same wavelength." I wasn't really that envious. I was okay being alone, and when she said that girl was she talking about Joanne? "As for me, me and Joanne, we stopped being friends. I can't be friends with someone like her."
"Oh, that's bad, and what happened? I thought she liked you?"
"That's the reason we can't be friends."
"And, how come I'm different?" she lowered her voice. "I do like you as well."
"No." I stopped and fixed my bag while I rubbed my eyes with my free hand. "You are different."
"Where?"
"I don't know, it's just this feeling, that you are different, it's hard to describe, in the end, what is like or love? What part of me do you love?"
"That…" she looked up and straightened her back. "I don't know. I just feel this attraction towards you, and I want to know more about you."
Attraction? Was it similar to what I felt?
"And what do you want to know exactly?" I crossed my hands and looked at her.
It was a strange feeling. I've always felt that Mara was a walking threat. I almost got goosebumps whenever she looked at me long enough with her hawk-like gaze.
She was a mystery. I've never seen or felt anything like this in my life. She tried to proactively close the distance between us, yet she was from a completely different world than me. She was an extrovert, and I was an introvert. I wasn't rich by any means, while she could get anything she wanted. And I've never believed nor thought that opposites attract each other.
"What do you like to do?"
"Reading." she winced. "Playing games." her frown grew deeper. " I also like to listen to music." Finally, her face brightened.
"What kind of music?"
"I'm fond of any kind of music."
"Then what about your favorite food?"
"Probably something like Napoleon Cake."
"Then, you have a sweet tooth?"
"Yeah."
"That's cute. And what about a drink? No, wait, what is your favorite color?"
"Green."
"Cat or Dog?"
"Dog."
"Favorite season?"
"Autumn."
"What is love for you?"
"Work."
What happened right now?
"Aha!" She showed me a beautiful, victorious smile. "Why do you think love is work?"
We resumed our stroll.
"Mara, you asked a whole lot of questions."
"And?" She was still smiling from ear to ear. "You want to punish me?"
"Sigh, forget about it. Love is work. Because, without the work that both lovers put in, it would fall apart."
"Why do you think so?"
"Love is just a chemical reaction, and when the reaction weakens, what's left is two people. They will eventually fall apart after seeing each other's flaws. That's true if they don't have any intention to commit their whole lives to each other. Otherwise, they should be working hard to smoothen those flaws. In the end, both sides should work hard."
"And why don't you want to work hard?"
"Huh?"
"You are always half-assing everything. If you aren't under pressure, you immediately start slacking off. Don't you?"
She was right.
"I guess."
"So the reason you don't want to love anyone or reciprocate the feelings is because you don't want to work hard? Or is there another reason?"
I…
"I don't want to talk about this." I pursed my lips.
"I'm sorry if I said more than I should."
"No, you are right. I needed to eventually talk about this with someone. I guess everything comes down from my parents."
"I see." she nodded in understanding.
However, she didn't know about my previous life and what happened to me. About me right now, not the previous one.
"You said, previously, that I should let myself loose, and I followed your advice."
She hummed in agreement.
"I did what you said, and I've come to regret this. In the end, I can't change so easily."
"However, were you giving your all? Or was it following the current like you always did?"
We ended up getting hungry halfway through our stroll. However, instead of going into a café or a restaurant, we ended up buying different buns and two bottles of fruit beer in the nearest store.
As we were munching on the food, we continued talking about different things, though we didn't return back to the theme of love or friendship.
Mara mostly talked about martial arts and other sports. While I was talking about books, novels, and games.
I wasn't used to talking with girls one-on-one, but we still managed to find something to talk about.
And as time flew by, I saw a familiar SUV stopping nearby.
"They are after me. I'm sorry, Erlig, I was talking about spending the whole day, yet I am the first to walk away."
"No problems."
"Do you need a ride?"
"No, I would like to spend some time alone."
She looked me up and down. "I heard you don't shake hands with girls?" she smiled.
I felt my cheeks getting hot. "Where did you hear this?"
"Jessie isn't such a no-name that I won't hear about her. You won't shake hands with me, then how about a hug between friends?"
"A hug?"
"Uh-huh." She spread her arms wide. "Aren't we friends?"
"I guess."
In the end, she hugged me tightly while I barely held her. The whole time I was in her embrace, I felt her scent. It was a barely tangible scent of milk and lemon.
"See you tomorrow!"