THE COLOUR BLUE

BUS SEATMATE

Alice’s POV

They say that a stranger can be the best friend you ever needed in your live. I never knew the meaning of this saying until I met Kim Liam as I decided to keep the drive accompany by riding the bus up to the last bus stop. I was just from Lee Jihoon’s office. I was taking lunch for him as the good fiancée that I am, so I thought but to my shock, when I entered the room, I saw him making out with Rose Kim, the best friend that he treated as a little sister. I have always been uneasy with the closeness of these two but Jihoon always assures me that they are just close because they grew up together since their diaper years. I was really trusting at first, even going to the extent of befriending the so called young sister, so that I can score some benefit points with her.

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Just a back story, I am not from a rich family but my parents earned the much to be counted as the middle class family. I went to one of the best schools in the country because that was my family’s priority. My dad is a well-known chef while my mum is a manager in a four star hotel in town. I am a culinary art student who wishes to follow my family footsteps and make my name in the culinary world thus Jihoon was kind of my lab rat. I have a delivery service job where I prepare food online and then people order and I deliver. It is not that beneficial but I don’t lack money. My family still provides for me, so I do it as a side hustle. I am in a culinary school but as of now, we are out for the holidays. I decided to stay in my condo because my parents are out of the country and also, Jihoon wanted me to be close to him because, my parents are too old fashioned, according to him. I made it upon myself to deliver food to him because some of my customers were his colleagues.

So today, I made my special Chinese stir-fried rice and being that Jihoon always claims that he likes it when I cook it, I made sure that he was the first person I delivered to before taking other orders. I rushed to his office. It was around 10:30am when I parked my vix next to his car and went up. His secretary has never had a problem letting me go into his office because they knew me. Today I found that the secretary was nowhere to be seen, that's why I just busted into the office, just to be met with the scene in front of me. I just excused myself and left behind Jihoon calling me back but I was too mad to give him the pleasure of seeing my tears. I think, as I was running out with the food still in my hands, I passed the secretary who tried stopping me but all in vain.
I entered the bus that had stopped at the bus-station and sat next to this guy who had his ear phones on. I think he noticed me sniffing while looking at my ringing phones. Jihoon’s calls went unanswered since the time I ran out. Liam offered me a handkerchief which I used to wipe my tears away and then he removed one of his ear phones and put it in my ears. The music was like this relief that my heart yearned for. The music was Reik and Morat’s La Bella y La Bestia. I raised my eyes to look at him and he just smiled at me and then closed his eyes.

There were only four people on the bus, plus the driver meant that we were nearing the last bus stop. I felt a tap on my shoulder. When I woke up, the ear phone had been removed from my ears and I was lying my head on Liam’s shoulder.

“The driver has announced that we are nearing the last stop.” He said.
“Ah, sorry to have burdened you.” I said.
“Not at all, I saw that you needed a shoulder to lean on and mine were broad enough I guess.” he said, making us laugh, this made the two older people look at us. Liam bowed to say sorry.
“By the way, I am Alice Park.” I introduced myself.
“Nice to meet you Alice Park. I am Liam Kim. If you don’t mind me asking, where are you heading to exactly? ”
“Sincerely speaking, I really don’t know. I just boarded this bus because it was the one that I found at the bus stop. My plan was to just pay and let it take me where it is going.”
“That was my plan also. What happened to you? When you came in, you were crying bitterly. Something bad must have happened. I can be your dustbin also, dump all your problems, I can be a good listener.”
I was about to start talking before his phone rang. The driver also said that we had reached the last stop.
“Let me take this call and then we talk. Please Alice, don’t run away.” he said as we were alighting from the bus.