So much for a romantic meeting.
For the first three minutes, they stood stock-still, staring at each other and taking everything.
Hoa Phong could've sworn she could hear every individual drop of rain pelting on the glass doors.
She let her gaze rove over him, taking in his gangly and spindly frame, awkwardly big head, messy black hair, warm brown eyes, and that adorkable gap between his two teeth.
He eyed her critically, noting her muddy attire, sopping wetness and pool of water at her feet; how she probably looked like a ragged vagabond and homeless person; the grass bits stuck in her hair, her headphones dangling haphazardly from her neck…
He cleared his throat awkwardly, leaning his broom against a stool. "You're kinda getting mud all over the floor…"
Then she said something really intelligent: "Oh-um-sorry-hi!" although it came out as a mortified squeak.
Before he could respond, a set of feet could be heard clomping down the stairs. "Hi-ro!" the voice called. It sounded familiar to Hoa Phong. "Did someone come inside?"
"Uh, yeah, Aunt Cass!" Hiro, the boy, called back, inquisitively glancing back at Hoa Phong.
"Em, if you don't mind-" Hoa Phong started, taking a step forward. As it so happened to be, it was apparently a bad decision on her part. Pain stabbed at her ankle, lancing up and her leg. Yelping, she face-planted on the floor.
"Oh my goodness!" Aunt Cass screeched, watching Hoa Phong fall on her face. She raced down the stairs, snatching up a napkin and dabbing the mud off of her face as she helped the girl up. "Oh, I remember you! Your family ate dinner here, yes? You, your parents and your older sister?"
"Yep," Hoa Phong meekly replied out of the haze of pain.
Hiro was busy mopping up the muddy tracks Hoa Phong left behind, and took the liberty to poke and prod at her ankle. "Aunt Cass, I think she might've sprained it or something. Hairline-fractured it, at the worse."
"Well, let's get her upstairs and cleaned up!" Aunt Cass helped Hoa Phong hop and limp up the stairs. Hiro trailed after them like an awkward, lost puppy.
Hoa Phong's limp, soaked hair hung in the way of her vision, water dripping down into her eyes causing her to blink rapidly. Through her rain-speckles glasses, she could vaguely make out the second floor the building. Her teeth began to chatter, shivers running up and down her spine.
Aunt Cass dragged Hoa Phong to the bathroom and sat her down on the edge of the tub. Hiro grabbed a towel and passed it to Aunt Cass, whom proceeded to dab the dirt and water off of Hoa Phong's face.
The girl spluttered, yanking off her glasses. Hiro quickly cleaned them and passed them back to her, then he rummaged through the bathroom cabinet for first-aid supplies.
"Aha!" he exclaimed, ducking out of the cabinet with a roll of ace bandages. Aunt Cass had turned on the tub, warm water spouting from the spigot. After Hoa Phong nodded shakily, Aunt Cass helped wash her hair free of mud. They pulled off her jacket and headphones and phone, and wrapped her in warm towels. Finally, with her ankle bandaged and her being cleaner and somewhat warmer she chattered: "C-can I call my parents?"
"Oh, of course!" Aunt Cass passed Hoa Phong her phone, which had been sitting on the counter drying off from the rain.
Nodding in thanks, Hoa Phong quickly unlocked her phone. Then she deftly typed in a few numbers, and nervously held the phone up next to her ear.
Immediately, her mother began screaming into the phone in Vietnamese.
Hoa Phong winced, holding the phone away from her ear. Hiro was clearly trying to not laugh, whereas Aunt Cass looked a little more contrite.
"Mom," Hoa Phong replied back in rapid-fire Vietnamese, "I'm fine- no, I'm not in the rain, I'm warm and safe- yes, I know, I'll be back- I'm in the cafe where we ate dinner last night- yes, with that lady named Cassandra- no, seriously, don't come out in the rain to look for me. Yeah- I know, but if you drive in this rain you'll crash and die and that would- ah, okay… yeah, pick me up after the rain stops…" She switched to English. "Yeah, yeah, yeah," she mumbled into the phone, eyes downcast, "love you too. Bye."
