They left the quiet street behind and walked toward the main road, where the city traffic was still alive with evening noise. Streetlights stretched along the road in long glowing lines, and buses roared past every few minutes, packed with passengers trying to get home.
Alina walked ahead confidently as if she had done this route a hundred times before. Kai followed beside her, his hands in his pockets, scanning the road with mild curiosity.
After a few minutes, they reached the bus stop. Kai looked at the crowd already waiting there. Men, women, students with backpacks, office workers with tired faces, an old couple arguing quietly about something trivial. The entire place looked chaotic and noisy.
Kai frowned slightly. "We're taking the bus?" he asked.
Alina turned toward him as if the answer was obvious. "Of course."
Kai glanced at the road again, where another crowded bus passed by. "You realize we could have taken a taxi."
"And spend triple the money for a ten-minute ride?" she said immediately. "Absolutely not."
Kai said nothing, but his expression clearly showed that he was not impressed with this plan. A few minutes later, the bus they needed finally arrived with a loud screech of brakes.
The doors opened, and immediately, the entire crowd surged forward like a tidal wave. Before Kai could even process what was happening, Alina had grabbed his wrist and dragged him inside.
"Come on!" she said.
Kai barely managed to step inside before the bus lurched forward again. The moment he looked around, he froze. The bus was full. Every seat was occupied, and the aisle was packed with standing passengers. People were squeezed so close together that shoulders touched, bags brushed against strangers, and there was barely space to breathe. Kai stood stiffly, clearly uncomfortable.
This was an entirely new world for him. He had spent years travelling in private cars, quiet vans, and carefully arranged schedules. Public buses had always been something he saw from a distance. Now he was standing in the middle of one. And he hated it. The bus suddenly rolled over a speed breaker.
An old man standing behind Kai lost his balance and grabbed onto the nearest support he could find. Unfortunately, that support was Kai. The man clutched him tightly, practically hugging him to keep himself from falling. Kai's eyes widened in horror. For a moment, he didn't even move, as if his brain was struggling to process what had just happened.
"Sorry," the old man said cheerfully while still holding him.
Kai stood there stiffly while Alina, standing beside him, tried very hard not to laugh. She failed. A quiet snort escaped her before she quickly covered her mouth.
Kai shot her a sharp glare. "This is not funny," he muttered under his breath.
"Oh, it absolutely is," she whispered back, her shoulders shaking with silent laughter.
The bus continued moving through traffic while Kai tried his best to maintain personal space in a place where personal space simply did not exist. People bumped into him from every direction. Someone's backpack hit his shoulder. Another passenger stepped on his shoe. Kai looked like a man enduring a very complicated form of torture.
Meanwhile, Alina looked completely relaxed, holding the railing above her head like this was just another normal evening. After a few stops, some passengers got off, but the seats remained occupied. Both of them were still standing. Then the bus suddenly braked hard. The sudden stop threw everyone slightly forward. Kai lost his balance completely.
Before he could react, his body moved forward, and he landed directly onto the lap of a woman sitting in one of the seats. The woman looked like she was in her late forties. For a moment, the entire situation froze.
Kai blinked. The woman blinked. Alina stared in shock. Then something very unexpected happened. Instead of getting angry, the woman smiled brightly.
"Oh my," she said warmly while wrapping an arm around Kai's shoulder. "What a handsome boy."
Kai's eyes widened dramatically. The woman gently squeezed his cheek. "Such pretty eyes, too," she continued with obvious delight.
Kai looked completely horrified. His brain had officially stopped functioning. Alina, standing nearby, was now struggling so hard not to laugh that tears had begun forming in her eyes.
The woman tilted her head slightly and looked at Kai with amusement. "First time on a bus?" she asked sweetly. Kai opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out.
She patted his arm affectionately. "It's okay, you can sit here if you want."
Kai's eyes grew even larger. Alina finally stepped forward, barely holding back her laughter.
"I'm so sorry," she said quickly while gently pulling Kai up from the woman's lap. "He's never travelled in a bus before."
The woman looked surprised. "Really?"
Alina nodded earnestly. "He's still basically a kid," she added while gesturing toward his outfit. "Look at him. With that hoodie and mask, he looks like a teenager."
Kai stared at her in disbelief. "A teenager?" he whispered sharply. Alina ignored him.
The woman chuckled warmly. "That explains it. Poor boy looked terrified."
Kai stood there silently, clearly wishing the ground would swallow him whole. The woman waved playfully before the bus stopped at the next station, and she got off. The moment she left, Alina burst into laughter.
"I cannot believe that just happened," she said between breaths.
Kai looked at her with complete seriousness. "If you laugh one more time," he said quietly, "I will personally leave you on this bus."
Alina laughed even harder. And somewhere in the crowded bus filled with strangers, their chaotic little investigation continued… with Kai silently praying the journey would end very soon.
The bus had barely settled into its rhythm again after the earlier chaos when it slowed down at another stop. The brakes screeched slightly, and the doors opened with a loud mechanical hiss. What happened next felt almost like a flood. A large group of university students rushed inside all at once, their voices loud and energetic as they squeezed their way through the already crowded aisle. Most of them were boys carrying backpacks, laughing loudly, pushing forward in the careless way young students often do when they pile into public transport together.
