Luna

Chapter 43 - Story Telling

As they finally arrived at the restaurant, Luna finally understood why the man had thought of the place. Although it wasn't a separate room style restaurant, all the tables had some sort of division between each other, making it much more private than a regular restaurant.

As the two sat, Luna smiled. With only the Chinese paper lamps to illuminate, the place had a romantic atmosphere.

Studying the woman's face, Leonard could finally breathe. He hadn't realised the type of place he had chosen, and only upon arriving he realised that it was maybe too simple for a first date. Although high class, it wasn't like the European cuisine he would take his previous girlfriends at.

Although he wouldn't consider himself to be inconsiderate, he also couldn't affirm he cared much for his previous relationships. For things such as dates, he would normally go for the obvious. Fancy restaurants, with a nice architecture and a great reputation. With Katherine, for example, they would always pick somewhere with high status, where they could bump into acquaintances from time to time. She never prioritized the food, her list of importance held reputation at the top. With Luna, however, because she was a public figure, privacy was more important.

Still, she was also a woman he was courting. Why would he think of bringing her to a restaurant he himself had never been? If the food was terrible, it would be associated with him, which would lead to failure. And Leonard couldn't accept failure. He wanted this night to work out.

"Do you want to order for both of us?" Leonard asked, after skimming the menu quickly.

He was quite familiar with a few of the dishes that the establishment might have, but as a high class traditional restaurant, to keep its authenticity, most of the menu dishes were written in a beautiful Chinese writing with a Japanese and Korean translation underneath and a really simplified English translation that gave enough room to the imagination to not have a single clue of what it meant.

Thankfully, although Luna didn't have many defined Asian features, she was partially a forth Japanese on her mother's side, so she was used eating a variation of Asian dishes ever since she was young.

"Sure. Can you handle spice?" She asked. Seeing as the man shook his head in denial, she gave a soft smile. "Okay."

As her fingers were quick to order on the screen, Leonard wondered how many dishes she had placed.

"Oh." She said startled. "Maybe I ordered too much."

Smiling at the woman. Leonard couldn't help himself from thinking. How the woman in front of him was cute.

"don't worry" He chuckled " I am quite hungry after all".

Staring at the man in front of her, Luna couldn't contain a smile. She really liked him.

As the two waited on their food, conversation flowed normally. Perhaps because their nervousness could be felt, both people tried even harder to make the other feel comfortable, leading to a somewhat cozy atmosphere.

Covering her mouth with her hand, Luna burst in laughter.

"You... made a fire...with what?" Luna could only whisper, as she couldn't keep the air in her lungs. Her stomach starting to hurt at this point.

As the man equally laughed, his story could almost not be understood as the words barely left his mouth.

"Steel... wool and... a lantern." The man had to take deep breaths so the words leaving his mouth could be understood.

"Why were you cleaning a lantern with a steel wool?" Luna took a deep breath, her face visibly red. Her eyes teary as she drank some water to calm herself.

"I thought it would take out the dirt of it." Leonard spoke a bit embarrassed.

"In the middle of a camping trip? You're really something else." Luna questioned. " What did your camping mates do?"

"They tried stepping on it, but one of them was wearing wood sandals..." Leonard started speaking. At this point, Luna could only hold her stomach as her laugh didn't even make any sound. "Till this day, I don't know why he was wearing that."

As the two were lost in their world laughing, the food arrived. The variety filling the table.

"What about you? Where did that scar come from?" He pointed at the small scar on Luna's left wrist. "What's your story?"

"Well, it's definitely not as exciting as yours." She laughed off. Taking a bite of the her dumpling. " I got in a fight in high school."

Lifting his brow in surprise, Leonard noticed as Luna stared at it proud.

"Did you win?" He asked with a smile.

"Of course. What do you take me for?" She laughed. Her smile turning her eyes into crescent moons.

Staring at it, Leonard couldn't avoid smiling as well. It was enchanting. Luna, although easy going, didn't really give out many sincere smiles, she normally wore the media trained he was very used to seeing. Not that it wasn't as pretty, but there were something off about it. He couldn't quite recall when was the first time he witnessed her first genuine smile towards him. He could only remember how taken back he was. It was magnetic. Attractive. After he understood his feeling for her, seeing her media trained smiles wasn't enough anymore.

"Why did you fight?" Leonard wondered.

Looking away, Luna was embarassed to say.

"Okay, keep in mind I was sixteen. I told you before that I have a brother right?" Luna waited for the man to give a light nod in acknowledgment. "We look very different from each other. Unless you paid close attention you would probably not be able to tell. He's got one of those unapproachable good looking type of vibes. You know what I mean right? Well, we have always been very close."

"Wait, you fought with your brother?" Leonard lifted a brow, it looked like a carved nail scar.

"Not with, but because." Luna corrected him. " He was never a womanizer, but he got many hearts broken."

"Oh." Leonard spoke, struck by the realisation.

"Well, one day, I forgot my wallet at home. My house was very far from my school, lunch break was only an hour long and my brother's university campus was a kilometre and a half, two away, so you do the math." Luna smiled reminding herself of when she was younger "Well, I texted my brother to lend me some money as all younger sisters do, met him, got the money and was ready to go back. Easy. Until I got stopped by a group of people, 20 something years, mostly girls, and very, very pissed at me".

"In the group, there was this one tall girl, and I remember I saw her fist before I saw her, and that says a lot since she was like 2 meters. "Sh laughed "she called me all names in the book, telling me to stay away from my brother and meanwhile there I was with a bloody nose and not understand a single thing." Luna explained gesturing every word as Leonard looked affectionately at her expressions. "Then, the obvious happened. She hit me again." Luna shook her head laughing.

"Now, looking at it, it was quite a pathetic fight on her side." Luna held her chin in thought. "Of course, I wouldn't just stand there being beaten for something I was not guilty of. So I hit her back. Not my proudest moment, back then I didn't know how to fight, so I could only pull her ponytail" She laughed.

"How did you even win?" Leonard spoke impressed.

"Well, the people who witnessed it called security and the cops. So I won by default and let's just say that my family filled a few complaints and I never got to see her again." Luna expressed a satisfied smile. "So I call it as a win".

"Wow, fascinating." Leonard spoke with a laught, grabbing one of the pork buns. "Who could tell that this Luna actually had a damsel in distress phase."

He placed it in his mouth, his eyes sparkling a bit. The food there was surprisingly good.

"What image do I have now inside your head?" Luna teased.

"Don't worry. It's a good one." He spoke, his charming smile enhancing his handsome features.

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