And then he decided to set aside shyness for awhile to ask a stranger about something random; about the small symbol that was tattooed at the back of a girl's neck.
"Excuse me, Ms. I was just wondering what that symbol means?" He said while pointing at the said word.
He was into calligraphy, specifically in Ambigram. He loved it and he can proudly tell himself that he was good at it. He was curious if the girl's tattoo was like one of it but he was pretty sure it wasn't. He just really wanted to talk to her; a beautiful stranger standing alone at the side of the street waiting for a bus ride going home. She was wearing a gray dress, a black cardigan and a black doll shoes. Her long dark wavy brown hair was divided in half and lying naturally in her chest with her sling bag on her right shoulder and her arms crossed in front of her. She looked simply beautiful and maybe, he intentionally used her tattoo as an excuse to start a conversation.
She unconsciously touched the back of her neck like she forgot she have a permanent mark in there. She was shocked. It was the second time a stranger asked her about her tattoos.
"Oh," she said while touching the said mark. "This one... it means "Harmony". A Greek symbol for Harmony." She answered awkwardly and then smiled at him. Her voice was deep and husky. She hates it. "Why? Are you planning to get one?" she asked even though she already knew his answer just by looking at him.
"Yes," he awkwardly answered. She was not a snob, she's not just good at picking the right words at the right time. She read it in his eyes that he was glad she didn't just ignored him. "But not yet." he added, trying to make the conversation longer other than just a yes-or-no one.
"Why? How old are you?" She asked and God that was really awkward! Who else in this fucking universe ask a total stranger his or her age the first time they talk to each other? Like really? Damn, she prayed for all the gods and saints to open the ground and eat her alive with no hesitations at all.
"22. My mom don't want it though. She said I might go abroad and work there... so not yet." he said. She can tell he is an only kid. The way he stand tall from all the other people around them, waiting as well for a bus ride going home from a long and tiring day at work. He was skinny wearing a dark pink long sleeves with his black hair waiving to his right ear. His dark eyes were small that made her guess he's an Asian. Then she watched him put a shy smile on that full lips and that when she knew that this guy standing next to him was not used at talking to strangers like her. Maybe she was the first one.
And then she suddenly remembered the first time another stranger approached her and ask about her tattoo. It happened few months ago, she was also riding a bus from work. She was sitting at one of those aisle sits, feeling sleepy; earphones on her ears while an Iron and Wine song was playing. She looked at the view outside the window and that was when she noticed the guy sitting beside her. He was looking at her with a little smile on his face and then point at the small phrase written on the left inside of her wrist. She took off her earphones and asked him what using her eyes. Smilingly he said, "You have a small thing there."
She looked at her wrist and then remembered that she has a tattoo in there too, she almost forgot she has it.
She looked at him; chubby cheeks, unshaved chin, short hair like how an army looks like, small black earings on both of his ears, full dark lips that got used to the cigarette's poison. He was wearing a fitted plain gray shirt, confident with his body being a little bit chubby. And then she noticed both of his arm full of colorful permanent ink. With a combination of different images, words and unique symbols, his arms looks dirty beautiful. It was art. He was art.
"Yes. Small, indeed." She said. "Unlike yours," eyeing his arms with full of amazement. He smiled at her. It is actually not the first time someone looked at his tattoos; some looked at it like he was one of the bad-ass cool guys on a bad-ass cool film while others - unfortunately for them - look at it like there is something morally wrong about it and think of him like a criminal who can kill someone just by looking.
But hers was different. She somehow looked at it in a different way. She was watching him in a different way. She was different.
"Sleeves, huh?" she said, looking at the mermaid tail tattoo on his right arm, his favorite among all thirty two.
He can tell she wanted to touch it like the way he wanted to touch her little wrist tattoo. He was itching to ask her what that phrase means but for the past six years of being surrounded by people with permanent inks in their bodies, he learned to respect the fact that not all tattoos have meanings and at the same time, not all people with meaningful tattoos want to tell everybody about the story behind it.
"Yes. Maybe next time I'll see you, you'll also have sleeve tattoos on both of your arms too." he said, joking. She got it immediately and replied, "Don't tell me to do that because maybe I will and then my parents will be mad at me so I will find you. And blame you in front of them and tell them it was you who talked me to get into sleeve tattoos. And then they will kill us both," with a cute grin on her face.
He let himself laugh like a kid because he was happy. It's been a long time since someone made him feel like this, effortlessly living in the moment. Plus she was funny that made her more interestingly beautiful.
And then reality came back, the bus stopped. They all go on separately with their lives and live with "what ifs" and "oh wells" but forever will remember that day when they decided to do something different. They decided to become a part of a stranger's life and somehow made them feel alive even just for a brief moment. And it was worth it.
