Woke up today at 8am and went out to wash the car. I had plans in my mind for the day with Victoria, which involved the car. Amazing thing is, pretty much everything went according to plan.
I got dressed up in my Harvey Specter casual outfit, then drove to the Wick to get a pack of Buttermenthols for my throat, and a Lindt chocolate bar for Victoria. I then drove to the library and when I got there, saw the clock and realised I was 40 minutes late.
I found her in the area we used to sit in, and gave her the chocolate bar without saying a word. My sore throat had gotten worse, and my voice was now extremely husky. I sat down and unpacked my things, and I heard her rumbling through her own things. She then came over and gave me an apple and a mandarin, and said she thought about giving me chocolate but thought this would be healthier.
We then studied in silence for the next two and a half hours. When it got to around noon, I wondered if she wanted to go to lunch. I decided to let her ask instead of me. Nothing happened so I kept studying. Miraculously, despite not having had breakfast, I wasn't hungry at all. Even more miraculous was the fact that I got some good, hardcore studying done. A lot of things were starting to come back to me now.
At 1pm she came and asked if I wanted to go to lunch. I was so into my studying, and was so close to finishing a 'session', that I asked her for an extra five minutes. I noticed she didn't look as bubbly as normal. I wondered if it was because she wasn't wearing any make up, or if she wasn't that excited to see me, or if she was sick. After I had finished, I packed up, and she heard me too and started packing up.
As we walked off I asked what she was studying today and she said evidence. She told me she wasn't feeling too well, and she wanted to go to a pharmacy after lunch. I asked if she wanted to go to the Wick, and she said yes, and added there was a pharmacy there. When she heard me speak, she asked if I wasn't feeling too well either, and I said yes, joking that we would make each other sick. I noticed she was indeed wearing make up, so she must've appeared a bit down because she was sick. She said it was cold and put her hand on top of mine, adding "this is how cold it feels".
As we headed to the car park, she was telling me how she couldn't sleep last night. I said I couldn't sleep either due to all my coughing, but she didn't say anything which made me think she couldn't sleep for a different reason. She said she slept at 1am and woke up at 3am feeling anxious, which prevented her from going back to sleep. She said she thought she was a normally positive person, but sometimes she thinks bad things may happen, and this is what is causing her anxiousness. I didn't say anything and allowed her to talk, hoping she'd elaborate, but she then said it was a bit personal and she might tell me one day. I half jokingly asked if someone had broken into her house and she said no. I wonder what it could be?
As we neared her car, I said I would drive. She asked me if I drove today and I said yes. I asked if she could guess which car, she looked around and guessed it was the one parked next to hers. She said she would put her stuff in her car first, and then got into my car. I held out a basketball for her and gave it to her, but to my disappointment, she just put it to her left near her legs.
She said something about my car, and I told her it was my first car so it has a lot of value to me. As we passed the hospital, I pointed at it and said that was where I had my knee surgery. She sounded like she didn't know, but I was pretty sure I had told her before. She asked "you have had knee surgery?" and I told her about how I tore my ACL in the last minute of the last game of the season which didn't matter. She was fiddling around with my dog tag hung around the rear view mirror and asked me when it was. I thought she meant the dog tag, and she said she meant the knee surgery. I told her I tore it in 2009 and had the surgery in 2010. She asked if I was all better now, and I said I can't jump as high because they used one of my hamstrings to thread it through, and I can't bend it as far, and there's also a spot where I don't have any feelings.
She then asked me when I got the dog tag and I said also in 2010 in QLD, when I used to drive three hours up there every weekend.
When I entered the Wick shopping centre, she said she had never been here, and I asked "chin cha?" which seemed to surprise her a bit. She said she would put on her hat, which was a beanie, and I laughed at her a bit. She looked so cute wearing that, but then she took it off. Before we got out of the car, I asked if she could do me a favour. I grabbed my basketball and marker from the back seat and asked if she could draw my hand print on it. I explained to her I have always drawn my left hand because I am right handed and need my right hand to draw, and people keep asking me why so I want my right hand drawn and asked if she could help. She did, and did it rather carefully, resting one hand on mine as she worked the marker around my hand shape. She apologised if she was getting any of the ink onto my hand and I said that was expected. When she completed it, I asked if she wanted hers drawn on, and she said no. She asked why I did it, and I said people write their names on theirs, and I have used my hand since I was in high school. Later on I realised that there was minimal amount of ink on my hand - she must've been really careful.
