Target Acquired: Human

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Ra-su had been tracking the habits of her target for a while. It was definitely stalking by definition but there was no proof. She'd been hacking into databases to check his phone's GPS coordinates. He liked this particular cafe, and he stayed here when the place was crowded. She'd been here a few times in person before though not talking much to anyone. This time was different.

Once the place was full, she slipped in and ordered her coffee. Her English was better than most, but there was a hint of an asian accent. One she fought with. If anyone asked, Mia's mother had never spoken English in the household. There was nothing to prove to the contrary as Ra-su's mother was dead. Half Japanese and half Korean made her the perfect agent for this assignment. It was going to be a long road. Americans were stubborn or so they say.

Making her way around the cafe, she made a sideways face. It was accompanied by a soft sigh as she headed towards one of the emptier tables. "Do you mind if I sit here?" It was an innocent question with far from innocent intent. Mia waited politely for a response. Oh how she loathed American formalities.

Liam Darcy

✿ EDEL ✿

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Liam had his head buried in a good book, a cup of coffee sitting untouched on the table. The contents were keeping him thoroughly engrossed but, as he flipped to the next page, a voice from across the table caused to him to look up. In his haste to be polite, he almost dropped the book on the ground. Things only went downhill from there. Fumbling to regain control of the tome, Liam's knee slammed into the top of the table. The cup tipped over and he barely caught the drink before it made a mess all over the floor. Crisis averted.

Liam looked around the café. Surely there was some ulterior motive. People – especially women – didn't just want to sit with him. Someone had put her up to this. Maybe as part of a bet or dare. In the past half hour or so, the café had become quite a bit more crowded. There were other free seats at occupied tables – one even had a much better looking guy. Except she had approached the geek instead. She was on the losing end of… whatever this was. "I… uh… you want to sit here?" He'd just reiterated the woman's own question – not the response she would have been looking for. "Yes. I mean no. I don't mind."

Rubbing at the knee which had made painful contact with the table, Liam tried not to look too embarrassed – a feat easier said than done, considering the recent chain of events. At least he'd managed not to stain his new cardigan in the process. Part of him wanted to stuff his hands in his pockets and just sit there, but that would be awkward, even for him. If she expected him to talk, he had no idea what to say.

Mia Vukovic

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Well for lack of grace, at least her target had quick reflexes. She made sure to file that away in the back of her of head in case of a worst scenario. There was no way that Ra-su was going to take chances with him. Smiling she let out a small smirk of amusing. Men could be… children when it came to women. At least she was sure that was the word she was going for.

“I don’t bite.” She pointed out as she set her tea down before taking a seat but only he had said that he was okay with it. Well that was the biggest foot in the door wasn’t it? Making such that it was the first chunk of ice removed. She played with the rim of her cup as she tried to figure out what to say. Her attention was diverted to the book. She squinted. Though she looked rather confused expression.

Mia watched him rubbing his knee. “I did not mean to.. I mean did not mean for you to get hurt.” She stumbled over a few of her words and they sounded slow and deliberate. Her English wasn’t terrible but it was somewhat slower than most. Like someone who had not grown up in the United States but her cover took all of that into account.

Liam Darcy

✿ EDEL ✿

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Liam managed a slightly awkward smile. Was there some sort of established protocol for this? Probably, but he was going to have to muddle his way through an actual conversation without any kind of handbook to help him out. As much as he really wanted one right now. He took a sip of his lukewarm coffee, trying to buy himself a couple more seconds to think. "I… uh, didn't mean to suggest that you did. Most people don't come up and talk to me is all."

Liam noted his companion observing the book he had continued to hold onto. Her confused expression spoke volumes and he did his best to fill in the blanks. "It's cryptology. The study of codes." He didn't go into much detail. It wasn't the sort of thing that would interest someone like her, which was too bad. That was something he wouldn't have any issues sitting there and having a conversation about.

The accent gave her away. Not that her English was bad, but she spoke deliberately. Like she was taking her time to utilize the proper words. Liam found it a little endearing. If only more people didn't rush to say the first thing that came to mind. He dismissed her concern. "I'm fine. Really. You're not from around here, are you? Visiting, maybe, or did you recently move to Chicago?"

Mia Vukovic

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Mia seemed to be confused that someone wouldn’t talk to him. He was interesting. Albeit he was her intended target and not the type of person she’d had picked for herself, though she couldn’t help but take interest in what he was doing. That sort of stuff DID interest her and not just because it was her job. It was because it genuinely held her interest.

“Ah. Angō.” She stated giving him the Japanese for the word. There was a smile on her face. If he really thought he was boring, then he was sadly mistaken. She set her cup of tea down and looked towards him. “It is an interesting subject.” She stated her opinion on it, more so for the sake of seeing where this conversation went.

“Japan. I moved here to take an IT job.” She left it at that. Ra-su knew that it would answer all of his questions and still tell him nothing. It was the simplest way to get her point across. She pushed a strand of her hair behind her face. Ra-su was finding it a bit more difficult for Mia to not be so… forward.

