The Prelude ~ A Fool for Lesser Things

"Ralf, stop reading the damn blog already."

Florian's deadpan voice was heard from the other side of one of the offices in the KlingKlang studio. Kraftwerk had been busy with moving their equipment and what-not from the old KlingKlang studio to the new one, and not a lot of time to spare for resting. Ralf however took to surfing the net one day and, coming across a blog titled [Trans-Underground Express] he was amused at its title and started to read the blog. He kept reading the blog, curious about the writer and what could've gone on across that great ocean.

Of course, he started reading that a couple of months ago.

"Oh, don't discourage him, Florian" Fritz sighed in grief. "Let him have his updating of whatever's going on with that girl's life."

"She is a fan, after all" Henning chimed in. "I wouldn't mind cheering the girl on myself."

Suddenly--

"--was dachte er, dieser Ruck!?" Ralf exclaimed. "Her boyfriend's becoming more of an annoyance than I'd have guessed." He sighed and shook his head as he resumed reading the latest blogpost.

"I'm guessing Sonnen's got more guy trouble, Ralf?" Fritz asked cautiously, raising a brow at him.

Ralf shrugged. "I don't know--she loves him, she wonders if he still feels the same for her. They haven't talked in so long--if one could call a week so long. And then he looks at her AIM status and asks, 'What I do?'! Wenn nur ich irgendein verfluchtes klopfen könnte, fragen Sie in seinen Kopf ab."

"Has she figured out what to do about it?" Henning asked.

"Nein, not that I know of, Henning" Ralf replied.

"Maybe she'll realize she's better off...?" Fritz said. "The way this relationship seems to sound."

"That's another problem--she feels as if she's wasting her emotions" Ralf sighed. "She's got her friends to rely on, but that's about it. And she could just gush about her German electronic crush all she wants to. But there's not much else she could do to calm this wretched storm."

Florian rolled his eyes--he knew the blogger's "German electronic crush" was his own best friend Ralf. But, the bald Mensch-Maschine couldn't help but notice the honesty about her. He had read some of her blogposts from time to time since Ralf first crossed upon it.

"Maybe she just needs time to think it over?" said Henning.

"Maybe she needs a girl's night out with Kit again?" Fritz suggested.

"Maybe she should just break up with him, plain and simple" Florian chided.

"Or maybe she just needs a better boyfriend?" Ralf sighed exasperatedly.



Jenn sighed and sat down outside her apartment building, looking up at the stars. She hadn't really talked with her boyfriend in a while, mostly because his phone kept roaming. Yet the only way she could cheer him on was to send him a text every morning, except his phone had been off. He hadn't been using it. He never knew.

Maybe I'm just wasting my time she thought to herself as she wiped a few tears from her eyes. Perhaps she was. But then again, knowing her boyfriend had liked her for the better part of the two years they'd been friends. Yet, even now as he was so far away, what was she to do?

She had her friends to console her, coworkers to help her though the day, and her best friend Kit to cheer her up and keep her company. Jenn however, inasmuch as she was thankful for her friends, knew they couldn't fully understand the tears she'd cried up to now.

"Dear God" she whispered beneath her tears, "there has to be some way to pull through this..."



Ralf sat outside KlingKlang and looked up at the starry sky. He couldn't get what she'd written out of his head, knowing that another minute would pass and nothing would change. She'd still struggle to make the relationship work, knowing her efforts were all in vain. It wasn't fair to her--it wasn't fair.

Sonnen he thought to himself as he saw the stars twinkling above, I wonder if... your eyes are seeing what I'm seeing right now, just to ease the pain a little...