Upon arriving at Kings Cross Station, Jenna hurried to the Saint Pancreas Underground Station in hopes of arriving to work in time. Her phone was not charged due to a faulty Universal Serial Bus cable that she had been contemplating about changing it for weeks, the result was herself waking up half-an-hour later than intended. Recalling the incident as she sat down on the train on the Piccadilly Line, she sighed with a soft loath for technology.
People in office attire, mostly men in starched long-sleeves, some with coats on and women in sophisticated clothing. The universal policy of office work hours always seemed to her more of a burden than a uniform convenience to modern workers. Everyone wanted to be just on time for work, but most would not sacrifice fifteen minutes’ time just to be early. Occasionally, there would be people in ragged outfit performing with a musical instrument, while maintaining a steady place whenever the carriages were not crowded. Today, they were nowhere to be seen, only the monumental silence from the packed crowd avoiding awkward stare between strangers. Their hands holding onto whatever support on the train and tightened when the carriages jerked haphazardly.
It was a Monday morning with a hanging gloom in the sky, the stale faces of the people onboard were a result of the cold autumn rain. Jenna was having trouble finding a seat, she needed the rest after rushing for the previous trainline and standing for nearly forty minutes. She checked the time on her phone although she was wearing a small timepiece on her left wrist, a used Rolex of a simple and more feminine design with gold-plated straps. It was bought last week as a celebration for being promoted from a trainee position into an employee of the advertising company She caress it with her right hand protectively, dreading about what incident would tarnish her expensive accessory.
Sitting opposite to her was a young male, his features were Asian but she could not give a rough guess of where they originated from. He stood out the most because he was the only person in her line of field wearing casual clothing, possibly a student from a university. His grey hoodie barely hanging onto his shoulder blades as a reaction to the miserable stuffiness of the air around everyone. His hair was brunette and frizzled naturally, his tired look indicated a rude wake-up call and on the way to somewhere of importance. Had it not been his clothes, he would have blended in well with the crowd of sophistication and self-importance.
He lifted his slightly enough to spot Jenna staring, which the latter quickly looked away in embarrassment.
“Would you like to take this seat?”, he spoked of an accent that imitated typical English.
“No, thank you. You can have it.”
“Are you sure? You seem tired.”, he paused to determine Jenna’s reaction on her face.
“I guess I’ll take it.”, the boy got up from his seat and let Jenna replaced his.
“Thank you.”, Jenna said it in a sudden high tone and caught the boy by surprise.
Embarrassed, she tried to drown her mistake by explaining her journey of barely arriving at the train and about how tired her legs felt and thanked him again for the kind offer.
“So, where are you heading to?”, Jenna asked.
“Oh, I’m heading to a job interview, but not before having breakfast first.”
“Ah, I see.”, she found it hard that someone could walk into a job interview wearing like how he was.
“Well, good luck with the interview!”
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