When I went back into the shop, I found the ceramic jug sitting on the stove to kept it hot. Next to it were rows of teacups from which I selected four and filled them with tea. When I turned to look for a tray to carry the cups to the table, a familiar sight caught my eye.

At the end of the hall, where a ray of light shone down, creating a stark contrast to the dimmer sections of the restaurant, I saw a thin girl standing there and staring directly at me.

For a moment, I struggled to recall where I had seen her before. Then it hit me! It was that same girl who had handed out free magazines in front of the noodle restaurant near my office when I had lunch there with my friends. I sprinted towards her, hoping that I could ask her a few questions as this could not be a coincidence to run into her again. But when I reached the end of the hall she was gone. I ran outside in an attempt to catch up with her, but I couldn’t see her anywhere.

“Tim, Tim … we are here!” Koharu called out and came after me when she saw me running frantically past our table.

“Oh … yes, of course …” I stammered, while glancing around outside the restaurant.

“… Did you see a young girl standing over there?” I asked, pointing to where the girl had stood a minute ago.

“No, I didn’t see her. Or maybe I wasn’t looking attentively?” Koharu replied.

“I’m sure that I have met that girl before in my world,” I told her.

“Really? This sounds like a significant appearance for you. Normally, you don’t see children out on the streets at this time of the day as they should be at school. They usually come out later.”

“You’re right, this would be too much of a coincidence if she really is the same girl whom I met in my world,” I said.

While we had our breakfast in the shop, my thoughts were still preoccupied with the girl; who was she? And what was the meaning of her appearance? I was so lost in my thoughts that I also lost my appetite.

“And you had doubts that we couldn’t finish all of the buns …. Do you know how many we’ve eaten?” Koharu asked. “I kept track and you know what? The four of us have consumed a total of 52 buns!”

“Oh really? Did we eat that much?” I was astounded.

“I’d like to thank the shop owner, but I don’t know where he is,” I said, as I thought that he had to be a very devoted and selfless person.

“If you really want to thank her, you can express your gratitude in your mind and focus on the owner of this shop; or you can silently call her name, Hotte. She’ll definitely hear your voice,” Kyran suggested.

“Would that work? I’ll try that then,” I said.

I concentrated and started to send my thoughts to Hotte. Quietly, I said the words of gratitude while my eyes were cast on the people working at the stoves inside the shop. A woman with an attractive face and a tall figure turned and walked towards me, bowing her head slightly, as if she had heard what I had just said in my mind a moment ago.

“Is Hotte a tall woman?” I asked.

“Yes,” Vince confirmed.

“Then that must be her, right?” I said while pointing towards the woman who had bowed to me.

“Yes, that’s her,” Koharu nodded.

I looked back at her again and bowed my head in return to thank her.

“Phew, now I’m full,” I remarked.

“Come on, everyone, it’s time to go,” Kyran said.

We all got up, gathered our belongings and started walking off together.

As we walked towards the foothills, I felt that we would never reach our destination, even if we could already see it in the distance. As I was staring at the top of the large building, a small white dot of light rose up above it and then froze, hovering in one position.

“There! Is that one of the spaceships that you mentioned before?” I called out to Koharu, pointing at the glowing dot of light.

“Yes, yes, that’s it. You’ve finally seen one,” she replied.

“Look! There’s another one,” Kyran added, pointing at another light that had just appeared.

“Wow! This is a real UFO! I’ve seen similar ones in video clips in my world,” I said.

After the spaceships had hovered above the large building for a while, they suddenly accelerated and disappeared into the sky at an incredibly high speed in a matter of seconds.

I still couldn’t get over that bizarre feeling that I was about to step into the residence of aliens and meet them, an encounter that would be seen as impossible for anyone on Earth. But then my anxiety gradually turned into anticipation and excitement.

Finally, the four of us arrived at the foot of the hill, where a path led us up to the large building. When we arrived, we came into an open courtyard. As Kyran had described it to us before, it was a space where musicians took turns in playing music as a regular entertainment for the highly evolved beings. On that day, many musicians were performing together as a band, like a big orchestra.

“So, Tim, we have kept you company until here, but from now on, you must go on alone,” Kyran told me in a somber voice.

“I see,” I said, slightly surprised, “I thought we could go up together.”

“We’re not allowed to enter without being summoned,” he explained.

“You’ll be fine, please don’t worry that we’re not going with you,” Koharu encouragingly.

“Well, I’ll try,” I said, trying to sound confident.

“See you later then. And thank you for bringing me here,” I bid goodbye to the group and turned to walk up the stairway.