Arriving early for the group study with Itra and Gentrei, I stood outside the cafe. The last time I’d visited, I spent some time with Itra here, though she ran out on me. She harbored doubts about herself to the point of darting away, but her lessons with Mr. Hue likely helped her out. Not wanting to wait in the cold air for too long, I walked towards the building.

Immediately as I entered the calm atmosphere of the Hangman Cafe, a loud voice assaulted my ears. A girl stood, scowling at me with her hands on her hips.

“You finally came!” she shouted, “Do you know how much work you have caused since you last visited!?”

“W-what? Huh?” I nearly ran back outside with my fear, “What did I do?”

“Your bike!” the girl yelled, “You left it last weekend!”

My bike.

“Seriously!” the girl ranted, “it rained the day you left it, and I got all soaked having to cover it!”

“I-I’m sorry,” I apologized, “my head was somewhere else at the time…”

“You better be sorry,” the girl sighed, “at least you can pick it up now, right? Hurry up and take it away.”

“Well, I’m here for something,” I said, “I can’t really go yet…”

“Then go take your order, what do you want?” the girl asked, bringing up a notepad.

“I’ll wait until my group gets here to order,” I told her.

“Wait outside,” she responded, and turned to help out another set of customers.

Feeling drained, I stumbled back outside and unhooked my bike from the rack. Judging from the lack of damage, the workers must have taken good care of it. My chest weighed when I thought of how much trouble I caused them.

“You’re early,” spoke a voice from behind me, “I thought I’d get time to fix up our studies, but I guess I was wrong.”

Startled by her sudden appearance, I turned to face Itra. She carried her bag, filled with preparatory papers and study books. The wind swept her hair over her eyes, and as she struggled to reach to fix her hair, I found myself reaching out.

“Here,” I fixed her hair to the side, and froze. What was I doing?

Neither of us moved an inch, nor did we move a centimeter. We simply looked into each other's eyes. I felt that if I broke eye contact, I would have missed something important. Meanwhile, she seemed to be observing me.

“Hate to interrupt your moment, but I’m here,” spat the sour voice of Gentrei, “are we going in?”

“A-ah right!” I snapped out of my trance, jumping away from Itra, “yeah! Let’s go in.”

Afraid to look back at Itra, I marched awkwardly back into the cafe. The girl from earlier shuffled over to us. Her eyes looked heavier than before. In just the few minutes I left her, she seemed a lot more tired.

“How many,” she asked flatly.

“Three,” Itra responded from behind me, in a similar uninterested tone.

Sitting us off to the side, the girl left to tend to the other customers. Itra had Gentrei and me sit on the cushioned part of the table, while she set herself on the stool.

“Isn’t it unfair for you to have to sit there?” I asked, “don’t you want the more comfortable side?”

“It’s fine,” she answered, “this way, you both get better seats, and can see the window behind me. A view should help flash things in your mind to keep it from feeling empty.”

“Right,” I nodded, as Itra fixed up her things.

“First of all, could I see your story, Gentrei?” Itra asked, putting her attention to Gentrei.

“I, uh,” Gentrei mumbled, “I don’t have a laptop…”

“Oh,” Itra turned to look at me, “could she borrow yours then?”

Handing my laptop to Gentrei, I noticed her stiff movements. She kept herself tight, not letting herself expand outwards. Her breaths were very small, but plentiful. Was she nervous?

After getting through the laptop, she turned it around and announced, “here it is.”

Itra began looking through her document, leaving Gentrei and me in silence. She didn’t seem to care if we bantered or not, but I felt awkward to sit in complete silence with Gentrei next to me. Searching for an excuse, I came up with a good reason to escape the atmosphere.

“How about some drinks?”

“Maybe we should have ordered something to eat?

Gentrei and I spoke at the same time.

“I-I guess we had the same idea, huh?” I laughed nervously.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Unamused, Gentrei replied, “I want a crepe with iced tea.”

“I’ll have that too,” Itra added, not looking away from the laptop.

“Okay…” I accepted my fate as a servant.

After ordering Itra and Gentrei’s requests, I spotted a huge man approaching me. He stood at least six feet, and had muscles bulging out of his suit. I had to fight the urge to run away when I noticed him coming towards me.

“Things worked out well, then, huh?” He said to me, “Nice to meet you, I’m Mr. Hangman.”

“Mr. Hangman?” I stood at attention, “You’re the owner of this place?”

“That’s right,” he nodded, “I remember you. You owned the bike.”

“Ah, right, I’m sorry about that,” I faced the floor, “I didn’t mean to cause trouble…”

“It’s all right,” he assured, “I get that you were occupied with other thoughts. But, it looks like you’re with that girl again, so I guess you patched all that up?”

“Huh?” I turned to where he was looking, where Itra and Gentrei sat, “Oh, I guess she did run without context back then.”