Liam Darcy

✿ EDEL ✿

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"I'm kind of a geek," Liam explained to the petite Japanese woman. Surely she'd have noticed that by now. People weren't lining up to talk to him. He had conversations at work – nothing personal – though some of the other analysts liked to go out for drinks. Like-minded folks and all. Liam supposed he could have asked to join them one evening, but he'd never been good at approaching someone – either to ask them out on a date, or to try befriending them. Because Liam might as well be inquiring if he could 'tag along as an awkward third wheel.' So that meant evenings alone with a TV dinner. "I don't think it helps either that I can be a klutz sometimes."

Trying to keep his look around the café subtle, Liam briefly pondered why she would want to sit here. There were other empty seats, including a couple with better-looking guys. The college students were too young. Liam continued to whittle down some of the options. Maybe because, reading his book, he looked like he would be a quiet table companion. If she'd been counting on that, things hadn't gone quite the way she'd anticipated so far.

"Angō," Liam repeated the word. It took him several tries, but he got the pronunciation to the point where he thought it sounded satisfactory. He wouldn't be passing for a native speaker any time soon – especially not with his terrible accent – but he hadn't grown up in Japan like she had. Perhaps more surprising: she seemed genuinely interested in the subject. Liam couldn't say much about his work with the National Security Agency, but that didn't put cryptology off limits as a conversation. He matched her smile with a small one of his own. Outside of his job and making a new friend. "You find angō interesting? I didn't think you would. I mean, of course, you can. Most people don't."

A new country, far from home… what were the odds someone was going out of their way to try speaking Japanese to her? If they were interested in flirting, maybe, but that wasn't Liam's intention here. It may have only been the one word, but Liam wanted to make the effort. Making someone else comfortable mattered because he knew what it was like to be uncomfortable.

But Liam had been quite rude, not introducing himself earlier. The way he saw it, if she'd just moved to Chicago from Japan, chances were good she didn't know many people here. That put her in a similar position to him, right? And, if she was IT, that made her something of a kindred spirit. He stuck out his hand. "I'm Liam. Have you seen much of Chicago yet? I could, uh, show you around sometime? You know… if you want."

Mia Vukovic

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Mia just shrugged at what he was trying to say. No, in her mind he was the target and his eccentricities well those could be handled and dealt with at a much later time. For someone who was supposedly smart and well brought up he had a lot of them. Though Ra-su paid it no mind. She just politely looked up over the rim of her tea.

Mia’s Japanese accent was harder to differentiate but it wasn’t completely accurate. However, she knew it was good enough to pass off in America even for someone who studied linguistics. She could always chalk it up to not having her Japanese mother around to teach her. To be fair, Ra-su’s mother had taught her Japanese but only because her father had demanded that Ra-su learn the language. Undoubtedly, for training or something. What father wanted father got.

“I gave up trying to learn.” She chuckled. That was an outright lie because she’d studied it some but not that far in depth. “Maybe I had wrong teacher.” She joked. American’s joked around did they not. Ra-su was just trying to fit in though she was not used to being so extraverted. But when her job called her to be versatile she was more than capable of doing so.

Mia smiled at his effort to try and use the word. Maybe this would be easier to get close to him than she thought. She set her tea down when he stuck out his hand. Japanese handshakes were much different from American handshakes. Mia wasn’t even sure how she felt about shaking the hand of an American so she looked confused for a moment. Even still women didn’t do a lot of handshaking in Japanese culture from what she remembered. After a moment she offered her own limp handshake but she didn’t look him in the eyes. Typical of the Japanese culture, and since she was a woman no eye contact. “Mia.” She stated her name quietly.

“Yes. I mean I would like for you to show me Chicago.” She tripped on her pronounciation of the city yet again, pronouncing it more like ‘Chai kah goo’. Though she knew it wasn’t correct. She took her hand back and smiled over her cup before putting it to her lips. She was still taken in by the cultural differences between here and at home in Korea.

Liam Darcy

✿ EDEL ✿

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Liam had begun to settle down, if only because his newfound companion made it easy for him. Even though they were still little more than strangers, he felt like she understood his idiosyncrasies and wouldn't judge him for them. Maybe he was just being crazy. Crazy or not, the common ground they shared – two geeks in a coffee shop – made talking to her possible. Liam never would have had the courage to approach her, if their roles had been reversed. Since she had come over and initiated everything, it wasn't so bad.

"A good teacher can make all the difference," Liam admitted with a small chuckle. He certainly had experience with both – most people probably did. You got both ends of the spectrum and everything in between, whether it was in school or in the workplace. Of course, giving up on the past didn't mean you couldn't revisit the subject at a later date. "You ever think about trying to pick it up again? Maybe with a new teacher?"

It was probably a cultural thing, but Liam couldn't help but notice when she purposefully averted her gaze. Despite this, he managed a warm smile when they shook hands. It was nice to say hello to someone he could genuinely be himself around. It happened so rarely for him – not even his own parents. "It's nice to meet you, Mia." He waited until she looked back up before eventually letting the smile melt away.

