It had been 2 days since I last had my night in my previous universe. Did I miss it? No. It wasn't like I had anything left, or anyone to come back to. I still had my dad though but I got this thought about him lingering inside my head that he actually wished I was the one who died instead of his wife.
He didn't have to say it, he never said anything that possessed hatred towards me despite of having a loud mouth. My father wouldn't even hesitate to hurt me, his words flew like a free river along the stream, ignoring the big rocks that were on its way since it was aware of its own mighty force. No rocks could stop it from flowing, and so did his speech. Yet never in my life I ever heard him saying how much he hated me, and I didn't need to be told about it either. I just knew it by the heart. The way he treated me as the only child he had, said it all.
I kept the tap running. The water offered freshness with sufficient coldness I needed to have my hands cleaned. I left my cooking station earlier to go to the loo and also for a minute break, at least, since today had been busy. It was Friday and most Londoners were just more relaxed, didn't really rush to come home since they could rest on weekends. But not for me, not for Natalie. Those two chill out days were just waiting to kill us, squeezing our energy until nothing was left for us at the end of the day.
"Chae?" I heard Natalie's voice coming from her station.
"Yeah?"
"Everything's alright back there? You are taking so long"
Leaving the sink, I put myself back to the front.
"I'm sorry, I got carried away"
"By water?" Her eyebrows raised, having a smirk on her face that made me wonder what she actually had in mind.
"What?! I-" I chuckled, failed to say what I intended to towards her teasing. "I was just washing my hands"
"Who knows? You have been acting weird since yesterday," She walked closer to me, crossing her arms. That gesture sent anxiousness in an instant, making me think of the possibility of her doubting that I wasn't the Chae in this place.
But that was impossible. Nobody else knew about this soul travelling thing, I guessed? Because it was too ridiculous to trust in the first place. Even I used to doubt its truth.
"What do you mean?" I laughed a little, hoping that it had enough walls to cover my nervousness.
"I don't know, you are just...different"
Shaking my head, I tried harder to brush the suspicion away from her mind.
"It's just in your head, Nat" The grin on my lips remained, giving not only confidence to myself that I got everything covered, but also reminding me that I could smile, again.
Only in this universe, I can start to be happy again.
"That's it," She sounded like she had surrendered from this secret digging session best friends usually so professional in doing. But she was just taking a pause, approaching me in a different way instead. "You better tell me, Chae Richards"
My right arm was grasped and pulled as her face turned serious.
"Wh-what?" I swallowed my throat, eyes looking into hers that were already so close. "Tell you what?"
"You finally have had sex, right?!"
If only we weren't on the ground, my eyeballs could have been sucked from their sockets just like being on a flying airplane with a hole on its fuselage. That was how her question affected me, hitting with a massive surprise since her doubt on me was unforeseen, at all.
If that was the crime I was suspected of, I guessed I was saved from any charges.
"Eeuuwwww, what?!" I frowned, confused whether to get disgusted or to laugh about her assumption.
"What did you eeuwww at?!" It was Natalie who was trapped in disbelief. My response about sex could probably be the reason behind it. "Sex isn't a bad thing, Chae"
"Jesus," I breathed out and restrained my words, trying not to spread the laugh. It would be hard to stop later. "What were you thinking?"
"I was just excited," She smiled, letting go of the grip she put on me while her face looked so desperate not to get infected by my laughter. I knew she wouldn't want to laugh at her own mistake. "You having sex is like my life goal"
I burst out laughing, having my plan to wash the used woks delayed as I got more distracted. I should be closing down the stall, both of us should. It was already past 6 and I couldn't wait to have a hot bath later. But here we were, fooling around about me having sex, which was the second most absurd thing I ever had to hear after soul travelling. Then it got me thinking, if the insane ideas of selling my soul to a demon and going to a different universe were already checked on my list, would sex be checked too?
Just by thinking about it made me dizzy.
"Let's clean this mess, Nat" I refused to waste more time, hands already started cleaning.
"Give me a minute"
She stepped out from our working station, going into the employee area at the back which was where I came from.
Sighing, I closed my eyes and appreciated the breath I took in. The conversation I had with Natalie earlier managed to weigh my chest despite of the jokes and laughter we had along with it. That was because I got panicked. She didn't have to do much, she only confronted me about acting weird and I almost lost my conviction. Almost!
I was lucky that my clumsiness didn't show its talent, or I would have to tell a hell of a story about how I got owned by a hell creature, and how soul travelling ever worked. Only then a virgin would not be my only name anymore, crazy would be added on the list as well.
"Hi, good evening. Can I still order?"
A voice that I hadn't heard for almost a month greeted my ears when I was still above the clouds. It jolted through me like a bolt of knight, pulling me down from the sky and slammed my body to the muddy ground. Even though it didn't sound like it normally would; caught in heavy breath for its pace, but it entered my heart so beautifully, so softly that I never heard before.
