The limit

"Oh right! Would you like to listen to some music?"

"Sure, what do you have?" Eric turned towards her curiously to see what other taste she had in music.

"Uh just a second, and done! These are the playlists I have as of now, I hope atleast one of them would be to your liking." She said after turning on her music system.

Eric bent over to see the list of music but he was surprised when he saw none of them were retro hits like she chose back in that cab. He was hoping to have one of them since he researched about them a bit after that day, but the playlist was full of variety of songs.

Indie-pop, countryside, rock, popculture, rap, EDM, lofi, hip-hop and, classic? He was very surprised upon seeing the last category.

"You like classical music?" He asked keenly as he browsed through her collections. She had lots of them.

"Not really. I remembered you telling me about Moonlight Sonata that night so I thought I should add a few just in case if I ever feel like hearing them. I might not be a good listener, but I can atleast feel the vibes of it." She laughed hesitantly with a shrug and continued.

"Oh! Would you like to listen them? I am sorry I didn't played the music of your choice even though I asked for it at first that night. I was just not in my right mind you see." She said purposely avoiding her eye contact from nervousness.

"No, but thanks. I am pretty sure they'll bore you a lot." He said somewhat disappointed from what she just said. Not only was his personality not matching to her ideal guy, his taste in music was very opposite to hers as well. It ached his heart to know he still had a long way to go.

"No, I wouldn't! I listened to them some days ago and they were really good!" She smiled brightly still unaware of Eric's expressions and continued.

"It's just that, they are not quite suitable for driving music. Atleast for me. I mean I've never heard anyone playing it during their drive you know!" She exclaimed carefully with a broad grin to not hurt his feelings and keep up with the light atmosphere.

"I don't agree. I've listened to them so many times when I am on the backseat of (my) car." Eric stated casually as he once again started looking for the other categories. It's no use to force oneself listen to your likings, he thought.

"Really?! Then why don't you play your favourite one!"

"...You sure?"

"Yeah! Ofcourse!"

"Well, if you say so..." Eric hesitantly played his favourite song and stared at Ayana's face to see her reaction. Unaware of his own emotions he was waiting patiently for her opinion on his choice. Is this what they call insecurity? Is this really the correct way to approach someone whom you wanna befriend?

Acting as a different person just so that the one you admire stay close to you is definitely a devil's fruit, but Eric was still unaware of this feeling since he never put any efforts to make any connections in the past. The only thing he wanted was to form a deep bond with her and open his heart to explore his own emotions.

She had unleashed so many butterflies of his jar, that now everytime he felt himself bottling up his emotions he imagined what Ayana would've done in that situation. Not that he would imitate her actions but still seeing the emotions on her face like an open book yet difficult to predict her next moves had often been very amusing for him.

He couldn't see her in those two weeks because of the advanced planning he had, but this unexpected meeting was a stress-relieving holiday for him.

As he was pondering over all such things a mild cough sucked him back to the reality.

"You there sir?" She asked politely for the third time.

"Yes. Sorry I got lost in my own thoughts." His voice was deeper than the usual.

'Maybe it's the deep meaning of this music that made him remember something, painful probably.' Ayana kept her buisness-smile-mode on as she glanced at Eric's blank face fixed at the window.

She coughed again as it was getting too awkward to bear. "Well, it certainly has a deep meaning behind those notes. You have a great choice sir!" She complimented gleefully but Eric didn't responded for a while.

He adjusted his position as soon as he fully realised the tense atmosphere and turned towards her with a nervous laugh to bring back his innocent boy act on.

"Thanks! I am glad to hear you enjoyed it as well. Do you know there's even a story behind this?"

"What? Really?!" She excitedly asked as the conversation was alive again.

"Yes." He replied with a gentle smile as well.

But that was all he said. Ayana peeked from the corner of her eyes expecting to hear some more, but his lips were shut with a lost smile.

"And?" She asked first assuming he probably forgot the later part, but he didn't.

"And what?"

"The story. What's the story behind that music?" She raised her brows with 'Duh?!' clearly printed on her face, but Eric ignored her stare and continued admiring the scenery outside in her presence.

"I don't remember." He claimed.

Thankfully, Ayana was still focused on her driving that she didn't ended up crashing the car into the rocky hill. Instead she choked loudly and immediately pulled over the car to side as it wouldn't stop rising.

Eric tried to help her by passing an open bottle of water, but Ayana accidentally slapped his hands while trying to suppress her cough forcefully. Her fist was constantly rubbing her chest as she unbuckled her seatbelt and gestured a straight palm on Eric's face when he tried to approach her.

She didn't wanted to puke on Eric as what if things turn really bad. And thus, she repeatedly swallowed her saliva instead and calmed her breath with eyes closed.

But little did she realised that, at the same time someone's hand was stinging more than it was supposed to be.