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It had been a year.
The sound of the bottom of her boots paving down the worn cement trail known as the city’s sidewalk crunched and scuffed at her efforts to take in some of the sunlight and blue skies overhead.
It had been one year.
“What if you had to choose between Liz and Shiori?!”
The way her boot’s sole scraped on the edges of a cement square to avoid stepping on some chalk art irritated Shiori’s senses more than it should have.
“You know? Honestly…not too difficult-”
It was irrational.
“I feel like it would have to be Liz.”
But the abrupt side-step and resulting noise disturbing the rhythmic motion she had grown accustomed to disturbed the semblance of peace Shiori had found.
Hunched forearms and palms inside spacious fluffy coat pockets clung tighter to the soft luke warm fabric of the jacket.
And furrowed brows and a pout were only visible on a pale face for as long as it took the golden eyes to steel and focus themselves forward, leaving the childish pastel drawing to become one of many a faded memory as she collected many more out on her walk that day.
Thin wood planks indirectly moistened by the enigmatic public park’s automotive sprinkler system’s routine to upkeep the greenery it could within its reach pushed Shiori’s thick plush coat onto her back as she sat on the iron and wood bench.
Her wonder captivated by the scenery’s colors before her.
Dashes of greens blending into spikey waves splashing into glimmering mirages of light yellow turning to white. Both colors dancing together on top of levitating carpets of sea foam green above deep teal water. In the distant shore opposite of her side of the pond, hills of green hosted brown and black benches the like of which she sat upon, and steps away from the gray concrete trail that wound itself between textured brown pillars whose foliage was slowly blooming back with the encouragement of Spring’s calling.
Trills and chirps had her crane her head upward.
Powder blue skies stretched seamlessly as quick flips-and-flaps of feathers fluttered somewhere outside her line of vision.
“I can’t really say I blame her.”
The warm blue of the sky, a familiar sight of blue.
“Liz, is a virtuous knight among knights.”
A warm blue contrasted a curtain of deep wine red hair. A mix of inviting colors so mesmerizing they could distract from the uncertainty-the emotions- glimmering as much as the flame on the Monarch’s chest. The tenseness that pooled and weighed down each corners of the tall handsome knight’s mouth.
“Shiori, are you ok-Are you-Is this too much of a bother with you?”
It was a passing wonder if Liz had picked up too much body language from Raora, as Shiori took in the the way the Queen’s out stretch palm towards Shiori jutted back towards the warmth of the blue flame in the Queen’s bosom, before it cupped upwards to trail and scratch at the back of Liz’s head.
‘The nervous motion parts the red and blue.’
Shiori doesn’t quite remember what she said.
But she remembers the weight of her smile in an attempt to appease the Gentlewoman before her, the new apple of affection in her cherished raven’s eye.
She remembers the crinkle of disbelief accented by red eyebrows, before those emotive eyes blinked and Liz’s focus ebbed away at some unseen relief in tandem with a breath slipping past her beautiful lipstick enhanced lips.
The Queen’s-her counterpart’s- self indulgent moment to stop the pursual for a possible solution to where all of them could talk things through together, and go to the song bird who had and continued to relentlessly call for the red head’s attention.
The unimpeded sunlight warmed Shiori enough that she didn’t mind the damp thin wooden planks brushing against her back.
The soggy planks were an unpleasant reality, but the warmth of the day helped against the chill and discomfort from the occurrence.
“They made a striking couple that night; amongst us all.”
She felt her phone vibrate, but chose to ignore it in favor of spending some more time marveling at the dance of light along the surface of the water, surrounded by the universe as she sat happy in her existence.
The diluted clatter of cups and saucers being washed behind two sets of counters distracted her from the ticking her olfactory senses were going through as of fault from the aromas of lined and featured teas and coffees. The wafting cloying sweetness of cookies and breads held culpability in offending her nose, but not to the degree the stinky coffees and teas did.
Shiori scrunched up her nose, before trying to expunge the smell with a quick squeeze and rub of the tip of her nose with her hand, before said hand went back to cradling her disposable cup of hot chocolate.
Her seat next to a wall and partially next to a window in the middle of the indistinguishable cafe among many such like it around the world, and maybe beyond comforted her knowing that here no matter: her apparel, her posture, or her expression, she was just another nameless blurry figure in search of respite in the form of an easy palatable liquid or food for digestion.
The free WiFi was just an added bonus to any wanting to use it.
Shiori however resisted its temptation and the curiosity of seeing who had tried contacting her in favor of recounting her expedition thus far; half consciously paying attention to the clatter and shuffling of the beings and objects around her seating.
“The ducks at the pond had been cute.”
She recounted the family of dark brown, grey, and white birds floating on the waters.
“Even the over zealous dog who chased them up into the air was cute.”
Her mirth at the memory of the bouncing floppy eared dog enough to spring her mouth out into a smile she now felt herself wearing. Something she coyly tried to hide behind the rim of her drink as she brought it up to take an admittedly distracted sip-’Can’t have people thinking they can come up to me and start a chat.’
A whinge of protest was vocalized as she quickly set her cup down; Shiori felt the pinch of her eyebrows and the pull of her lips turn into another pout as she glared down at her drink.
“Not Cool.”
