Sincerely, Yours

5. A day off

Luan wanted to enjoy this week off, but he found himself missing the theater. Maybe it was because he'd been going there so often for a few months now, but he even welcomed the cluster of voices as a welcome background noise.

Plus he was more seriously starting to understand the story they were telling and his role in it. It excited him. He was getting to play a misunderstood and betrayed man who he believed was completely justified in his revenge story.

Plus in preparation for this week Luan had already cut down his shifts at the coffee shop and now he only worked there during the weekends. He couldn't quite decide how he should spend all this unplanned free time.

Luan had a few friends he could call up to hang out with. After shooting them a message he decided to go do homework where he worked while also enjoying some coffee.

He'd found a good, mostly secluded table in the corner where he set his stuff down. After grabbing a cup of coffee and putting in headphones, he settled down to work.

An hour into his studying Luan is startled when there's a tap of fingers on his table.

He takes a headphone out and looks up to the person who so rudely had to make himself known while someone was trying to study.

Luans eyes widen when he sees the person who caught his attention is none other than Mr. Wilder.

"Tom... Mr. Wilder, hello." He says with a smile though it felt forced.

"Hello, Mr. Hasake. Pardon my intrusion into your private work time but there doesn't seem to be any other open tables and I wanted to sit in here a while until my friend comes to meet me. Would that be alright with you?" Mr. Wilder asked politely.

"Damn your good looks," Luan grumbled.

"Silently?" Luan asked and Mr. Wilder crossed his heart which made Luan chuckle. He waved him towards the chair across from him but decided to leave a headphone out should Mr. Wilder start to talk again.

It was about 45 minutes into their silent hang out when Luan dared to steal a peek at Tommy. He was sitting sideways in his seat and had the newspaper open in front of him. But where Luan couldn't look away from was his face. On his nose sat round framed reading glasses and Luan gulped.

"God hes hot. Too bad his personality is shit."

Tommy surprises Luan by peeking at him out of the corner of his eye. Luan tries to feign ignorance and quickly went back to looking at his study worksheets but he knew he'd been caught when he heard the newspaper being folded.

Luan dared to peek up once again and Mr. Wilder has his chin resting in the palms of his hands and was glancing at Luans papers in front of him.

"The Complete Study of Growth in Childhood Social and Language Development." Tommy reads out loud and turns his head since the paper is upside down from his side.

"What're you studying in school?" He asks.

It seemed like a foolish question. Anyone could infer that it was at least a teaching degree. But Luan felt that Tommy had simply asked to start a conversation, which oddly made him feel nice.

"Early Childhood Education with a minor in Social Studies in Japanese culture," Luan says and Tommy raises his eyebrows.

"What made you decide on those? Do you have a future job in mind?" He asks and then chuckles. "Wow I sound so old. I didn't mean to ask if you thought your major would take you anywhere. I simply wanted to pick your brain."

Luan smiles at Tommy's self awareness. It seemed odd that he was acting so friendly when up until today he seemed to pick on Luan a good bit.

Luan also couldn't decide why he felt this way, but he began to tell Tommy all about his plans for travel, teaching and eventually wanting to live and teach in Japan. He'd never even shared his plan with his parents. But until he started speaking, he didn't realize how badly he'd wanted to tell someone about it.

Tommy listened and nodded when necessary. After Luan was done talking Tommy sat forward.

"That sounds like an amazing opportunity for you. I hope everything works out."

Luan felt like there was a sense of understanding building between them and decided to finally try and get to know Tommy better.

"What did you major in in College? Is it what you're doing now?" He asked but Tommy's aura seemed to change and he sat back in his chair.

"It's... complicated and I don't..." Tommy said and Luan furrowed his brow.

"Complicated? You could just lie and I wouldn't know."

Luan decided to brush it off and change the subject.

"What about being the director of our play? I heard a rumor that you had creative input into the story. As for me, I read through the whole thing and I was completely obsessed with the story progression..." Luan rambled but Tommy appeared to have become lost in his thoughts curtesy of the word "college" so Luan decided to quiet down.

"Sorry, I'll leave you to your newspaper," Luan awkwardly said with a laugh.

Tommy didn't say anything and looked at his phone.

"My friend is here," he said simply and begin to put his coat back on and slipped his reading glasses into his pocket.

"Thank you for your time, Mr. Hasake. It was truly a pleasure talking with you. See you at practice," he said and walked away without another word.

The whole thing left Luan feeling confused and slightly dejected. Everything had seemed fine. He wondered why something as simple about talking about college had set him off.

A message shown on Luans phone and he checked it to see a text from his friends. They were already downtown and wanted to meet up with him. Luan packed up his things and finished the last of his coffee. He waved goodbye to his coworkers before heading towards his friends.

Whatever had just happened with Mr. Wilder wasn't something Luan wanted to think about. He just prayed it wouldn't be awkward next time they saw each other.