54)
After about twenty minutes, he found himself parking across the street of the pub. He looked to his right, where a certain Norwegian was seated.
He received a soft smile. With a hum, he averted his gaze, before he got out of the car without ceremony. Lars Hagen followed suit, and they both went over to the pub together.
Tomi had a flat expression and hands in his pockets. Lars opened the door for him and he entered the din of the pub first, walking straight to the counter and said, “We have a large group coming in about twenty minutes or less and there was supposed to be a room for us?”
The person behind the counter gave Tomi a look, seeing him look relaxed while wearing rather worn but not dirty clothes.
“The student film production?” she guessed.
“That’s the one,” Tomi drawled as Lars Hagen arrived by his side.
“Come this way,” the waitress said and beelined toward a door at the back.
It opened up to a staircase that looked far older than the door in front of it and Tomi filed this under “things to add to the next tavern scene”.
Lars Hagen followed behind as they climbed the creaking steps to find the selves in a claustrophobic corridor lit up by flickering lights ahead. Tomi filed this under “perfect horror atmosphere, add to next quest”.
There were three rooms the pub had available, technically speaking, but two of them were connected by a foldable screen wall. Tomi watched as the wall was opened up and a table moved to connect the tables of each room to a long one.
“Let me get you the menus,” she said.
“It’s fine. Let the kids just pick something downstairs,” Tomi said. “No need to make so much effort when they have legs of their own. The youth of today needs more exercise anyway.”
The fact that Tomi didn’t look to be in the latter half of his twenties resulted in the waitress giving him an odd look,before she still headed down to get a few menus for the group.
A soft huff above Tomi’s head made him look up over his shoulder, and he found Lars Hagen’s lips had curled into a smile that couldn’t be called subtle.
He was laughing at him.
Tomi raised an eyebrow, and the Norwegian schooled his expression. “The children would have been upset if they had heard you.”
“The ‘children’ are not my problem. I’m here to eat a free meal,” Tomi replied as his gazed moved to the table. “Are there enough seats?” Before he even received an answer, he began counting the chairs under his breath. “Yy, kaa, koo…”
“I did tell them how large the group is.”
“Doesn’t mean they can count properly,” Tomi said breezily.
55)
The students began trickling in at the rate they arrived. Some had taken the bus but with so many of them, most had to walk, and walking was almost faster because the bus had to take a detour. The first to arrive, however, had done so by bike.
Hearing this, Tomi advised them as he handed the small group a menu, “Since you have no sense of self-discipline, don’t bike. It’s still a vehicle, even if it’s powered by your legs, and any vehicle is a danger when operated by a drunk person. Fall over once, and an injury to the head might kill you.”
The students who had just arrived were speechless.
“Don’t buy anything too expensive. You’re still young and need to eat every day,” he added.
The oldest student in the production was twenty-nine that year. It was also this very student Tomi handed the menu to.
Tomi could, if one squinted hard, barely pass for being twenty-five. With one’s eyes open, he looked closer to twenty.
With amusement colouring his tone warm, Lars Hagen said, “He’s right. Young people don’t value their health enough. Don’t splurge if you can’t eat regularly because of it. I did the same when I was a student. I would splurge on expensive drinks and food and then make do with whatever I could afford afterwards. It’s bad for your health.”
Tomi understood the gist of what Lars Hagen said, and that it was agreement, so he just let out a soft, “Mm.”
He then moved to the next group, unbothered by it now that he knew the issue wasn’t that his language was too bad. He handed a menu to some new student arriving.
Once all of them were distributed, Tomi realised he hadn’t kept one to look for himself. He hadn’t bothered to look earlier because he didn’t want to get hungrier by staring at food items he couldn’t eat yet.
He was helpless as he shrugged to himself. He figured he’d just go downstairs and look at what was listed and then return when he had decided, so he could tell his man-shaped wallet.
He had only taken a few steps when he heard a deep, “Tomi,” that made him instinctively turn around. He saw Lars Hagen hold a menu. “Did you decide what to eat already?”
Tomi considered it before he shook his head. It would be more awkward to lie and be asked what he wanted. He returned to Lars Hagen’s side to see what was available.
The older man lowered his head somewhat, getting closer to Tomi’s height. Finding this ridiculous, Tomi took the menu and raised it higher. “If your vision is getting so bad because of age, don’t injure your back, too. I see fine both near and far.”
“…Mm…”
Tomi found the tone a little odd, but he focused on what to order instead, his stomach growling to remind him that hebarely ate any breakfast because he overslept, and skipped lunch as was habit.
