Bullet waits until the end of the day when all the classes are over. One thing he notices about Zack is that no matter how late he is, he will always stop to pet a cat, and he didn't want to repay his kindness by causing him to be late to class! As per usual, Zack was sitting in the cafeteria with Yusa as they ate their dinner. And Bullet walked up to them with a cheerful meow!
"Omg! Yusa look! It's the cat we rescued the other day!" He exclaims as he cut a piece of chicken to feed Bullet with.
"You rescued that cat, I only pet it a few times."
"You watched it when I couldn't and helped feed him when I was away, you deserve as much credit."
Bullet happily eats the piece of chicken that Zack gave before jumping onto the chair beside him, slow blinking. "Awwww! He just slow blinked me."
"What does that mean?" Yusa asks.
"It's like a way that cats let each other know that you're trusted." He says as he pets Bullets head.
Bullet then promptly began to purr. This was what he was waiting for. "Yes, pet me human, I will help solve your mating woes." He thinks to himself.
As he was purring, Yusa also made his way around the table to pet him. Bullet figured that he should also gift Yusa something, but he doesn't know what. "I should get to know this human as well." He thought. "But first, they also deserve to know me."
"Let's name him Bullet." Yusa suddenly says.
"What? Where did that come from?"
"I don't know, I figured, the guy dodged a Bullet when you saved him."
Zack thinks for a moment. "I guess that sort of works, but he dodged the Bullet, he's not the Bullet."
Yusa pauses for a moment. That makes sense, he also has no idea why he suddenly wanted to name this cat Bullet, but when he felt the purring under his palm, he got another idea. "Bullet could also work because they're usually aimed at people. And it seems like he sought you out."
Zack continues to be perplexed by Yusarin's insistence on calling this cat Bullet, but in the end of the day, it's just a name, and Bullet does sound unique and cool. So he just went with it.
...
The next day, Zack awoke ready to go to class. Submissions were done last week, and that leaves the presentation for the chassis technologies mind map that Mr. Kirby assigned earlier in the semester. After a lecture on slip angles, an hour of discussion was given to the students.
During the discussion, Zack was laser focused. As he had always been in subjects that he loves. He created a shared power point and assigned each person their parts, they then went through the outline of each part together as a team to discuss what should be researched and included, and what can be excluded. It was a good balance between trusting your members to their own devices and ensuring a coherent group project. It was only after Ari excused herself to go to the bathroom did Yusa brought something to his friends attention. "Dude, I think Ari likes you."
"What? Why?"
"She couldn't stop looking at you man."
"Dude there's only 3 people in this group, she has to look at the both of us."
"No she's different now, I know what working with Ari is like, it's not my first time either. But unlike all the other times, she acts different around you now, more shy, more eager to answer your questions."
Zack wanted to take a break from project management for awhile until Ari returned, so he allowed himself to entertain the idea, but he doesn't answer immediately. He was so focused that he never noticed the difference. "When she comes back, I'll pay more attention to her mannerisms." He finally says, and Yusa nods.
He was right.
Instead of the cold, calculative, but still courteously nice Ari. This was a bashful but talkative, clumsy but mindful Ari. She allowed Zack to digress during the discussions as he tends to do when talking about cars, she even asked questions and seemed to listen tentatively. Usually she would stop him and steered the group back into topic, and Zack would never mind it. She would drop things like stationaries more frequently, almost intentionally next to him, and waited for him to help pick them up, but she too would then bend down to search for it.
Being so aloof to these changes until Yusa pointed it out got him to doubt whether all these were real though, or was it placebo? All in his head. He dared not draw any conclusions as they went back to their room after class, the discussion took longer today than it normally did. If it wasn't in his head, then maybe Ari was just in a better mood today.
"See I told you she was into you."
Zack doesn't answer, nor did he continue pondering on the subject. He didn't enjoy the teasing to be honest.
...
Open up the heavens, we wanna see you!
Open up the floodgates, a mighty river,
Flowing from your heart, and filling every part of our praise!
Back in church, Zack was nervous to run into Rachel, the girl that he asked out only the previous week. She had only approached him to ask if he may be open to join her project that requires some design work from someone such as him. He said yes, and he intends to keep that promise. For now though, he would give her some space, hopefully after a little longer, yesterday's memory would just fade into the sea of their friendship together since kindergarten.
It was difficult to find empty seats as everyone stood up during worship, but he spotted one and made his way to it. Then he saw Rachel next to that seat, her bag perched on the empty seat he spotted.
He turned around to find another when somehow, amongst the singing of the worship team and the rest of the congregation, he heard her call his name. He turned around and saw her gesturing at him to sit right next to her, removing her bag from the seat. Did she feel bad for rejecting him last week? She shouldn't though, she had every right to. But it would be rude to reject her offer now, so he put his bag down and sat right next to her. "Good morning."
"Morning." She greets back, but without looking back at him. She was looking ahead instead. Shortly after praise and worship, the pastor stepped onto the stage.
"And Ruth said to her mother in-law Naomi. 'Let me go to the fields, so that I may find favor.' and Naomi said 'Go my daughter.'
I want to preach a little bit this morning on the book of Ruth. Now it's a small book, only 4 chapters, and I encourage you to read it, it can be done in one sitting easily, the book of Ruth is known as a love story, but it's also a story of opportunity!"
The pastor preaching on the stage was the senior pastor, Rachel's father. Zack liked the book of Ruth, he had read it before, found it interesting and full of meaning. However, something within him found it hard to just sit still and listen to sermons, he doesn't want to simply diagnose himself with ADHD, but it's symptoms perfectly describe his condition, so to occupy his hands while his ears listened, he pulled out his sketchbook and started drawing cars.
"There's a saying that I heard many believers say before. 'What ever will be, will be.' But while it's true that God is sovereign, there's a difference between trusting God, and being lazy."
"Woah!" Rachel exclaimed in a whisper next to him. "You draw so well!"
Zack was slightly surprised. You would expect the pastors daughter to pay full attention to her father's preaching. He wouldn't even be surprised if she was to rebuke him drawing during a sermon, let alone compliment his art.
"Thanks." He whispers back, keeping it short and brief, as to not add to the distractions he's already causing her. He found it odd, Rachel is his childhood friend, she knows he draws and designs, she's seen his stuff, he's been doing it since forever. Heck, it's why she approached him for design work in the first place. Why is she complimenting him like this now?
"Pay close attention, when Ruth asked Naomi, what did she say? She said: 'So I may find favour.' to find favor in the Lord, or even find favor in the world, we must first go out into the fields! Put yourself out there!"
To his surprise, she didn't immediately turn ahead back to the sermon, instead, she leaned in and enquired more about his design. "What's that?" She asks, pointing to a venturi tunnel.
"That's the side profile of the venturi tunnel, see it has 2 kicks off air expansion..." Zack stops himself. "I'll explain after service if you're still interested."
Rachel then pulls back with an "Oops, sorry!" and her head darted forwards again, making Zack feel bad. Did he just assumed moral superiority over the pastor's daughter? Did he just embarrass her when she's only trying to be nice? Stupid Isaac, you can't do anything right.
After a while, the sermon was over and the service ends. Zack packs his things and prepared to leave, wondering if he should say something. Maybe he'll invite her to lunch without actually inviting her. "Having lunch at the cafeteria downstairs?"
She nodded. "Want to join me? You can explain the tunnel thing to me over lunch."
Zack was pleasantly surprised, was she being nice? Or did she genuinely want to know more? Regardless, he accepted her offer and off to lunch they went.