Chapter 34 / 51 · 1 min

On an Output Screen, One Urban Evening

I said, “I want to see you in person.”

Nowshin smiled. When she smiles, dimples form in her cheeks. At least, on the screen it looks like something resembling dimples. Exquisitely beautiful.

“But you can see me already…”

I paused.

“No. I mean really see you. In person.”

It took me six and a half hours to convince her.

At the appointed time, at the appointed place, I waited. Then I saw her. She came forward very slowly. In a movie, the wheels beneath her table would surely have spun in slow motion.

I stared.

At first glance, the two eyes resting on her plate, the red brain behind them, and the fluid flowing through countless fine pipes to keep it cool, made me flinch for a second. But when she came and stood beside me, I turned my brain toward the screen and said, “Hello, Nowshin!”

“Even face to face you still have to look at the screen to talk… so why bother with all this trouble?”

On my output screen, I narrowed my model’s eyes and looked at Nowshin.

The girl was completely heartless. When two people stand side by side, an ancient warmth begins to work. This girl would never understand that.