It's a busy street at midday. People rush to cross the pedestrian lane as soon as the traffic light flashes red. A black stray cat stops, lifting a paw to scratch its neck, right in the middle of the road.

That's dangerous, he thinks as he observes the scene through the glass wall.

"One iced cappuccino for Mr. Gayeli!"

His head perks up, eyes drifting to the coffee shop's counter where the voice came from. A short woman, who looks like a high school student, is holding a piece of paper and her eyes are examining the whole area. In front of her, there is an iced coffee cup placed on a small tray.

He watches as the young attendant knits her brows when she looks down at the piece of paper in her hand. Returning her gaze to the shop's dining area, she tries again. "Iced cappuccino for Mr. Gayeli?" Her voice is louder, this time, but more insecure.

Still, there is no response.

Wondering why people are not picking up their order from the counter, he too looks around and realizes that everyone inside is busy with their own little world. Couples are flirting with each other. A few older people are playing with their little ones. And those who came here alone are engrossed with either their phones or their coffee and snacks. There are also some who look lost in their thoughts while looking outside. Earlier, he was one of those in the last category.

A middle-aged man draws his attention when he stands up. It makes him assume that the man is the owner of the iced cappuccino and he expects him to proceed to the counter. Instead, the older man walks to the corner of the coffee shop and goes into the comfort room.

His eyes go back to the café counter and they fall straight into the eyes of the young worker. He finds himself being fixed with a stare. With the same curiosity, he returns the look.

The young woman tilts her head to the side, her innocent gaze never leaving him, as she asks him directly, "Sir Gayeli?"

Bemused, he blinks and tries to recall what he ordered. Indeed, it was an iced cappuccino but he is pretty sure this one is not his because he is not Gayeli. Why the woman would even assume that, he doesn't understand.

And then, it dawns on him.

He flashes the attendant a sheepish grin and immediately stands up to go to the counter.

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize it was mine," he admits coyly as soon as he gets his drink. "By the way, it's geyl."

Puzzled round eyes look up at him, making him chuckle.

"I mean, my name," he explains, "Like the 'gail' in Abigail."

It is the young woman's turn to look embarrassed and give him an apologetic smile. "Oh, I'm sorry."

"It's alright. No harm done." He smiles at her one last time, noting with little interest the faint rosy tint that spreads across her face while she keeps staring at him. Whether the blush is still out of embarrassment or something else, he can't tell. And he doesn't want to know. "Nice meeting you," he pauses, long enough to look at her employee name tag, before continuing, "Melissa."

An iced coffee cup in his hand, he walks back to his table, musing, 'Of course, it's alright. It's not even my real name.'

And it's not the first time people mispronounced Gaele. It's almost always Ga-ye-l, Ga-e-li or Ga-el. And just now, it's Ga-ye-li. Despite the constant mispronunciation, he never gave his first name in restaurants and shops like this where they ask for his name instead of giving him a queue number or pager. He understands that these places are only trying to create a friendlier atmosphere but he doesn't really like it when his name is being called out loud by random people in random places. Besides, it's not like 'Eujae' is easier to pronounce.

So when he's alone in these places, he is Gaele and when he is with someone, he usually uses his second name, Nigel. At least he is not commonly known by that name so it still gives him a sense of privacy.

Eujae takes a sip of his iced cappuccino as he looks back outside. It's green light now. The black cat earlier is nowhere to be found. He hopes it was able to cross the street safely.

He grabs the paper bag on top of his sling bag beside him and pulls out the second-hand sci-fi book he bought earlier at an old bookstore nearby. Flipping through the first few pages, he starts reading the book.

He likes reading in public places when he's alone to avoid giving people the impression that he's lonely. For him, a good fiction book is great company. Another advantage of it is it keeps random people from talking to him.

Actually, he doesn't mind hearing random stories from strangers. He enjoys it, in fact, especially if he's listening to old people pour out their wisdom. But there are times when all he wants is to be left alone, and this day is one of those times.

He is in the third chapter of the story when he reaches the last drop of his cold coffee, and as he arrives at the end of the chapter, he decides it's time to go back to the campus.

Today, he has an hour and a half for a break period. He used ten to fifteen minutes of it walking from the University to this place. The distance is more or less a kilometer and it would have taken him less than two minutes if he rode his motorcycle—three minutes at most, considering the traffic at this hour—but walking helps him to de-stress so he opted to do that earlier. He doesn't know how much time it took him to visit the bookstore and how long has it been since he entered this coffee shop.

Moving his left hand in front of him, Eujae looks at his wrist to check the time, only to realize that he is wearing only his leather bracelet. He sighs. He forgot his wristwatch got broken when his hand accidentally hit his bathroom sink last night. And that is why he slipped on his bracelet this morning because he is not used to leaving his left wrist bare when he's out.

He makes a mental note to buy a new watch this Saturday, before pulling out his phone from his pocket. The time is twenty-four minutes past noon. He still has more than thirty minutes to spare.

He puts the book back in the paper bag. Standing up, he picks up his empty cup from the table and gathers his stuff. The cup goes straight to the trashcan near the exit as he passes by it.

As soon as the glare of the sun hits his face outside, Eujae immediately regrets not bringing his bike with him. It wasn't this hot when he left the campus so he thought it was perfectly fine for him to take a stroll. At this rate, instead of helping him to blow off steam, walking might give him high blood pressure because of the heat.

