Winter Hearts

Delayed Reaction

They reached Delphi, and drove through the town almost to the end of it, where the statue of Prometheus stood. There, they made a sharp turn to follow a parallel road back the way they came, it being a one-way system through the tiny town.

The road rose sharply and at the apex Mikhalis found a parking spot on the road. They walked a few steps to Vakhos and went in.

Mikhalis went straight into the kitchen to look for his old friend while Siana walked to the back of the restaurant and out onto a spacious verandah which was built to take advantage of the beautiful view of the Amfissian plains - which stretched south towards the sea where she could see Itea's twinkling lights. Except for a couple dining near the front of the shop, it was still empty having just opened for the evening's business.

The verandah hung over the buildings below, but seemed to hang right over a precipice, since they were located high above the road below. They had covered the verandah with clear plastic blinds to keep the cold out, but a flap had been rolled up for ventilation. She walked there and leaned on the verandah railing, feeling like she was suspended in the air above a landlocked cliff. She took a deep breath, finally feeling some relief after the tense situation back home.

She could hear some business going on behind her as her dad chatted with the owner, and they started arranging tables to accommodate their large party. Mikhalis was ordering ahead of the boys' arrival so that food would be ready sooner.

Siana felt a little out of sorts. The day had been long, but she felt suddenly hyper, and antsy. She was sure she was feeling the effects of adrenaline pumping through her system, from the shock of their encounter.

The situation at home earlier had unsettled her, and she began to feel that feeling she got in her body when she needed to go for a run, or exercise and sweat. She shook her head. Besides her run and dancing that morning, she had played basketball and knocked over a pop idol. Surely she had had enough for the day?

But the feeling was still there, and had an edge to it that she was unfamiliar with. Perhaps it was just the adrenaline. The tense situation called for an emergency response. And because she had maintained her control, there had been no real outlet for that nervous tension. Afterwards, the shock had settled in, making her a little subdued as she thought of the potential danger they had been in. They could have had a knife, or been violent.

She dismissed the notion that she was truly in physical danger. The gypsies seemed dangerous, but they had posed no actual threat. What felt ominous was that they seemed to be scoping out the place, and had felt the need to trespass in order to do so. They could return at any time, and as her father said, could venture upstairs.

She felt sad that this kind of world was creeping into the blissful, peaceful world of Itea that she had always known. She also felt sad that there were people less fortunate than her, unable to live normally and resorting to begging or worse to get by. But mostly she felt like there was a pent-up energy deep inside her, like a shout that never got a chance to be heard.

She felt a presence behind her, and she turned to find Hongbin standing there, looking out into the darkness with her. He looked down, and smiled a little.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "You look a bit shaken up."

She nodded, suddenly feeling tears welling up. She was taken by surprise, since she didn't feel sad or scared. She blinked them away quickly and turned her face back to look out into the night. Hongbin noticed and quietly asked if she would rather he asked her father to come see to her. She shook her head.

"It's okay, it's just a touch of hysteria," she said, laughing a little nervously, putting both hands up to her face and pushing back her hair. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, feeling the tears subside and taking a deep breath. She could feel the scream rise up in her throat and fall away as her deep, long breath began to calm her down.

It was like a delayed effect. The shock she thought she should have felt at the scene only came into effect now, almost an hour after. She saw Hongbin watching her, deadly serious.

"Please don't worry about me, I am fine. Honestly, if you don't cheer up you will make me cry for real," she said to him. He immediately flashed those dimples and nodded. He looked around to see who else had noticed, only to find Leo glaring at him from the front door. Hongbin turned back quickly, his smile fading.

"More reason for him to hate me right now," he said to himself.

"Sorry?" Siana asked, as she looked around to see whom Hongbin was referring to. She saw everyone had filed in, and noticed Leo nonchalantly taking off his coat as he walked over to the table, his eyes down. She looked back to see Hongbin was looking at Leo too, with a smirk on his face. She wondered what had happened. Hongbin looked at her, and gestured towards the table.

"Shall we go sit down?"

She nodded, turning to go first.

She sat next to her dad, who was at one end of the table. Opposite her was Leo, then next to him Hongbin, Ravi and Ken. On her side, next to her sat N and Hyuk whilst Min Seok and Mr Joon took the last seats at the other end. Before they had settled, the wait staff had brought carafes of water and retsina, baskets of bread, plates of greek salad and local greens boiled and dressed in olive oil and lemon juice.

They must have been hungry, because she saw pieces of bread being broken off and dipped into the olive oil and forkfuls of salad and greens being placed on their eating plates. The simple food was delicious, tasty, what the Greeks called nostimo.

She took a mouthful of bread dipped in oil and forked a piece of feta in after it.

After a year of not tasting this food, it felt like heaven in her mouth, and she turned to her father with a smile. What was it about food, and memories, and comfort? He smiled back, both of them sentimental for a moment, and reached a hand out to her cheek, rubbing his thumb across her cheekbone.

She leaned into his gentle touch and closed her eyes, happy. The tension in her body seemed to melt away, and she felt a deep love for her dad, having missed him for so long, and not really recognising that fact until that moment, after a busy and eventful day.

She had tears in her eyes when she opened them to look at him, but the tears were from a happy and nostalgic place. Mikhalis also started to well up, and they both started nodding at each other, a little self-consciously, a little wryly, like a couple of clownish kids just acknowledging that they were sentimental fools to each other.

Finally they laughed, and Mikhalis chucked her on the chin before raising his glass to the table. As she picked up her glass too, she saw that Leo was looking at her with eyes that were like pools of darkness, unfathomable, and deeply engrossed in the exchange between her and her father. He nodded politely with his glass upraised as well, then turned to listen to Mikhalis make a toast.

"To our guests, welcome. After tonight's events, your presence here has gone from being a business arrangement, to something else for me, and I am sure for my Siana too. I am grateful to you two boys for helping us earlier, thank you. Here's to new friends, and new graces."

The others smiled and cheered, and Hongbin piped up to say thank you and that they just happened to turn up at the right moment. He joked that it seemed like Miss Siana had everything under control, and that he was glad that all was well.

She began to smell lamb roasting, and it whetted her appetite.

She sat quietly, just listening to the chatter around her, not really noticing what was being  said, and not noticing that Leo was silent too.