“Hahah! You moved far enough ahead to forget it, huh? That’s good,” Mr. Hangman had a strong laugh, “You don’t need to worry about the bike business, my daughter Erfia just dislikes extra work. I have no problem with caring for your bike longer, if you need.”

“N-no, I’ll be taking it home,” I responded, “I need it to get to school faster.”

“Hah, all right,” Mr. Hangman turned, “well, I need to get things done, you enjoy your day, got it?”

“Yes, sir,” I answered.

Just as Mr. Hangman left, the person behind the counter called for me and set my order on the counter. Bringing it over to Gentrei and Itra, Itra moved the laptop to the side to put her food in front of her.

“Right on time,” Itra said, “I just finished Gentrei’s story. It’s really good.”

“That’s right it’s good,” Gentrei puffed up her chest, “Injaius and I worked hard on it.”

Itra took a bite into her crepe, and put her hand to her mouth. I noticed her eyes widened a bit, as she immediately reached her fork for more. I kept her reaction in mind, for if we ever came back here.

“This tastes good!” Itra reacted, “you want to try some, Illate?”

“Uh, well,” I debated the idea, “sure?”

“Okay, here,” Itra cut out a piece and offered it to me, “eat up.”

“Um, do I…” I stared at the crepe trying to figure out whether to open my mouth or take it from the fork, “take it?”

“Well, how else are you supposed to eat it?” Itra asked, holding out her fork.

“Right, right,” I hastily grabbed it from the fork, “thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Itra smiled briefly, causing me to almost drop the crepe.

Eating the slice, the sweet flavors spread throughout my mouth. “It really is good.”

“Could you two not get all stuck on eachother while I’m here,” Gentrei grumbled, with half of her crepe remaining.

“O-oh, right, sorry,” I sat up straighter in response to Gentrei, “w-where were we?”

“This,” Itra grabbed some paper and set them between us, “I don’t think you guys are on a bad route, but maybe something like this will get you two back into a good mindset.”

“Huh?” Gentrei put down her fork, “What are we doing?”

“We’ll be doing a writing activity,” Itra answered, “I want you both to write a descriptive scene that takes place in your story.”

“Okay,” I responded as I got to work.

“Wha? Why?” Gentrei asked, frowning.

“It’s to make a scene that you might be able to use,” Itra answered, “do something simple, if you don’t think it’ll be useful.”

Not arguing any further, Gentrei turned to her paper and began writing. In the meantime, I pictured what I would write. On my third draft, I wanted to fix up, which included Octavia’s scene. I decided to add a visual at its beginning, rather than getting right into the dialogue.

I wrote, The winter hit harder this year. Lilis died. Just like Leonas, I lost her too. Looking at her vacant bed that night, I could almost make out the impressions on the sheets she made just the night before. The dim light of the stars sparkled through the window which she once gazed through. Watching through that same window, I wondered what it was she saw out there.

“One paragraph coming right up,” I announced, passing my paper to Itra.

“Already?!” Gentrei shouted, popping her head up from her paper.

Scared of her sudden outburst, I flinched and scooted to the side of the seat.

“Don’t feel pressured,” Itra told her, “just focus on getting your scene written.”

Hesitantly, Gentrei returned her focus to her own writing, while Itra sat reading mine. While they were heavily focused on their parts of their work, I turned to my laptop. Now that I wrote that paragraph, I carried an urge to continue writing. Once I got home, I felt that I could finally finish my third draft.

“Done!” Gentrei exclaimed, as she slammed her pencil on the table.

Itra turned from my paper and took hers, “And I’m ready for yours.”

As Itra put her focus back down on reading, both Gentrei and I were left together with nothing to do. Silence followed, as I awkwardly turned to face her.

“What,” she asked curtly.

“Nothing, I’m just wondering what to do next…” I said.

“Well,” Gentrei took the last bite of her crepe, “maybe you can make yourself useful and get me another plate.”

“Don’t bully Illate, please,” Itra said as she put Gentrei’s paper down, “I think my work here is done.”

““Huh?”” Gentrei and I sounded in unison.

“Well, you both were having trouble coming up with the motivation to write, right?” Itra explained, “But here, I already see two good works. So, I’m done.”

“Eh…” I mumbled, “I thought there would be more to it…”

“Nope, this is it,” Itra picked up her things, “thanks for the food, Illate, I hope I can repay you later.”

Gentrei grumbled, “I suppose I can write then, huh...”

Itra waved as she left the building, “I know you can finish this.”

So, Gentrei and I sat alone.

“I guess this is it then,” Gentrei commented, “thanks…Illate.”

Following Itra’s example of a quick exit, she brought her things and left without waving. So, I sat alone. Well, until I left as well. Before I walked through the door though, I turned to look at the cafe one more time.

“Good job, kid,” Mr. Hangman smiled, “have a good day.”

Leaving the building, I kept my paper close to my chest. I had a story to write.