Before they knew it, they were at the restaurant. The outdoor dining area had black lattice tables with large red, white, and green umbrellas and a ground of cobblestone. It was a somewhat warm and nearly cloudless autumn day. The trio sat down at their circular little table and began perusing the menu.

“Ooh, they have gnocchi!” Yui exclaimed, wide-eyed. “That was my favorite back home!”

“Back home?” Meredith asked, curiously, as she glanced up at him briefly. “Where are you from?”

It hadn’t even occurred to Al to ask Yui where he was from. Probably because he couldn’t bear the thought of Yui asking him about his past in return.

“I’m from Rustico. It’s a little old-fashioned village on the other side of the desert,” Yui said nonchalantly, as he closed his menu.

“Oh, I’ve always wanted to go there,” Meredith said. “I’ve seen photos, and it looks beautiful!”

“It really is,” Yui said. He was about to say more, but his eye caught sight of a handsome waiter walking towards them. He had side-swept black hair and a black vest over a white dress shirt. “My name is Jung, and I’ll be your waiter today,” he said, sweetly, as he held up his notepad. “Are you ready to order?”

Meredith looked around. “I think I’m ready,” she said. “Are you, Al?”

“I’m still deciding,” Al replied. “You can order, though.”

“Alright,” she said. She turned and looked the waiter directly into his eyes. “I’ll have the cream of mushroom soup with a Caesar salad on the side.”

“Very well,” Jung scribbled down her order in short-hand. He looked over to Yui. “And you, sir?”

“I’ll have the gnocchi with butter and sage,” he requested, with a smile. He was excited to have a taste of home.

“That’s it?” The waiter asked. “It’s just an appetizer portion.”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Yui shrugged. “I’m not a big eater.”

“Alright,” Jung scribbled in his notepad again. While his face was still pointed downward, his narrow black eyes glanced up at Al and he smiled. He brought his head up and asked “are you ready, sir?”

“Yeah,” Al mumbled. He looked at his menu as he ordered and didn’t notice the way Jung was smiling at him. “I’ll have white pizza with spinach.”

“Coming right up,” Jung winked at Al before turning away. Al finally looked up when he thought the waiter had gone, but he caught him looking back at him.

Meredith nudged her brother’s side gently with her elbow. “I think the waiter likes you,” she teased.

“I could tell,” Al groaned. “I could feel it before he walked up. He was looking at me from afar.”

“Ooh, look at you, being Mr. Popular,” she said.

He scoffed. “Yeah, right,” he said, sarcastically.

“Well, if he passes you his number, I think you should consider it,” she suggested. “It’s been a while, bro. It would be good for you to find someone again.”

Al made a disgruntled sound that was something like “hrmph”.

Yui stared at Al’s left ring finger. He couldn’t hold it in any longer. “You aren’t married?” Yui asked, curiously. “I saw the ring, and I thought…”

“No,” Al swallowed, nervously. “It’s… just a fashion statement.”

“Oh, okay,” Yui said, gullibly. His shoulders seemed to relax a little. “So, uh,” he started speaking, as he looked back towards the door of the building in hopes of seeing the waiter, but to no avail. He looked back at Al in front of him, and continued. “You like guys?”

“Yeah,” he responded gruffly, with a quick nod.

“I wouldn’t have guessed,” Yui expressed his surprise.

“Apparently Jung there had a hunch,” Meredith said.

“It wasn’t a secret or anything,” Al clarified. “I just don’t see any reason to talk about it unless it’s relevant.”

“Yeah, I’m the same way,” Yui agreed.

 Al didn’t catch his meaning. He looked down at his ring. The piece of jewelry sucked him in, and he couldn’t escape. He sat there in a daze, as he remembered things he wished he could forget.

“You okay, Al?” Yui couldn’t help but notice that his new friend suddenly looked sick. “You look a bit pale.”

“I gotta go to the bathroom,” Al got up and headed into the building.

“Did I say something wrong?” Yui asked Meredith, once they were alone.

“No, it’s not your fault,” Meredith said, in a motherly tone. “Al just gets like this sometimes.”

“Oh yeah,” Yui remembered his conversation with Al in the drug store the other day. “He mentioned he’s been unwell.”

“Yeah,” she said, before she pursed her lips. 

There was a moment of silence, before Yui broke it. “You don’t think I did a bad thing by bringin’ him here, do you?”

“No, I don’t,” she replied, confidently. “I’m sure it will be hard for him at first, but he needs to reacclimate himself to the world. I think it will be good for him in the long run.”

“That’s good to hear,” Yui smiled softly.

Jung came out with the food and was rather visibly disappointed that his new crush wasn’t at the table. He pouted as he walked off. Shortly after, Al returned.

“I’m sorry, Al,” Yui said. “Are you okay?”

He sighed in relief. “Yeah,” he said, as he repositioned himself in his seat and pulled at his long black sleeve.

“This looks really good!” Yui said. He admired the sight of the gnocchi with the herbs sprinkled artistically on top. He eagerly took a bite. “Wow,” he exclaimed, while chewing, “this is better than the stuff at the orphanage!”

“Orphanage?” The siblings echoed in unison.

