Green II

As soon as we entered the cafe, I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of blobs inside. It wasn’t that I didn’t see that many before—there were far more gathered around the area where the bus came to everyday—but rather, it was the fact that there were this many inside such a small space.

Why are there so many in here? I wondered, are they all in here to ‘eat’?

Even as we entered the building, there were some blobs already leaving, and even before we could fully enter, more were already coming in behind us.

“There’s so many blobs here…” I murmured, looking around the place nervously.

“Haha, yup,” Emuru said, “This place attracts a lot of college students like me because the food here is cheap, especially during the morning time when they have their breakfast specials available. Why don’t you go find a seat somewhere? I’ll go get us something in the meantime.”

She leaves me alone as she heads towards a group of blobs lined up behind a large table, where a few other blobs stood behind. I didn’t know what the purpose of the table was nor why everyone was gathering behind it, but I decided to follow Emuru’s request and find a table to sit at.

The cafe had a lot more chairs and tables than anywhere else I had been—even Emuru’s apartment didn’t have this many. Despite the number of people in the cafe however, there were plenty of seats that were unoccupied. I wondered why that was so.

Making my way over to them, I decided to sit at the most isolated one, being too uncomfortable to sit around anyone else. I hadn’t realized it until now, but being so close to other blobs made me anxious for some reason.

A few minutes pass as I wait for Emuru, being unsure of what exactly I should be doing in the meantime, and moments later she appears next to me and sits down on the other side.

“So?” she asks, “what do you think of this place so far?”

I looked around the cafe, taking notice of the decorations. The cafe was pretty minimalistic, but despite this, I had never seen so many objects in one location before. It had large glass windows along the walls, and the interior was white and brown with yellow accents—a slight contrast to its black and yellow outer design.

There were also a few mini trees placed in each corner of the place—well, maybe not trees exactly, because they didn’t have any branches like the tall ones outside—but I didn’t know what else to call them. They were placed inside small pots and had more colors on them besides just green.

“I think this place is very pretty,” I concluded, looking back to her.

“That’s good to hear,” she said, “I was thinking we could start most of our mornings off by heading here if we can.”

Coming here again? I wondered.

I wasn’t really too fond of the idea of visiting the same place over and over again. I didn’t understand why anyone would be—the only exceptions being my house and the place where the bus came to, but only because my house had my bed, and the bus location had Emuru. Anywhere else, and I would imagine it would get pretty boring. Did other blobs like her typically make routine stops to certain locations?

Still, as long as it was with Emuru, I supposed I wasn’t too against the idea of coming here every day.

“Can I ask you a question?” I said.

“Go for it.”

“Why are there so many blobs here but there’s not many of them sitting down like us?”

“Oh, that. Cafes are usually places where students like me go to study, but because of the popularity of this place for its cheap food, the amount of people in here makes it too loud to do any real studying. The only ones sitting down are people who prefer to eat here, which not many people do because they have places to be.”

“It’s loud in here?” I asked.

She gives me a curious look.

“...Yeah, can you not hear them?” she asks, more confused than me.

I look over the group of blobs that seem to continuously fill and empty the line behind the long horizontal table, before shaking my head in response.

“I can’t. The only blob I seem to be able to hear is you, although I’m not sure why.”

She thinks for a moment, looking back and forth between me and the crowd.

“Well that’s not good is it? Being able to interact with others is pretty important, and you can’t really do that if you can’t hear them. If I’m the only exception for you, then maybe try thinking back as to why you’re able to hear me in the first place.”

I think for a moment but I wasn’t exactly sure either.

Seeing my silence, Emuru suddenly mentions, “My friend—the one who wasn’t able to see other people like you—she also blocked out the words they were saying because she didn’t want to hear them. If I recall correctly though, she was able to start hearing them again at about the same time she started being able to see them again, so you’re different from her in the department… Maybe it’s the difference in how you’re seeing them. She was able to see them as people again, but you’re still calling everyone blobs right?”

I nodded.

“It’s because they all look like blobs to me unless I take a closer look at them. Then they start taking a more unique, detailed, shape like you and me. I’ve tested this out on a few blobs already but I’m still unable to hear them despite this.”

After a few long moments of silence, she suddenly asks, “Say, how do you look at me? Do you see me as a blob or as a person?”

I think for a moment. Ever since I had met her, I’ve been referring to her as a blob, but that wasn’t how I actually saw her. I knew that blobs were also people, but individually I had never called them a ‘person’ as I would call Emuru.

“A person,” I firmly replied.

“Then how about this,” she says, staring to her left as she notices a blob approaching us, “how about instead of thinking of everyone as ‘blobs’, start thinking about them as a ‘person’. Maybe you’re unable to hear them because you keep seeing them as blobs because that’s how they initially look like to you, but if you fully recognize them as a ‘person’ like me and you after you visualize their actual appearance, you’ll probably start being able to hear what they say. For example, this waitress that’s approaching us; trying giving her a good look.”

The blob that she referred to as a ‘waitress’ comes up to us holding a platter containing 2 cups and some small round objects wrapped in a bag, and begins placing them down on the table.

It was opening its mouth to say something, but I was unable to hear it—however, Emuru seemed to have no problem.

“Thank you!” she says in response to the blob.

Wanting to be able to hear what it was saying, I gave it a good hard look, until it slowly transformed into a woman with shoulder-length hair. She was wearing an apron over her shirt and long pants and had a bright smile on her face despite being colored a light tint of blue.

This, is a person, I told myself, just like me and Emuru.

“Uhm… miss, is there something wrong?” the lady asks, noticing me staring at her.

I blink twice in confusion, realizing that she was saying something.

Emuru mistakes as a sign that I wasn’t able to hear her however, and says, “oh, no she’s just mu—”

“No, no,” I cut her off, “I was just thinking that you’re pretty that’s all.”

“Oh…” the waitress says, her color shifting towards yellow, “thank you, that’s very kind.”

As she walks off, Emuru stares at me, dumbfounded.

“Is that compliment you just give to anyone?” she asks.

Her color had shifted to green, implying that she was jealous of something.

“No, I just noticed that she was a little blue, that's all. And calling you pretty seemed to make you happy, so I wondered if that would work on her as well.”

Her shade of green starts to fade away a little, but it was still faintly noticeable.

“Ok…” she mumbles, “forget what I said, let’s just start eating.”

She takes one of the soft round objects that the waitress had brought over and begins to unwrap it out of the bag, and I do the same, fumbling with mine. It was about the size of my hand, and was yellow in color with a crosshatch pattern that formed diamond shapes across the top.

“This is a melon bun,” Emuru says, taking a bite out of hers, “it’s very sweet.”

Following her movements, I move the bun to my mouth, taking a bite out of it awkwardly as if unsure, but once it was in, the chewing followed naturally, as if I had in fact done the process of ‘eating’ before.

I didn’t know what ‘sweet’ meant, but the sensation that filled my mouth made me so happy, I couldn’t help but take another bite. Perhaps melon buns were yellow because it made me happy when I ate them.

It was delicious, and the new craving to eat more felt familiar as if I hadn’t felt something like this in a long time.

“Woah, woah slow down,” Emuru says, pushing a cup towards me with a mischievous grin on her face, “melon buns are easy to choke on, so why don’t you try some coffee to help wash it down?”