One more customer pushed the glass door and came in, took his raincoat off, had a quick look around the room, then walked to his friend. I glanced at him and quickly turned away. He had interrupted my thought that I couldn’t remember then. I turned my head back and looked at the clock hung on the light brown wall. It was four in the afternoon already. That meant I’d been sitting here, in the window of the G. Rain cafe, for more than one hour. It was still raining outside. And yet I had nothing to do until six o’clock.

Not like pavement cafe, G. Rain allowed me to hide in the glass window, and yet see what was going on outside. I once spent hours thinking what G. abbreviated for and finally decided that was “Glass” , the glass protecting customers from the hectic but boring life outside. But it was pouring with rain then, nobody was on the street. I looked at my open book lying next to the cup on the table, sighed deeply, stared out of the window again and planned to walk home under the rain. Only by this torrential rain would I be able to abate my boring feelings in life. When I nearly stood up, I realized there was a person walking down the road. Wearing black umbrella, he caught my eyes immediately. His physique looked vaguely familiar, but it was difficult to tell at a slight angle like this. I edged my chair forwards in order to see a little more of his face. A few minutes later, I knew he was walking to this cafe. ‘One more wants to hide there because it’s wet outside’, I thought, ‘But do I know him?’. When he was a few steps from the cafe and revealed his face, I didn’t still remember any memories about him. ‘He’s about my age’. Unexpectedly, he stopped in front of the cafe. After a moment, he pushed the glass door, came in, put down the soaking wet umbrella. Looking at him quickly and turning away, I didn’t want that person to think that I was staring at him, although I was really curious. I heard the footsteps coming closer to me and when I turned round sharply, he was standing beside my table.

‘Would you mind if I sit here?’, he pointed to the opposite chair of mine.

You should not dislike people you do not know. But I found myself abhorring him. ‘Do I know you?’, asked I.

‘Not yet. But now you know’, he smiled and sat down before I had chance to say anything. I felt uncomfortable and started to become angry. What I detested was exactly his kind of behavior. But I didn’t want to make a serious argument in my favorite cafe. Hadn’t I been in my favorite cafe, I would shout at him or say something rude, I thought. I tried to ease myself by looking at the rain through the several-millimeter thin layer of glass.

‘I usually come here for a comforting atmosphere to read books’, he started his story, ‘and I often see you sitting here, in the window of this cafe, staring at space outside for hours. You make me inquisitive’.

I turned my head back and looked directly at his face. ‘Where were you when you saw me?’

My eyes followed his fingers pointing at the second table on the right. Never imagining there was a person looking at me from that point, I was gaping at it for a while.

‘I tried to find out what attracted you out the window. And I thought that was your way to lessen loneliness, right? Well, I used to try your way’, the conversation became one-sided; I was merely listening. ‘Once I felt bad, I went here, tried sitting down here, left my life and went into lives of who walked by outside. Is it useful to you? After hours trying, I still felt bad’, he laughed.

Suddenly, he stopped laughing. ‘I think it’s better to have friends than to stare at space outside. What’s your name?’

I thought for a few moments. He was really sensitive that he saw the shade of loneliness just by seeing me sitting for hours. ‘And he must have had a lot of free time, too’, I chuckled to myself. If he was a interesting present God gave me to help me overcome these lonesome days, why wouldn’t I try it?

When I answered and asked him the same question then, the rain stopped and the rainbow appeared. Happening one year ago when I had just started living alone in a new city, that was the first meet between my best friend and I.