CAFE MILLION

It’s getting super late, and I think I’m about to miss the last train of the day. What a way to go about my first day living in a new country.

I’ve been wandering around this residential area aimlessly for a while now, before stopping to stare at the black screen of my phone which died about an hour ago.

In desperation, as I’m about to resort to my last option, that is to knock on a random door to ask for directions, a savior had shown herself before me.

As she turned around a corner, with what I assume is a bag of groceries in her hands, I immediately walked up to her

As soon as she noticed me coming, she took a quick look around here, flustered.

I’m actually really sorry for startling her, but I’m also actually desperate here.

The closer I got, the more tense she seemed to be. She even raised and clutched her bag of groceries close to her chest, and I could see her trembling.

I really am sorry. I will just quickly ask for directions and leave. But first, I think I have some misunderstandings to clear.

“Hey, sorry for startling you. I promise I’m not going to do anything, I just need directions to the station.” I said, whilst raising my hands.

After doing so, the person before me is still trembling, and looking at me with fear in her eyes. Though, considering the situation where a stranger suddenly runs up to her at this time of night, I guess it’s understandable.

After some moment of silence, I followed up the question again, as meekly as I can this time.

After my second attempt at asking for directions, she looked at the ground and I could hear her take a deep breath, whilst holding her hand to her chest.

When she looked up again, she started pointing and making some motion using her hands.

I’ve seen similar hand motions before, and caught on that it’s likely sign language. But while I know what it is, I don’t have any idea what she’s trying to say.

“Um, sorry.. If you could maybe, just point in a general direction? Sorry, but I don’t quite understand sign language.” I said, trying best to explain myself so I don’t offend her.

She seemed quite shocked at my explanation. Maybe more people here know sign language than not?

She then started walking away.

Though disappointed, I could only sigh. It’s understandable to walk away at this point, really.

Or I thought she was going to walk away, but she stopped at the corner from which she came, and pointed towards something around the corner, still trembling a little.

I walked closer to her, and with my eyes following the direction in which she’s pointing at, I could see that she’s pointing towards a mini market.

It took me a little while to figure out, but I can ask the staff in the mini market for directions to the station. I let out a huge sigh of relief at this realization, and I quickly went towards the mini market after thanking her, not wanting to take anymore of her time.

In the mini market, I bought a bottle of water and asked the cashier for directions to the station. And after giving me the directions I needed, the cashier told me that it’s still another hour before the last train, relieving me of my anxiety.

It’s morning, and the alarm next to my bed had started ringing, signaling the start of my day. I sat up after dismissing the loud ringing noise and stared at the wall for a while.

Since I can’t stand the bitterness of coffee, I’m basically a log while still sluggish in the morning. People have also told me that I get dumber when sleepy.

I made my way to the living room just to sit on the couch, looking over a mountain of boxes.

Just moved here from another country, and instead of unpacking all my stuff, I decided to run off yesterday for an adventure after having only unpacked the absolute essentials, which I had specifically packed in a different box for that reason.

Guess I had meant to slack off even before I arrived.

Looking around the room, I mentally thanked my acquaintance who set me up in this two-bedroom apartment. It was a really nice place to be set up in, especially since I had asked suddenly, and in a rush.

It is kind of pricey, though. Considering that the apartment is in a strategic place, I guess it’s reasonably priced.

Though strategic that it is, there isn’t much around here that piqued my interest. Not that there isn’t any at all.

Well, enough lazing around. I really have to unpack these boxes of things before I need them. With most of my stuff still inside boxes, I also actually have nothing else to do.

With a mountain of stuff to unpack, I decided to start with the most essential out of the many I have. My computer.

After a few hours unpacking, setting up, and tidying up some items, I finished unpacking everything in my bathroom, and bedroom, and I’m halfway through the living room.

The other room, I decided to use as my exclusive computer room, and I already finished unpacking there too. Though with only my computer, it’s really looking bare.

There’s still a bit to unpack left, but it’s lunch time, and my stomach is rumbling.

While looking up places where I can go to eat, a bit of exhaustion caught up to me. So instead of a restaurant of sorts, I looked for a cafe instead, where I can lounge around for some time.

After some more searching, I found a cafe with some good reviews not too far from my place. Cafe Million, says here is its name. It’s around midway between my station and the next, so I guess I’ll be walking there.

I changed into some more proper clothes, and grabbed my wallet, phone, and keys, and went out. After making my way to the lobby, I greeted the receptionist and security and left the building.

It never hurts to be friendly towards the staff attending your building. Because when something goes down, they will be the first one to reach out. A smile can go a long way.

