"was that a confession?! from this guy???!" she heated up, flustered all over her face. she covered her face with her palm, but then thought again, what if he was just messing with her?
she slapped herself enough to brush her thoughts away, taking deep breaths but failing to calm down after such an admission.
"come on, come on, calm down, this guy can't do much to your sorry ass rinae!" she cried in defeat, although not in a teary way.
it was her late night shift the same day, meaning all she had to do was to sit till someone shows up, which was her favourite part. she killed time by scrolling through her phone, her apron hung over the counter nearby.
she often adjusted her hoodie from the cold, the winter atmosphere slowly setting inside the café. It was around 11:00 PM, when the first customer entered.
rinae immediately stood up upon their presence, then drooped down in silent dread. The customer was none other than ryxin.
she looked at her little brother in the most disapproving way possible. "you had all other places-"
"yet i chose this, right?" he scoffed, speaking as if he predicted her, "of course i would come over here of all places, where else would i find my dear big sister?"
she stood in silence, trying her best not to lash out and make a scene. "it's pretty late, you should have said that you were in night shift." ryxin continued, his tone not in any mode of teasing, "i even tried calling you, my damned phone didn't have much of a recharge to make a call. i assumed you'd be here than anywhere else."
She hummed in response, "did you atleast lock the door-"
"All done precisely," he raised the house keys for proof.
She stared at him blankly, not expecting much. "good." She commented.
Ryxin kept the keys back and stuffed his hands in his pockets, sitting on the counter table adjacent to rinae.
"The snow's starting to get heavy. I didn't bring better stuff to get home, sorry." He spoke while glancing at the window, watching each uncountable snowflake falling harshly.
Rinae was silent the entire time before replying back, "it's fine. Being in a hurry makes you forget things, after all." She admitted.
"I don't remember him going on a taxi or any vehicle. Is he gonna cross this snow by walking?"
She thought unintentionally, then her eyes contracted by a fraction, was she worrying so much about alixis?
"No way... Ahh, Those words are messing with me now!"
She reacted thoughtfully, even if it were so mild.
"I think I should just head back to the café..." Alixis muttered to himself, after only crossing a bare distance from there by walking like a turtle with an absent mind. He stared at the sky, watching snow fall much frequently.
"It's that time of the year..."
He spoke under a cold fog of breath, and turned around his surroundings to find absolutely no one in this late hour.
"Since when did people start becoming tomorrow's early birds?" He muttered to himself.
With a deep thought he turned back and hit the road back to the café, assuming rinae's still there.
It took him a while, crunching his feet under the snow when suddenly the power cut off the streets, leaving his expression darned.
"Great, perfect timing lord." He grumbled, and took out a flashlight from his phone then continued his walk.
It took another while till he finally reached the café with all lights out. He saw two figures instead, one which he knew it was rinae, but couldn't identify the other one.
Alixis knocked on the glass, calling out to them in the most basic words, "hey, anyone there?"
Rinae turned to the glass, the dark curtains drawed in not making out the figure.
She stood up, walking towards the curtains and pulled them, looking at alixis in surprise.
"Y-you?" She muttered again, still reminiscing that small talk over their current situation.
Alixis let out and awkward smile from the other side, his breath fogged from the cold. He gave hand gestures asking rinae to open the door.
Rinae nodded, and opened it, letting him inside. He stepped in wearily as if he ran a mile without stopping.
He noticed the lights were still working and looked around in surprise.
"The lights are still on?" He asked her. Rinae just gave a nod, "The café runs on generator during blackouts." She cleared his doubt which made him reassured.
"Ah, I see." He relaxed and sat at the other counter, his eyes now focused on the other person he wasn't able to recognise.
Ryxin stared at him with mild hostility, clearly not trusting the other man.
"And you are...?" Alixis spoke out, curious hinting his expression.
"Her brother." Ryxin spoke, his voice harsh than expected for his age.
Alixis was surprised about the boy's maturity, even more surprised that rinae had a little brother. "Never knew you had a sibling, rinae." He turned to her.
Rinae was silent again, and rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly, "y-yeah." She stuttered again.
That small conversation between them was enough for ryxin to hint that this is the man rinae was absent-minded about. His smile, his tone, and mannerism were solid evidence.
Alixis turned back to the young boy with a smile, "how old are you?" He asked him.
Ryxin paused momentarily, before bracing an answer, "I'm nine."
"I see, you're in middle school?" He asked again.
"Yeah, it's pretty obvious, isn't it?" He shrugged, "I wouldn't need more proof that you're the guy my sister's absent-minded about."
"Say what?!-" she bursted, her cheeks red as a tomato as she covered her face with both of her palms in embarrassment. Alixis smirked at such a comment then stared at rinae, all flustered.
His attention went back to ryxin, noting his complex and eyes, unique as his own.
"You've got a wild colour of eyes."
"Your complex is even wilder, let alone your eyes as well."
alixis looked quite offended, yet unbelievable. "You sure have a way with words for your age." He commented.
"But seriously, what type of condition do you possess for such a unique colour? Albanism? or do you just wear contacts for show-off?"
"High blood pigments," rinae answered, now fully calmed.
"Not sure how, but I remembered our dad explaining such a complicated condition where blood somehow filled up his iris while he was in the womb, and changed the colour of his grey eyes instead of the common condition of naturally changing eye colour."
"That's certainly complicated."
"Yeah, it would affect his vision after a few years, but it's only partially red for now."
He stared at the boy for a good few minutes before replying back, "no wonder. That definitely wasn't heterochromia like mine nor albinism, or his hair and skin tone would've become pale white."
He looked at ryxin fiddling with a rose in the vase, almost frozen solid that it's petals crack upon his touch.
"This kid's either unaware or he is a sleeper-cell[1]."
[1] (Sleeper-cell is a term describing a person who listens carefully even if they appear ignorant or are distracted with stuff)