“House problems.” She decided to be honest with her and not miss out on an opportunity at what could become a good friendship.

“I need to move out of my apartment as soon as possible but couldn’t find another yet.”

“Oh, I see. What’s the matter with the one you in now?”

“Bugs”

Now that was a big fat lie but, come on she could not tell the woman the whole truth, she barely knew her.

“Very big bugs.” She continued shamelessly.

“Oh my God! That’s disgusting.”

The expression of horror in the other teacher’s face made her laugh and soon they were both laughing at the situation. The conversation stretched to other subjects and as they both had to go to their classes, they agreed to have dinner together that night.

__________

Ana and Ji-ae were laughing at all the odd things their countries had, the differences, the similarities and the things they would change. The conversation was flowing and they were having a good time finding their trail of thoughts were not that different. It certainly felt nice to find someone else to talk to about trivialities like that. Her new found friend ended up offering her the couch of her house to stay for a few nights. After all, according to her, at night the big bugs could bite. Ana gave it a thought and considered that to be the best option at the moment. The universe was giving her a hand.

When her head hit the burrowed pillow she realized the day had passed with no hiccups. No weird scary messages, no strange suspicious deliveries.

The sound of the incoming message gave her butterflies of expectation.

“Are you sleeping?”

Her heart skipped a beat and she smiled.

“Not yet.”

“Was the day ok? Are you home?”

“The day was calm. No, I’m at a friend’s house.”

The shortstop in the incoming messages made her wonder if he would ask what she knew he wanted to know. She could just tell him but, she wanted him to ask. Yes, she was being devilish and her smiled showed it.

“I’m glad everything’s ok. Sleep tight.”

Great. Now she was feeling sorry to not have told him.

“She is a Korean teacher at the univer…” The message was left mid-sentence and then erased.

“Good night Hee-Joon시.”

“No more complications Ana.” she told herself.

____________________

A couple of weeks had gone by until Ana could find a modest apartment, according to her monetary possibilities. But she was happy with her choice, it was safe and still fairly close to the university where she worked.

At that time she kept in touch with detective Hee-Joon, who was investigating her case. Although he followed the only clue he could find, the delivery guy that showed in the CCTV footage, it turned out to be a dead end because the flower shop did not have a paper track related to the customer and all they could remember was that he looked like any normal Korean guy. For her, that was not a total waste. She did not like to admit but, in her madness, she actually had considered Christopher to be a suspect. It was a relief that it was not him. Lee Ji-ae had turned out to be a very good friend and even though Ana did not tell her the truth about what was going on, she helped her out in any way she could without raising many questions.

Looking around the new apartment she was feeling light as a feather like all the problems had disappeared. She made a new friend, had gotten closer to another friend and had now a clear head to try and salvage what had been the beginning of something exciting. Thinking about Hee-Joon and how distant they were from each other she wondered she was still in time to do that.

“Ok, mãos à obra. (Ok, let’s begin work)”

Rubbing her hands together she chose one of the card boxes and opened it. The cleaning was done and now she needed to put all that stuff in the right places. Books, plates, sheets. The hurry to leave the old apartment made her throw everything inside boxes without caring much for the organization or logic. Saturday was sunny and bright, she turned the sound of the music a bit higher and distracted herself singing at the top of her lungs as she was going around the place. Her selection of music had everything since American, to Korean, to Portuguese, to Spanish and even Cuban music. Singing and dancing all around her apartment she was having a blast, that didn’t even feel like a chore. The bell door rang and she hurried to lower down the volume of the music wondering if maybe it was a neighbor complaining. She couldn’t be expelled on her first day! Looking before opening she saw Christopher’s smirking face. Damn, he was going to make fun of her for the rest of her life. Maybe he didn’t hear anything.

“Is that what you call a Portuguese party?”

There goes her hope down the drain. The worst was that behind him was Ji-ae also trying to contain her laughter and that was not all...at her side was a very amused Hee-Joon looking down to the floor, a big smile on his lips.

“Was is this? Do you all know each other?”

She tried disguising her shame diverting the conversation.

“No, singing girl. We coincidentally met outside and found each other coming in the same direction.”

She should have known that would not work with Christopher. Giving a smile of defeat she stepped aside to let them in.

“My house is a mess. I was just cleaning up.”

“Are you sure that was what you were doing?”

“Come on Christopher시 leave Ana시 alone.”

Ji-ae gave her a plastic bag with some food and so did the others. It was a costume in Korea to bring some sort of useful offer over when a friend changed houses and they had chosen to bring her food. What was actually a great idea because she was getting hungry.