"-Turn around. Turn around and fix your eye in my direction, so there is a connection. I can't speak, I can't make a sound to somehow capture your attention. I'm staring at perfection. Take a look at me so you can see how beautiful you are."

-Secondhand Serenade: Stranger

Near watched from the corner of his eye as the stranger- a young girl around his age; looked to be from Asian orientation, judging from her skin colour, long, black hair and focused chocolate-brown eyes, he quickly noticed in his head - stared right back at him from outside of the window. Ignoring was definitely hard to do when the girl was doing said act in such a obvious and maybe even slightly disturbing manner. Her palms and face was mashed up against the glass window like she was trying to become one with it and it resulted in a rather constipated unglamorous-looking facial expression as she eyed him carefully. He blinked, confounded.

What on earth...?

She was definitely staring at Near. No questions about it. She wasn't being shy about it, either. So, okay... maybe if he waited, she would get tired and go away. Usually that worked out quite well.

After a few minutes, the feeling of eyes still continued to linger on him, and Near could practically feel the weight of her stare crawling all over him like a dozen, tiny spiders, with no hope of stopping anytime soon. Personally, for whatever reason, it irked him to no end, knowing that the girl wasn't being affected by his 'ignore-her-and-she-will-go-away' method. He started to feel quite uncomfortable.

Finally having enough, Near did the unthinkable. He lifted his head up, turned his neck ever-so-slightly and looked back at the girl.

For a short, splitting moment, confused brown orbs grabbed gazes with questioning gray ones and the two stared at each other unmovingly for a fleeting few seconds before the owner of the brown eyes jerked away. Her face seemed to flood colour with a shade of embarrassment as she tore away from the glass window, bumping clumsily into a lamp post behind her and bumped the back of her head.

Near continued to watch in silent amusement as the stranger clutched her head in pain, uttered a few swear words under her breath before glancing up and flushing even deeper at his simple, even close to emotionless, gaze.

And when she finally remembered how to work her legs, she nearly whirled around and took off as quickly as her feet could carry her, soon disappearing into a crowd of faceless people.

Near stared right after, feeling as calm as ever, if not a little... amused.

"My God, that was so embarrassing!" Michelle screamed in her head, heart pounding as she maneuvered herself through crowds of people, squeezing through to hurriedly get away from that coffee shop. She hadn't expected him to suddenly turn around like that and look back at her. Her face was still hot, heat radiating from her cheeks from the way he looked at her.

...Dear God, he had a really good-looking face. She couldn't really see it properly with his head turned away before, but when he looked at her, it was like the world around her stopped moving abruptly. She had to stop thinking... she couldn't think.

Just like the rest of him, his face was also pale, but for some reason, it suited him. His lips were very slightly tinted with colour, and pursed into a questioning straight line. He didn't look very happy. In fact, recalling it now, it was almost like he was looking right through her. But still. He had the biggest, dark gray eyes that somehow were glossed with the thinnest layer of confusion. Those eyes were not naive or innocent-looking, yet stared at her with the curiosity of a child. Dull, yet clear and beautiful at the same time, they reminded her exactly of the eyes of a living doll.

When she finally got back to Rod's instrument shop, he was already waiting for her while reading the newspaper behind the cash register.

"Oh, hey, you're back! Saw anyone that caught your eye yet?" Rod looked up from his paper to grin at her as she burst through the door, her mind still rolling around in her thoughts.

He blinked and tilted his head to the side when she didn't reply him, constantly looking over her shoulder out of the window, as if watching and looking out for someone.

"Michelle...? Hellooooo?"

"-Huh? Oh, hi, Rod," Michelle finally snapped her head back and nodded a hasty greeting at him. She was breathing slightly heavier than usual and it showed along with the lingering colour on her cheeks that wouldn't seem to go away.

Raising a skeptical brow, Rod frowned.

"Riiiighttt... is everything okay? You kinda looked like you just saw a ghost or something..." He commented before glancing back down at the article he was reading. The paper rustled quietly and Michelle gulped, averting her gaze.

"...No, ummm..." She stuttered and nervously played with her fingers, glancing over her shoulder again, mumbling. "It's not exactly that..."

"Hm?"

Another mumble and Rod was staring at her like she magically grew a mustache and two chins.

"Can't hear you~," he sang and Michelle grunted uncomfortably.

"...I said, um, Rod..." She began again, and the brunette nodded his head in encouragement, flipping another page of 'Times Daily', as he drummed his fingers on the counter to an imaginary beat. "Do you think... that... angels really do exist?"

"Huh, what?" the drumming stopped and suddenly Michelle grew a mustache, two chins and another head. Was she being serious or was she just screwing around?

She frowned offensively at the way he was staring at her like some kind of freak-show, and crossed her arms over her chest. Damn it, I knew he was going to think I was going crazy! ...Then again, maybe I already am. Maybe I was just seeing things or something and that guy was really just all a part of my imagination... well, that would be humiliating.

