Roses and The Crêpes

Chapter 1: Roses and The Crêpes

A man with an average build in a navy blue t-shirt could be seen slumping his shoulder as he sat in the middle of the town park. There was a fancy bouquet of roses beside him. He put both hands on his head as he stared hard at the stone pavement. The passerby avoided this young man as he emanate such depressing air that suffocate those around him. Most of the women didn't bother with him after taking a glance, but the man could sympathize with him especially those single men because they just saw a fallen comrade.

'I'm such a clown ...' the young man thought in his heart. 'I forced my way through while I hadn't learned about her true nature.'

Satria Purnama was a college student in his second year. His academic year was chaotic because there was a global pandemic that forced students to have an online class. He painstakingly endured the boredom of zoom meetings from online classes in the first semester. In his second semester, he finally had an offline class. From this direct face-to-face learning, he also got to know a girl from his major.

An introverted but well-opinionated and clever girl, slightly clumsy, and there's a hint of chaotic-ness on her. However, that only made her so cute in his eyes. His type of girl is those who didn't stand out too much but still have a presence. Her name is Dinar Kusumaningtyas.

As he spent one whole semester online, he got some difficulty adapting in this second semester. After all, it's weird how they know each other yet at the same time didn't know anything at all.

'I still remember clearly how cute she was at that time.'

For some random reason, he recalled what happened on a certain Wednesday. At that time, he was about to enter a calculus class. But then, a bespectacled girl with a black hijab and red cloth facemask called out his name with great fervor.

"Satria!"

"Uhmmm ...," he was confused because he still don't know everyone in the class. To be precise the girls as most of they wore a hijab, masked, and wear eyeglasses. To him, they look all the same.

"Zafirah?"

He tried to guess, but it was wrong. "No, it's me Tyas!"

"Ahhh ..., I see. Well, sorry for that, I still don't know everyone in the class. Nice to meet you Tyas."

"Yeah ..., nice to meet you too."

But this short exchange, for a former NEET, and current weebs like him was such a special occurrence. After that, he noticed her presence and he had to admit, she is cute.

However, it was just that. It didn't raise any other feeling in her other than 'yeah, she's cute.' That changed when he went into a cosplay event just for fun.

At a Japanese pop culture festival, he asked a girl who cosplayed Nightingale(FGO) to take a picture together. Just like usual, after taking a picture together he asked for her Instagram account.

"Kak, can I ask what's your IG account?"

[A/N: Kak means 'older sister', I don't know what the equivalent word of it in English. Calling a stranger 'Sis', is just weird and feels awkward in my opinion. Though, it's pretty normal to call 'kak' or 'mbak' to a stranger or older female where I live.]

"Sure, it's ..." she latched herself beside him so that he could feel her bust on his arm, and then whispered near his ear spelling out her account.

He typed what she said and somehow he checked it and they were already mutual. But he scrutinized this account for a while and found out that he already followed her. But not only that, when he look at it again he knows the owner of this account. He immediately turned to her and asked in a surprised tone.

"Tyas?!"

"Hehe, took you long enough Satria." his classmate, now cosplaying as Nightingale said smugly with a playful smile.

"You're cosplaying?"

"Apparently, yeah ...,"

After that, he started asking her question and whatnot. He left her because he felt bad for the other people who wanted to take a picture together with her.

That event is the trigger, he grew a certain degree of liking toward the girl. He befriended her and tried to get closer to her. It's already the third semester, and he for the first time encouraged himself to man up himself and ask her out.

He invited her on a date, and she agreed. On this sunny Sunday, it's too sunny though as the temperature rose to 31 degrees Celcius. He waited in the town park. But then, just ten minutes before the scheduled meeting, he received a call from her.

"Hello ..., where are you?"

[Satria? I'm sorry, but don't ...]

"Don't what?"

[I saw you just now, you're in a blue t-shirt beside that fountain, right?]

"Yeah ..., that's me. Wait, you're here? Where are you?"

[Okay, Satria. Listen to me carefully ..., let's just be a friend.]

"Huh ... wait, what?"

[I saw what you brought, is that bouquet for me? I'm happy and touched, however, it just can't. We don't mean to be together Sat. I just want to let you know, you're nice as a friend, but I can't see myself being together with you.]

"..."

[I hope we can still be a friend after this ..., I, I need to go. Sorry for arbitrarily canceling this outing. Once again, sorry.]

That's how he got rejected even before confessing his feeling. He tried to process what he just heard, but not long after that, he felt that his gut was like drowning in the drain. A nauseating churning feeling in his stomach made him unable to process what just happened.

'What do I lack?' he thought to himself. 'Money? Sure, she came from a considerably wealthy family. Not to brag, but even if I come from a low-mid family and have to live frugally, I still earned one grand in a year, by myself. I can pay my tuition fee with my own money thanks to that. Is it my face and body then? Or maybe she just doesn't like me in that sense.'

Satria could feel that his pair of eyes started tearing up. It's his first time taking a liking to a 3d real girl and got the courage to confess. However, he got defeated even before entering the battlefield.

'Damn it, at least tell me what is lacking with me?'

He thought depressingly for like another ten minutes. After that, he took a tissue from his sling bag and wiped his eyes got wet from the dust entering.

'Besides ..., what should I do with these? Dump them into the garbage? I bought this for 60k rupiah, what a waste.'