Making my way towards the cafe, I can really appreciate being in a more “developed” country.

It’s much safer and comfortable walking from one place to another here compared to my home country where it’s basically a quick brush of deaths with vehicles passing by.

Here, the public transportations, and sidewalks are more developed, leading to less vehicles on the road.

The cafe I’ve arrived at is a really nice place. It has this calming vibe going for the place, making it quite relaxing.

I arrived a little past lunch hour, so while there’s quite some people in here, it’s far from crowded.

I took a seat at a less secluded area, and not long after taking my seat, a waitress came by and handed me a menu.

Going over it, I ordered food along with dessert and a drink.

The food came to my table pretty fast, showing the great service this place can provide. The items I ordered also happen to be very much to my tastes.

This also seems like a good place to work from, so maybe I could do that. If I ever find the will or need to, I guess. Right now, I could survive off my savings for a long while still.

Looking around, it seems like there’s less people here compared to when I just came in. It is around afternoon time now, so even though some people walked in, more walked out.

The smaller number of people had resulted in the place becoming quieter and more relaxing. But as much as I wanted to stay, the unpacked boxes back at my place are eating away at my mind.

After finishing my transaction, I walked towards the exit when I noticed a familiar face seated not far from the register. It’s the girl from last night that pointed me to a mini market.

She must have come in after I did, because I hadn’t noticed her when I walked in. And unfortunately, we made eye contact.

It’s not that I’m ungrateful and what not, but considering how awkward last night had been, I really wanted to put that behind me.

That wasn’t really the best way to put it but meeting her in a cafe is really the last thing I’d expect.

But now that we’ve made eye contact, I should thank her again and apologize for scaring her last night.

“Hey, remember me from last night? Sorry for scaring you, and you really helped me out. Thank You very much.” I said, bowing my head a little to show my sincerity.

She seemed a little flustered and waved both her hands. I guess she meant to say “it’s nothing, please don’t mind” or the sort?

In her flustered state, she took a quick glance towards a waitress, who is currently glaring daggers at me.

“I, uh, it’s not what you think, I’m just apologizing for my rudeness last night, and thanking her for helping me out.” I said, trying to explain myself to the waitress.

“‘Rude last night’? Now that sounds very suspicious, mister. Just what are you being rude about, and what are you thanking her for, now?”

Now that she’d pointed it out, that wasn’t really the best choice of words.

“It’s, I was lost last night, and I asked her for directions with very little sensibility, one could say. So that was me being rude. And I wanted to thank her for the directions.” I explained, whilst taking a glance towards the girl, hoping she could help to clear the misunderstanding here.

The girl seemed to have caught on, as she started making some hand motions to the waitress. Just like last night, it seems to be sign language, but I can’t be sure since I don’t understand a thing.

It seems to be working, though. As the waitress just sighed and waved her hand, saying “alright, alright”.

I relaxed a bit now that the misunderstanding seems to be cleared, and I thanked the girl again, before moving on to the waitress, expressing how I like the items served in this cafe, and I’ll return another time for more. And with that, I left the cafe.

Once outside the cafe, I sighed a breath of relief. Glad that the misunderstanding is cleared.

It’s been awkward every time I meet with that girl. Well, it’s not likely that I’ll just randomly run into her again, so it doesn’t really matter. Or even better, please don’t let me run into her again, I wished silently, as I made my way back to my apartment.

Once I’m back at my apartment, I continued unpacking the rest of the stuff.

After putting up the last item, I put away the cardboard boxes and went to the minimarket in my apartment building for a quick frozen dinner and turned in for the night after some games.

My days living in this new country have been mostly idle so far. I mostly stay cooped up in my apartment, apart from occasional shopping trips.

Since I can cook for myself, I only go out every few days for a grocery trip.

It might be a waste to be in a new country, and not go out at all, but I’ve visited a few times before as a tourist, so there’s not much places I’d like to go to. And what little places I’d actually like to visit, I had done so on my first day here.

However, it’s not as if I want to just stay cooped up forever in my apartment. I have been advised against that, and I do still get the urge to go out from time to time.

The challenge about going out for me is figuring out where to go. There’s really just nothing I want to do outside.

While I do enjoy going outside, I don’t want to go out and just wander around without any particular destination in mind. It feels like a waste of time.

This is usually where friends come into the picture. I would ask my friends to meet up somewhere, to hang out together. I think a good friendship is one where you can meet up together when you’re doing nothing, just to do nothing together. But I have no friends here. Some acquaintances, but no friends close enough I can just randomly call to meet up. Thus, I need to settle on a destination to do something to get out by myself.