"Oh, forget I asked," she waved her hand, signally Rod to 'forget it', and started for the storeroom. "I'm going to finish cleaning up- something I was supposed to finish a long while ago before I was so very rudely interrupted."

"No, wait," Rod instantly stood up from his chair and got in her way from going further. "Tell me about it. This sounds interesting. What did you mean by 'Do you think that angels really do exist'? You say a lot of weird things, kid, but this is one of the most random ones yet. So fill me in on what's up, and don't think you're going anywhere before you do."

"Nooooo! You always do this to me! Forcing things out of me against my will!" She complained, stomping her feet childishly as she pouted. "I don't want to talk about it! It's embarrassing..."

"All the more reason for me to squeeze it out of ya," he grinned cheekily, to Michelle's horror and leaned a hand on the counter. He blew some hair out of his face and gestured for her to spill the beans.

"Come on, sweetheart, I haven't got all day, ya know. And you know I won't stop bugging the crap out of you until you spill. So unless you want me poking your head like this and going, 'hey, hey, Michelle, teeeelll meeee~' for the rest of the month, I suggest you make do with the speaking, yeah?" He jabbed at her forehead repeatedly several times with his finger to prove his point, only to have his hand smacked away violently in irritation.

"I don't want to tell you," she continued pouting and looked away stubbornly. Rod snickered and grinned wider, now raising both of his index fingers to start attacking Michelle's head with a series of non-stop poking.

"OW! OW! HEY! O-ouch! QUIT IT! Cut it out! ROD!" she hissed, trying to fend off the attacking fingers. "RODNEY ANDREWS! You stupid bastard! If you don't cut it out right now, I'm going to..."

"Tell me~! Michelle, Teeell me~! You know you want toooo," he taunted and she covered her head with her arms, getting more and more peeved. She took a step back and he stepped forward, and she flailed, giving up.

"Okay, fine! I'll tell you, I'll talk, you asshole," she grumbled as Rod ceased fire with a satisfied chuckle. "Fucking hell... just like a little kid. I swear..."

"Yup. So tell me what happened the whole forty-five minutes you were out there, already. I'm dying to know." he teased.

Brown eyes shifted to the side and a short mumble was heard.

"...Again with the mumbling," Rod sighed. "What was that again? I didn't catch it."

"...boy... coffee... shop."

"...a boy brought you to a coffee shop?" Rod translated and his face instantly brightened, raising his right hand in the air. "Alright! Your first date! Give me fiv-"

"NO! THAT'S NOT IT!" Michelle suddenly boomed in interruption, flailing her arms again, a blush easily reviving on her cheeks. She took a deep breath and exhaled loudly, scowling and looking to the side again. "...I saw this boy... at the coffee shop on 5th Avenue... and-"

"Oh, was he cute?" came the rude question and Michelle couldn't help but twitch again. She was this close to extending her right hand and slapping Rod silly. Still, she looked down at her feet and scowled.

"...Yeah... I guess... I mean, he had a really cute face and all... and he sort of reminded me of an angel..."

"Do you like him?"

"...No, it's not that." The image of those composed, doll-like eyes appeared in her head again, and she faltered slightly, growing redder. "F-for God's sake, I don't even know the guy! I mean, he looked really, really good and all, but all I did was like, stand outside the window and stared at him..."

"...like a stalker?"

"...I really should just slap you." the offended girl huffed and knitted her eyebrows together and Rod patted her head comfortingly with a lopsided smile. He hummed an amused tune and went back behind the counter to resume reading his paper again, pleased with being able to pry the information from her. Michelle sighed and shook her head, dragging herself to a nearby stool and plopping down heavily.

"Do you think I'll ever see him again?" she asked out loud, looking at her nails.

"If you want to, I think you'll be able to," Rod said kindly, smiling to himself. "and it sounds like you really want to."

This time, Michelle bobbed her head up and down in agreement, chewing on her lip thoughtfully. "...he was like... a beautiful stranger."

"You and your hormones," Rod laughed and earned a small glare. "Ahh, young love," he continued teasing and watched as Michelle stood up huffily to create some distance to escape his nonsense.

"Anyway!" he cupped his hand over his mouth and yelled at her from across the room, sitting up slightly. "If you really wanna see this dude again, maybe you should start getting your ass out more often and maybe go to this coffee shop during your breaks!"

Opening her mouth to shout back a reply, she suddenly paused and went into thinking mode. Michelle tapped her chin and blinked to herself while crossing over to where the storeroom was. That wasn't such a bad idea, actually. Maybe she would see that white boy again if she started to visit that place more regularly. If luck was on her side, she would most likely bump into him again. It was worth a shot.

"Although..." Michelle wrinkled her nose, picking up a fallen tambourine from the floor and giving it a few whacks to shake off the dust it collected. "...Coffee is still fucking gross... damn irony."

She placed the tambourine back on the shelf where it belonged, the bells jingling slightly as she tiptoed and pushed it back in so it wouldn't fall off again and walked around to see if the other instruments needed any tuning or cleaning up.

...For some reason, she couldn't stop thinking about when she would be able to meet her albino stranger again.