Just An Imagination

"Why won't you go home? I see you sitting here every night."

"I don't have a place to go back to."

"Did you run away from home?"

She looked at him. Her eyes showed that she was longing for something... but... what was it?

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't be such a busybody," he apologized immediately.

She smiled and asked, "are you the new security guard?" to brush off the question he had asked.

He nodded, "Yea, I still can't quite understand how other people stay awake at this time... luckily coffee was discovered."

She giggled. It had been so long since the last time someone actually talked to her. She missed having a conversation.

"You want some? I got it from my mother back in Ipoh. It's the best coffee in the world." He showed her his flask.

"Sure. Thank you." She looked at him. Her eyes sparkled under the starry night sky.

He poured some warm coffee into 2 paper cups. The two then shared their thoughts outside the mall, on the wooden bench.

It was almost an hour they sat there. The cold wind didn't seemed to bother the two as they kept each other company.

The young man looked at his watch and was startled at the time. He had totally forgotten about his duties to check the premise.

"Thank you very much for the coffee. It was really nice. A good coffee indeed. Thank you to you too... for talking to me." She said while standing up to stretch a bit.

"You're welcome. You should go get some sleep. I need to start my work too." He said and packed up his flask and threw the paper cups into the dustbin.

"Where were you, kiddo? you scared me. And I was starting to think if you were robbed... or were you just lazying around?" The senior security guard said when the young man appeared at the CCTV room.

"I was outside at the wooden bench. There was a camera in that area too, didn't you see me? Just there." the young man pointed at one of the screens with the bench that he and the girl had sat together. He then looked at the elder who was staring at him like he was a wacko; the younger man wondered if the elder had dozed off while he was gone.

"There's no wooden bench around here. I can't find you through the cameras too. Where were you?" The senior was stern this time.

"I was at the wooden bench just outside the mall. I was talking to a girl for an hour. She had been around the mall every night for the past few days." He explained.

The senior security guard was quiet, his eyes widened.

"There ain't no wooden benches around here, only steel benches. That bench had no one sitting on it for the past 2 hours."