A smile on her face as she puts on her shoes
with red socks beneath.
Today is going to be good.
Rays of the sun peeked through her laced curtains, bringing light upon the dark corners of the room. Mia made her way to the door with a smile on her face, just thinking of what lies ahead today brought excitement inside her. Anxious and giddy, she stepped outside, taking in the peaceful moment in the neighbourhood. For once, no one was shouting or talking loudly at this time of day.
One step after another on the bricked road,
heading straight to Bookshop of Wonders.
Mrs. Johnson gives her a friendly wave and asks, "Where are you headed today, Missy? I'm quite surprised you're not rushing off to work today" as if she was a 10-year old kid. Mia smiled at this and answered politely with enthusiasm, "I'm heading to Wonders since it's my day-off. I Thought I needed a break after working non-stop for about a month." The woman, aged with time, only laughed and said her goodbyes before letting Mia continue her journey to her most favourite place in town.
On every isle, there are secrets that are yet to be unfold,
are you ready to know?
A couple were standing the counter, almost shameless displaying too much affection for one another. 'No one must have told them that the hotel was only two streets away,' Mia thought as she silently walked pass them. They were too preoccupied with all the touching and whispering. Gross. She disappeared between the isles where the young-adult and fiction novels were at. This place was like home, and the smell of the books' every page calmed her down. As soon as the unabashed couple was gone, Mia quickly went to find the perfect set of books to keep her company for the oncoming Christmas vacation. Since she'd come from a far-off land, it was already close to impossible to even take an unplanned trip back to her real home. And so, to make up for the solitary days and nights through the holidays, Mia had resorted into gathering a bunch of good reads.
The first secret is about to unfold,
listen closely and keep your mouth closed.
As she walked slowly and silently through each isle, trying to find the fitting horror novel that would fuel her adrenaline, Mia accidentally collided into somethi—someone. His tall, slender body remained steady although he was surprised by Mia's presence. The stranger shifted uncomfortably, trying to avoid her looks.
"Oh, my god I'm so sorry, I didn't see you. I wasn't looki—"
"S'alright, no harm done." Stranger cuts her off before shifting again. This time, He'd already had his back on her.
Mia, on the other hand, couldn't help but wonder if something was wrong. She allowed her curiosity take hold of the situation. "You sure, you're okay? Do you need me to get some—"
"It's fine." He spun around and Mia finally got a glimpse of his face.
"Oh dear, is it really you? You're really here?!"
Secret #1: "Yes, now keep quiet!"
The bookstore owner was starting to get all suspicious with the tiny ruckus upstairs and yelled out a "you alright over there?" to check up on them. The two said 'yeah' in unison, and they couldn't help but smile a little.
"You. You're—" A hand covers Mia's mouth before she could even finish talking. Right, he'd told her to be quiet already. They probably don't know he was here. He probably ran away or snuck out—to go here? It's honestly such an unusual place to find him in, Mia thought.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" she whispered, sort of, loudly.
He cupped her mouth again and said, "I thought I needed a break."
Shortly after, the two found themselves comfortably sitting down on the cold wooden floor. Even though Wonders wasn't air-conditioned, the chill still managed its way inside. Each pair of hand held a different book, one about Art and the other one about Murder.
"Murder, huh?" he spoke rather softly, though his eyes still bore at page 23 of the book he was reading.
It took Mia a while to come up with a—if not witty then at least a proper—answer, "Just hyping myself up to a reading mood to last the holidays."
"Don't you have plans?" he asked. Mia only shook her head. "Must be a bleak Christmas then."
"Yup." She replied, popping her lips on the letter p. "What are you planning to do on the holidays?"
He thought for a while, probably read a sentence or two while he's at it. "Preparing for my wedding, probably."
Oh, he was getting married.
"Do you really believe in Marriage?"
Secret #2: "Yeah, of course.
Why would I even plan for it if I didn't?"
Mia felt sort of ambivalent towards this guy's reputation until now, she'd always took him for someone who's less likely to settle down—most unlikely on an early age but he'd proved her wrong. The news definitely surprised (or disappointed) a lot of people. Anyway, engaged or not, here he was on the floor next to her. He became an open book then, spilling stories and secrets from every page of his life—to someone who didn't even bother to ask, or speak when he paused. It didn't matter though, he knew Mia was listening and she didn't need to speak as he laid his entire self in front of her.
