The sun was setting, and the remaining noises in the area gradually faded into silence.
She reminisced over the scene once more. That look she had received wasn't the first time she had seen it.
A nuisance.
After a while, it became clear to her that she was nothing more than a nuisance to those she happened to develop feelings for.
Always the unrequired one. Always unwanted.
For the longest time, she kept wondering whether there was simply something about her that made her unlikeable.
Perhaps that was the way of life. The more you desired something, the harder it became to obtain.
No matter how great or insignificant the desire, you would always be tested and placed before a hurdle before reaching it.
That was the way of the Almighty.
So she remained patient.
Yet even the most patient of people could reach a point where they simply grew tired of waiting.
As her thoughts continued tearing apart her plain, innocent heart, she quietly shed tears without anyone knowing.
A single droplet slipped down her cheek, leaving behind a faint trail against her gloomy face.
Her vision swelled into a blurry gaze due to the fog in her tears, and her lips quietly quivered in place. She breathed ever so lightly, letting out faint whimpers.
Her sniffles weren't audible, as if she had trained herself through experience. She didn't cry like an elegant lady who carefully withdrew her tears, nor did she bawl her eyes out like a frustrated child.
She was somewhere in between.
Out of the blue, a small box entered her dazed vision. A small box held within a pair of large hands.
She slowly looked up, a small sense of fear growing simultaneously as she thought she had been caught.
The first thing she noticed was the bandage box.
The second was the hand holding it.
Her teary gaze travelled upward, slowly and hesitantly, as though afraid of what she might find waiting above.
A broad wrist.
The sleeve of a greyish blue garment.
Then, finally, his face.
Her breath caught.
It was him.
The very man she had spent countless moments admiring from afar. The one whose smallest gestures had been enough to make her heart foolishly hopeful, only for a single glance to remind her that perhaps she had imagined it all.
Yet here he was.
Standing before her.
His expression remained as unreadable as ever, his gaze resting quietly upon her tear-stained face. There was no mockery in his eyes, nor the slightest trace of annoyance.
It was unexpected, someone as hot headed as him wouldn't be locking eyes with her with such a face.
Only a peculiar stillness.
He lowered himself slightly, bringing the box closer to her.
"You're bleeding."
His voice carried a mysterious composure.
Ireen took a brief second then remembered the wound on her foot.
Her fingers curled against her clothes as she quickly wiped the tears from her cheeks, suddenly far more embarrassed than heartbroken.
Her heart almost leaped out of her chest due to the sudden shock of his appearance.
She couldn't sense any other entity escorting him.
"How long do you tend to just stare? My hand is starting to hurt."
"Oh-ah!"
She politely took the bandage box from his grip and loosened the straps of her shoes.
Yusuf gave a disturbed look before snatching the box from her hands and kneeling down to reach her knees.
"I- can do it!"
She stuttered but Yusuf already began tending to the wound.
His movements were surprisingly careful, despite the stern expression he carried.
Ireen remained frozen.
She didn't know where to look.
The ground?
The trees?
Anywhere but him.
Her fingers nervously fiddled with the hem of her clothes as she watched him work. His brows were slightly furrowed, his entire attention devoted to the small injury on her foot.
Why was he doing this?
Hadn't he always looked at her as though she were nothing more than an inconvenience?
Yet here he was, kneeling before her without a single complaint.
"You shouldn't walk around with an injury like this."
His voice broke through her thoughts.
"-it doesn't hurt...at all."
A moment of silence followed.
Only the faint rustling of leaves and the occasional sound of passing footsteps filled the space between them.
Ireen swallowed, she had imagined countless conversations with him before.
Some were simple.
Some were foolish.
And some were nothing more than fantasies she would never dare admit to anyone.
Yusuf finished securing the bandage and slowly lifted his gaze towards her.
"Try not to put too much pressure on it today."
Yusuf rose to his feet and dusted his hands before holding the bandage box out towards her.
"Keep this. You might need it again."
Ireen accepted it with both hands.
"Thank you."
He gave a small nod.
Then, without another word, he turned to leave. Ireen watched his back disappear between the trees. Her gaze remained there long after he was gone.
Her heart was filled with comforting warmth, the box in her hands was something she will willingly treasure.
Perhaps she had been wrong about him.
Or perhaps...
This was simply another reason for her heart to hope.