With a sharp beep, Hoa Phong's mother hung up. The girl looked mildly uncomfortable at her tirade with her mother, but Hiro, being the little actor he was quickly wiped off his amused expression. With an apologetic expression, the Vietnamese girl ran a hand through her damp hair and handed the phone back to Cass.
The woman gave Hoa Phong a look of concern. "Honey, is there a place you can stay in this rain? The storms here get pretty bad, you know."
Hoa Phong primly folded her hands in her lap. Her perch at the edge of the bathtub was slightly uncomfortable, the cold linoleum under her feet smooth. The bathroom was small, with the sink and toilet and shower all in close quarters of each other. It was a modest sort of living- there were two bottles in the shower as well as a bar of soap, with the bare minimum toiletries, Hoa Phong noticed.
Hoa Phong focused her unnerving, unwavering gaze on Cass. "Um… no. My dad is at work in his clinic which is about an hour away, and my mom is still at her work. It's also an hour away. And, uh, my sister is probably still at school. And she's not old enough to have a driving license or a car yet… so, uh… no."
The woman stood up, brushing invisible dirt from her immaculate pink apron. She clucked disapprovingly. Hiro was standing behind his aunt, eyeing Hoa Phong like something the cat had dragged him (dammit, contempt was so not the basis of a good relationship). Cass blinked her warm green eyes at Hoa Phong. "Oh, you can stay here! Really, it's no worry. I can whip up some warm soup for dinner!"
The Vietnamese girl blanched, her tan skin paling slightly. Adjusting her glasses, she brushed a strand of dark hair away from her face. "I don't want to impose anything on you! Seriously, I can, like, walk home or something-" It was true that she didn't want to impose anything on the exceedingly magnanimous lady, but also because spending another moment Hiro just to embarrass herself was not on her bucket list.
"No, seriously, don't worry about it!" Cass shook her head, helping the girl stand up on her shaking legs. "I'd hate for you to get hypothermia." She placed her hands on Hoa Phong's shoulders in a maternal way, guiding the girl out of the bathroom. Hiro trailed behind them like a kicked puppy.
Cass guided Hoa Phong down a short hall (the girl shivered at the sensation of the cold, smooth wood flooring underneath her wet feet) and they entered a chicly-decorated kitchen space. The room was mostly spartan, but in the right corner, there was a marble counter island and a bunch of ceiling lanterns and a stove where Cass probably cooked. In the other corner, there was a television set and a couch. On the wall opposite of where they had just entered, two sets different stairs lead to the downstairs dining area of the cafe and the upstairs of presumably their rooms.
"I'm sure Hiro won't mind making a new friend!" Cass prattled on cheerfully (Hoa Phong blushed and Hiro shifted uncomfortably on his feet). "All his friends are college students at the SFIT, you know. My little prodigy!" Her eyes glazed over with pride as she marched Hoa Phong to the other end of the room. "So I thought it might be nice for him to have friends his age, you know? What do you think about it, sweetie?"
Hiro's expression blatantly said: help me. He coughed awkwardly. "Uh... sure…?"
"Wonderful!" Cass chirped, pushing both Hiro and Hoa Phong up the stairs (both mumbled an apology as they bumped into each other- more like crashed, in Hoa Phong's case. She cursed her unsteady legs). "Now, shoo! Have some bonding time, or whatever!"
And soon, Hoa Phong found herself whisked away by the she-demon who killed her victims with generosity to the room where Hiro resided. She was plopped on the bed, complemented with a pat on her head. And in the wake of the smell of sakura blossoms, Cass was gone.
Hiro plopped onto the bed next to Hoa Phong.
The girl felt her heart pound in her chest. She gulped.
Trapped in the lion's den. Fabulous.
XXX
a/n: LOL
I HAVENT UPDATED THIS IN SO LONG IM SORRY
XD
updates WILL be very sporadic
because im focusing on my SasuSaku anthologies and others and my original fics on FP
but if you guys end up showing a lot of support and liking this fic, i'll be sure to try and make an effort and update and write faster
KK THNXS BAI