For Louis and Koraru only.

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Josiah was sitting in the mall at the tiny Dairy Queen, waiting for Odette. Today was Saturday and he had finally convinced her to put down their project and come out to relax. She had tried to use the excuse that their work was relaxing, but he had won out in the end. He was a little stubborn that way. He raised the cup in his hand and took a sip, wondering if she was still stuck at her house. He'd wait a bit before calling again though.

Katherine Woods walked through the mall, her legs on fast forward. She quickly directed herself towards the nearest bookstore on automatic, her gaze almost to the floor. She kept muttering to herself the things she wanted to buy: two new manga, a new art book that came this week, a new sketchbook.... Sigh, and nothing else to save up for supplies...

With earphone plugs on her ears and her hair in a messy ponytail, this brown-haired young lady barely looked 15. However, if you looked behind her rectangle-shaped glasses, you could see in her eyes that she was a lot more mature in certain things than her true age of 20.

Josiah stood and stretched, turning to toss the empty cup into the nearest trashcan. Guess he could take a walk around this floor of the mall while he waited. If she was here in another half hour, he would leave. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and took the right side of the balcony that circled around the escalators and staircases in the center. He walked past a few shops before stopping in front of a bookstore, a certain cover catching his eye. He picked up the book to flip it open. It was the autobiography of a local designer, a name he had never heard of. Interesting.

{sorry about that >.<}

Katherine saw a young man in front of the bookstore, flipping the pages of a book. Ever the curious one, she saw the title.

"I swear, what people do to make money nowadays", she muttered under her breath. "He mustn't be a really good designer if he needs to sell his life for cash."

Shaking her head, she kept walking towards the bookstore, bumping a bit into the young man in front of her.

"Sorry, I have a really bad sense of perception"she muttered, bowing lightly, and continuing to walk into the bookstore, her eyes low as ever.

{lol, no worries, everyone changes my name XP}

Josiah blinked and looked up at the girl that hurried into the bookstore with her head hung low. Bad sense of perception? He had never heard it put quite like that. Wonder what a girl like that would be up to. He snapped the book closed and laid it back down before following her discreetly into the store, pretending to look around as he walked along through the shelves.

Completely oblivious to the world surrounding her, Katherine walked straight to the graphic novel section, selecting two manga which she had been fawning after for weeks. She seemed to go directly for them, ignoring the temptation of the many hundreds of volumes available at the store.

"Come to mama, honey" she said, treating the book with more interest and care than any person around her. She pulled the books tightly to her chest as she went over her mental note. "Now, art, art, where could that be..."

Josiah was only a few feet away when he heard the girl call someone "honey." That was odd. No one else had walked in with them. He peeked around the corner to see her pressing comic books to her chest. His eyes widened in surprise.

Completely oblivious to his presence (no, she was not ignoring him, just hadn't noticed him at all), she went with the grin of a 12-year-old to the art section, comparing different art books, deciding which she would finally pick. She still held the manga close to her, as if afraid someone was just going to randomly grab them and run away with them.

Josiah followed her quietly, stopping to stand just behind her and look over her shoulder at the books she was flipping through. It wasn't hard due to him being so much taller than her. Though that could also have something to do with the way she hunched over.

"Too simple, too simple" she muttered. "The line work doesn't convince me at all! But the color... no! I must focus on the drawing, color will come later! Yes, I've decided! You're the one coming with me, beautiful!"

She smiled to herself, putting the art book behind her manga, and grabbing the first sketchbook she could find, obviously not the first time she bought one of those. She was moving out of the hallway when she once again bumped into Josiah.

"Sorry, I didn't see... wait... didn't I bump into... never mind..."

Not one to start a conversation, she quickly tried to made a beeline towards the cash register.

Josiah gently reached out to take her arm. He tried not to be too rude about it, but the girl was interesting. "You sound like you would know design pretty well. Can I ask you something?"

Katherine stopped and looked around, wondering why this complete stranger had suddenly grabbed her arm. She couldn't help but stare at the hand that reached out to her, but completely avoided eye contact

"Um... yeah, I know a thing or two... I'm no expert, though..."

"Maybe not, but you could join in on my design project. You could even model some of the clothes with my friend Odette," Josiah offered, giving his best charming smile.

Katherine laughed out loud, every muscle from her body relaxing. This has got to be a joke, she thought.

"Whoa there, who are you looking at?"she said, tilting her head. "Are you even looking at me? I'm no model! I can help with designs, not showing them to the world."

Josiah laughed with her and shook his head. "No need to be, you're help in the project would be enough. I'm working on a new modern style. Would you be interested in that?"

"You're serious...?" she asked, incredulous. "I think plenty of pretty girls would jump at the opportunity, you don't have to ask someone like me...."

Still, with her incredible curiosity rampant, she couldn't help herself from adding: "Could I see them...?"

"Okay, I keep all my stuff either in the studio or at my house though. When would you like to come over?"

"Alright..." she responded, still untrusting, "but this doesn't mean that I'll join mindo you! I'm just curious is all!"

Josiah stepped back a little, holding up his hands. "Okay, okay, I'm not trying to force you." This girl was way too defensive, but at least she didn't seem crazy. Not much anyway.

"Good.... Let me just buy these and I'll go with you," she said, and couldn't help but adding " I know tae kwon do, you know!"

It was the first time she's gotten attention from anybody besides a teacher or professor, so she wasn't exactly confident. In fact, she didn't know if she should be glad, take it as a joke, or wonder if it was a really desperate serial killer.

Tae kwon do? What the hell did that have to do with anything? Josiah shook his head and simply decided to let it slide. He followed her up to the cash register and stood off to the side to wait.

As she paid, Katherine couldn't help steal glimpses of the young man who was willing to talk to her. She quickly paid, and walked towards him, clutching her bag-less books close to her chest, the receipt hanging from one of them.

"Well... you know... lead the way..."

Josiah nodded and began to walk, being sure to keep pace beside her as they headed toward the main entrance. "So, what's your name? I'm Josiah," he introduced himself with a smile.

"Katherine... Katherine with a K..." she muttered, hunching forward a bit more. "You're a designer...? I've never heard of you..."

"I'm only a student. My father is a proffesional though, he works around here as well as all other the country. He's even gone overseas a few times on business. Oh yeah! I was supposed to be waiting for Odette. Mind if I go by the food court first?"