Project: Socialize (Chapters 1-197)

58. She Doesn't Know how to get Home

"You're not being picked up by car?" I noticed that Irina was still with us whereas usually she would've been picked up by that black SUV after school. "Oh and don't you have a film shoot after school? Is it fine to stay that long after school?"

Irina shook her head. "It's fine," she said. "Father and I decided to decline a bunch of my other jobs since I'm earning enough already to help the family. There's no need for me to be over exerting myself."

"That's nice to hear," Loyd commented. "It's bad to stress oneself too much."

"Yeah," Irina nodded and smiled. "I'll have more time to do what ordinary high school girls do."

"Isn't that Irina?" I heard some murmurs originating from somewhere in the station. Looking around, I discovered a group of high school boys dressed in another school's uniform taking out their phones and pointing it in our direction.

"They're taking pictures..." Zaksus muttered to himself as he looked back at them from over his shoulders.

"Right," Muria nodded.

"Let's get going," I suggested.

"You're right," Loyd nodded. "See you guys tomorrow." He then started heading for the escalators that led to the underground metro.

"See you, Loyd," Zaksus said his goodbyes to him and then turned to face us. "See you guys tomorrow." He then took off and passed through the ticket gates for a different train line.

"Then I'll see you tomorrow," I said to Irina and turned and started for the escalators leading up to the elevated railways.

"I live in the same direction as him. See you tomorrow." Muria expressed her goodbyes with Irina and then started following after me.

As I walked, I had a bad feeling. Irina hadn't said goodbye to us, that meant that she wasn't done just yet. She needs our help. Now what is it that will lead to her needing our help? My guess is that she probably needs help using the trains. It's understandable since she's probably most used to being picked up in a car.

With a sigh, I paused in my footsteps and turned around. This gesture surprised Muria, who also stopped and followed me with her eyes. I walked right past her and back to where Irina was looking around with a confused and troubled expression on her face. In those blue eyes of hers, I saw a look of uncertainty surveying her surroundings. When her surveying gaze landed on me, she discovered me standing before her with an ambivalent expression on my face.

"You don't know how to get home?" I asked.

"I..." She averted my gaze and looked to the side.

"..." Her unwillingness to trust her problems to me made me quite irritated. Therefore, I turned around after staring at her for a few seconds and started walking away. "Goodbye."

"Wait!"

She finally called out and reached for her hand out for me. However, since I had already anticipated this action from her, I turned around right when she called my name and caught her with her hand outreached in my direction. She seemed to be frightened by my sudden motion, which I saw in her eyes, and retracted her hand. She then brought both hands together and looked at me nervously with her head somewhat lowered.

"I don't know how to get home..." she whispered shyly with a flustered expression on her face and darted her eyes about.

I stared at her, intentionally making her endure this situation even longer. It had no effect on me, but for her, being in such a flustered situation, it must've been awful for her. Well... not in a bad way for say. It's more of a... how would I describe it? It's a non-harmful feeling that I'm having her endure, but it shouldn't harm her in any way. To be honest, I kinda enjoyed seeing her blush and appear so flustered. It's kinda entertaining.