Ellie sucked on her straw absentmindedly, slightly chewing on the plastic, creating dents on it as she continued. Jess and Axel were clearly worried, although they were too preoccupied with their love life.

Sighing, she blew bubbles into her iced lemon tea, her mind wandering off since she wanted to desperately remember who she was forgetting, and she wanted to avert her eyes from the couple sitting beside her.

The face was familiar. Brown eyes, I think, wavy brown hair? I'm not sure. He had glasses on, and I think it was reading glasses, and...

Ellie frowned, a pout appearing on her pinkish lips.

I got the description right, but who is he?

He looks like the man of my dreams!

She huffed and sucked on the straw, swallowing and gulping down her iced lemon tea like she was parched and had no water resources in months.

A plate was placed in front of her that snapped her out from her thoughts. She saw an old, wrinkly hand that placed the plate, and she saw the veins bulging out of it like it was about to pop off.

"Thank you." She muttered, taking a small bite of the pie. It was a light bronze in colour, clearly baked in the oven, and the baked apples inside almost made her cry.

It felt nostalgic even.

She sniffed, continuing to snack of the apple pie, not wary of a presence beside her. It was an old man, with clear wrinkles on his face and a friendly smile, he wore a white button up, a brown apron tied to his waist and black slacks.

He looked so familiar.

"Oh, um, thank you for the cake, mister..."

The old man smiled, the same nostalgic aura radiating off him like she knew him before. Then it clicked, her eyes lit up and her mouth broke into a smile.

"Mr. Finley!"

Mr. Finley smiled and rubbed on his shiny wedding ring, like he polished it just recently. "Hi, Ellie. You've grown, huh."

And, Mr. Finley was exactly correct. Ellie had now been more mature, she calmed down and stopped being super hyper or awkward and now grown into a confident young woman.

Her hair had now been cut short, like when she was at the airport, which she can't remember why. She remembered that she was crying and she was sending someone off.

The hair, the eyes, the way they even presented themselves.

Who was it?

Five letter name.

But it was in the back of her mind.

Ellie shook away those thoughts and tried to focus what was right in front of her, her two very in love friends, flirting back and forth like they were in their own world, Mr. Finley, who had just retreated back to the counter, shaking his head, smiling at the interaction between the two.

Mr. Finley was a kind man from what Ellie remembered. She remembered she would go to his place with Andrew, Rebecca and Johan if he wasn't hanging out with his girlfriend most of the time.

Ellie reminisced the past, her dreams of being a cafe owner is just in her grasp in a short amount of time, she just needed to suffer one more dreaded year of university and get her degree and all is well.

The dangling sound of the rusty bell by the door made her remember; it made her remember the time where high school was fun and games, until you were hit with the reality of graduation.

Oh, she remembers the woeful face of her friends, covered his salty tears streaming and snot running unflatteringly on their chubby and unmatured faces.

Slowly, slowly, she thought.

Ellie wanted time to pass by slowly, and a certain someone wasn't really helping.

Come, come, leave business to idlers, and wisdom to fools: they have need of 'em: wit be my faculty, and pleasure my occupation, and let father Time shake his glass.

A certain sound of the rusted bell atop of the wooden framed door made a soft ringing sound, but it went unnoticed by Ellie who was quietly eating her apple pie, tuning out the loud chatter of her two friends seated right beside her.

The wooden floorboards creaked, sending footsteps to be thumping lightly under the said sound, blending in like different sounding pitches in an instrumental or a choir.

She heard a chair screeching beside her, she paid no notice to it however, as she was busy slurping up her iced lemon tea without using her chewed off straw for no reason.

The chair gave a heavy thud, and Ellie felt suspicion and her genuine curiosity get the best of her, so she turned around, her ears already flooded with her friends chitter chatter.

Scratching her head, she mumbled, "Jin?"

Jin, who sat a few tables away from her grinned. He was styled quite differently than before, with his ripped jeans replaced with slight dark blue ones with no knee caps exposed, thank the gods, and he adorned a simple white t shirt with the letters, 'stars aligned' printed onto it.

Looking up from his menu, and set it down on the side with a smile. She realised his eyes wrinkled up till you can't see his eyes, and he protruded a gummy smile on his face that made him look like a kids at most.

It was nostalgic to say the least.

"Heya, Ellie! Whatcha doin' there with yer friends?" He spoke with a sultry voice which was different to the time he let his mouth run a few hours ago when she was waiting for the time to pass by.

Ellie frowned and chewed on her straw, her mind still racing to his voice. She didn't like it one bit, it reminded her of Johan smoking before class time when they were still in high school and his voice was just as raspy. "Nothing much." She said quietly, but loud enough for him to hear.

The asian boy raised his eyebrows and hummed, rolling up his sleeves to scratch his shoulder, and she noticed that he was quite fair, compared to his face and the lower parts of his arms which were slightly a darker tone.

Snapping her out of her stupor, she heard a ring from someone cellphone. It was Jin's. He picked it up, the key chain that hung on his phone jingling, and Ellie didn't miss the Japanese wordings on the key chain along with the small bell attached.

Jin picked the phone up and pressed the call button, raising the phone up to his ear and greeted a small, "Hello?" to the person on the other line.

"Don't tell me ya-" Jin said, although he stopped and waited to listen. He sipped a cup of his tea which was still steaming and he didn't even flinch to the heat. "-Hah?! What d'ja mean?"

Axel jumped, accidentally choking on his butterscotch pie which was served moments ago before Ellie had noticed the Japanese male.

Jess who was sitting in front of him didn't even flinch, but she did fuss over her boyfriend, who was choking as Ellie thumped his back which resonated a big and hollow sound in the cafe.

Coughing it out, Axel swallowed it back and sighed, this time carefully trying to eat his butterscotch pie with the silver fork he had in hand.

"Oi, oi..." Jin muttered in the phone, not aware over his own surroundings. "I waited for ya for hours! And you still didn't show up, because?! And you better give me a good reason or I will strangle ya till kingdom come!"

Ellie finished the remnants of her iced lemon tea, even going so far as to eating the ice cubes, easily crushing it in her mouth with her teeth and swallowing it like it was no big deal. Looking back at the infuriated male, she sighed as she waited for her friends to finish eating.

The infuriated male pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, "So ya telling me that'cha flight was delayed because of this woman who isn't gettin' on because she wants her dog to be in the same flight as 'er?"

Ellie blinked and crossed her arms, her mind already racing elsewhere. So, that's the friend he was waiting for. He sounds like a big drag.

Huffing a big puff of breath, he continued. "So when are ya gonna come? I've been waitin' for hours and now I'm in a cafe now."

There was a pregnant pause, seemingly because the friend on the other side of the phone was busy explaining and Jin was diligently listening, but you can tell he was already getting impatient.

Well, who could blame him? He waited hours just to wait for a friend.

"-yeah, I'm in this cafe called Ciel's Cafe." Another pause. "-No, ya don't need to come, and go to the airport once this call's over."

He ruffled his hair and reached for his glass of tea, chugging it down, a drop of tea running down his chin. Wiping it off, he continued once more with an exasperated sigh.

"Yeah, see ya there." He ended the call, placing a few slips of money and coins on the table, knocking it lightly to get Mr. Finley's attention.

Waving at Ellie and her friends, he exited the cafe to pick up his friend or what it may seem from his loud phone call that almost drove him mad.

Hmm. Ellie thought. Eventful day.