Secret #3:
The passion for Art and performing is
fuelled day by day by millions of people
he didn't even know
They were already laughing now, talking about the silly things the admirers did for him and his boys. Mia, however, told him how she'd gotten from the South-East of the globe to where she is now. "It wasn't easy, really. It never is, right?" she said.
"It never is."
He'd told her about he loved to make something out of lines, how he'd used too much paper to do what he loved on his spare time. She looked at the way he smiled while he talked about how much he loved creating things with his own hands. His inhibitions whenever the people were getting too harsh and unkind, he told her all of it. And she sat there, listening. Her heart pounded with anticipation of what's more to come out of his mouth, and he provided her with more heart-twisting words.
Secret #4
"I wanted to become an English teacher."
She felt herself falling into the rabbit hole, except what she saw inside weren't large teacups, pianos and talking rabbits, what she saw were a stack of books, canvases filled with colours, word written carelessly on paper and all over the wall. She was inside his world and to be quite honest, Mia didn't want to leave.
"Then why didn't you become one?" she asked.
He smiled. "Because I joined a competition, which I didn't even win in. But everything, all of this started from then on, so I chose that path."
Even when he spoke, the words danced towards Mia's ears and engraved itself inside her mind. This person was just too good to be true. "Don't you think, you should at least have a back-up plan? You know, just in case." Again, she asked.
"Exactly, why I'm here for." He replied, waving the amazingly covered book on her face.
"…You wanna be an artist? A painter or something?"
He nodded. "I'd go for English teacher but that'd take me too long and I'm afraid I won't have much time then." then he laughed and so did Mia.
Secret #5
"I'm here because I'd always wanted to."
It was her turn to spill out her unspoken secrets. He'd already asked her why, of all the countries in the world, she chose here. That was about the easiest question anyone could ask Mia, she always knew what to answer because she felt confident about it. Despite the neutral, extremely cold and fairly warm weather that changed from time to time, Mia loved being here. If not all, then some people were a tad unwelcoming but she got pass that eventually. A silly opinion wasn't going to be the reason she runs back to her hometown. He listened intently.
"I like—love your country. It's nice here. A lot of history and artistic people. You're not the only one who has a penchant for Art over here." She gestured at herself, making him laugh.
They talked and talked, and talked even more, not minding the time that has passed. It's been more than three hours since they'd started talking and they weren't even close to being done, until his phone rang and the aforementioned girlfriend's name appeared across the screen. They were probably looking for him already, which was almost like a bad thing because he wasn't allowed to go gallivanting without a bodyguard.
Secrets #6
"The mix CDs I make are for the people
who goes around looking at fictional novels,
because I think that music,
other than illustrations, is the perfect pair
for books."
Despite the seven calls he'd received over the past 10 minutes, he still remained where he was but his attention wasn't on the book anymore, it was on Mia. She talked about the Mix CDs she made every night after coming home from work, and leaving it on the shelves for people to find it themselves. Whoever finds it, she considered lucky. "But today, I'm going to make an exception. This mix isn't Little, but it's one of my favourites. There're 11 tracks inside, one of it, I'm dedicating to you." she said, standing up. He followed her after and set the book he was reading down.
He couldn't hide the surprised look on his face as he took the CD from her. The case was filled with watercolour and a sentence scrawled on the front with blank ink saying "This is for your heart, take good care of it. – M."
Secret #7
Chances are
we'll never see each other again.
He thanked her for the CD and she thanked him for the company, although he felt quite guilty for not being able to give her anything. "S'alright. Don't worry about it, I had fun anyway." Mia said. This wasn't part of what she'd been expecting to happen since this morning, but it was definitely much better than her own plans.
His phone rang again and again, which was the cue that he really needed to go. "Thank you, again for this." He said, gesturing to the thin case on his hand. Mia nodded in reply.
"I never got to ask you for your name."
"It's Mia." She said.
He smiled, ignoring the loud ringing from his pocket. "Zayn, nice to meet you." He said it as if the letter y wasn't part of his name.
He then took hold of her by the arm, leaned in and gave her a kiss that made fireworks explode inside both of their heads, and their hearts pound like there was no tomorrow.
And then he was gone, as if everything never happened, as if Mia only dreamed all of it.
It was over. The Wonder has been found and now tucked under the pages of every book in every isle.