Piece By Piece | ✓

12 | tristan

     Accidentally running into Vanessa that night was truly unexpected. It was probably the biggest understatement of the semester, honestly.

     He'd been looking for a job all afternoon; he figured that since he was officially on his own after Nicolai finally moved out, he needed to stock up on a few things again because his cousin almost took the whole damn kitchen with him when he left.

     After shopping for groceries, he drove back home quickly and filled his shelves with stocks of food and drinks, and then he turned on his search engine and looked for job vacancies that would be flexible enough for his class schedule.

     Coincidentally, he ended up as a bookkeeper again. And his new boss was the owner of the ancient-looking library beside Books and Brews. Mr. Conrad Shin—he preferred to be called Shin, so Tristan went with it—was a middle-aged man who smiled a lot, and from what he observed, he had a strong inclination towards tea and playing Fruit Ninja on his phone.

     He personally thought that it was a good omen, since he got hired at a place that was his favorite coffee shop's next door neighbor, which also meant that he had more time to socialize with Vanessa—if she would let him, that is.

     Tired from all the things he'd accomplished today, he went to the coffee shop again and finally managed to try out one of their pastries. The caramel-flavored bread that Kayla had offered him was definitely a delicious treat, but he thought that it was a good time to try new things—especially since he was technically celebrating his newfound freedom and independence after Nic bestowed the apartment to him.

     It was almost midnight when he finally decided to go home. He'd had at least three different orders of coffee earlier; the soothing ambiance of the coffee shop never failed to make him feel content with transforming into a lazy person in his favorite spot as he relaxed his mind.

     He didn't really want to leave yet; but his eyes were already fluttering into a close and he knew that the staff wouldn't really care if he took a short nap here for a while, but his mind was still wide awake from all the caffeine he'd consumed, and the only thing that would help him fall asleep completely was his bed and his pillow.

     Truth be told, he never expected her to bump into him at school or materialize right in front of his face out of nowhere. But what happened tonight was something else. He could feel it.

     "Hey, Vanessa," Tristan called out to her when he saw her struggling at the park after he got out of the coffee shop, running as fast as he could to check on her. "Are you okay? Why are you out here at this hour?" He pushed his legs to go faster when he realized that she was about to collapse. He couldn't care less about the drizzle that was staining his clothes.

     Thankfully, he managed to catch her before her face collided against the grass. He tried to ask her what was wrong, but Vanessa didn't speak; she only looked at him in confusion, her brown eyes couldn't even focus themselves properly.

     A whirlwind of questions instantaneously plagued his mind. What happened to her? Why was she breathing so hard? Was she running away from something—from someone? Why couldn't she look at him straight in the eye?

     Tristan knew how strong her opposition was with skin to skin contact, but in his head, he already considered this situation an emergency. And besides, his hands were already holding her in place, so he did it, anyway. He tried to shake her shoulders gently, just to see if she'd snap out of whatever trance she was in.
    
     "Tristan," Vanessa breathed, her voice was a strange combination of panic and relief.

     "I'm here," Tristan replied softly, rubbing her shoulders slowly as he patiently waited for her eyes to adjust, to focus on looking at him, instead of blindly glancing at everything around them.