The darkness outside Eren's apartment flooded the streets and seemed to stretch out into nothingness before him. He shoved his hands in his pockets and buried his face in his scarf. It was truly winter. Walking down the concrete steps of the front entrance, he stepped onto the sidewalk. The stars were not visible that night and the moon was hidden somewhere in the vast grey sky. His breath spread out before him in white puffs.
He was feeling listless. People passed him and walked on in masses. The streets were full of cars driving slowly through the narrow streets. He felt lost in the flow of the world around him. Like all the people passing around him, he was in a hurry to go nowhere. There was nothing that motivated him anymore. There was nothing worth living for.
Realizing he had stopped in the street, he felt like crying, but there were no tears left in his eyes. His mother had died a few years ago, his father had left his mother a month before her death, and he was too stubborn to accept the stepsister he would be getting after his father's remarriage. It was too much. That's why he decided to move out. He was old enough to get an apartment and he had a fairly well paying job. It would give him piece of mind.
It was so cold out. Eren saw the lights of a bookstore burning through its tall glass shop windows into the darkness on the sidewalk. It seemed like a good place to warm up and kill some time. Pulling the glass door open, the bells jingled loudly and a cold undertow of air followed him inside. Breathing into his palms, he wondered inside.
When he turned the aisle, he saw someone was reading one of the books of the shelf. It was a serious looking man in a long black leather coat and pashmina scarf. Eren thought he was captivating.
After what only felt like a few seconds, the man looked over at Eren from his reading.
"Am I in your way?" he said.
Eren paused before saying, "No."
He couldn't think of anything else to say. The man put the book back on the shelf and headed out of the store. Even though he wasn't warmed up yet, Eren impulsively followed. The man was already a few yards ahead of him up the street. Eren couldn't figure out why he was so excited. Why was he so fixed on this moment? What was this man to him? A complete stranger, someone who should mean nothing to him, somehow meant more to him than anyone he could think of.
"Wait!"
The man turned around. He looked a bit surprised and annoyed. But Eren thought he looked even better in the cold, dim, lighting of the streetlamps.
"Did I drop something?" the man said after some time.
"No."
"Is that all?"
Eren dreaded saying that "yes". He held it inside his lungs because he knew that as soon as it would leave his lips, he would never see this man again. Instead, he waited to see how long it would take the man to turn around and walk away.
The man stood there a long time, waiting for a response. Eren agonized over it. Finally he said,
"What's you're name?"
"Levi. Who are you?"
"Eren."
He had been standing in the street focused on Levi for so long he hadn't noticed, but it had started to snow. A few snowflakes drifted by Levi's face and stuck to his hair. Eren realized how cold he actually was. It was late December. This was neither the first snow nor the last they would get this winter, but in that moment, to Eren, it felt like the first time he had ever seen snow fall.
"Do you want to get something to drink?" Eren said, going out on a limb.
"…Why not, I have nothing to do tonight."
Eren couldn't help but get the feeling he had met Levi before – somewhere, some other time, some other place – it overwhelmed him. Levi walked back toward the store to Eren. Eren hadn't realized how much taller he was than Levi. It almost amused him. Levi looked up at Eren; an irritated smile crossed his lips.
"This time too, huh?"
Eren didn't know what Levi meant, but he didn't care. All he could see was Levi, all he could feel was the snow, and all he thought was this overwhelming sensation of nostalgia.
"Levi…"
The word felt so natural in his voice. He wanted to spend the rest of the night with Levi. He wanted to stare at him forever. Nothing else seemed to matter. The snow was getting heavier, but Eren didn't think it was cold.