STUCK WITH HIM

06

"Um.. I'm available." Said the person, who was standing right behind me a moment ago and now he's facing me with a wide smile on his face.

I straightened myself up and glanced at him. He was wearing a casual black shirt with sleeves rolled a few folds up, which was making the tattoos that were inked on his right arm quite visible.

"Are you the owner of this place?" I asked him, indicating the internet cafe.

"Uh.. no, I'm just a broke part-timer, working here while the boss has been abroad." He replied while clicking the door open before making a way for me to get in and then following me closely behind.

The place was quiet and spacey; perfect for working peacefully. It wasn't half bad that there was no one beside us, but at the same time, it was quite awkward. I decided to choose the place which was farthest away from the front counter where he was working.

As if he just read my mind, so before I could tell him which pc I want to work on, he suggested to me, "how about you take the table which is right there at the corner, beside the window?"

Hm?

I wondered, before shifting my gaze to the place where he was indicating, "oh, that seems fine."

The awkward atmosphere around us was getting quite dense, as none of us chose to speak much.

Does he not remember me?

And hence, to get out of this awkward situation, it was better to get done with my work quickly and leave. I glanced at my phone so that I could estimate the hours until I get done with my work. That's when my phone started ringing and before I could pick up the call, I got startled by someone opening the door of the shop suddenly.

There she was, one of the members of my assigned group, who had just ditched the project and was taking care of her sick dog.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" I asked flatly.

She didn't say anything and just stood near the door, panting heavily as if she had run a marathon. After regaining some breath she ran toward me and threw herself on me, hugging me ever so tightly. "Gaahhh! Don't think I ditched you." She cried out. "I love you too much to leave you alone." She started getting all cuddly just like some lost kitten after finally meeting their owner.

"Ugh, get off, you're all sweaty." I tried to get out of her grip, but it was too hard to do so as she was both stronger and taller than me.

"It's because I was searching you all over after finding you were not in your house." She said while squeezing me even more.

"Haha, you sure like hugging. Now get off."

"No, stay like this for a while." She wasn't planning to budge anytime soon.

I stuck my head out and glanced sideways where Adrian was just spraying water to those plants placed by the windows near the interior part of the café. He turned around and squinted his eyes before glaring at us.

Putting aside the spray bottle, he came back closer to the place where we were standing. Crossing arms across his chest, he cleared his throat, making Ruhi, the girl who was just suffocating me with her tight hug to move aside a bit.

"Huh, do you need anything?" Asked Ruhi, being completely oblivious that Adrian was a worker there.

He just rolled his eyes and for the first time, I had seen the sign of annoyance evident on his face. " I should be the one asking that."

"Ruhi," I turned around to face her before asking, "we don't have much work left and I'll do it on my own in no time, so you should just go back to take care of your pet dog."