He stood up and approached a nearby couple who just chilling out in the park. They are a Chinese descend couple around his age, the girl is pretty but too attractive for his type, and the boyfriend on the other hand looks nice and proper. He greeted the boyfriend.

"Hey, how're you doing bro?"

"I'm ..., great, is there something I can help you with?" the boyfriend asked.

Satria sighed and then slowly said. "You know, I just got rejected by the girl I like. I feel bad for this bouquet, it's useless to me now. I'm thinking that maybe you can give it to your pretty girlfriend here."

"I ...," the boyfriend was hesitating, but after he saw a glint of hopeful gaze from his girlfriend, he accepted it with a subtle smile. "Alright, I'll accept your kind intent but I'll just take a single stalk. I feel sorry for you bro, but don't give up. You'll find your destined one eventually."

He took a single stalk of rose from the bouquet.

"I will. Hahaha ..." Satria said and let out a hollow laugh. "Enjoy your date, I'll continue distributing the flower then."

"You're a nice person Kak, the girl who rejected you is blind." said the girlfriend as she enjoyed the rose fragrance.

"Hahaha, not sure about that, but thanks." Satria laughed mirthfully, inwardly he thought. 'Like hell, I got a nice guy card like in those tv dramas.'

Satria regained his vigor and now was distributing stalk of roses to the couples in this park. Be it young people or the elderly, he gave a stalk of rose with his somewhat hollow smile. They accept it as most sympathize with him and his struggle, one of the elderly couple even asked him to sit down and gave him a long talk about life. He finished distributing the stalk of rose, and he could feel a sense of satisfaction from his action. He smiled contently as he saw the atmosphere of this park.

"Can I sit here?" a man in a black shirt wearing a black apron approached him with two crepes in his hand.

"Sure."

The man unceremoniously sat beside him. He then passed a strawberry crepe to him, "Here you go ..."

"Hmmm? You won't ask me to pay money after I ate it right?" Satria asked warily.

"Isn't that obvious, I'm giving it to you, so you won't have to pay it."

"Are you--"

"Just take it, young man, don't refuse my goodwill."

"Alright, thanks man ..." he grabbed the crepe and took a bite. The sweetness of the cream and crepe mixed well with the slight sourness of the strawberry. "Delicious."

"What's your name, young man?"

"I'm Satria."

"Knight ..., a fitting name. You can call me Zen." the crepes seller acknowledged his name and introduced himself. "I saw what you did there ..., and I admit, I'm surprised. I've seen a lot of brokenhearted men, but you are the first one I see doing this after getting yourself rejected. Most young people usually wallow in their self-deprecating thought or let loose their anger. You, however, got it recovered pretty quick, and even did some good deeds out there." the crepe seller said as he looked over the park.

"Hmmm ..., I just thought that everything isn't worth it."

"I see." the crepes seller took a large bite of the creamy crepes and munched it, he then said. "Real men forged through countless tribulation. You have the right mindset if you could stand up by your own after that. Is this your first time?"

"Getting rejected? Yes, it's my first time liking a girl and all that romance stuff."

"You're faring pretty well. Say, what do you think of the reason she rejected you?"

Satria pondered and said, "I don't know. Maybe, she just put me on her 'friend' list and not a possible romantic partner."

"Hmmm ..., a friendzone huh." Zen nodded sagely. "But I think it's more of concern on how 'pretty' you are and how deep your pocket is."

"I befriended her a year ago, and she doesn't seem someone who cares about that stuff. She's not materialistic nor judges people by their looks."

"Nah, that pre-assumption is the one that brought you into this. Although your appearance is not bad, you don't seem to take care of your body pretty well. Looking at your lanky build, I know you didn't do sport aside from the regular five-finger sport." Zen looked at him. "And judging by the cheap counterfeit you're wearing ..., I know that you or your family didn't do well financially."

"I ..., but she's, no there's no way she rejected me because of all of that!"

"Sigh ..., let me tell you. Even if a woman claimed they don't judgmental, or materialistic they still subconsciously think of that in their mind. After all, finding the alpha mate is instinctive for animals, this applied to higher-order animals like you." Zen paused after stating that somewhat cruel statement. "You see ..., I've been in your position. It happened when I was so young back then I ..."

He listened to Zen the crepe seller's story of his past on how he got rejected or rather got friend zoned by the most beautiful girl in the neighborhood. Satria listened to him and responded from time to time as he ate the crepe. After a while, he summarized the crepe seller story as this: he simped on a girl, the girl used him, she went to another man, and he's still simping over her. Moral of the story: don't be a simp, be a man worthy of respect.

"I think I've taken a long enough break ..., thanks young man, for listening to this old man rambling." the crepe seller stood up and patted clean his black apron.

"Uhmm ..., thanks too, for cheering me up, and the crepe ... of course." he nodded and glanced at the paper wrap that a minute ago hold a tasty crepe.

"Hahaha ..., glad you like it. But that's not the only thing I bestow unto you, young man."

"Huh? What do you mean?" he looked up to see that the crepe seller was gone.

He turned his head to see where his stand was located, but it was also gone. As if it was never there in the first place. He felt sudden goosebumps and the chill started making his body hair rise. But to make it worse, he heard a voice ..., the crepe seller's voice reverberating in the air.

"You will find out ... soon enough."