When I Saw Your Face

Monday, 12 p.m…

It was midwinter. However, inside the De Anza cafeteria, I still felt a comfortably balmy atmosphere. It was so crowded there. It seemed that people liked to converge in the same place to avoid the chilliness outside.

The explosion of noises from talking, laughing, cooking in many languages such as English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese… typically created the first busy noon of the week. Plunged into “tons of sounds”, we nearly had to shout out to say “Hi”.

The cultural diversity in this cafeteria gave rise to the smells more complicated. Everywhere people could catch the smells mixed between American French fries, hamburgers, Asian noodles and Mexican BBQ Burritos. Those tempting fragrances started to cause for my disturbing starvation. Around me, some students looked tired or sleepy after their continuing study in the early morning. Other students were eating their lunches in a hurry for the afternoon-classes. Suddenly catching the aroma of coffee behind me, I turned my head. Van, my close-friend, as usual, met me here because she did not want to have lunch alone.

“I really hate this weather,” she grumbled.  Her upcoming math exam seemed to enhance her frustration.

At the corner of the room, a male student was practicing his assignment on the old piano. It sounded like a part of the “Turkish March”. I also knew this guy because I saw him attend a musical concert at De Anza last month. He played the piano pretty well, and got many compliments from my professor for his hard-work. Yes, that noon would be as same dull and boring as usual if something did not happen.

_Hi, Thi…

I looked up and saw Dung standing there-beside my table. My eyes opened more widely than ever.

“Long time no see you,” he said.

Dung, 23, a graduate student from UCLA, had attended De Anza College and became my Math 10 tutor for the last two years. From that time, my heart could not escape from his charm and gentleness. Unluckily, when I decided to express my feeling for him, he had already moved to Los Angeles. Although I thought we would never see each other again, he suddenly appeared in front of me. Everything was just like a dream!

“I come back here for job’s hunting,” he explained. His situation seems to be harder because in all of his previous interviews, he got rejected. No doubt after that failure, he ended up with unconcealed disappointment.

“I’m sorry…,” I did not know anything else to say.

“That’s ok,” he waived his hand as if he told me to forget it. “How have you been here?” he asked.

I answered him this would be my last quarter; then I might transfer out of California.

“Oh, that means it will be a long time before I see you again.” His tone was suddenly lower, which made me somehow confused to guess his implications.

At the corner of the cafeteria, a melody of the hit song “Won’t even Start” began softly resounding. Dung seemed to have no changes, as he always is: friendly, carefree and enthusiastic about future. He shared with me many experience not only about snatching at opportunities but also learning from failure. While listening to him, I could realize that maybe he had many other cares than a personal relationship. Maybe to him, I was just like a little sister, so I should never over-imagine about that. Maybe…

Although meeting him helps me to realize that I should give up this love and start all over again; from the bottom of my heart, I wish the best thing will come to him as he deserves it.  Until now, his last sentence has still resonated in my mind: “Don’t worry, everything will be fine.”