Asura (english version)

Chapter 1

The train was too late, as always. Has it ever been different? Shia sighed exhausted, around her were all sorts of people who were all tired from their busy days, gazing at the train station display. For her part, she always checked her watch, it was like a compulsion, she couldn't help it. The loneliness, the exposure in public made her rather jittery and she longed for the silence of her room, this place of rest in which she was safe from everything. She tripped nervously from one foot to the other, hoping to get rid of the sharp winter cold.

»Hey,« said a low voice next to her, sounding almost shy. She ignored it, just like she ignored all the voices that planted the most incredible things in her thoughts every day with their spiteful ideas and untruths.

»Heyyyy,« the voice repeated impatiently, and this time someone nudged her shoulder. She winced involuntarily, turned around in alarm and stuck a headphone out of her ear, the rumbling bass of the music slightly subsided.

»What is it« She asked puzzled, her heart started to flutter because it was there again, that cursed panic of strangers. Soothing blue eyes smiled at her.

»I just wanted to tell you that you have to be careful, because your wallet is about to fall out of your jacket pocket.«

»Oh,« she said startled and hurriedly slipped her bag off her shoulders. »Thank you,« she said politely, after carefully tucking the wallet in her bag and tying it tightly. She turned back to the boy.

»No problem,« he said, watching her precisely. »Are you always so scatterbrained?« 
Shia smiled nervously and scratched the back of her head, then twirled a strand of her hair around her fingers. She felt briefly attacked, a small stab in the heart. Oh, how much she hated criticism.

»Uh ... Kind of ...« The boy eyed her up, too intensely and continuously, which soon made her uncomfortable to look into his bright eyes. She stepped back a bit, closer to the crowd that she normally so desperately avoided.

»I just wanted to note it because your hair looks so ... messy. And your laces are open.«
Shia blushed deeply and laughed a little awkwardly.

»Ahh, gosh, that's really embarrassing.« He smiled, she wasn't quite sure if he laughed at her, but in the end it was a pretty cute and somewhat amused smile. She quickly ran her fingers several times through her hair, tied her shoelaces briefly, but in the hurry just ended up to put them in her shoes, because there was already a hollow metallic announcement. Her train would fail due to technical problems. Shias eyes flew to the display, the next train would only arrive in two hours. That's how it was when you lived at the cursed end of the world.

»Damn it,« she muttered angrily.

His eyes darted to her. »You're driving the S41 too?« He asked, and she was surprised that he was still standing in front of her, for he could have gone long ago. Now it was she who was scrutinizing him, but he didn't show a hint of uncertainty.

»Uh...«

»Ah, me too. What are the two of us doing for two hours now?« He asked with a certain mischief in his voice.

»I,« said Shia softly, »will go to the next Starbucks and continue writing my essay.« Her voice trembled a little and she took another step back, because it seemed so strange to her, almost as if something  wasn't right with him. He looked like a foreign body in the crowd.

»Cool. Mind if I come with you?«

»Um...« she murmured, looking at her watch again, thinking through all sorts of excuses and escape maneuvers in a matter of seconds.

»Oh man. Oh boy, oh man, I must look like a freak to you, right?« The boy shook his head. »I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to, I ...« He paused and something shimmered in his eyes. »No, forget it. It's nothing.«