Sonia didn't sense anything odd about the man, so she continued rubbing her eyes while speaking in the same soft tone. "Okay…" She stretched her limbs as she finally opened her eyes fully. "I hadn't expected myself to sleep so soundly. I'm not even fully awake at this point," she murmured as she gave the man a bashful smile.
"It's pretty common for people to feel sleepy when they get to a warm place from somewhere that was really cold," Toby explained. He opened the lid of the thermal box and pulled out a bottle of coffee before opening it and handing it to Sonia. "Have some. It'll wake you up a little," he offered. The coffee was warm, so Toby didn't have to worry about Sonia feeling cold after the drink.
Coincidentally, Sonia needed something to wake her up. As such, the coffee that Toby handed her was a lifesaver at that moment. Her eyes lit up as she took the bottle from him. "Thank you." She tilted her head up to take two sips of the coffee, but she squeezed her face into a look of disgust after tasting it. "Ew… It's so bitter. What coffee is this?" She turned the bottle around to check the packaging, but the words were written in a foreign language that she couldn't understand.
Toby chuckled when he saw the sour look on her face. "It's an original flavored Blue Mountain Coffee, not the usual 3-in-1 coffee. I usually drink this when I'm on the way to work, so there are no other drinks in the car. This is good for waking you up, so I thought that it'd be better for you to drink this," he explained.
"Well, that's probably why it's so bitter," Sonia muttered as she stuck her tongue out. "I have to agree that it wakes me up. I'm not sleepy anymore." Is it even possible to stay sleepy after drinking something so bitter? Anyone who drinks this would probably wake up immediately. My tongue feels numb from the bitterness, she thought as she stuck her tongue out. Toby knew that Sonia was bothered by the bitter taste. After all, she had always had a sweet tooth, and she had never appreciated bitter foods or drinks. She only drank her coffee with milk and sugar, so it made sense for her to be troubled by the taste of Blue Mountain coffee.
"I'll leave some other caffeinated drinks in the car next time. I haven't considered this matter in the past, so I'm afraid you'll have to settle with this coffee for now. Once we get into the hall, you can get some other drinks to wash the bitterness away." Toby tried to comfort her. Sonia nodded. "That was what I thought. But this coffee…" She stared at the remaining coffee in the bottle with a troubled look on her face.
"Do you not want it anymore?" Toby asked.
"I can't finish it. It's too bitter—it tastes like medicine," Sonia grumbled as she pouted her lips. She couldn't finish it, but she didn't want to throw it away either as she didn't want to waste it. Furthermore, Toby seemed to have a knack for purchasing the most expensive things, which made it harder for Sonia to simply throw the drink away. She was still troubled by how she was to dispose of the coffee in her hand when she felt someone taking the bottle out of her grip. She looked up to see that Toby had taken the coffee away from her.
"I'll finish it if you can't." The man tilted his head up and chugged the remnants of the coffee after that. It was a relatively small bottle of coffee that fit snugly in one's palm and the size of the bottle made it one of the smallest bottled drinks to be produced and sold in the market. There wasn't a lot of coffee to finish. One could finish the bottle after taking a few mouthfuls of the drink, so it wasn't a big deal for Toby to finish the bottle in one go.
However, Sonia was still rather dazed after seeing him finish her coffee. "I drank that earlier. You…"
The man wiped the corner of his lips elegantly. "Yeah, so?"
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