It's Nice to Meet You

Short story by Gabriella Chiang ('27)

  It’s 5 minutes to 9pm in New York City on a winter day. A conversation is going on between two high school friends, a 17 year old student named Gina, and 18 year old Kai at a cozy cafe on a street corner. Gina sips at a warm mug of cappuccino and Kai lets his mug of latte sit cold. Colorful lights hang from the ceiling and plushy seats occupy the edges of the room. Quiet lofi music plays in the background. After taking a long sip of her coffee, Gina chats with Kai again.

         “How’s your mom? Is she discharged yet?” asked Gina, pulling a plate of croissants towards her.

         “She’s doing better, her doctor says she will be discharged soon. I’m glad,” Kai tells her.

          Gina nods in reply. Kai asks, “ Since winter break is near, I’m planning to travel with some friends, would you like to come?”

         “Oh, sure! Uhh…” Gina pauses. An awkward silence takes over.

         Gina tries to think about what to talk about, and starts reminiscing about the beginning of their friendship.

         Gina begins retelling the story about when they both met, when she ran into him in school and dropped all her books out of shock, and Kai said “It’s nice to meet you” so funnily that she dropped them again a second time. 

        “Remember when we…?” “That was so stupid,”  “Doesn’t that seem so long ago?” were some bits of their conversation. They laugh longingly over old faded memories.

        The conversation gradually dies down, and Gina’s phone suddenly flashes with the words, “Alert: Suspected Killer On the Loose.” Gina swipes the notification to the side, not paying attention to what the headline said. 

      “Hey Kai? It’s getting pretty late, shouldn’t we head back?” Gina asks, wiping crumbs off her lips, and glancing up at him.

       Kai’s face twitches so bad that Gina notices, and he shoves his hands deep into his pockets. Gina frowns, wondering why he was acting that weird. Why would he act like that? It wasn’t something normal to react to, but wasn’t his reaction too far from normal?

      Kai stares at his shoes for a whole 5 minutes, and then with his face turned away, only said “Yeah.”

    “Kai?”

    “Yeah?” 

    “Never mind, but I should head back, it’s almost 10pm,” Gina says, still frowning, and she walks out of the cafe. She spins around to see Kai standing behind her, and she tugs on his sleeve, saying, “Hey, what’s up?” Kai just stares at her and Gina sighs, heading back.

    Gina wakes up at midnight from restlessness and decides to walk to the 24-hour convenience store 3 streets down from her house, even knowing that it would be dangerous going out so late.

    Gina looks blankly at her surroundings, and she turns down a street, hand outstretched to turn the store’s door handle but her hand meets an unfamiliar surface. All around her were moss covered walls. The place felt dank and humid, and no lights illuminated the area. 

She then notices the shadow of a tall figure on the wall of the alleyway, and she spots splotches of red and staring harder, she sees an outline of a body…..lifeless.

    Gina stands there shocked, her feet rooted to the ground. Is this……real? From the corner of her vision, the shadow moves slowly towards her and she shuts her eyes, because she can’t seem to move her feet. The shadow stands behind Gina’s shadow, its arms wrapped around her neck, a knife poised across her throat.

    “It’s nice to meet you again, Gina.”

    “How…Kai…is it really you…?”