The bus had arrived. Or, it was arriving. She stood a bit straighter then, her toes impatiently drumming inside her sneakers—when she noticed him near her. This time, it was by reflex that her head snapped to her left and she watched the boy, who was now standing inappropriately close to her, smile. “Hi.”

Her blood ran cold. She felt herself mutter something incoherent, and decided against riding. Maybe she could pretend to go somewhere else, and go back for the next trip. At first, she walked slowly as if she were just changing her mind about taking the bus. But as she turned, she saw that he was trying to follow her again. And that’s when she started to run.

It made no sense to her. How can she be this afraid of one boy? It wasn’t like he did anything to her. In fact, all of his reactions seemed harmless, even friendly—except for following her. But her mind raced with possibilities. Perhaps she had dropped something, or he was going to ask for help. She wanted to believe she had made a mistake and that she just had the wrong impression but she recognized it when all the nerves in her body screamed for her to run. And she did.

Into someone, that is.

“Oompfh—“

Paran almost didn’t recognize her own voice grunting as she fell back on the concrete. She had been distracted and bumped into somebody.

“I’m sorry,” she started and looked up. Relief flooded her face when she saw the man’s face. It was Mr. Kim, one of her father’s close friends, and practically a relative of theirs.

“Nam Paran!” He cried, recognizing her. “Are you all right?”

“Yes.” She answered, grabbing the hand he offered to help her stand up. Thankfully, none of the stuff she bought fell from the bag she was holding.

“Why were you running?” He asked curiously, inspecting her from top to bottom.

Remembering her situation, she turned around and looked for her shadow. Unsurprisingly, he was gone.

“Nothing.” She lied, brushing off her clothes. “I was just in a hurry because it was starting to get dark.”

He only nodded in understanding.

“Are you going home? Want me to give you a ride?” Mr. Kim asked, taking out his keys and pointing to the parking lot across the street.

A/N: Hey again. As you can see, I like to cut chapters into several parts. There's a reason behind this, and I hope I can explain as continue to write this story. Also, you can kind of expect this story to progress slowly. :P