Always punctual, Jakob arrived at the café twenty minutes early. He quietly sketched in his notebook, occasionally smiling warmly at his drawings.
Elise rushed in, out of breath, clutching her bag. Even though she wasn't late, she still arrived after Jakob.
Luckily, the café wasn't big, and Jakob was easy to spot. Among the crowd, the most refined man was always him—there was no mistaking it.
Once she found him, Elise sat across from him, took out her notebook, and handed it to Jakob to review. Then, she ordered two iced mochas from the server.
Before arriving, she had already planned to order her favorite strawberry cake at the café. But to her surprise, Jakob had beaten her to it and ordered it for her.
"Writing a dual-protagonist storyline with a male and a female lead, huh?" Jakob flipped through a few pages, carefully examining the handwritten draft in Elise's notebook.
"Yeah, you happened to be on a business trip that day," Elise said as she poked the strawberry on her cake with a fork, a wave of nostalgia washing over her. "But I believe even though you weren't at the meeting, someone as smart as you can still give me some great advice!"
"Why aren't you eating? Don't you love strawberries?" Jakob asked with a shy smile.
Elise nodded and smiled knowingly. "It just reminds me of something. Back in high school, when I had my first heartbreak, my best friend brought strawberries to my house to cheer me up."
Jakob sincerely encouraged her, "Now that you're married, consider the imperfections of past relationships as part of your personal growth. What matters most is to focus on what you have now."
Elise lowered her head, staring at the table, and sighed helplessly, "Speaking of which, I still need to find time to tell Zayne that my wedding leave should be canceled. He trusts me and said I could just provide a copy of the marriage certificate after the leave, but in reality, I didn't actually get married. The day before the wedding, my fiancé told me he wanted to break up. You weren't in T City that day, so you probably didn't know."
"I'm sorry, it happened to be my grandfather's birthday that day. But didn't Zayne attend your wedding?" Jakob's eyes widened in surprise, clearly shocked by her revelation.
"I asked a friend to pretend to be my groom. If everyone knew I'd been dumped the day before, I couldn't bear the looks of pity. Plus, I didn't want to feel like I was the one being abandoned..." Elise bit into a strawberry, its sweet and sour taste swirling on her tongue. "Honestly, the ones I ate in high school didn't taste as sour as this."
Jakob set his notebook down on the table, his eyes soft with sympathy. "If you had told me, as a friend, I would've gladly played the part of your fake groom."
"Oh, I couldn't possibly. But it's all in the past now, and I'm slowly adjusting. Maybe it's like my friend said, I still need to work on my judgment of people." Elise licked the remaining whipped cream from her lips. Love might be sour, but at least cake could be a sweet remedy for the heart.
"Maybe you can turn that sorrow into strength, making the emotions in your writing even richer. It's not necessarily a bad thing. One day, when you're ready, the right person will come along. He might be far away, or maybe he's been right in front of you all along." Jakob took off his glasses, rubbing his slightly puffy eyes.
After less than five hours of sleep, Jakob still showed up to meet Elise on his day off, just because of a single phone call from her.
"I think we should relax and focus on work. Work comes first!" Elise said as she pulled out a highlighter and drew a few large circles in her notebook. "I want to make the male lead adventurous and enthusiastic but also indecisive. He'll have moments of hesitation, which I think will make it easier to develop complex relationships. Even though we have one male and one female lead, the story could branch into different endings depending on the player's choices, and the leads don't necessarily have to end up together. They could even pair up with supporting characters."
"But this is an online game. Your idea sounds more suited to a single-player game. It's not impossible, but that would mean creating an extra story mode, like a side quest. Players would have to enter specific areas to unlock special hidden content," Jakob pointed out, highlighting the details she had overlooked.
"Hah, I totally forgot it's an online mobile game. I'm so glad I asked you! You've been a huge help," Elise said, her previous gloominess completely lifted. Her eyes sparkled, and her smile was filled with joy.
"I'm glad I could help. Madisyn is arranging a meeting with another team in a few days. If all goes well, you'll still be the one handling the scriptwriting. I'll be attending the meeting, so if you have any questions, we can go over them afterward," Jakob said as he slid his notebook into his indigo square briefcase. Jakob slipped his notebook into the square indigo briefcase on his right side.
"Jakob, I really hope you'll stay at Zayne's company forever. That way, I'll never have to worry about not having anyone to back me up when I'm stuck at work," Elise leaned forward as something crossed her mind. "By the way, when I got here, it looked like you were drawing. What were you sketching?"
"Landscapes," Jakob replied, taking a sip of his coffee. His eyes were still warm with a gentle smile, but his answer was vague, as if he didn't want anyone to fully understand him.
Elise didn't think much of it. Now that she had a basic outline for her story, her overwhelming worries began to dissolve like mist. She leisurely ate her cake, the sweetness melting in her throat and soothing her heart.
After a while, once the last bite of cake was in her belly, she looked up to see Jakob posting some work updates in the company group chat.
Landscapes, huh? Jakob was like an angel, radiating his own soft glow. His words were always gentle, like a breeze carrying a natural fragrance. His smile was ever-present on his fair face, drawing people in without them even realizing it.
Jakob himself was a kind of beautiful scenery, she thought. Maybe his character could make its way into the game's storyline.
