and words are exchanged

They do say that the third time's the charm, right?

"Excuse me? Is this seat taken?" A silvery voice asked.

"No." Without looking up, Kairos hummed a reply.

The person settled down, placing his tray of food and a notebook.

The café was very busy. It was lunchtime, so it made sense. The chatter of the people having lunch, the sound of coffee grinding behind the counter and the faint bustling of the city street gave a peaceful feeling. Though the loud noises were just noises to him.

He flopped his head on the table, groaning. A soft squeak sounded beside him. It sounded eerily like a mouse getting kicked.

"I'm so sorry! I am going through a bad hangover...sorry for scaring you." He babbled out, tucking his face close to his neck in an effort to hide his embarrassed face.

Wait. His whole being stopped. Breathing unevenly as he gaped at the person sitting in front of him. It was him!

"It's understandable. But are you really okay? Your-" the person pointing at Kairos' forehead, "-forehead is bleeding." He pointed out, looking at the wound with concern etched on his face.

"I'm fine- WAIT, WHAT!?" he yelled, hands flying to the injured area to see a drop of blood on his finger. A few angered hushes followed his outburst, to which he smiled apologetically.

"If you don't mind, I have band aids with me." The person said digging into his bag before showing a stash of band aids.

At that moment, I was more concerned about him than my aching forehead. Why does he have a stash of band aids? A normal person wouldn't be carrying around that much with them.

"It's weird, isn't it?" The person laughed, pointing at his stack of band aids. He looked like a deer caught in a headlight.

"Not really. I was just shocked." Kairos said, nervously scratching his nape in an attempt to hide his blatant stare.

"I work with crafts, so I get plenty of cuts now and then." That person said, a tint of smile etching by the end. "Here, let me put it on you." He continued and without waiting for his reply he leaned over and placed the band aid on his injury.

After a few gentle pats on the covered area, he leaned back into his seat.

"Thank you..."
"-Emyr Hélmer." He added with a smile. Ethereal.
"Kairos Jang. Nice to meet you, and thanks for the band aid." Kairos tilted his head in appreciation once again.

They talked. Talked for hours and found out they had something in common. Which wasn't much, but for Kairos that meant he could stretch that topic and ask Emyr for a date. Maybe.

The third meetup got my hopes really high, but luck just wasn't on my side.

We were so deep into our conversation about whether a regular corporate job was better than freelancing. Our talk was more about us complaining about our jobs and finding bits of amusement from them.

But time never stopped for anyone and by the time the one-hour office break time was over the café was a flurry of human limbs.

It felt like I was experiencing the morning rush hour of the underground rails.

With my mind focused on arriving at the office before my senior tears me apart, I forgot to ask for Emyr's contact, and like that, we parted.

We parted with cold half-eaten sandwiches with half-biting conversations and an overly cute bear band-aid as a memory to look back at times.

The fourth time I met him. It was the most precious time of my forty-eight years of living.