"Ivan! Ivan!" Yue ran into the living room practically skipping with joy, her cell phone in her left hand, keys in her right.
"What is it, Yue?" Ivan mumbled from his spot on the ground, his head squished between his arms, which were now numb from loss of blood circulation. Sleeping on the floor for this past week has really proven a pain on his back and neck, Yue had attempted to make it more comfortable by piling blankets for him, which sort of helped somewhat, but the hard floor had proven to be too hard. Yue, who was sleeping on her futon, was used to sleeping on the ground so was more than happy to give the extra blankets to him he had asked one day why she wasn't affected by the hard floor like he was. "I slept on the floor for a few years when my family was having financial trouble and we only had two beds, my two youngest siblings all shared one bed while me and my brother slept on futons, so I've grown custom to sleeping on the ground." She told him. It was very different from how he grew up, he lived in large, cold, dark mansion where he had been given a luxurious king sized bed since he was small child and a room of his own, big enough to fit ten adult men. Although he never cared about such trivial things as a child because it was a normality for him, he never knew he may one day miss the simple things like a bed.
"The furniture truck is here! The furniture truck is here!" She called happily and shook him back and forth trying to get him up faster. "Come! We must unload!" She said and ran out the door.
Ivan chuckled and pushed himself off the bed, happy that Yue was happy. Strange it was that the mood of an almost stranger could affect his own on a scale as grate as it did. Ivan grabbed his boots and jacket and walked out of the apartment to follow the small Chinese woman down the stairs and over to the truck which she now stood in front of.
"Are you Yue Wang?" The driver asked as he walked out from the vehicle, pushing the metal door open roughly, a clipboard and pen in his right hand.
"Yes, that is me." Yue answered with a bounce in her voice. The man handed her the clipboard and pointed to where her signature was needed, which she gave and handed back the clipboard, stepping aback as as the man made his way over to the back of the truck and opened the door, revealing packaged boxes and various different pieces of furniture. From where he stood, he could see a white, pink, and red floral print couch next two a twin sized bed, laid horizontally upright.
"Common Ivan, let's unload!" She said enthusiastically. However, because of her size it was Ivan and two lifting guys, including the driver, who brought her possessions up the stairs and into her apartment. The men left her things in her living room, leaving her to organize every herself, well herself and Ivan.
First they got to work on moving things out of the way, stacking boxes in her own room, then moving to bring her bed in before seeing a large mistake.
"The couch." She stated.
"What about it?" Ivan questioned.
"You can't sleep on it because you are too big." She noted, pointing to her small love seat couch in the center of the room.
"Oh." Was all he said, bringing his scarf higher to hid his embarrassment, twiddling his thumbs.
"Not that your big or anything, I like that your big! I-I mean I like you tall! Wait no! I don't like it! I mean, I don't hate it!" Yue attempted to fix her mistake but ended up a blushing, stuttering mess failing to make sense. Ivan looked up from his scarf at her bright red face and felt a laugh leave his mouth, then another one, and another one, soon he was laughing hard while clutching his gut.
"That's not what I meant! Stop laughing!" She shouted and punched Ivan in the arm forcefully and surprisingly hard.
"My apologies, dorogaya." He laughed wiping his tears. "I do not mean to make fun."
Yue huffed and crossed her arms, pointing up her chin and turning her head. Ivan smiled at her adorable attitude and cute expressions.
"I meant to say that you should take the bed. I can sleep on the couch because I am small." She said, taking a peak at him from the corner of her eye.
"Oh, dorogaya moya that is not necessary. I can sleep on couch."
"Nonsense, I will take the couch, you take the bed." She said firmly, the glare in her eyes leaving no room for protest. Ivan decided not to challenge her and let her have her way.
"Okay."
Ivan went in for a hug but stopped mid step and awkwardly gave her a pat on the head.
Why was it that Ivan wanted to give Yue a hug? They knew each other for nine days and counting, hardly enough time to deem hugs a casual thing. And yet, he craved to pull the small woman into a giant hug and hold onto her. He wanted to run his fingers through her soft black hair while holding her in his lap, but why is that?
"Uh...Ivan?" Yue's voice brought him out of his thoughts and back to the present moment where Yue stared up at him with wide curious eyes and a hint of red on her cheeks. It was only then that Ivan realized that he had actually been staring intently at her silently, whilst combing through her hair slowly and somewhat creepily. Immediately stopping and yanking his hand away like Yue had some horrible disease that would infect with a single touch, but then again, maybe she did infect him.
"Uh- ah, we should get back to unpacking, da?" Ivan stuttered childishly while nervously trying to hid his face with his hand.
"Yeah..." Yue agreed awkwardly, looking anywhere but at him.
One second. Two. Three. Four. Five and more seconds passed without either of them moving and the air in the apartment only continued to grow more tense. After nearly a minute of silence passed Yue finally moved her legs to back away and turn to move another box to the kitchen labeled: Fragile.
When she left Ivan collapsed own to the small couch and released a heavily stressful sigh.
