Lisa and Jojo: how two hearts beat as one

Part 2

Jojo... Lisa thinks. She smiles very slightly but nobody can see. This is because his name is how you spell "yo-yo" in Dutch, Lisa's native language. He gives Lisa his order and Lisa notes it down on her ticket. When the pie is in the making, Lisa will occasionally check her lobby while his order is being produced only to observe Jojo. There's something about his personal style of dress that makes it hard for her to avoid looking at him. He wears blue a lot, royal blue, a color Lisa loves. He looks elegant yet comfy. Normal yet eccentric. Expressive yet mysterious. Lisa notices how Jojo's dark brown hair and pale skin stand out from one another. She notes how they contrast well. Lisa looks at how dark and hostile Jojo's eyes appear. But she quickly looks away since she finds it difficult to look someone in the eyes, especially when they are as agitated as his. When he doesn't look, Lisa focuses on his eyes again. The color of Jojo's irises are very appealing to her. She looks at the rest of his face; triangular eyebrows, an upward-curving mouth, a curled mustache, and a short stubble. She looks at his short hair of which most of it is hidden under his hat. Lisa is scared to look at him, but her eyes refuse to leave Jojo alone. Why is that? Lisa only sees Jojo as just another stranger coming to her every week. Maybe he's just an objectively interesting person and everyone can agree.

Lisa rushes to the kitchen to take the pie out the oven. She completes it with the desired toppings, places the order ticket down, and she hesitates before serving Jojo. The hesitation was for nothing, because Jojo was very happy with his pie. "It's pure perfection. Incredibly scrumptious, utterly delicious. Here's your first blue ribbon, Lisa," Jojo says, handing her a ribbon identical to the one on his shirt. He seems to have noticed Lisa's name tag. "Thank you, Sir," she says. Jojo was quite easy to please, this makes Lisa wonder how it would be him who is the pickiest customer of all. Or maybe she thought it was easy to please him because Lisa is a quick learner? Sure, math and economics were hard for her, but if she could be the best student in her French class or one of the artsy kids, she could also master pie baking...

Jojo however, was also looking at Lisa to see all her small details. He looked at her long, light brown, wavy hair. He noticed Lisa has a lot of hair on her head. Then he looked at her eyes; big, green, and a mixture between shy and choleric. It is no doubt that Lisa's eyes are such an eye-catcher (get it?). Jojo looked at the rest of Lisa's face; freckled pale skin, a nose with a slight bump, thin lips with an obvious Cupid's bow, and a square shaped head. He noticed Lisa was pretty short, and skinny. Jojo just couldn't resist taking a look at her, while he doesn't see Lisa as anything important. She is just a stranger to him.

Lisa proudly and beamingly gazes at her first blue ribbon. "You should put it on the counter," Jojo advices her. "It will gain you more tips," he adds. "How does that exactly work?" Lisa asks him. Jojo starts, "customers are willing to pay more tips when they see you've earned a ribbon. But be careful-you only have three days to put it on display." He starts to walk away. "Wait!" Lisa yells, but Jojo has left the shop. He comes back in and says, "right, I've forgotten something." As Lisa was waiting for him to explain why only three days, Jojo looks her in the eyes and says, "happy new year, Lisa". Then he left for real. Avia pops her head out of the lobby's "window" and asks Lisa who that person was. "Oh, that's the food critic, Jojo. He comes every week like the other closers but he awards these blue ribbons if he approves of the food being served," Lisa explains. "Wow, so you've really impressed him!" Avia lets out. "I guess," Lisa responds, "but he's just another customer to me. Of course he is a "special" type of customer, but I think he's as important as any other customer". Lisa genuinely believes that Akari is significant, hence this does not apply to her.

Lisa pins her ribbon onto the counter for display before she leaves the shop to return home. She takes the train from Whiskview to Tacodale, her hometown. Once Lisa sits down, takes out her headphones, listening to the music quietly. Lisa feels like she's a character of a story she has read once, except said character took the train to Tokyo. Maybe I could go to Japan once, Lisa wonders. Her heated breath seeps into her scarf as she cinches her coat closer to her body. The temperature inside the train is comfortable, and that's better than being outside all the time. As the train arrives at Tacodale, Lisa exits and she swears she recognized someone on board. She hides herself to see if a familiar face can be spotted. As Lisa buries her face in a newspaper, she moves her eyes upwards and sees Jojo passing her. He most likely missed Lisa's presence here. After he has walked a bit further, Lisa stands up and leaves to go home.

To be continued...