Soothe Your Eyes
“You’re back? That was quick.” Sonia put down her cell phone and stood up as soon as she saw him
approaching.
Toby hummed before he softly replied, “Yes, I’m back.”
He enjoyed hearing her saying the words ‘you’re back’. It made him feel as if she was welcoming him
back home.
“What did you get?” Sonia glanced at his right hand and noticed that he was holding onto a blue towel.
The towel was bulging and there seemed to be something wrapped within it.
Confused, she glanced at him. “Why did you buy a towel?”
“I didn’t buy this.” Toby walked over toward her and sat down. “They gave it to me for free.”
Just then, he glanced toward the concession stand.
“Oh.” Meanwhile, Sonia dragged on the word as she stared at him with a meaningful look. “It’s free?”
“Yup.” Toby nodded in response.
At that moment, Sonia pursed up her lips. “If my eyes don’t fail me, that cashier is a female, right? You
just accepted something random given to you by a female. Is that because you don’t want to hurt her
feelings?”
Just then, Toby lifted his eyebrows quizzically as soon as he heard the slightly sour note in Sonia’s
voice.
He lowered his head and glanced at the towel in his hand before turning to look at Sonia, who was
evidently quite upset, and he couldn’t help but chuckle.
Meanwhile, she turned to him with widened eyes. “How dare you laugh right now? What’s so funny
about this?!”
“Alright, alright. I’ll stop.” Toby coughed slightly and he stopped laughing instantly upon finishing his
words.
However, the smile in his eyes was unmistakable.
“Are you jealous?” He glanced at her and asked.
At that moment, Sonia’s expression turned slightly and she shifted her head to the other direction as
she replied without even meaning her words, “I’m not jealous at all! Why would I be?”
Meanwhile, Toby clearly saw through her tough act and he patted the spot next to him. “You’ve
misunderstood. This was because I cut the queue before the movie started and then I bought
everything they had in their store to give back to the crowd as a thank-you gift. The staff gave this to
me for free upon realizing that I needed it, because I helped them hit their sales target in advance.”
So that’s why! It wasn’t because of his good looks that the cashier gave it to him for free. Well, that
makes sense. After all, who would give someone a towel as a gift to express their feelings?
Just then, Sonia suddenly realized that she was mistakenly jealous and she couldn’t contain the flush
on her face. Slightly abashed, she murmured softly, “I’m sorry for blaming you wrongly.”
Upon hearing that, Toby placed the towel in his hand down and ruffled her hair. “It’s fine. There’s no
need for you to apologize. On the contrary, I’m quite happy that you blamed me wrongly.”
“What?” Sonia lifted her head to look at him. “Why do you say so?”
“Isn’t your jealousy an indication that you care about me?” Toby lowered his eyes and he met her gaze.
Meanwhile, Sonia lowered her head slightly and she didn’t say another word.
Toby noticed her reddened ears and he chuckled lightly once again before steering her to a seat.
Subsequently, he took the towel, which he had placed aside earlier, and stretched out his hand toward
her.
Sonia was startled by his actions. “What are you doing?”
“This is for you to place over your eyes to soothe it,” Toby said while placing the towel over her eyes.
Just then, she felt a cool sensation over her eyes and she couldn’t help shutting her eyes.
Oh—it’s ice wrapped inside the towel!
“So, the item that you wanted to get was ice?” Sonia asked.
Toby hummed in affirmation. “You cried too much in the screening room and your eyes looked slightly
swollen. If you don’t place a cool compress on it, you’ll surely wake up with swollen eyes tomorrow.”
“You’re the one who will end up with swollen eyes!” Sonia retorted.
Toby just replied in a serious tone, “I won’t, because I didn’t cry.”
“Are you very proud of that fact right now?” Sonia grimaced slightly.
He chuckled in response. “Alright, stop moving around. The towel’s about to slide down your face.”
Sonia grunted and sat there without moving an inch.
Half an hour later, Toby felt that the ice wrapped inside the towel had started to melt, and it was no
longer bulging like before.
He didn’t plan to continue keeping the compress on because once the ice melted into water, the water
would drip downward and would wet Sonia’s outfit.
“Let me take a look.” Toby removed the towel from her eyes and took a look at her condition.