“Yeah, I grew up in an orphanage. I never knew my parents,” Yui said, nonchalantly. He looked at Al and Meredith’s sad faces and thought he should add to it.  “Oh, it wasn’t like one of those orphanages you see on tv! We weren’t mistreated or anything. It was a nice place! We even had tv. We had to fight over it, between the twelve of us, but it wasn’t so bad.”

Yui was an orphan? Al had never even thought of the possibility. He was so happy and healthy. Al had no idea he could have grown up without parents. No wonder he lived such a reckless lifestyle. No parents around to tell him to stay home and away from a life of crime. Although, Yui’s type of prostitution didn’t feel like a crime. Yui saw it as a service to humanity, and Al had started seeing it that way as well. “I’m sorry,” Al said. “I had no idea.” His throat sounded strained. Now he had more reason to stay as Yui’s bodyguard.

“Aw, no worries!” Yui said, with his hands behind his head. They all started eating.

“So,” Meredith said, after they all took a few bites of food, “tell me more about this power of yours. How did you discover it?”

“Well, there isn’t a whole lot to tell,” Yui said. “When I was a teenager, I met a girl, and we…” he looked around and noticed that there were children sitting at the neighboring tables. “Well, you know. At first, I thought the girl was just happier because she was with me, but after I was with a couple other people, I started noticing that I seemed to have an effect on people.”

“So it just happens?” Meredith whispered, “You don’t do anything special to zap their sadness away?”

Yui shook his head. “No,” he said with certainty, “I’ve done it a few different ways, and it still has the same effect.”

“Interesting,” she smiled. “I’d ask more, but I think it would be a little inappropriate for our current location.”

“You think?” Al asked, in a sarcastic tone. He rubbed his head and winced. The people around him were starting to give him a headache. They weren’t too noisy, but they were still a mass of emotions that poked at him from all sides. He took a bite of his pizza. He wished food could alleviate his symptoms.

“What a coincidence that the two of you would meet,” Meredith observed. “It’s like it was destiny.”

Al tried not to talk with his mouth full. “What do you mean?” Al asked, after he swallowed.

“Think about it,” Meredith urged, “you both have these special abilities!”

Al scoffed. “It’s not a special ability,” he grumbled. “It’s a disability. You know better than anyone how big of a hindrance it’s had on my life.”

“There you go again,” She rolled her eyes. “You keep calling it a disability or a disorder.”

“Because it is.”

“I think it’s more like a superpower!” Yui butted in. He wore a big grin. “You can tell if someone’s hurting from far away, right? I’d love to have that power! Then I’d know who needs my help!”

“It’s not that I can tell who’s hurting,” Al tried to explain, “if someone around is hurting… then I’m hurting. I can’t help someone when I’m suffering.” Al sulked as he took the last bite of pizza. He hadn’t even considered trying to help people with his condition. He wasn’t like Yui. He wasn’t the type to go out of his way to help people in need. If he saw trouble, he ran for the hills. He’d always been like that. A coward. And selfish, at that. He was always upset that other people’s feelings had to rub off on him. If he was more like Yui, brave and selfless, he would go and find the source of those feelings… the ones that are making him feel miserable, and he’d help them. If Al could get the people around him to feel better, he would feel better as well. Those negative emotions wouldn’t be there to weigh him down anymore. He would be free to feel only his own.

“We’ll just have to work together, then,” Yui said, sweetly. “You can tell me if someone needs my help, and I’ll rescue them!”

Al looked up at the orphan’s bright smile. Something about it made Al feel like change was actually possible.

“Brave of you to assume that everyone will want to sleep with you,” Al said with a smirk, before he ate the last bite of his crust.

“That’s not,” Yui got flustered and looked pleadingly at Meredith. “I’m not that conceited, I promise!”

She laughed. 

Before long, Jung came around with the bill. 

“Oh, don’t worry,” Meredith said, as she saw Yui rummaging through his wallet. “I’ll cover it.”

“Are you sure?” Yui looked at her in astonishment. 

“Of course,” she said, as she opened her purse. “I wouldn’t feel right making you guys pay, when I have a full time job. Besides, meeting up was my idea. It’s my treat.”

“Thanks,” Yui said with a smile.

The waiter came back, and Al averted his gaze once more. After they paid, Yui noticed that Jung left a little piece of notepaper on the table. It had his name and phone number written on it.

“I’m not taking that,” Al said as he glared at his little sister, who had smirked and raised her eyebrows at him. 

Yui picked it up. “I’ll hang onto it,” Yui said, “in case you change your mind.”

They walked back to Meredith’s car. As they did so, Yui glanced back toward the waiter, Jung.

They situated themselves into their seats and put their seatbelts on. After Meredith started driving, Yui broke the silence. “He was cute,” he said, as he looked at Jung’s phone number on the little slip of paper in his hand. He tried passing it to Al. “I think you should consider talking to him.”

Al crossed his arms and looked out the window. “I’m not interested in a relationship right now,” he said. Although, the truth was that he wanted a relationship. He just didn’t trust himself to ever be with someone again, after what happened last time.

“Suit yourself,” Yui shrugged and put the piece of paper in his pocket. Suddenly, his phone made a little ding.