Chapter 2 - The Encounter Part 2

It didn’t bring any memories for Lianne. Memories that might be possibly connected to the words. Her mind was blank, lost, empty, unable to cultivate explanations for this simple but lingering sentence.

She was so engrossed staring at the words that she didn’t notice someone approaching her. She snapped out when a hand brushed her tears away. Looking up, she quickly recognized the person touching her. It was Madame Sella.

“It seems the content of that paper made you cry huh?” she asked with a kind smile. She turned to the side and pointed her fingers towards the porch of the library. “The man that handed me that has just gone outside of the library. I didn’t notice he was inside the library this whole time. He is wearing a black coat. I thought you might want to know who your admirer is.”

Stunned by the librarian’s statement, Lianne immediately stood up.

She does want to know what he looked like.

He might be just some random guy in school or her classmate, but when Madame Sella said that he was wearing a black coat, it caught her attention. She wanted to make sure who he was so she darted out of the sofa and ran to the porch still holding the paper.

The wind strongly blew hard on her face when she peeked below the porch and there she saw him, walking calmly, heading for the gate.

Her breath was caught in her throat. She wanted to shout. Call for him. But she stiffened on the spot.

All of a sudden, the man turned and faced the porch where Lianne was. At that moment, their eyes met again but this time she didn’t look away.

He gazed at her with such intensity as if there was some telepathic message behind it. She just stood there mystified by it, still confused who he was but felt she had met him somewhere, like a déjà vu feeling. Her heart pounded hard on her chest and it gave her the courage to speak.

“You...” she stammered, “you there! Who are you?! Why did you give this to me?!” She held the piece of paper up and waited, but he didn’t respond. Instead, his lips tugged upward to show a small smile.

His silence annoyed her, but she was held back by his smile.

Still, without a word, the man continued to walk towards the entrance gate.

“Hey!” she shouted in distress.

Upon seeing him go, Lianne hastily dashed down the stairs in the hope that she could reach him on time.

Picking up her breathing, she turned in a corner and then ran to the hallway towards the entrance door. However, upon arriving there, he was nowhere in sight. She scanned the whole area and even went as far as the entrance gate to look for him, but it was in vain.

He emitted a mysterious aura in him. As far as she can remember, it would be their first time meeting, but it was rather unusual because he looked at her like he had known her for so long.

*

*

It was thirty past five in the afternoon when she arrived in the front yard of her apartment. This time, the rain did pour down hard. Now, her floral dress was slightly wet and her long ash-brown hair damp.

She took out the keys from her shoulder bag and unlocked the main door. The apartment was given to her by her Aunt Marge after she graduated high school. Taking up Literature and Classics as her major at the age of twenty-four, she was already independent in all aspects of her life. Her parents died of a plane crash when she was six, after which her auntie took her in and sponsored her studies. After her aunt married a British man, she moved into Wales and decided to give the apartment to her.

She went inside and placed her bag beside the flower vase at the console table and proceeded to close the main door.

Glancing briefly outside, she then noticed a dark silhouette of a man standing under an acorn tree across the street of her apartment. She didn’t clearly see who it was but when a car illuminated the man’s features, she was stunned to see that this was the man she saw at the library, wearing the same black coat.

It’s him! she exclaimed in her thoughts. Has he been following me this whole time?

It may have sounded stalker-ish, but her heart leaped in thrill.

She stepped out of the main door, wanting to talk to him, but when the next car passed by, he quickly disappeared.

Lianne released a long sigh then.

Shit. Am I seeing things now?

Confused by the events during the day, she then remembered the words written in the paper, and immediately, tears streamed down her cheeks again.