Sun and Moon

Two

I still wasn't entirely sure how I ended up here.  I was sitting in this smiley stranger's car outside of a small coffee shop watching his poof ball on his toboggan bounce as he ordered us coffees to go at the walk-up window.

When he had asked me if I liked coffee, I felt like I was in a daze. All I could see was his blinding smile and I grasped onto the familiar word like a life preserver. Coffee. Just the thought of it was like an electric blanket and I could almost feel warmth spreading through me already. I nodded after a second and he beamed.

"Great! I'll drive?"

Without waiting for an answer, he started walking, his long, confident strides already putting him well ahead of me. I followed along behind him after a second, digging my hands deep into the pockets of my jean jacket and scurrying to catch up, the sand making it more difficult. Had I been in my right mind, I might have been alarmed by the fact this stranger was leading me to a sleek, blacked-out SUV. But as it was, I was still reeling from the trauma of the day and I hopped right in when he opened the door, oblivious to my situation. He closed the door after me and pulled out his keys from deep in his flannel shirt as I pulled up my mask and buckled myself in.

He walked over to the driver's side and I became intensely aware that my introvert self was now in a stranger's car whose name I didn't even know, being driven to have coffee together (hopefully not to be kidnapped). I started mildly panicking about what I should say, but before I could get too worked up, he had already slid into the driver's seat and began chatting again.

"I'm here in LA visiting but I've been here a few times before and found this great coffee shop last time. Is it okay to go there?" he asked brightly as he smoothly put the car in reverse and twiddled the steering wheel with one hand, pulling out of the space.

I could tell he was really at home in the driver's seat, which was fine by me. Ever since I had moved to LA, my love of driving had greatly diminished.

"Sounds good." I said and noticed his eyes crinkle above his black mask. I couldn't help but smile back. His attitude was infectious. I realized I didn't even know his name yet.

"So, I'm Luna, by the way," I said, tugging on my sleeves of my jean jacket. "I've only lived here a little over a year myself. Still kind of feel like a visitor sometimes," I smiled nervously. "What's your name?"

I peeked out of the corner of my eyes at him, waiting for an answer, as he was already deftly sliding through the traffic on the highway. Now that we were in an enclosed car together, I noticed how incredible he smelled. His amazing scent was almost overwhelming. It was a slightly masculine but at the same time almost floral scent. I peeked down at his outfit. I didn't know a lot about fashion, but up close it did look like his strange mix of clothes were definitely designer clothes.

"I'm Hoseok, but my friends call me Hope," he said, eyes tight. He seemed slightly nervous for some reason as he threw me a sidelong glance. I didn't have a lot of time to analyze why as I was too preoccupied by my own hell that was trying to hold up my end of the small talk.

"Hope," I repeated, interested at the strange nickname but too preoccupied to pursue it any further at the moment . He seemed to relax at my response. I tried to pull myself together and cleared my throat to ask him a question.

"So you're just visiting LA? What brings you here?" I asked, to fill the silence.  I found that I was also genuinely interested, too. Usually small talk kind of felt stiff and unnatural to me, but my nerves were getting the best of me and I wanted to know more about him.

"I'm here for business and to catch a concert or two, but I'm from South Korea and I'm here just for a few weeks," he answered as he turned into the little coffee shop parking lot and I noticed it was just a hole-in-the wall place with only a handful of patrons. It didn't even have a drive-up window.