Shiori was thankful no one seemed to be paying her any mind, as she glanced around the establishment and everyone seemed to be in groups lost in their own little social bubbles.
Voices enunciating all fused together to a symphony as she scanned the other customers currently in the cafe.
A group of teen or young adult boys in a corner of the seating area, all hunched over two colorful devices. Faint beeps, boops, whooshes and exaggerated grunts of pain from digital filtered voices could be heard.
A tired man in a suit, leaning back on his chair. Eyes closed as his fingers slowly lost grip on his cup-which thankfully sat firmly on the desk before him.
A slim figure of white and light blue cut across her vision headed somewhere behind her.
Two elated middle aged women sat with another woman whose face stared off into the distance; dissociation attempt clear as day.
“Oh, but Clara said her cousin who’s almost a doctor recommended this stretch-and-meditation technique I’m thinking of recommending to the kids to include in their pre-game warm ups.”
“Oh! What a good idea!”
Their jubilant voices were hard to give privacy to, but Shiori and everyone else seemed to do their best to do so.
Or so she thought.
Pale blue eyes framed by silver bangs belonging to a woman standing by the napkins on the front counter intently stared at the trio of ladies, before they blankly glanced at her direction and darted back to the ladies.
“She’s just gawking at them?”
The silver haired woman almost stared in a blank transfixed state, before her cat-like focus broke with a sudden jerk of her face towards Shiori’s direction.
The internal self-degradation this random lady proceeded to put herself through was crystal clear to anyone looking her way, as even from her seat’s distance Shiori was able to perceive the mystery woman’s cheeks reddening before the lady turned to the counter and jerkingly reached for the napkin dispenser.
“Oh my, I wonder what her story is?”
Shiori brought the palm of her hand up to rest her head on it as she pondered this stranger before her.
She seemed to give up playing with the napkin dispenser and just stood there.
“Is that it?”
Distantly, she heard the creak of a door somewhere behind her, just as the awkward woman slowly lifted her arms up bent at the elbows languidly to then stretch out her palms over her grey cat hair buns.
Shiori smiled at the choice of cover up, as she leaned forward and further into her hand.
The stranger even made it some sort of show by proceeding to arch her back and hold the stretch.
“Mmmph.”
Shiori barely had time to process the almost laugh colored with her voice.
“Hey!! Why are you checking out my friend, you weirdo!”
Shiori saw the silver haired lady’s arms drop instantly out of the peripheral of her vision as she craned her neck to inspect the source of the voice next to her.
A short blue and white haired woman stood just behind her seat; hands on her hips and a glare on her face.
“Who-”
“KOBO!”
A panicked voice carried from the direction Shiori had been staring at, followed by hasty foot falls and a scrape of something heavy on the tiled floor.
The silver haired cat bun woman crashed into the shorter blue and white haired woman, managing to wrap one of her hands around her shorter companion’s mouth.
“I’m SO sorry!!”
‘There are contradictions; something here is fishy.’
Shiori sat straighter, one hand on the back of her chair, the other on the drink already planning the arc at which to throw it, all the while mentally recalling her steps on the way to her seat in an effort to remember if she had put her clutch within her sweater-which was on her and not hanging on the back of her chair.
The Blue Haired woman-’Kobo was it?’-tried pushing against the taller of the two before Shiori, before the multi shaded grey haired woman leaded down towards the smaller woman’s side within her grip and whispered low-’but not low enough.’
“The Induk Ayam don’t seem to know the Singa Betina or of her plans; they are innocent PTA Moms.”
‘Oh, her eyes aren’t all blue.’
Shiori noted, as she took in this stranger’s blue eyes-which had grey speckles within the pale blue of her irises-as the woman took her eyes off her companion and looked into Shiori’s eyes.
‘She’s still blushing.’
The woman that had been called Kobo, stopped struggling as she hummed at the coded message, and the blue-grey eyed woman held Shiori’s eye contact as she straightened out of her conspiratory hunch to address Shiori herself despite the sweat now forming along her forehead to accent the pink in her cheeks.
“Sorry.” Her eyes darted to the sides-’Assessing the shop, or too nervous to hold my eyes?’, “We’ll be on our way now.”
The shorter of the two was already a step ahead of the end of this conversation, rushing to the entrance-and-exit of the cafe, finger-and-thumb cradling her chin in thought.
‘Interesting.’
By some grace the other people in the cafe hadn’t demanded an explanation to the commotion from Shiori or a worker in charge, so after some tense moments of silence, the atmosphere largely went back to what it had been before.
Except for the disjointed mystery left to pick at Shiori’s curiosity and inner thoughts.
Not long after the cafe regained its usual ambiance, did the three women pay and leave.
‘The Induk Ayam don’t seem to know the Singa Betina-’
Shiori’s curiosity had been tickled, and she had a feeling the answers lay with the mysterious woman who managed to leave without even giving her name.
Shiori picked up her now empty lidded disposable cup, and stared at the door beyond her.
“The least she could have done is given me her name.”
She muttered to herself as she made her way to the trashcan by the cafe entrance.
Hearing the thunk of the cup safely discarded within its intended place, Shiori turned towards the door, and pushed it open; the simple bell above the door ringing clearly.
‘I guess the mystery will make the bookmark to this new adventure all the more memorable.’