That was because the Lisa I had, never sounded that way.
I carefully opened my eyes when I knew I had nowhere to run. I could only leave this place by sleeping, and there was no way I could cancel everything now. It was already too late, she was already there, standing in front of my working station. I could say that the element of surprise was the key to my nervousness at that time, considering the stuff I heard from The Kims about this 'Lisa' yesterday.
For short, I just didn't expect she would come. I thought I would be meeting her in a different way, not by her coming to my stall. I thought this universe would work differently, as it should. And that was what punched me in the guts when it still sent Lisa to me.
Regardless, I couldn't just ignore her. She greeted me with politeness that I never received from my girlfriend before. Silence couldn't be the only thing I offered to appreciate her arrival. Thus, realisation and strength were slowly coming to my sense since I was unable to even look at her, having my mouth cemented no matter how bad I wanted to talk to her.
I missed you, Lisa.
"Are you alright?"
She gave another question with a different kind of tone this time; concern, which was another unfamiliar gesture of Lisa I just learned she had.
"I-I'm sorry," I finally talked as I shook my head, forcing a smile without any eye contact with her, yet. "I'm fine, thank you for asking" I inhaled deep as I straightened my body. "What can I get for you?"
"Are you sure? You look pale," She insisted on my condition instead of the reason why she came to my stall. "Do you need some water?" Her hand was the first part of her that my vision got to catch as she tried to hand me a water bottle. "I haven't opened it yet. You can have it if you want?"
At that point of time, restlessness wasn't my only companion anymore. Her voice also planted shyness in me that I hoped I could've handled better than just blushing it out from my skin.
"No, thank you," My smile grew even bigger, eyes stayed down. "Would you like some noodles, miss?"
She didn't get the chance to reply when another voice intruded the very first conversation I had with her.
"Sorry, we are already closed"
Turning my neck to my back, Natalie's face came to my vision.
"Ohh," Lisa uttered, sounding like she was disappointed. "That's alright, I will come next time"
Without uncertainty, I projected my disagreement to another cook in the space. "I can slip one order in"
Natalie gave me a questionable look, probably wondering what I was trying to do since I was the one who was so eager to close the stall down and go home. But I didn't need to look at the waiting customer to know she was panting. My ears told me that she had been running just to get to this market, chasing the time that she hoped would be on her side.
Not in heaven and not even in hell I would let her go home without my yakisoba.
"But-"
"We still have today's stock to finish," I interrupted her with those extra ingredients as my main point. We were going to throw them anyway since we only used fresh ones for the next day.
Natalie still gave me a telepathic look that I understood. She was worried for sure, of course, because if I cooked for this order, other customers might stop by, thinking that we were still opened. It would be bad to turn them down just for the sake of entertaining one customer.
But one thing she didn't know was the woman in front of the stall wasn't just a customer. That was the love of my life, and she just came back to me. How could I turn Lisa down? How about no?
"It won't take long though," I convinced my best friend one more time, still looking at her until she had to agree.
"Fine"
She resumed the cleaning for me without further argument, and I grabbed a new pair of gloves to put on.
My eyes caught the figure of Lisa when she cut the distance between us, leaning closer to the wooden frame that separated the both of us.
"Thank you, miss, thank you so much"
The softness of her tone spread out, creating a voice that was as brittle as the last snow on Siberian lake, yet applauded my heart like the sonata of deity angels. It didn't strive for the first mien of winter, engaging in dreary raid that paralysed every flesh of limb. Instead, it danced its way along the clear valley and to the top, and it froze the entire mountain with a whisper to stay. It was so calm to be remembered. Thus, it shall not be forgotten.
Grinning, I tried so hard not to move my gaze by focusing on the vegetables.
"No worries," I said. "Would you like to try our yakisoba?"
"Yes!" She finally answered the purpose of her running to my stall with the obvious excitement in her voice. "I'd like one yakisoba, to go please"
"Alright, please take a seat over there. I'll call you when it's ready"
"Thank you," She said it with a much lower register this time, making me so tempted to look up. "But I'd rather stand here..." She took a short pause like she was looking for the right way to finish her sentence. "...than sit there and miss the chance to see you cook"
That felt like every pound of breath was taken away from my chest, freeing all of the lovely feelings that were kept alone in a bunch of balloons. They flew away in freedom they never got to taste, roaming in the sky that lasted in mere seconds. They went down again and got caught by a different hand. It only took a light touch that soon turned into a hold, and there she was, standing firmed with a bunch of my balloons in her grip.
She had all of me in her hand. She captured my entire soul that had been depending on a piece of string to keep everything together, and I could only stand there, looking into her eyes with a hope that she wouldn't pop any.
Please take care of them now, Lisa.
I have lost so many in the wrong hands.
So I made new ones for you, not because I could. But because I trust yours.