Within seconds, the already packed bus became even tighter. The small space that had existed between passengers slowly disappeared as more bodies filled the aisle. The air felt warmer and heavier, and the constant movement of people trying to adjust their positions made it difficult to stand comfortably.
Alina, who had been standing beside Kai, instinctively tried to shift slightly to keep her balance when the bus started moving again. For her, this kind of situation was normal. She had travelled in buses like this many times before and had learned how to move with the crowd rather than fight against it.
Kai, however, was still trying to process the overwhelming experience of public transportation. His hand gripped the railing firmly while he silently endured the constant brushing of strangers' shoulders and bags against him. His expression already carried a faint irritation, but his attention suddenly sharpened when he noticed something behind Alina.
At first, it looked like nothing more than the usual shifting of passengers in a crowded space. But after watching carefully for a few seconds, Kai realized there was a pattern. One particular guy from the group of students had slowly begun stepping forward every time the bus moved. Each small movement reduced the space between him and Alina.
Alina, unaware of it, took a half step back to maintain distance. The boy stepped forward again. The bus jolted slightly over a bump in the road, and Alina adjusted her footing once more, moving back just a little further. Again, the boy closed the gap.
It was subtle enough that most people wouldn't notice, but Kai noticed every movement clearly. His gaze fixed on the situation with growing annoyance. The casual irritation he had been feeling since stepping onto the bus now sharpened into something far more focused.
Another sudden movement of the bus caused the crowd to shift again. This time, Alina was pushed slightly backward, and the space around her shrank uncomfortably. That was the moment Kai moved.
Without saying a single word, he stepped forward, placing himself directly in front of her. His arm lifted above her head as he grabbed one of the hanging straps from the bus ceiling. The movement was quick but natural, as if he had simply adjusted his position to hold the strap. In reality, it changed everything.
Now, instead of strangers pressing against Alina, Kai stood between her and the crowd behind her. His body blocked the space completely, acting like a quiet barrier that prevented anyone from coming too close.
The difference was immediate. Alina blinked in surprise when she realized what had happened. She hadn't even noticed the earlier situation until Kai stepped forward like that. Because of the tight space inside the bus, she now stood directly in front of him with very little distance between them. Every small sway of the moving bus brought them slightly closer.
Kai held the strap firmly above her while maintaining his stance so the crowd behind him couldn't push forward again. His shoulders remained steady even when the bus rocked over uneven roads.
Alina slowly lifted her gaze toward him. Their eyes met. For a brief moment, neither of them spoke. The bus lights flickered slightly as it passed under a row of street lamps outside, and the shifting glow illuminated Kai's face. His expression carried a calm seriousness, but beneath it there was a clear trace of irritation directed somewhere behind him.
Alina followed his line of sight for a moment and finally noticed the student who had been inching closer earlier. The boy now stood several steps back, completely blocked by Kai's position. Understanding dawned on her face. When she looked back at Kai, a small, amused smile appeared on her lips.
"You're acting like a shield," she said quietly.
Kai's gaze remained steady. "Someone has to," he replied in a calm voice.
The bus jerked again when the driver pressed the brakes lightly. Alina instinctively reached out and grabbed the sleeve of his hoodie to steady herself. Kai didn't react to the touch, but his grip on the strap tightened slightly to keep his balance so she wouldn't be pushed again by the shifting crowd.
For a moment, the world inside the bus felt strangely smaller. The noise of the students talking, the rumbling engine, and the constant movement of passengers faded into the background while the two of them stood facing each other in that narrow space.
Alina tilted her head slightly, studying him with quiet curiosity. A few minutes later, the bus began slowing down again as it approached their stop. Kai glanced toward the front of the bus and then back at Alina.
"This is ours?" he asked, and looked at Alina. She nodded her head slightly.
When the doors finally opened, Kai moved first, guiding a path through the remaining passengers before stepping down onto the street. Alina followed closely behind him.
The moment they stepped off the bus, the cool evening air felt refreshing after the suffocating crowd inside. Alina stretched her arms slightly and took a deep breath as if she had just escaped from a small battlefield.
Kai, meanwhile, looked far less amused by the experience. Alina glanced at him and couldn't stop the playful smile that appeared on her face.
"You know," she said while walking beside him, "if any of your fans saw what you just did on that bus, they would probably start screaming."
Kai gave her a confused look. "Why?"
"Because that whole protective shield moment," she said with exaggerated admiration, "was very heroic."
Kai sighed quietly, clearly unwilling to entertain the idea. "It was practical," he replied.
But Alina noticed something he probably didn't realize himself. As they continued walking toward Maya's street, Kai remained slightly closer to her than before, as if his instincts still hadn't fully relaxed after the crowded bus ride.
And although he didn't say anything about it, the protective gesture from earlier still lingered quietly between them like an unspoken moment neither of them wanted to acknowledge too directly.