I’m Lu Han, and this is my story.

I’m a website designer, small with wavy hair, thick black glasses, you know the sort. I’m weedy and some would call me a geek, dork and nerd. I know all that. I don’t get out much; I guess that’s why I chose web design. It meant I could stay indoors and do what I enjoy with the least possible social interaction. Granted, sometimes I do have to talk to clients face to face but it’s usually over emails or phone calls. I’m sat in my small two roomed...apartment most days, coding, designing. Yeah, a two room apartment. Well, web designers don’t really get paid too much and I’m young, I’m just starting out. I’m twenty-three, twenty-four this year.

I guess it’s kind of a lonely existence.

I make friends, but they get tired and leave, or they stop calling. You know how that feels right? I guess though it’s partly my fault, I push them away. I don’t mean to.

Something about being in a dark, familiar room late at night with the only light being from the computer screen is comforting. My sleep schedule is seriously messed up; I spent evenings and nights working, mornings sleeping and afternoons working, usually.

But I think that’s what life is usually like for a website designer of my background? We didn’t have much money as I was growing up, my mother passed away from illness a few years ago and my father remarried and moved away and had other children. We parted badly, we don’t speak much. More on that later.

I started this blog since I don’t really talk to people often; I think this...will help.

Well, I’m Lu Han, and this is my blog.

He selected ‘post’ with a satisfying click and sat up, stretching. It was a gloomy day outside, it was grey and the rain pattered against the glass of the large, and only, window of his small rented rooms. He wasn’t even sure if it deserved to be called in apartment. It consisted of two rooms. One, an average sized rectangle room containing his bed; a small kitchen with microwave and iron, a sink, a small ragged sofa, a cheap television balanced on top of his clothes drawers and a narrow bookshelf packed side to side with magazines, scruffy paperbacks and manga and finally, a small wooden desk piled high with notes and pens and somewhere between it all was his laptop computer and graphics tablet. The other room, a small box shaped bathroom on the opposite side to the window. It wasn’t much, and it was a complete fire hazard, but it was a liveable space and over time Lu Han had become fonder of it.

His single bed was in the corner by the window, with his head on a pile of various pillows and cushions he’d spent many nights drifting off to sleep by tracing the patterns of the curtains with his finger.

The window was wide and old, from floor to ceiling. It was locked with a simple brass latch, and then covered with wooden shutters on the inside and then drawn over with Lu Han’s choice blue patterned curtains. The window opens by opening the latch and sliding the bottom half of it up, then with some difficulty you can hold it open and duck under onto a small concrete balcony that was only as wide as the window itself, and probably only big enough to fit two or three people. He didn’t go out there much, the view wasn’t exactly outstanding. He lived in a rough neighbourhood, on the edge of the city. There were police sirens from that way and ambulance sirens from this way. There were usually foreign people shouting and arguing in the street, drunkards and parties everywhere 24/7. He’d never had any trouble confront him himself though. It was at least one advantage of being next to invisible to people.

On the internet though, it was a completely different case. He was new into the job, but clients were coming in quickly. He usually woke up with eight new emails, six clients and some advertisements. His personal website viewer count was rising by the day and with every comment and compliment on his website designs he got, he grinned widely. He’d gotten pretty popular pretty quickly and it was still growing.

He refreshed the page and read through his blog entry again. Then-

A comment.

Anonymous commented [18:54]: Lu Han...You’re interesting.

Lu Han snorted and scrunched up his nose. Anonymous, huh? Oh, what the hell.

You replied [18:59]: Interesting?

Lu Han waited a few minutes, sorted out some sticky notes scattered about his desk, crossed his legs comfortably on his chair and then refreshed the page again.

Anonymous replied [19:02]: Very.

He blinked at the screen; he didn’t quite know what to say to that. He frowned and checked the time, then checked it again. It was already seven?!  He jumped up quickly - realising how hungry he actually was - knocked off a few pens to the floor and hurried to the fridge to search for some food. There wasn’t really much, he grumbled to himself as he shoved a slice of cheese into his mouth and ate it whilst he searched for a more substantial meal. Then his ringtone started playing loudly from the direction of his unmade bed.

Lu Han sighed and shuffled over to the bed, shutting the refrigerator nonchalantly as he went. He scrambled onto his bed and followed the music to find his phone hidden under the bunch of mismatch blankets and squinted at the screen. He didn’t recognise the number as one of his current clients, maybe it’s an offer? He fell back onto the pillows, his feet hanging off the side, and answered the call.

“Hello?”

~

A/N: Hmm...