After some deliberation, I decided to revisit the cafe from a few days ago. Might be a nice change of pace to sit down and do the same things I do at home, in a cafe.

And so, here I am again, in front of the cafe, deliberating my whole life choices.

The girl from a few days ago, who had given me directions when I was lost, and whom I met in this same cafe, is here again.

Come to think of it, the girl had spoken in sign language with a waitress here. I really could’ve guessed that she’d be a regular here from that. It’s not like knowing sign language is a requirement to become a waitress.

And as I started to walk away, I made eye contact with the waitress from the other day from behind the glass door. She grinned at me when we made eye contact. Not a polite business smile, but a straight-out ear to ear grin.

She seems to remember me. It terrifies me how good the service is in this cafe, seeing how the waitress remembers a random walk-in customer.

Well, I did promise to come back here the last time I was around, so I guess I don’t have any other choice here. But what am I supposed to say to the girl that previously helped me with directions?

Also, “the girl that previously helped me with directions” is really long. I should just call her directions girl.

On that note, me and directions girls are just two strangers that happen to be in the same cafe.

So, I just walked in, took a seat some ways behind directions girl.

Not long after I’m seated, the waitress from earlier walked up to me, giving me a menu, still grinning. Well, I mean, it is good service to smile at your customer, but not grinning from ear to ear, I’d assume.

“You know, I’m technically still a customer here.” I said to her

“Of course, mister. And It’d be my pleasure to serve you to the best of my ability.” she replied, grinning even wider.

I can only sigh in reply to that. Guess it’s my fate now. This might be the last time I swing by this place.

I placed my order for a cake and a drink, and after taking note of my order, she asked if I had anything else I’d like to order, as a waitress usually would, if not for what follows up.

“Is there anything else you’d like, mister? Perhaps a girl’s name and phone number?”

“Wha-? Why would you assume so?”

“Well, I don’t know what else I’d assume. If you’re not interested in her, I didn’t think you’d actually come back here.”

“That was.. short-sightedness on my part, and I have previously promised to come around another time as I had enjoyed the items served in this place.”

“True enough, I was just assuming you wouldn’t.” she said, finally dropping her grin. “I thank you for your continued patronage, mister.” she said whilst bowing her head, and lifting the hem of her skirt lightly.

“Ah, yes, you’re welcome.” She seems really earnest in saying so that it had really thrown me off.

I guess she can be professional when she needs to be. And now I feel sorry for assuming otherwise.

“But please call for me before you approach Erika again.” she said, with her ear to ear grin back on, before walking away.

Damn her, it seems I was right about judging her before.

Also, it seems like directions girl actually has a name. Which is Erika, assuming that the waitress was actually talking about directions girl just now.

As I took out my phone to play with whilst waiting for my order to arrive, my eyes can't help but wander towards Erika.

Even when scrolling through stuff on my phone, my eyes still occasionally wander from time to time. I can’t help but be conscious of her, considering how awkwards all two of our encounters had been. And just my luck, when I’m taking a glance towards Erika, my orders arrived, brought to my table by none other than the waitress from earlier.

“Spying are we, now?” she asked, which almost made me jump from my seat. “Or are you actually stalking her, mister?” she followed up, with a serious expression.

“Nonononono, I just, uh-. Well, I most definitely am not stalking her.”

“Really, now? Because you actually seemed suspicious last time.”

“Well, I was here before her that time, no?”

“I guess that’s true enough, but that could’ve been your plan from the start.”

“I- well, can’t deny that, I guess. But I most definitely am not stalking her!” I exclaimed sternly to drive my point across.

I have to get this point across to clear up this misunderstanding.

“Alright then, I’m keeping an eye on you, mister” she said, taking a step back after putting my orders down on the table.

Just then, a very familiar sound lightly chimed. It was a somewhat nostalgic sound. One that I know very well but haven’t heard in quite some time. The sound of an error on a popular computer operating system’s terminal.

The sound really piqued my interest, and I took a look towards the sound of the sound, which happens to be Erika.

“You’re staring really hard, mister.” It seems my piqued interest has piqued the interest of the waitress which had only taken a few steps back.

“Ah, it’s not like that. I was just interested in that sound just now.” I explained, trying to defend myself.

“Hmm. is that so?” she asked, as she started walking away again.

I sighed in relief, thinking I had cleared another misunderstanding.

Then I saw that the waitress had actually walked towards Erika and spoke to her about something which I can’t hear about. But it most certainly is about me, as Erika promptly took a look towards me, who is sitting some ways behind her.

