Chapter 3

Just a few days ago, I was upset that the woman I met at the bakery almost refused my help.

In fact, I have absolutely no idea what I did the other day. Why did I buy her bread that the woman did not buy and instead give it away for free?

"The bread that the woman ordered earlier, please wrap it in a separate box."

"Do you want to pay for the bread the woman ordered earlier?"

I just nodded my head in answer. The cashier then complied with my words without asking much and separated my order from her order into different bread boxes.

As soon as the cashier finished wrapping my orders, I paid the total I owed and ran after the woman.

Somehow, I felt like there was an urge on my part to do something for that woman. That was my intention, instead of asking her to thank me for what I did to her.

But instead of taking it for granted without asking much, she even insisted on replacing the money I used to buy her the bread she did not buy with the excuse that she did not want to accept a stranger's gift for no apparent reason.

Why did she not just accept what I gave her and leave?

I believe she could just simply accept what I gave her earlier and just leave.

That way, I did not have to spend a long time just arguing with the annoying woman who did not seem to accept my gift to her.

What an ungrateful, stubborn woman I met today.

"If it bothers your eyes so much, why did you buy it? You can say you feel sorry for me, so you feel like it was your obligation to pay it for me. Then you can take it back. I don't even need a pity from someone like you."

So why did she assume that I bought it out of pity for her? I clicked my tongue at her answer in annoyance and handed her the box that was about to be returned to her.

"Listen. I still have some business to do after this. So I would really appreciate it if you got out of my sight as soon as possible."

"Even without you telling me to go, I am going to leave now. Shén jīng bìng!"

After saying that, she turned her face away from me and accepted the box I gave her earlier.

Then she walked away, leaving me alone, who could only stare at her figure, which finally appeared in front of me.

What did she say earlier?

I really did not understand what she meant by her words.

Did she speak to me in a foreign language?

But from the way she spoke, it seemed like a curse word.

Not a good thing. I hope I do not have to meet that strange woman again.

And sadly, my wish a few days ago did not come true.

Now, I found myself standing to the right of the strange woman I met a few days ago.

As if fate would not allow me to avoid meeting the annoying woman who is now standing beside me, in front of a restaurant where I wanted to enjoy my dinner alone, without anyone else who would interfere with my dinner.

As a matter of fact, I could have dinner at home with cup noodles or instant spaghetti. But I was too lazy to cook my own dinner.

Except if I was Marleen Harper, a fictional character in online novels that my sister, Laila, often talks about, who has recently become addicted to reading online novels.

From the explanation, the main character of the story has the ability to cook any kind of food with his magic.

Unfortunately, for some reason, I did not remember (and I did not even want to remember it at all) the reason why he had lost his food magic power, and could no longer cook like before.

I then took a deep breath.

What the hell am I thinking right now? I should focus on thinking about how to avoid having to eat with the woman next to me.

But it seemed pretty difficult to realize my plan earlier, so I decided to see the number of visitors who come to this restaurant.

As I was being too lazy to look for another restaurant, I immediately dragged her hand that was preparing to leave the restaurant and forced her to follow the waiter earlier.

It could be because she was also hungry or gave up on my actions earlier, she just let my hand continue to pull her until we arrived at the table the waiter was referring to.

Once we were both seated at the table the waiter recommended, we read the restaurant's menu book, while the waiter walked away from us and stood while waiting for us to finish choosing our dinner menu.

After deciding on the menu that I would order later, I closed the menu book and secretly glanced at the woman earlier.

She was listening to music with a wireless headset and her cell phone, which, oddly, had the screen turned on.

I was stunned to see the screen of the woman's cell phone, who was enjoying music from the wireless headset she was wearing at the moment.

It turned out she also likes the same band I often listen to whenever I am enjoying my alone time: Linkin Park.

"Is that Linkin Park you are listening to right now?"

She removed one of her headsets from her ear. "What did you say? Sorry, I did not hear what you told me just now."

I repeated my question earlier. "Is that Linkin Park you are listening to right now?"

"Yes, it is Linkin Park. Why did you ask that?"

"Oh, it's nothing. I did not expect to meet someone who also likes Linkin Park."

"Also?" the woman asked, raising an eyebrow. "Do you mean you also like Linkin Park?"

"Yes." I answered briefly.

We were silent for a moment before we started laughing at each other.

I finally found something in common between us. It would at least be helpful to get through dinner without feeling awkward or upset about being at the same table with strangers.

"Are you done choosing our dinner for tonight?" She asked, closing the menu book and turning off the song she had been playing at that time.

Then she put her cell phone and her headset back into her bag.

"Yes. Should I call the waiter right now?"

She nodded slowly while I raised my hand to summon the waiter, who, from my current observation, looked relieved once we finally started ordering something.

Then we explained our order, and the waiter took our order while adding a few notes regarding the food and drink preferences we wanted to enjoy tonight.

Once done taking notes, the waiter confirmed our order before leaving us to prepare our dinner orders.

After the waiter returned with our orders, we started to eat our dinner in silence.

When we were done, we spent the evening talking about music and Linkin Park.

What I found unexpected was, that this woman was not as annoying as my first impression of her.

Instead of finding her as an annoying person, I found her to be a pleasant person.

She was not the sweet-mouthed type of sycophant; what she said was what she meant.

She was not like my previous ex-lovers or the people who my grandmother had chosen for me.

But it seemed it was still too soon to decide if she was the one I had been looking for all along.

There was only one thing I knew for sure. It looks like my first impression of her being annoying was starting to fade away.

To our surprise, it turned out that we liked the music of the same rock band and instead talked about it throughout our dinner as if the topic had no end.

Before we realized it, we had been in the restaurant for almost three hours, until a waitress came to our table and asked if we had finished our dinners because the restaurant was about to close soon.

As a way to thank her for accompanying me that night, I offered to pay the total bill for our dinner.

Unfortunately, the woman rejected it outright at such short notice.

"I will pay for our dinner on my behalf, okay? I do not want to owe you anything like the last time we met."

How could I let a woman pay for my dinner? As a man who grew up with a rule where the male side pays for the female side, what she said earlier certainly brought down my pride as a man.

After we argued with each other for some time, she finally decided to give up and let me pay for our dinner.

Then we walked out of the restaurant and waited for the taxi she ordered earlier to arrive in front of the restaurant.

After confirming that the taxi she ordered had moved away from where I was standing right now, I walked towards the parking lot and left the restaurant as soon as I could.