If Life had a Restart Button

Chapter 2

Mark was still groggy from his late flight the night before, the jetlag not helping him one bit. He had barely slept from his 14-hour flight from Seoul and was hungry as hell. But he had just returned to Sakura Heights after 5 years, and he badly wanted to see his best girl, Victoria again. That and he needed to find out if his old apartment was still vacant. He had it rented out when he left, but his girl insisted that he should just keep it and have her check up on the place until he came back. At first he saw the idea humorous as he was convinced that he wasn’t coming back but now he had hoped that she had kept his apartment because he badly needed a place of his own. Although he couldn’t complain about the amenities that the hotel he was staying at had, he still liked the comforts and privacy of living in his own home.

Before he had gotten on the flight home, he had already called up his girl telling her that he was planning to come home lately and warned her not to tell his mother, afraid that they would insist that he stay with her. Victoria was delighted to know he was finally coming home. She had asked him to call her when he was arriving because she wanted to pick him up and show him her new shop. But knowing how his girl would make a fuss about him being home, he decided to keep his arrival secret and decided to visit her at her shop instead. Luckily, Mark had kept in touch with an old friend and business partner that got him his girl’s shop’s address and even promised to keep his arrival a secret. And so there he was, walking up to his girl’s shop a few blocks away from the hotel he was staying in, dressed in a snazzy ensemble of a button-down shirt and black jeans, his chestnut brown hair gently coiffed. A smile was plastered across his face, excited to see his girl after 5 years of being away from each other. He wouldn’t admit it, but she kept him grounded all these years. And if it weren’t for her, he would’ve still been sulking in misery over a long-term relationship that didn’t end prettily. She was his best friend, his other half per se. He loved her, to put it simply.

He made his way to the door and he could see her talking to a female customer. The woman she was talking to was slightly smaller but filled out her clothes well, perverted thoughts aside. He noticed how they were dressed almost similarly, him and the woman except for the blazer she had and the type of shoes they wore. She was in some kind of ballet flats whereas he was sporting his favourite pair of Jordan’s. He was still staring at the stranger’s back, not realizing that she was already retreating from the counter and before he could even move away, she bumped into him, and spilling her drink all over his chest. She started to hopelessly wipe off the stain on his shirt but gave up when she realized that she wasn’t doing anything except spreading the coffee stain even more. He froze. He was caught off guard. She kept mumbling apologies, throwing more words at him that he couldn’t seem to comprehend. Surely 5 years living in a foreign country didn’t erase his ability to understand and speak the English language, did it? Especially since such foreign country spoke English pretty well too. Of course not, he thought, that’s insane! Maybe he was just too frozen; her drink was of course iced cold. That must have been it, mustn’t it? Before Mark could form a coherent word, the woman had already left, his eyes travelling towards her fading car until he was brought back to reality by his girl’s booming voice.

“Yah! Are you even listening to me, Mark? I thought I told you to call me when you’d be arriving. Who picked you up from the airport? And how did you know the shop was here? It was Alex, wasn’t it? Damn that little-“

 

“Vicky-ah,” he cut her off, sounding very gentle as if he was talking to a little child, “I didn’t call because I know you’re only going to fuss over everything like you are now.”