It is a stroke of luck when a familiar gray BMW car stops in front of him and from its rolled down window, Cloud peeks out. "Hey, going back to the Uni? I don't see your bike anywhere. Need a ride?"

Eujae grins. "I might have just fallen in love with you, man."

"Sorry, mate, I'm taken," Cloud returns good-naturedly while fiddling with his car's setting to unlock the doors, "Now hop in."

"Worth a shot." Eujae shrugs. Without bothering to check the front passenger seat, since he is pretty sure Tem is with Cloud, he opens the door to the backseat and settles inside. True enough, Tem is seated in front and now she is staring at him through the front mirror.

Eujae greets, "Hey."

Wordlessly, Tem nods. There is something about her quietness that is making Eujae anxious. Is she mad at him?

Clueless to the awkward silence between his girlfriend and their friend, Cloud turns to Eujae and asks, "Hey, is their cake in this coffee shop good? My brother just told me to bring him back a dessert for this afternoon."

"Don't know. Never tried since I am not a fan of sweets. They make a good coffee though," Eujae replies.

"Can you two wait for a moment then? I'll just check it out. I'll be quick."

As soon as Cloud is out of the car, Tem starts to talk to Eujae. "So can you tell me now why you're avoiding us?"

Taken aback, Eujae isn't able to give a quick response. When the question finally sinks in, he answers, "I'm not avoiding you. If it is about this morning, I'm sure you noticed how busy our class was so I couldn't find a chance to talk to you and Risa."

"Then what about lunch? Why didn't you join us today?" Tem wants to know.

The answer to the question is simple and Eujae assumed it is obvious to his friends. Apparently, it's not.

"I'm not avoiding you," he repeats, "I'm avoiding your brother." He doesn't want to bring that guy up, doesn't want to talk about him at all. But given the fact that his friends are affected by what is happening between the two of them, Eujae supposes this talk is inevitable.

"You're avoiding my brother by avoiding us too?" Tem states more than ask. For the first time since they started having the exchange, she looks her friend in the eyes as she peers over her seat.

"What choice do I have when he always hangs out with you?" Eujae tosses back. He looks out through the car's window, watching as a little boy runs and dodges the street vendors on the sidewalk. Without looking at Tem, Eujae continues, "You don't really expect me to stay with you, guys, while he's there, do you?"

There is no answer. They fall into silence while Eujae keeps avoiding his friend's scrutiny. Through his peripheral vision, he notices Tem give up on boring her eyes into him as she turns her head back in front.

After another full beat, Eujae hears Tem sigh.

"I just don't get you two. Why do you hate each other so much?" she asks quietly.

Eujae's eyes fly back to his friend, the question suddenly making him feel defensive. "I never said I hate him, Tem. He might have gotten under my skin most of the time but those weren't reasons enough for me to hate him." It surprises even him to recognize no ounce of a lie in his words. "It's just that... I don't know. Your brother has this knack of being a nuisance in a way that it's hard for me to brush him aside."

"Right. I've been friends with you for a long time, Eujae. I know you're this guy who is patient about basically everything. So I wonder why your fuse is short when it comes to Poll." With a frown, she casts another look in her friend's direction.

Eujae is just about to answer but Tem keeps on talking, effectively cutting him off.

"Okay, I understand my brother can be annoying sometimes, but let's be real. I know you find other people annoying too, yet you always just ignore them. Why can't it be the same with Poll? What's with the different treatment?" Her expression is a cross between concern and frustration, her tone matching those emotions.

"He's treating me differently too. Why can't he–" Eujae stops, eyes widening as he realizes the implication of what he was about to say.

"What?" Tem presses.

Why can't he treat me the same way he treats other people? Why can't he be friendly with me too?

It is not a secret to Eujae that Poll is one of the friendliest guys in their University. He has seen the way he talks and laughs with other people, and Eujae can tell there is nothing pretentious about his smiles.

That is why he can't figure out why someone good with people has come to hate him so much. What did he do? And why him? He can't remember doing anything that would warrant that deep-seated hostility.

Sure, they got off on the wrong foot, but Eujae had been willing to let it go. If only Poll had stopped being an ass to him, he could have easily forgotten everything. Alas, Apollo Torres never showed any sign of giving it a rest anytime soon and he has become a regular source of Eujae's vexation.

And Eujae hates it. Not the person. But he hates being the subject of that person's unreasonable grudge.

"Never mind," he mutters. Sighing heavily, he rubs his face with his hand and then ruffles his hair in frustration. "Don't worry. I'll try to ignore him from now on."

What was he thinking? It was like he was asking for his enemy to be nice to him too. What does he even want from Poll?

He convinces himself that he wants nothing. For three years, he has let himself be ruffled by Poll's bullshits. Now he's fed up. Because of the incident in the grill restaurant yesterday, Eujae decided he'd stop giving him a damn.

He's better off steering clear of him. He is sick and tired of dealing with Poll that he doesn't want to have anything to do with him anymore.

"Is there really no hope for a truce between the two of you?" Tem sends him a wan smile.

Carefully, Eujae leans his head against the car's window. He catches a glimpse of Cloud getting out of the coffee shop before he closes his eyes. The conversation is starting to weary him. Keeping his eyes shut, he whispers, almost wistfully, "Maybe in another world."