Hee-Joon looked around the place. The house was a mess and they were eating on the floor, given the table was under a lot of boxes, but everyone was laughing and friendly teasing each other. Ana was shining she was such in a good mood, that was a side of her he was seeing for the first time. Every time Christopher would teaser her she slapped his harm slightly and he was actually very jealous of his arm right now. He was still not sure what had happened only that, after the night she stayed at his house, she drove as far away from him as she could and even though he was trying hard not be totally pushed aside and at least remain as a friend, he was not sure that was what she wanted.

He tried his best to find the suspect that was turning her life into a living hell but unfortunately, there were no more clues to follow. With no concrete physical evidence left behind, she could not file a complaint. All he could do was hope that he had lost her track with her moving. That was actually the reason why he was at her place today, to make sure that everything was ok. And he had confirmed it, now it was time to leave. The problem was convincing himself of that. Taking his eyes off that beaming woman in jeans and t-shirt, who was sitting on the floor with her legs crossed eating fried chicken and Ddukbokki, laughing and playing around.

________________

A left hand took another piece of pizza to the mouth, while a right hand held the binoculars in place.

What a sight, a group of friends laughing and playing, relaxed all sitting around her. The hand pressed the binoculars harder as the person saw the swift movement of the beloved’s hand smacking the blue-eyed man. Rage making the heart race.

“Calm down he’s just a friend, just a friend.” he whispered to himself.

He had been standing in that position for so long, his legs were starting to cramp. But he could not take his eyes off her, not now that he was closer than ever before. Not now that he could see every little detail of her life in between the open space of the curtains.

___________________

“See you on Monday.”

Ana said goodbye to her guests but hesitated when looking at Hee-Joon. She wanted to find a reason to ask him to stay, unfortunately, that was not the time nor the place. She looked around, there was still a lot to do until that place was considered liveable and the afternoon was passing by too fast. With her back turned to the door she felt a shiver down her spine and shook it off. Was it getting colder?

Throwing away the garbage left by their meal, Ana hit the start button on her smartphone to resume her cleaning. By the time it was finished she was exhausted and the clock marked 12:30 am. She took a warm bath and had just finished when her phone started ringing. Coming out of the bathroom with a towel around her body and another around her head she picked up the phone she had left on the bed.

“여보세요? (hello?)”

All the time she was spending with her new friend was allowing her to finally pick up on some new Korean vocabulary.

“여보세요? (hello?)”

The silence on the other side made her think that probably the person did not have a good reception right now. She kept going around the room with the phone in one hand while trying to get dressed.

“Jee-ae시, I can’t hear a thing. You’ll need to move somewhere with a better connection.”

Looking at the screen, as if that could change anything, Ana finally gave up on the call.

“Jee-ae시 I’m gonna hang up and call you back ok?”

Ana finished putting on the pajamas and picked up the phone again. Dialing Jee-ae’s number she waited as the phone rang on the other side, with no answer, then decided to send a message.

“Jee-ae시 is everything alright?”

A few seconds after her phone bipped.

“Yes. Sorry, bad connection. I just wanted to wish you goodnight.”

That struck as a bit odd given she had just been at her place but, Ana didn’t think much of it.

“Goodnight for you also. See you on Monday.”

__________

A heart beating as fast as a racing horse. The person couldn’t believe that worked.

The binoculars never leaving the eyes and the eyes never leaving her sight.

_________

Sunday started bright and early. Her favorite spot to run was now not as close as before so she still needed to catch the subway. Two stops after, the Han river breeze hit her face now cooler, announcing the upcoming Autumn. She began at a slow pace warming up her muscles as she moved forward, then she picked up the pace into steady jogging. The riverbank was her selected jogging location, allowing her to enjoy the scenery and the breeze. With the music playing in the headphones she could almost shut out the world around her. The mobile ringing cut off the singer in mid-sentence and after pressing the button she could hear Hee-Joon’s voice on the other side.

“Ana시? Can you hear me?”

“Hi, Hee-Joon시.” Her breathe was hasty because of the sprint she had just taken.

“Sorry, I was jogging.” She stopped near the grass and squashed trying to catch her breath.

“I know, I can see you.”