Nina saw the confused look on my face, like I didn't understand a word she was saying, and immediately realised how bizarre she sounded without knowing any of the context as to why she was acting so weirdly.
"Oh, sorry about that, Kafka...I got a little worked up there for a second when I saw that you could do something that I could never do, at such a young age, and got a little excited." Nina apologised with an embarrassed smile on her face, like she was asking me to forget about how she was fangirling over me a second ago.
She then coughed to compose herself and then looked at me to explain, saying, "It's just that ever since I was a child, I've had a fascination for anyone who could create or fix something with their very own hands, because I look up to my father, who's actually a carpenter himself who did woodworking for a living...In fact, the reason my father and mother met each other was because he came to my mother's hot spring when they were young to renovate the place, and over a couple of weeks of visiting, they both fell in love with one another."
Nina had a tender look in her eyes as she fondly recalled her parents's love story, which was rather wholesome to hear.
"Then, does that mean all the intricate woodworking done in this lobby is by your father?" I asked as I looked around the building that was covered in absolutely stunning woodwork; from the polished planks that rested below my feet to the walls that were covered in sheets of marbled wood that had beautiful carvings on them.
"Yes, Kafka. They were all made by my father after both he and my mother got married." Nina said with a proud look on her face as she looked around the room in its glory.
She then continued saying, "And after watching my father constantly make something so complicated or pretty out of a stub of wood in his workshop, which always blew my mind away when I looked at it, I grew up to appreciate anyone who could turn something so simple into something so wonderful just like my father did."
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"...And not just creating as well, since making trinkets, furniture, or ornaments out of wood was simply my father's hobby...His main job was going to other people's places to fix some sort of problem they had with their house's woodworking, like broken floors or cracked stairs, so being able to so easily fix something like it was nothing at all, just like my father always did, was so cool to me." Nina gave a gentle smile as she carressed the small table next to her that also seemed to have been made by her talented father, whom she was so proud of and looked up to.
"But unfortunately..." Nina showed a wry smile on her face, like it was a pity. "...even though I was his daughter and his flesh and blood, I didn't inherit his talent to make art from scratch or fix something without even leaving a mark in place."
"I also don't like how you acted as if fixing a vending machine is the easiest thing in the world that even a baby could do, since it makes me feel like I'm the dumb one here for not being able to do so."
"...I mean, I already know that I'm not as smart as you, but so aren't 99% of the population who also don't know how to fix a vending machine, like it's no big deal at all." Nina folded her hands and looked at me in an indignant manner, like she was waiting for me to apologise for what I said.
She wasn't genuinely offended by what I said and simply wanted to see me say sorry to her for her own amusement and see herself win at least once after constantly losing to me in every argument.
But I didn't apologise like she thought I would, as I stood by my statement and said,
"But Nina, I'm really not trying to call you any names...I just genuinely think that anyone out there could fix this vending machine with some little guidance because of how easy it actually is." Nina opened her mouth to say something, seeing that I wasn't willing to back down.
But before that, I continued saying, "...In fact, it's so easy to fix that I could probably teach you how to do it and have you fix the vending machine yourself."
"Actually...You know what?...Why don't we do exactly that?"
I asked myself, like I thought it was a really good idea that shouldn't be left as a thought and should actually be done, which made Nina's face freeze for a second.
"You said that you always wanted to be able to fix something just like your father did for a living his whole life, so wouldn't reparing this vending machine be great for you?...You'd be able to have a fully functioning machine that doesn't cause any problems and you'd have the joy of knowing that you fixed it yourself, like you've always wanted to...Isn't that for the best?!"
Nina wasn't as enthusiastic about this as I was and had wavering feelings about the matter, even though it was right up her alley. She really doubted if someone like her, who always ended up breaking something that she was trying to make or fix, would be able to fix something as complex as a vending machine.
The idea seemed really good in her head, but when she realised how bad she was at anything that required problem solving and nimbleness, which weren't her strongest points, she accepted the reality of the matter and knew that it was impossible for her to accomplish such a feat.