She also seems somewhat flustered, before going back to facing the waitress and signing something to her. I could see her hands.

I’m very curious as to what they’re talking about over there, but anymore and I’d just be actually creepy and invading their privacy. So, I just opted to finish my orders quickly and leave this place as fast as I can.

After finishing my orders, I made my way towards the cashier to pay. On my way, I walked past Erika, and my eyes can't help but wander towards the screen of her laptop.

Also, since Erika’s table is right by the register, I could actually steal a peek at her screen while paying for my orders.

After a quick observation, I found the error displayed on her screen, and I can see her trying something to fix it.

After finishing my transaction, I thought to leave as fast as I could, but it really bothers me that I’m not saying anything to Erika.

I technically know her, which makes it feel somewhat rude to say nothing. What she’s talking about with the waiter, and what she’s doing on her laptop also bothers me. But again, I don’t want things to get awkward, and I don’t want to be here any longer.

Still, I guess she did help me out the first time we met, and I should really repay the favor. I sighed at the thought of what I’m about to do and just went with it.

After taking a look around to find the waitress from earlier and finding her walking away from a table she just delivered their order to, I made way towards her.

“Hey, sorry to bother. I have to say this first, that I don’t really mean anything by it, I’m just trying to return a favor.” I followed that with an explanation of what Erika is currently doing, why I think it’s wrong, and what she should be doing instead.

My hope here is that the waitress would deliver this message to Erika, so it might help her with what she’s currently doing. With that, I’d have nothing more to do with either of them.

But instead, the waitress grabbed my arm and dragged me over to Erika.

“Erika, this guy said he can help you with your assignment.” she proclaimed to Erika.

“Eh?” I just stood there dumbfounded.

Erika seems to be as dumbfounded as I am, as she just froze with an “Eh?” look on her face.

“Come on, you’ve been struggling with that assignment for a while now, right? You might be able to finish earlier with him helping. Besides, it’d be good practice too.”

I don’t know about practice, as I’d just point out things I’ve noticed. But I guess I did mean to help her out to thank her. Thus, I just sighed and asked for her permission to help.

“I guess I should introduce myself first. My name is Oliver, I graduated computer science some years back, and my knowledge might be a little behind as I haven’t been programming for some time, but I believe I understand the error you currently have. And I might be able to help you in solving the error.”

Erika signed something to the waitress, to which the waitress replied with “It’s fine. You helped him out the other day, right? He can do this much for you.” Their conversations just went back and forth for a bit, and eventually the waitress just sat me down across from Erika, and she took a seat next to her.

I’d have guessed that Erika had agreed to this, but it seems that she’s just as confused as I am as to what’s going on here, and she seems to be shaking a little.

What an aggressive waitress.

Erika seemed to have resigned herself to the selfish whims of this waitress, as she just gave up and signed “I’ll be counting on you, then” which the waitress had translated for me.

I started by explaining the error message that I saw on her screen, explaining to her what had caused that error, and how to fix it. After a while of tracing, we managed to clear up the error.

But before we could rejoice, we were then greeted with another error unrelated to the one we just solved.

Since I’m already at it, I might as well go all the way. It’s not like I have anywhere else to be, nor anything else to do anyway.

After a while, Erika seemed to have eased up somewhat. Though she still seems to be on guard, tensing up every now and then, at least she’s not shaking anymore.

I really feel bad scaring her like that, which is exactly why I had asked the waitress to convey my message instead of just talking to her about it in the first place. Well, it’s also because I didn’t want things to get awkward again, but still.

Some time passed, and we’ve made quite the progress with her assignment.

I have to say, it feels quite good to help her with this assignment.

Since I haven’t been programming for some time, doing this somewhat tickles my brain.

It feels good to be back, I guess. Though it does get tiring after a while.

Just as I thought that, an older gentleman stopped by our table and put a couple drinks on our table. One for me and one for the waitress. I hadn’t ordered anything, but he brought out a drink that I like.

“Forgive my assumptions, but as I’ve noticed you ordered the same thing today and during your last visit, I’ve made you the same one, on the house.”

“Oh, no. I really like this drink, thank you very much.”

“You’re welcome, young man. And I have to thank you too, for helping Erika here, and playing along with my daughter, Hana’s whim.”

“Dad!” Protested Hana, to which her father replied with a light chuckle.

So, the waitress’s name is Hana.

“It’s my pleasure to help, it’s also a little like reminiscing about the past, as I happen to have studied about this field previously.”

The older gentleman smiled slightly and made his way back behind the counter.

