Under the Umbrella ✓

-15-

Why Aria told the stranger her name, she couldn't understand. In the unexpected hastiness of the moment, it was the only thing she thought of saying. Not as if she needed to anyway since it appeared that he had already known her name, mysteriously. Or rather weirdly.

Besides, when the stranger revealed his own name, it sounded like he thought Aria was inquisitive about it. She felt as if he made it look like she was after him when she was actually after his motives.

Out of all the things I was curious about, I was not curious about his name. Or that was what she told herself.

The first time the stranger had paid for her, she didn't know what to take of it. She distinctly remembered he had agreed to let her pay for his drink, but in the end, he paid for both their drinks. She couldn't tell if he was trying to prove something or if it was another one of his generous acts toward her. With the handful of times she had communicated with him, she didn't think he looked like someone who would fit the mold of a generous person. But the umbrella-instances suggested otherwise...

Did he sympathize with her? Was that it? She recalled the two times he had given her his umbrella, she was distraught, and it wouldn't have been too difficult for it to have reflected on her face. Maybe he was trying to pull off an act of a selfless gentleman rescuing a damsel in distress.

Damn. Way to be dramatic.

With Sandra, she never had enough to talk about, so when they had decided to leave the café, they were only planning their next program for the day. That was until Aria sped out of the café without notice.

To Sandra, it seemed like she was missing something momentous with the context of Aria running after the stranger that she didn't bother masking just how betrayed she felt. Only Aria knew how trivial their interactions had been, and Sandra wasn't too late to join in with her when Aria laid out her defense and explained the odd occurrences with the stranger.

Aria learned that Sandra had noticed the stranger long before she did. "It's hard to miss his presence in that barely filled café, especially when he looks that gorgeous," Sandra had said, a total opposite to what Aria had thought about his camouflaging presence. She couldn't have been that oblivious... Or was she?

Nonetheless, the stranger's looks hadn't distorted Sandra's opinion about him as she already made her assumptions, tagging him as a stalker, pervert, or just a strange admirer. Aria didn't know what about him it was that couldn't make her label him as any of those. Sandra advised her to be on the watch out around him, although for some ambiguous reason, Aria thought it wouldn't be necessary.

What she thought necessary was asking him about his intentions. It looked like she only needed a sign to know that he was even slightly approachable, and the previous encounter had given her the right signal and courage to initiate a conversation with him.

She wasn't going to be able to go to Coffee Break in the afternoons for the next few days, having to simultaneously deal with college and both of her jobs this time. However, it was the ideal opportunity to contemplate on what she was going to ask him and play out a possible scenario in her head until it was time for her to reenact it.

Thus, she eagerly awaited that day as she now stocked the jeans on the final shelf in the store and checked out from her shift only to head to her other job at the tool shop.