When we got to the top level where the shops are, I asked what she wanted to eat, and as I had expected, she asked me to choose. I said there was a Japanese place I had passed many times but never tried, and she said ok, adding that it was good to try something new.
I asked her what would happen to her car while she was overseas, and she said nothing, she would just leave it outdoors. I said I was happy to look after it if she wanted. She said she might get her family friends to keep an eye on it, but it did sound like she might take me up on the offer if need be. I half joked that I would return it with heaps of mileage added.
As we crossed the road towards the restaurant, I said I would give her the nickname of Charmander from now on. She asked if it was because of the hat she put on earlier, and I just laughed. The truth is, because it starts with her last name, and the character is cute but has some fire within, like her.
We went in and sat down at a table. I gave her the Korean money I had brought with me, and she seemed impressed as she took it. She said she hadn't seen Korean money for such a long time. I gave it to her because she is travelling there in July. She said she would use it to get me some o-deng. I said I wanted it hot and she said it would be frozen. I asked her to get it hot and carry it on the plane. Don't think she likes that type of immature humour.
I asked if Michael ever told her about the UTS course I went to with him, and she said no, and that the last time she saw him was two weeks ago. I told her the story about how the guy next to me had casts around both arms and fell down on the desk full while dozing off lol. She told me about her study session with Albert yesterday. I said it always feels like a test around him. She said she knew what I meant, and added that he seems to know his things on the surface but when you ask him further questions about it, he can't answer it. I said there's a difference between knowing and understanding, and he seems to know it without understanding it. She said he wasn't a malicious guy though, and I wondered why she said that. She said she wasn't feeling well yesterday and left the study session early. She said she felt worse today.
We both ordered the set menu and I asked her about her uni years. She said she did her Commerce/Marketing at Macquarie Uni, and then did her 'JD' at UNSW. She said this was filled with mainly older students, average age being 35. She said it was really tough, because the lecturers expected you to get a lot of work done, and that in class they would ask you a question and not move on until you could answer the question. She said she thought she was very lucky to have gotten through without failing anything, and said that her average mark was 73. I said that was nearly honours, but she said at her uni honours only went to the top 4%.
I asked if she had many friends and she said yes, and that she still keeps in touch with some of them now. She said some have their own law firms and are making a lot of money doing conveyancing.
I asked if people at her uni hid books and she said they did and it was very competitive. She said she has even found law books from the upper campus in the lower campus library, and felt sorry for the librarians who had to take it back.
She asked me about my uni days, and I said I used to wait for the library to open and would be in there all day unless I had a class or I went out to get something to eat. I also told her I had two close friends, but one of them has changed a lot since he started his own firm and was making a lot of money. I told her he was cheating on his wife a lot.
She asked me if I had ever thought about starting my own firm and I said yes, and that it was still a possibility. I told her the story once of how a client offered to have me work for him in my own firm.
The miso soup arrived first, and I drank mine but she didn't touch hers. When I finished, she gave me her one and said she didn't want it, but wanted my bowl, as she swapped the two bowls around. This is despite hearing me cough all day earlier in the library.
When the food came, the first thing she did was give me some of hers. I reciprocated and gave her some of mine.
We talked about her work, and she told me about this one court matter where a male witness turned up dressed as a female, and refused to be sworn in. She said that created so much trouble, and that was the reason she couldn't meet me for lunch that day a few weeks ago.
I told her there was a job opening at my place. She looked really grateful for me telling her, and asked if she should apply. I said there was no harm in applying, but added that the paralegal at my place might have an advantage, but I wasn't sure if my manager liked him or not. She looked like she was considering it.
I asked her what she was doing on the Sunday following the exams and she said she wasn't sure. I asked if she wanted to come to my birthday dinner and she said yes. She thanked me for inviting her. I told her it would be at a Vietnamese restaurant in Cabramatta for chilli crab, and asked if she had ever been out there and she said no. I asked if she celebrated her birthdays and she said yes, just with a dinner.