When she came back they continued on like nothing had happened and proceeded to move the loveseat into her room, proving she had won the argument. After that they got started on organizing the living room, placing the bed in the far left corner of the room, with a bean bag chair at the foot of the bed. She placed her bookshelf on the back right wall and her small dinning table with a single chair in the far center right and her small tv and DVD player parallel to the bed. When organizing what done, Yue unpacked three boxes and began to unload, placing all of her books and movies on the shelves of the bookcase.
Not up for much conversation after that awkward little episode, conversation was surprisingly light between. Sure it hasn't been two weeks that they've known each other, but for some strange reason the two have been able to hold conversations everyday since they've met, leaving quite time between them almost rare.
It was strange, uncomfortable, but at the same time calming. Even if they weren't speaking to each other, he felt at peace just being in her presence and filled him with a strange feeling that he can't identify. It was foreign to him and somewhat even scared him, yet it didn't, and comforted him. He had the feeling that he had seen her before, like he had a long history with her and he had always been meant to be by her side.
When they had finished unpacking the living room and kitchen, they turned to interior decoration; hanging up paintings of bears, placing up shelves to put trinkets on, and placing pictures of what seemed to be her family. Yue rolled out a carpet in the center of the living room with a brown and red bamboo tapestry design, with a yin and yang symbol in the center.
The sight of black and white and bamboo next to Yue seemed to strike Ivan somewhere in his head and he could have sworn he'd gone delirious, because he swore he saw Yue glow blue, and a panda bear that sat exactly where she was, but at the same time behind her form. The bear seemed to be watching him closely, as if it was looking beyond his eyes and looking back inside his past.
Then, as Yue began to stand up, the panda began to fade away, and Yue no longer shown blue.
Ivan nearly flipped his wrist in confusion and disbelief of what he just saw. Visions had been appearing inside his head ever since he's met Yue, almost every single day at least one would appear. But nothing like what he had experienced had happened to him before, it was outside of his mind was not like seeing a memory, it was like seeing a ghost.
"Hey, are you alright Ivan?" Yue asked from below, noticing that he had been standing awfully still.
"Uh, um..." He tried to convey a thought to reassure her he was fine, but was too shook to do so.
"What is it, Ivan?" She wondered, placing a calming hand on his arm. Ivan felt relieved by the touch and was able to settle his mind.
"Have you ever seen a bear?" He asked oddly.
Yue retaliated by giving him a look of confusion. "Like, in a zoo?" She offered.
"No, I mean in a vision, or a dream?" He provided.
Yue seemed to stop, as if he had uncovered a secret she had kept well hidden from sight and dared not let anyone near, but was suddenly discovered by him Yue let go of his arm and took a step back, looking into his eyes for a hint of a joke but found none.
"Maybe," she said softly, "I'm not sure what it is I see, it happens so fast at times."
"Tell me." He stepped closer.
The air seemed to shift into something more serious and forbidden, as if they were not supposed to let each other know what is they saw, but could not help but to seek out the truth in each other.
Yue however seemed to sense the danger and was the first one to end their tracking down the path of questioning what was better left alone.
"It's nothing." She stated, taking two steps back. "Just a silly dream."
Both of them knew that was a lie, and both of them knew that something else was brewing in their minds that formulated a bigger, single, picture. However a silent pact was formed between them to let sleeping dogs lie, fearing to awaken them and face the fangs.
Ivan yearned to learn what all of these images and visions meant, he wanted to know what the under layer of their relationship truly held and why he had such a queer crave to be with this woman. However it seemed that she did not feel the same way, and he would respect her want to not go further and leave everything unsaid, after all what he truly wanted was just to be around her, and he didn't need to code to the universe to do that.
"Okay." He said in understanding. "It is nothing."
...
"I will make dinner now, we will need our strength for work tomorrow." Yue announced and hurriedly left for the kitchen, closing the door and falling against it as soon as it clicked shut.
She had seen it, what ever it was. A large white polar bear, weighed down with age with a sad face and longing eyes. The bear seemed to reflect an old soul and looked to belong to Ivan, but how could that be? She was sure Ivan was still young, younger than her and at least twenty years of age, but this bear produced a soul hundreds of years old. She didn't know why, and she was scared to learn the reason, but she knew it's age and felt a familiar presence around it, but she did not know where from.
These thoughts continued to nip and nag at her while she cooked despite her desire to forget. She was curious as to why she continued to see these images, and why they were connected to Ivan, a strange whom she barely knew, but she had the chilly feeling that if she were to do that it would only cause to bring her pain.
With her future just ahead of her, with college starting within the next couple of days, Yue didn't want the instincts of the past to prolong her from seeking out her future. However, it seemed that any life with Ivan will inevitably lead back to the past and we'll as serve to bring the future, a future that Yue can't seem to locate with him but doesn't want to abandon. Because no matter what she originally wanted for herself, she doesn't think she can leave his side now that they have met and is destined to intertwine her fate with his.
As the night grew darker and she lay awake on her couch in her room she tried to think of what it meant to be so attached to a stranger, and what had brought about their strange connection. It was out of her hands and appeared to be growing even stronger as each day passed by. She felt like she was on the verge of remembering something, something important, her soul had been awakened and urged her to hurry up and understand what she did not. The only thing that stood as a block within her own mind, was herself.
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A very half assed chapter to get to the further point of the next chapter. Sorry.
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