Seeing that, I’ll be damned if that wasn’t the picture-perfect example of a gentleman. Slick back grey hair, defined wrinkles, along with a sharp smile. Polite formal language, solid relationship with his daughter, also working as a barista, giving out drinks on the house exactly as the customer wanted.

I was starstruck. He was such a role model.

I yearn to grow old to be just like him. My respect to you, Hana’s father.

A while later, we finally finished Erika’s assignment. Although it took quite a while, this whole time we were just finishing up her assignment. Programming projects often take a lot of time, weeks usually, and she had done most of it.

It was already dinner time when we were done. When I took a quick look around the cafe, I noticed that quite a lot of people had come into the restaurant.

Just then, Hana translated for Erika, who apparently would like to buy me dinner as thanks for helping with her assignment.

I can’t have that, though. In the first place, I helped her out to pay her back for helping me the other day. I can’t have her repay me for repaying her, so I promptly refused.

That seemed to have surprised her a little, which prompted Hana to step in.

“Listen here, Mister, Erika’s trying to be nice, so you should take the meal in gratitude and leave it at that.”

Then, another voice came from behind my back. It was the older gentleman from earlier, Hana’s father.

“I’d have to agree with my daughter here. It’d be rude to decline an offer from a young lady, young man.” he said, which had really convinced me.

I can’t just say no when it comes from my newly found role model. So, I accepted her offer and ordered a meal on her.

After our order arrived, we made some small talk during our meal.

It really confuses me how Hana could just sit there and eat with us while the restaurant is going through what probably is their busiest time of the day.

Also, maybe in consideration towards Erika who needs both her hands to eat, she seems to be showering me with questions, almost as if investigating me. With the occasional yes or no question to Erika, to which she would respond by nodding or shaking her head.

“You mentioned you haven’t done this in a while, right? But you studied it during university, so what are you doing now?” She asked me

“If you’re asking about what I am doing right now, I’d say nothing I guess.”

“So, unemployed.”

“Well, that is not wrong, I guess.”

“Why not continue your job?”

“Well, it never has been my intention to stay in that field for a long time. It was more to earn money while I work on other things.”

“Oooh, so you retired from your old job to do something else? Like making videos online, being an influencer?”

“Not an influencer, no. I am a.. well, was a writer.”

“Oh, now that’s cool! What did you write?”

“I am actually not allowed to answer that question.”

“Tch. Stingy!”

“I am not. It’s just how things work.” Well, that was actually a lie, but I don’t feel like sharing my works with people. That’s why I had used a pen name after all.

After finishing our meal, Erika paid for her and my bill, and I thanked her for it.

She had packed her stuff before our meal arrived, so we left after she paid the bills, and Hana went back to her job.

Once outside, I thanked her again for the meal before starting to make my way back, when she lightly tugged the sleeve of my shirt.

That kind of startled me.

I was under the impression that I’m really scaring her, as she’d really be on guard whenever we meet. Most of the time even trembling. So, I thought that she’d just want to get away from me as soon as we’re done. But here she is, startled after having pulled the sleeve of my shirt. Even though she was the one that did it.

She put a hand on her chest, and sighed lightly, calming herself.

She fished out her phone from her pocket, opened a communication app, and showed it to me.

It’s a popular app in this country, and I use the same application to reach out to my acquaintances in this country, so I have it too.

I just opened up the application on my phone, and showed her my id, which she seems to be inputting to her phone. Guess I was correct in assuming she wants to exchange contacts.

Not long after, my phone rang with a new notification. “Erika” it said on the contact's name. Guess it’s her.

“Thank you very much for helping with my assignment. Sorry for taking up so much of your time.” She said through the app chat.

“No problem, I don’t have anything else planned or needed doing anyway.”

“Thank you. I will be taking my leave now. See you.”

“Safe trip. See you.”

And thus, she walked away. Ending our conversation with a “see you”.

After watching her walk away, I also made my way back to my apartment.

The walk back home felt very long, as I pondered about today’s event. It was really surprisingly fun interacting with Hana and Erika.

Hana had been very fiery, to say the least, but she’s a really good conversationalist. I feel that she was a bit protective of Erika, but I guess that’s just how friends are when a suspicious guy is eyeing their friend from afar.

Erika on the other hand was very timid, and I was under the impression that she didn't like me very much, and was scared of me, but now I don’t really know what she actually thinks of me.

I really envy the relationship they shared, as I had left my friends when I moved into this country. We can still talk online, and play games together, but the distance means we can no longer meet up and just jab jokes at each other.

With that in mind, being a part of Hana and Erika’s conversation, if only for a little part of it, really was fun for me.