As if taking offense about not receiving acknowledgement from the man next to Tomi, his stomach grumbled and growled more, louder and louder.
Tomi only had so much shamelessness in him, but he gritted his teeth and pressed a hand against his stomach to console the monster within it.
“Er du sulten?”
“Am I what?”
“Ah… Sulten… as in hungry.”
“No, it’s a construction site nearby,” Tomi replied dryly.
Lars Hagen glanced Tomi with a smile. He said something Tomi didn’t catch.
“What?”
“Nothing. Order whatever you want. Don’t hold back. Unlike the children around, I have money to spend.”
“Mhm. I’ve noticed.”
56)
Once everyone had arrived and most had ordered, Tomi found himself a spot at one end of the table. He didn’t want to be where it was the loudest, but he was unfortunately unable to get the seat at the very end. He sat down next to a girl who seemed to be from costuming to his left and an empty seat to his right.
He had ordered beef stew served with potatoes and pickled beetroot. It was the most familiar dish on the menu so he had an idea of what to expect.
Should he try something new sometimes? Maybe. But he wasn’t planning on doing so sny tile soon.
As soon as everyone had gathered back upstairs, waiting for their very many meals, Lars Hagen sat down to Tomi’s right. He has been browsing the news on his phone, but he was fairly certain someone else had been seated there not long ago. He looked past Lars Hagen and saw the guy, who he thought had sat down next to him a few minutes ago, one seat over.
He must have imagined it. It happened.
57)
Lars Hagen clinked his glass to catch everyone’s attention before he stood up. “Excuse me for speaking English on this occasion,” he said, voice deep and cadence gentle. “Although you likely have already had time to get to know each other, seeing as you have spent several days together with endless opportunities to get along, do take this time to learn to know each other.”
Tomi didn’t miss the implied jab at the students for busying themselves and not doing the necessary work and while continuing to stall for this long.
“I introduced myself some says ago, and some of you have met me in the past. Nonetheless, let ne reintroduce myself. I’m Lars Hagen and I am supervising this project as a mentor from the Arts Department. I am not unfamiliar with being a guest lecturer and many years ago I studied to be a stage actor.”
The Norwegian swiped a smile across the entire group. His gaze finally landed on Tomi.
Great.
“Today we were joined by a new face. Tomi, if you would.”
Tomi stood up, while the Norwegian sat down again, and swiped an indifferent look across these kids. “Tomi Palander. Asked by the Social Sciences’ Digital Media Production programme to help look after the equipment as a practitioner. I’m a former student of Media Production, and own my own business these days. Any questions?”
A hand was raised and the question asked was as expected: “Are you, like, a Tornedalian?”
“No,” was all Tomi said before he sat down again.
“So are you Finnish-Swedish then? You do have an accent,” he heard someone who didn’t get the hint ask.
“Also no,” he said, voice flat.
Tomi turned to glare at Lars Hagen, who took it in stride and raised his glass to clinked it against Tomi’s. “Welcome, Mr Palander,” the man said.
The anger had nowhere to go and slipped out of Tomi with a sigh. The Finn took his water glass and raised it too. “Cheers.”
The students all raised their glasses and the group together was uncomfortably loud as they exclaimed, “Cheers!”
58)
The girl from costuming asked if he wanted to share a beer, but Tomi pretended not to hear the question altogether, keeping his gaze focussed on the food in front of him.
It was noisy after all, so noticing was fine.
A while later, she leaned close to him though. He couldn’t pretend she wasn’t there so he turned to her. When he did, she took the chance. “How old are you? Really?”
“…”
“You look like you’re…” She gave him a once-over.
“In my twenties,” he finished for her.
“Oh.” She paused before she attempted at more small talk. “You mentioned owning a business?”
“Mm.”
“What kind of business is it?”
Tomi contemplated it for a while. “Video production,” was what he eventually settled for. “A lot of video editing, audio editing included, some amount of filming the footage I work with.”
That sounded good enough to him as a connection to why he was there.
“What kind of footage is it?” The deep voice suddenly chimed up from Tomi’s other side.
Tomi hesitated for some time. “…Streaming.” He clarified then, “I edit footage for a streamer.”
“What kind of streamer?” the girl from costuming asked curiously.
“NDA,” Tomi replied dryly.
The girl looked like she was about to try to fish nonetheless, but gave up with a wave of her hand and said, “If you can’t say, don’t say it.”
