Chapter 2
"Will I ever see you again?" The question abruptly flew out of Ludwig's lips, as if his lips had its own brain. He stared at the other guy, waited in suspenseful silence, the thuds in his heart roared loud enough to drown the rain.
The rain.
He looked around. It had gone already.
"I'm Berwald. From Sweden. In the capital." The stranger approached him and held up a hand.
He shook it first, then, "Ludwig, a pure German. Although in my childhood, I skipped to Austria for fun." A heartfelt laugh bubbled from the two of them. He couldn't believe that he had cracked a joke—and someone had actually laughed.
"Where are you staying at?" Berwald asked. "If you don't mind me asking…"
"Away from here." He quickly said. "Literally."
Berwald shortly chuckled and said, "I share an apartment with four other pals. It's actually two blocks from here, a ten-minute walk. You see, the bus turns left there," he pointed at the corner, "so I stop here and walk. Since it was raining, I stayed for a while. And you seem like an interesting person. And very nice. And you're a foreigner, too."
"You don't say…" The German had no idea where the point of the conversation was going until…
"It's a busy place, where I'm staying. I believe there are more taxis there."
"Alright, then."
Although it was totally random and off-course, he felt that Berwald was just simply doing him a favour, an act of kindness, definitely nothing creepy. They walked in silence. Heels clicked behind them. The rain already disappeared once the night fully showed up.
"Thanks…" Ludwig had broken the silence at last.
The Swedish man merely nodded in acknowledgment. It was back to silence again. Their heels and the howling wind pervaded; an evident stiffness wrapped around the both of them until they turned up on the street where Berwald was living.
He was right, the road was busy. Noise swept up the whole landscape and brighter lights flashed rather scintillating against the dark. He couldn't say enough thanks to him when an empty cab pulled over at the side.
Ludwig watched the tall Swede cross the road and enter a tall building. The dark masonry looked red and fresh. Five rounds windows per floor and a pointed green top, he wondered where he would stay until the top window lit up as an answer.