See You Under The Stares

Chapter 2 - Lina

He walks with me in silence. But I think that's what he's like, silence. Just the peace and serenity of no sound at all. I don't enjoy the silence; I would prefer a bustling street or better yet a party. But silence with him, if felt refreshing. A sort of niceness, similar to taking a bath in warm water at the end of a ruthless day. I felt safe in this silence with him. The kind of safe I have never felt from a stranger.

We are halfway back to my dorm, and I decide to make small talk.

"So what type of music do you listen to?" I ask out of nowhere. "Wait! No. Let me guess. Umm, C-pop." I guess, I want to make small talk with him.

"Um, not really." He replies, looking straight down at his feet.

I skip in front of him, stopping from walking and causing him to look me straight into my eyes. His sharp eyes meet mine, "so what do you listen to Mr. Mysterious?"

"Mostly the classics." He replies. Fiddling with his fingers.

I giggle. "So like Beethoven, Mozart and stuff."

"Them and more, yes."

I move to the side, allowing us to continue the path as I skip along side Zhao. "I think that music should have died back in the 17th century."

"Well everyone has their own likes." Zhao remarks.

"You have to broaden your range. Here I'll give you some recommendations."

"That is not necessary."

I giggle again. Thinking about all the different bands, artists and genres I want him to listen to.

As he walked me to my dorm, I felt doubt. I don't want to leave his side, but I know that if I stay with him nothing is going to happen. He isn't going to propose to me and tell me how much he loves me. And to be honest I don't know if I'll say yes even if he did.

I would love to stay like this, but I don't love Zhao. I just met this man and now I'm thinking about marrying him. Goodness! What is happening to me?

Am I that lonely that I'm romanticising this walk with a stranger I just met an hour before? But now I'm imagining what wedding dress I'd wear. I'm imagining his smile, one that I have never seen on his face before. And the way he will turn and look at me that way nobody has ever before. He will look at me as if I'm wanted, as if we live in a world where it's just us.

Just us. No other people, no negatives, no families. Just us.

Shit.

This is going to be bad. If I'm thinking about a world where it's just me and Zhao, it's never going to end well.

"I live here." I stop in front of my apartment building. It was nothing flash, and to be honest if I was looking at it through his eyes it would be horrible. With the dying flowers on the front step of the building. A little graffiti and I think I can smell burning.

It was one of the cheapest apartment blocks in the university, I mean, going to the top university in the world has to be expensive.

"I will take you up." He says, I love the way he talks. It is a sort of whisper talk. As if he isn't yearning to speak over me but he reacts that through. Instead he lets me be my loud self and him to be his shy self. Because he doesn't want to be a loud and obnoxious person. He can be himself, or whoever is talking to me right now.

And I love it. I love the sound of his strong yet whisper of a voice. The way every word, and syllable slips of his tongue.

Soft but easy to understand. Strong but quiet. He has found the perfect way to speak. And it's only him. He is the only one in this whole entire university who can talk the way he can.