I told her about a case my colleague had back when I was a PLT student. I said I watched the accused say in the witness box that he never bashed the victim, and after he won, he came over to us and said "yeah I did it". She asked me how that made me feel, and I said that the system doesn't work.
I told her I wanted to be a court officer when I retire, and she said I should be a basketball coach. I told her I thought about opening my own basketball competition for kids. She said that was a good idea for the future.
She said she might not go back to study as she wasn't feeling well.
I asked her about the wedding she went to and she said it was alright, but people kept asking her when she would be getting married and asked her if she was worried. She said she told them she wasn't seeing anyone at the moment. I wondered if that was a veiled message to me that she wasn't seeing anyone
including me or if it was meant to tell me she was single. Or maybe it was just simply she was telling them she wasn't seeing anyone.
I told her I knew what the pressure was like, because my aunty tried to set me up with a girl here, and that I met up with her for lunch once. She said you never know, and asked me what the girl did, and I told her. Maybe it was just me, but she seemed to have a look of cross examination on her face when she asked me.
I asked how her cat was and she just gave a simple answer of she's fine.
When we finished eating, before I knew it she made a move to get to the cash register first and paid. She said "finally" and then I said she still owes me about ten more meals. We then left and as we waited to cross the road, I pointed to a licence plate and asked her if she knew what it meant. It had letters like 'NTGLTI' and I wondered if it meant "not guilty". When we crossed the road she put her hood on and I tapped her on the head a bit.
We went to the pharmacy where she asked for antibiotics but was told she needed a prescription. I asked if she wanted to go to the doctor upstairs, or at least check if it was free, but she said no. The very prospect of seeing a doctor with her gave me that "boyfriend" feel which I guess was what I was after with Jin.
As we left the pharmacy she asked if I wanted any lollies for my throat, and I said I had butter menthols but she said that wasn't strong enough. She asked me if I wanted any chocolate from Woolies. I didn't really want any, but I wanted to spend more time with her so I said yes. As we walked, we passed a donut shop and I asked if she liked donuts. She said not really, but she did used to like Krispy Kreme. I said there were so many Donut Kings in Korea, and she said yes, they were Dunkin' Donuts. She then told me about how KFC, Taco Bell and another fast food chain were all owned by the same company, and that there was one near her high school which combined all three.
We went to Woolies and picked out a chocolate bar for each of us, and then went to pay for it. As we queued up, she was checking her phone and told me her mom had sent her a message. I looked at her phone and saw a bunch of Korean text from a person she named as "Mom Korea" which made me laugh. She said it was because her mom her a phone Korean phone and an Australian phone.
She said her mother told her that kiwis would help her sleep. I asked if she wanted any kiwis and she said no. She paid for the chocolate at the self serve, and the first thing we both did when we walked out was unwrap our chocolate to share with the other. She unwrapped her Boost and offered it to me. I wondered if I should have just bitten it off, but ended up snapping it with my fingers. We did the same with my Twirl. With a sore throat full of phlegm, chocolate was the last thing I wanted to eat, but because it was with her, it made me feel like heaven.
As we walked back through the shopping centre, I drifted towards the fruit market. She soon realised what I was doing. I went to the kiwis section and grabbed a plastic bag. I thought she would stop me but she didn't. I started picking them, and she said to just get two and then took the bag away from me after we put two in. As we walked to the cashier I pointed out certain fruits asking if she wanted them but she said no. I said I'd pay for it but it was only 90 cents.
I drove her back and she thanked me for the kiwi fruits. I joked that I would text her at 1am to see if she was asleep. On the drive back, she was telling me about how she had a friend at uni who had his bag and laptop stolen, and one day some guys yelled racist comments at him from a car. Still angry from the loss of his laptop, he yelled back "fuck you!" and they started chasing him. He ran into a secure building on the campus, and she said he cried to her saying he didn't like this country. I told her it might get worse because Asian investors overseas are bumping up the property prices here, which led to her talking about the topic. She seemed to know quite a bit, citing examples of off the plan buildings in the city. I asked her how she knew so much and she said it was because of her friends in conveyancing.
When we got back to the library car park, she got out and was standing between our cars. I asked her to put the hat on once more but she refused. She said goodbye and got into her car. I went to the library but no longer had the motivation to study. I wandered around a bit before coming home.