Tomi heard a deep chuckle from the other side. He turned to Lars Hagen. The man didn’t say anything, but the wrinkles at the corner of his eyes, showed his amusement. Tomi averted his eyes, feeling awkward for some reason he couldn’t explain.
He was usually so unflappable despite the local social conventions not quite being compatible with his norms.
Not now.
Definitely not unflappable now.
He put great focus into his free meal instead. He wanted to finish this so he could go home sooner rather than later.
59)
The students happily had drinks with their meal. Tomi, having a car, opted for apple juice and a soda.
After a visit to the toilet, he returned to his seat and slowly sipped his soda.
The conversations around him was about anything and everything with anyone and everyone… except him. He was too difficult to keep a conversation with, surely, and so the students ended up avoiding to hold any conversation with him.
The girl next to him had even left to talk to someone else. The one straight ahead had also fled, likely because Tomi didn’t look particularly friendly and sometimes his gaze would naturally fall on the person opposite him.
The silence was comfortable to someone like Tomi, who came from a place where silence spoke loudly and words were used like each was worth more than all the gold and silver in the world.
There was, however, one person who didn’t shy away from him.
“I was on location just a few days ago. We had to wrap up some matters before I went on an extended holiday. It’s the first I have in what is likely years.”
Tomi paused and looked at Lars Hagen from the corner of his eye. The Norwegian was talking to the student next to him.
What sort of project manager didn’t have a holiday for years? Did they have so few days they could take leave that they decided which holiday to celebrate and which not, depending on the family’s budget?
That sounded hard. He was glad he didn’t have to worry about anything like that for himself.
He had absolutely no days off, so never had to worry which one to cut away.
“Do you have girlfriend?” one of the students asked Lars Hagen.
“I’m unattached at the moment.”
A brave soul decided to say, “What about Tommy? Do you have a girlfriend?”
“Plenty of girl friends, but never a girlfriend,” Tomi replied. “Also, kind of rude to assume everyone is straight. Be more inclusive when you ask.”
“Oh, so do you have a boyfriend, then?” someone fool asked.
“Hmm…” Tomi thought about Peter’s cousin, lips curling up somewhat. “Depends on who you ask, I suppose.”
60)
Tomi finished his soda and then pondered to himself for a moment. People were still happily chatting, be it that theywere nineteen or thirty-nine. Many were still eating as well, talking slowing down their meal considerably.
But Tomi was full and had reached his noise limit.
With a decision of following local tact, he stood up, saying, “Well, that’s that. I think I need to head home. I’ve had one too many.”
One too many of what? Sodas? Didn’t matter. How many of these kids would have noticed what he was drinking? None of them. They were too busy drinking and chatting to even eat, so of course they wouldn’t notice what he drank.
Tomi felt Lars Hagen turn to him and glanced in that direction from the corner of his eye. As he put on his jacket, the older man emptied his glass and stood up as well.
“I’m already getting quite old.”
What??
That man was clearly no older than maybe forty-two. That was middle-aged and not even by much.
“I don’t have the same energy as you youngsters do.”
Lars Hagen didn’t seem to be tired in the least, though. Tomi on the other hand was fighting the need to yawn.
“So I’ll leave it up to young ones to make up for it.” The man then turned to Tomi. “Could I bother you by asking for a ride?”
“…”
Goddammit.
Not particularly fond of the idea of acting some stranger’s driver, Tomi just stalked out of the room. He heard Lars Hagen say his farewell to the student. Before Tomi was down the stairs, the other man had followed.
Annoyed, he talked straight through the pub and into the chilly evening. He heard Lars Hagen’s deep voice comment, “The trees are rather colourful.”
Tomi’s gaze rose up and he stopped for a moment, not to cross the street while distracted. The trees found on each side of the street were anything from deep green and a light yellow green to a rich bright red.
He looked over his shoulder. A wind passing by fluttered in Lars Hagen’s coat and ruffled the man’s hair. Lights were reflected in the eyes behind the spectacles and a small cloud rose from his breath. Leaves began to raini onto the taller man, who just smiled lightly at Tomi.
Tomi took up his phone and quickly got a snapshot of the man in the rain of colourful leaves, barely catching even a blurry picture.
As the taller, older man watched Tomi lower the phone, Tomi heard him say, “You’re the streamer you edit videos for, aren’t you?”
Tomi’s gaze snapped up to see the same smile on the man’s face, seeming to have asked an innocent question.
And yet, Tomi was left speechless.