[~~Posted 2/21/21~~]
A/N: OK! Just posted a bunch of chapters but now gonna have to take a few more days to figure out how to tell what comes next... Your thoughts, comments, votes always make me so very happy... ]
Lukas spent those first September days of class waiting for a package from home...
Chili Oil. Instant ramen you couldn't buy in America. Hotpot flavoring packets that broke world records for MSG content...
His mother mailed him these care packages. They saved him from getting too homesick.
That morning, his phone dings with an alert:
"Your package has been delivered!"
So he pulls on a thick wool sweater and heads out into the cold September morning air.
* * * * . . . . . .
. . . * * * * . . .
. . . . . . * * * *
The post office is quiet when Lukas shows up. There's only one person ahead of him in line—a girl in a navy blue wool coat. When she reaches the counter, the white-haired man working on the other side grins.
"You again!" says the man with mock surprise. Then he adds, "I think... this is what you want!" He hands over a scuffed cardboard box.
"Thank you Terrence!" says the owner of the navy blue coat.
That voice...
As she turns sideways, Lukas catches a glimpse of her profile.
It's the girl from the cafeteria. The one who'd challenged Nadia.
Holding the box tightly against her chest, the girl scurries past Lukas and leaves the post office.
Excitement swirls in her eyes, and there's a flush on her face.
* * * * . . . . . .
. . . * * * * . . .
. . . . . . * * * *
When Lukas gets his box next, he shakes it a little. At the crinkly, rattling sound of ramen packages inside, he can't help but smile.
Then he steps outside into the bright morning.
And he stops.
There she is. The cafeteria girl—the one whose name tag had read "Kaia." She's seated on a stone wall between him and the bike rack.
A strange feeling arises in him.
Her cardboard box sits beside her, torn open.
Her delicate hands hold something...
Strange...
Am I imagining things? he wonders, blinking, as he moves closer.
No, his eyes aren't playing tricks on him.
It is... a plant of some kind, its root ball all tightly wrapped up in plastic. She cradles it in her thin pale fingers.
Lukas clears his throat. And the girl looks up. Startled.
As her gaze angles up toward him, Lukas sees that her whole face—it's lit up with happiness.
But not because of him.
That radiant joy was there on her face, before she even noticed him. Her black eyes have a sort of warmth in them. Their liveliness is like a bonfire's flames curling into darkness.
He clears his throat once more.
At the sound, the girl's gaze comes into focus. Lukas has the feeling he's almost interrupting her thoughts.
At least she's not going to hound me like paparazzi, he thinks, relieved.
The girl's elegant fingers tighten around the roots of her plant as he gets close.
"Oh, hi," she says simply, her brow furrowed. A bit confused.
Does she recognize me? he wonders.
"Hi Kaia," he says. Using her name, deliberately.
"Kai. Everyone calls me Kai," she smiles.
He needs to introduce himself. "I'm Lukas," he says, in return. "Everyone calls me Lukas."
In the moment, as their eyes meet, she's like a completely different person.
That night—that night he'd heard her talking back to Nadia in the dining hall... she seemed...
... like a focused assassin. The kind of person who'd have zero problem killing someone who was torturing her friend.
But now the cafeteria girl's presence seems so soft. Warm.
Suddenly he has the distinct feeling—that she doesn't really care whether he talks to her or not.
It's a new feeling. One he's not used to.
So he points just past her shoulder...
... at his bike on the bike rack.
"Oh..." her big eyes widen. Comprehending, she moves out of the way.
He goes to unlock his bike, and then straps his box to it, using his orange bungee cord.
When he looks up again, he realizes that the girl's already on her way.
As her figure crosses the street toward the campus quad, her ponytail trails behind her. It swings back and forth: a happy swish with each step. She's almost running.
Suddenly Lukas feels a strange impulse bubble up in him—
—the impulse to follow after her...
...but... however...
...
Then something catches his attention.
He notices that the girl flattened the cardboard box that contained her plant. That box is now stashed in a recycling bin a meter away.
Fishing the box out, he looks at Kai's name on it. And the sender's name too:
Nina Araki...
Whatever plant this mysterious Nina Araki had sent...
... it'd clearly given this girl Kai...
...so much happiness—
—like a light had switched on inside her and warmed the whole street from up the block all the way down.
Lukas slowly biked from the post office back to his dorm, lost in thought.
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🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
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