"We can consider it a date then." Liam blushed at his choice in words, realizing how that might sound. This was exactly the reason he tended to avoid people. Even when given ample time to think about what he wanted to say, it still came out sounding wrong. Then he ended up having to course correct, stumbling over his words in the process. Liam hadn't intended for this to come across as a romantic overture, but that's what he was having to assure Mia of now. "Not that kind of date. I just meant... I can show you some of the sights."

Mia Vukovic

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Mia shrugged. ”Maybe one day” she spoke about taking up the subject. Unless he was offering, in which case she might use it to get a little closer to him. Mia was looking at things from all angles trying to figure out how to get closer to him. If cryptology worked then so what, she would use that to her advantage.

“It’s nice to meet you too.” She said looking up with a smile soon after she’d limply shaken hands. It just wasn’t a thing in the Japanese culture and Mia had done her homework. Heaven forbid she run across someone who knew she was faking things. Blowing her cover wasn’t an option.

“Date? As in fruit? Why consider fruit?” She asked quirking a brow. Then he backtracked. “Not fruit then?” Mia pretended to be really confused. Dates were fruit but it wasn’t a fruit then something. Okay her brain really did know what he was talking about but she was going to play this off as not really certain of words having double meanings. Actually, this was kind of fun to figure out new ways to get creative in ‘learning English’.

Liam Darcy

✿ EDEL ✿

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Continually putting things you wanted to undertake off often meant you never got around to doing them. Liam knew a few things about cryptology – well, more than a few. He couldn't – and wouldn't – discuss classified material with her, but he had no issues showing her the non-classified things he'd picked up over the years. If it encouraged her to pick up the hobby on a more permanent basis, then he'd have done his part. At least this way, Mia would have tried and it would never be a regret. "If it really interests you, maybe I could teach you."

So now that introductions were out of the way, Liam was left to puzzle out her cultural tendencies. If they were going to be spending more time around each other, maybe he needed to do some research into the Japanese. The last thing Liam wanted to do was offend her – and she seemed taken aback by the prospect of a handshake. It might just have been a familiarity thing, but hopefully that was where it ended.

"Not that kind of date," Liam explained. For someone who knew English as a first language, you could take for granted how complicated it could be sometimes. To someone who didn't have that luxury, English could be a complicated mess. Many words had multiple meanings; they could be verbs and nouns, or pretty much anything in between. Liam tried to clarify what he had meant. "A date can be a fruit. A date can also be a romantic social engagement. Umm… actually, it has a lot of meanings."

Mia Vukovic

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“You would?” She questioned as she looked towards him. “I would… like this.” Learning more about something she already was vaguely familiar on would be interesting. Well, she knew enough though it would give him something to do, give him a reason for the two to interact. Win, win in her situation. Get him comfortable enough and she could wittle her way into things?

When Liam started naming off definitions of the word date, she could help but scratch her head. “What date is this you speak of?” Okay so it had multiple meanings, but what the hell did he mean? Mia quirked an eyebrow as she looked towards him. Men could be so confusing. Then again, she was used to men being a bit more decisive. This target seemed… really confused.

Liam Darcy

✿ EDEL ✿

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Liam couldn't see the harm behind spending more time with an actual person. His father used to demand that he 'get out and actually do things' – not that he wanted to hear his dad's voice in the back of his head right now. In this case, he would not just be doing something he enjoyed, but also doing it with someone who didn't make him feel all kinds of awkward. If Mia didn't mind being around a habitually idiosyncratic individual, they could make this work. They both still needed friends… right? "Why not? You don't want to live with regrets. You can teach me some more Japanese in return."

In the process of trying to clear things up for Mia, somehow Liam had caused even more confusion – all of this over a seemingly simple four letter word he took for granted. It certainly wasn't Mia's fault – she wasn't a native speaker. Liam just didn't know how to explain this in a way that didn't embarrass him more than he already had. So he decided to press ahead and answer her question as best he could. "It's… just the way I said it… it could have implied I wanted to take you on a romantic outing. A… um… boyfriend and girlfriend type of thing. But I meant that I'd like to go out with you in a 'we're friends' capacity."

Liam found himself chuckling again. The beginnings of a crazy idea were starting to take shape. No doubt Mia had noticed at least some of his… quirks by now; maybe if he just came out and admitted them. That would be a step in the right direction. "You should probably get used to me stumbling over my words and being embarrassed about it. That too."

Mia Vukovic

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Score. Okay, so she’d gotten him to take the bait. Japanese would be easy for her to teach him, though she wasn’t sure much good that would do down the road. “Who said anything about regrets? And yes, I can teach you some Japanese.” She added softly. Her voice was naturally toned down in a softer volume than most of the people in the room.

“I will take your word for it. You are still confusing me.” Mia added pushing some of her hair back. Oh she knew full well what he meant but she was playing into him. After all, getting him to talk to her was her goal. He seemed to be amused, so why not keep up the front?

“You have no reason to be embarrassed. I will not judge.” That would be a true statement. She was looking forward to the day going relatively according to her original plan. Mia liked things that went to plan.

End Thread

✿ EDEL ✿