Me After Meeting You

Amber wanted to read a book, but couldn’t calm down enough to do so, so she posted a message on her feed “I want to go out and explore the town”. ‘Does anyone want to accompany me?’

She quickly received many responses, but they were almost all persuading her against it. “Going on the streets at this time-are you mad?”

Ruby also responded with, “My sister’s finally ready to have fun! My heart’s reassured, but can you pick another time?”

But the person she was waiting for never answered her. It wasn’t until around 8:30 that Ian suddenly called her. “Are you home?”

“Yup.”

“Come down.”

Amber hesitated. “What’s the matter?”This belongs © NôvelDra/ma.Org.

“Didn’t you want to go for a stroll?” Ian’s tone was as cool as usual.

Amber’s shock quickly turned into anger. “You left the hospital? How could you leave the hospital?” She hurriedly ran out without even changing her clothes.

Ian was indeed waiting outside her apartment, accompanied by old Mr. Charlie. He was sitting in the backseat with a face mask and a bundle of clothes.

“How did you convince the doctor on duty to let you out?”

Despite the fact that Ian was responding very well to his treatment and had been transferred to the regular wards yesterday, he was still technically in a critical period. How could the doctor have possibly let him out?

Ian’s style was to ignore anything that he didn’t like. He looked at her disdainfully as he asked, “Why are you dressed like this? Do you think that it’s suitable to go outside when you’re this ugly?”

“….”

Amber was fuming with anger, but she still subconsciously looked down at herself after Ian commented on her appearance.

She didn’t look that bad. After getting home, she had changed into her regular clothes. They were a little old, but not worn out or anything.

She looked back at him. This time, she wasn’t as confrontational, and her tone had softened somewhat. “Why are you out of the hospital? There are too many people roaming around outside. It won’t be good for your body.”

Ian responded with a single word, saying, “Long-winded,” as if she were a meddlesome mother. Amber scrunched up her face, gave up on him, and instead called the doctor on duty to ask him about the situation.

That doctor explained, “Oh, have you seen him? He took two hours to go see his girlfriend. He insisted on going, so I let him dress himself up properly and go. Part of it was because his grandmother said that he’s already thirty-something and still hasn’t been able to get into a relationship, so since he finally has someone that he likes, it wouldn’t be good to stop him from pursuing that.”

When Amber heard the word “girlfriend,” her face started to redden, but she stayed calm enough to hear the rest of the explanation before her face truly started burning up. “Were his family members there?”

“Of course. With the way his situation is, I definitely had to ask the department head and inform his family members before I could let him go. He’s doing fine outside, isn’t he?”

Amber looked at Ian. He was sitting there in a composed manner, his face calm and serene. As he watched her talk on the phone, he seemed even more lively than before his illness.

Afraid that the doctor would worry too much if she reported such astounding results, she could only say, “Oh, he looks just fine at the moment. I coincidentally met him outside and was a bit shocked to see him, so I just wanted to call you to confirm that everything’s ok.”

“Oh, alright. Since you’ve met him, then help him out a little bit. Make sure that he doesn’t go crazy outside, and …,” the doctor lowered his voice before mysteriously continuing, “I forgot to tell him. If he wants to do something with his girlfriend, then he should take it easy and not go at it too fiercely.”

“….”

This sort of thing was too hard to explain to Ian, so she hung up expressionlessly.

The chauffeur, Mr. Charlie, had already come over and opened the car door for her. After thinking about it for a moment, Amber got in. Before she could settle in, Ian’s voice rang out from next to her ear. “You’re feeling uncomfortable.”

She knew that this would happen. Recently, he had gotten very good at grasping her feelings.

Amber maintained her serious expression. “Why would I be?”

“Did he tell you that I came out to see my girlfriend?” Ian asked in an especially serious tone. Amber became visibly frantic, and he sighed. “You’re really overthinking it. What I wanted to say was that, an idiot’s unhappy, and I wanted to stare at her for a little bit.”

This tone … Amber instantly felt that her shyness and conjectures had been wasted, all gone to the dogs. She consciously ignored the first half of his reply and asked, “How do you know that I’m unhappy?”

Ian answered with a rejoinder. “Didn’t you want to go out on a stroll? Also, don’t women only go out and buy things if they want to feel better when they’re unhappy?”

It was so reasonable that Amber couldn’t refute it.

***

And so they ended up strolling around town.

Amber didn’t want to be called an idiot. She really hadn’t planned on buying anything, and it had been so long since she last went out she didn’t really care much about shopping.

The crowds milled about in the streets, whenever there was a holiday, regardless of what holiday it was, it always felt like everyone would come out. It was hard to find a place to rest even in the middle of the city, and Amber wanted to go home as soon as she stepped foot into the streets.

However, since Ian had said that he would accompany her, he wouldn’t let them return before she bought something.

Helpless, Amber ended up buying a jacket each for her mother and father, a little razor for Ruby, and two small handicraft pieces for her.

On the streets, there were many children “experiencing life” by selling apples and Christmas ornaments. Because their parents were accompanying them, they were particularly lively, energetically shouting out for customers. But despite how cute they tried to act, Amber didn’t buy anything from them. Instead, she bought a huge bundle of knickknacks from a girl dressed in little more than rags.

“Dr. Camille, why did you buy from that little child?” After they left the little girl’s stall, Mr. Charlie asked Amber. Curiosity stemmed from the fact that, amidst the huge crowd of children, that little girl wasn’t eye-catching at all, not only were her items ordinary, but she was also inarticulate, silently standing by her stall as she watched everyone pass by.