And so, Sonia opened her eyes, but it took her quite some time to adjust her vision. Subsequently, she
turned to look at him and asked, “How do I look?”
“The swelling’s subsided.” He took out a little handkerchief from his front pocket and he wiped off the
icy water from her eyes.
Sonia blinked as he did that. “It’s great that it has subsided. By the way, what’s the time?”
She recalled that they had left Paradigm Co. at around 6 PM.
In between, they had also gone for dinner before coming to the cinema, and they had arrived here at
around 8 PM.
The movie had a runtime of two hours so right now, it was likely to be about 10 PM.
As soon as Toby heard her question, he lifted his wrist to glance at his watch. “It’s 10.30 PM.”
Indeed, I was right in my guess.
“It’s quite late now. Let’s go home.” Sonia said as she glanced at their surroundings.
At that moment, the cinema was quite empty and the crowd had dissipated. It appeared to look quite
deserted.
Meanwhile, Toby nodded as well. “Let’s go back, then.”
He took the towel in his hand and stood up.
Sonia followed suit and got up too. Shortly after that, the two of them walked out of the cinema.
As they got out, it was raining outside and the temperature had dropped significantly too.
As soon as she walked out of the door, a cold breeze hit them and Sonia shivered. Subsequently, she
sneezed and her whole body seemed to tense up.
She blew some warm air on her palms and then she rubbed them together as her teeth chattered from
the cold. “Why is it suddenly raining so heavily? Besides, it’s so cold too! It’s way colder than the rain in
the central business district.”
“Yeah.” Toby nodded in agreement.
It was indeed quite cold and though he wasn’t usually afraid of the cold, even he felt rather chilly too.
As such, it was quite evident that the temperature here was indeed worse than the temperature in the
central business district.
He noticed that Sonia’s face had turned pale as she shivered uncontrollably due to the coldness.
Pursing his lips, he slightly regretted getting Tom to book tickets for this cinema.
”Hold on to this.” Toby handed over the towel in his hand to Sonia.
Meanwhile, Sonia reached out to take it from him, and she subsequently noticed him removing his left
arm from the sling.
Her expression turned and she quickly stopped him by pressing on his left shoulder. “Toby, what are
you trying to do? Your left hand hasn’t fully recovered yet, so why are you removing all this?”
Looking at her, he replied, “I want to remove my jacket.”
Instantly, Sonia understood why he wanted to take off his jacket. It was because of her.
Toby had seen her shivering from the cold, so he wanted to remove his jacket for her to put on.
Though she felt a warm feeling rise up within her due to his actions, she couldn’t condone it.
“No, don’t take off your jacket!” Sonia looked at him sternly. “I know that you want to give me your
jacket to put on, but today’s weather is too cold. If you give it to me, then what will you do?”
“I’m fine. I’m not cold.” Toby placed his right hand on the button of his jacket.
Just then, Sonia saw that he was about to reach out to unbutton his jacket and she panicked. She
quickly grabbed him by his necktie and tugged at it, pulling him toward her.
At that instance, Toby’s entire self was dragged toward her and his whole upper torso was bent
forward.
A shocked expression appeared on his face. Clearly, he didn’t expect the woman to make such a
move.
“You—”
“You’re lying about not being cold, aren’t you?” Sonia directly voiced out and interrupted his words.
With a thunderous expression, she admonished, “Look at you! Your lips have turned purple, so it’s quite
obvious that you’re cold!”
At that, her expression suddenly softened and her tone of voice was no longer as domineering as
before. She then spoke gently. “I know that you don’t want me to fall sick because of the cold weather,
so you want to give me your jacket. Similarly, I don’t want you to fall sick either. Furthermore, you’re not
even dressed as warmly as me! Just keep your jacket on properly and don’t remove it. Otherwise, I’ll
keep hounding you, understand?”
As soon as Sonia said her piece, she subsequently let go of his necktie.
Meanwhile, Toby straightened his body and responded affirmatively, “I heard you.”
“Then why are you removing your jacket if you’ve heard me?” Sonia noticed that he had placed his
hand on his button again. Besides, he had even unbuttoned the top button. And so, her slightly
mellowed expression darkened once again.
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