He

The first time he saw her was on his 26th birthday. He was in the dance floor of the hotel with his friends, celebrating his birthday and at the same time enjoying after finishing his bar exam. He was just talking with his friends in the bar when he noticed her.

She was wearing a black sleeveless top with jeans shorts. In a hot summer day, among the crowd, how he noticed her was an amazing fact alone. But his eyes followed her as she moved around the dance floor, swaying to the music. She wasn’t the best dancer around but the way she was moving to the song was so enticing. She was dancing freely with no inhibition getting all into the music. He wasn't a dance kind of guy, he at dancing. But seeing her dance made his feet move on his own, and by no time he found himself on the dance floor.

She

It was her 26th birthday tomorrow, and here she was in the dance floor in foreign city alone. It was madness, she knew. If it wasn't for the fact that she won a free 1N2D ticket to Seoul with free hotel accommodation a week ago, she probably wouldn’t have been here. It was some kind of tradition to have birthday dinner with family, so instead of her birthday she had decided to come day earlier so that she could return to Busan for her birthday dinner the next day. She didn’t know whether entering the upper half of twenty was making her anxious, but she wanted to do something different from other birthdays.. and hence the entire trip.

The ticket was for two, but for some reason she wanted to do this alone.

She drank the cocktail and headed to dance floor. She knew she wasn't a great dancer but she was going to let loose today. She was going to enjoy her last day as 25.

As she danced around, she felt a solid body close to her. She looked up to a very good looking face with an intelligent eyes dancing beside her. And judging by that "birthday boy" sticker on his shirt pocket, he was here with friends to celebrate his birthday. They danced, without any talk. She was having too much fun. He wasn't a person that cared about the dance moves but rather the type that knew how to have fun.  And it was only when she was out of breath from dancing too much that he spoke

"Do you want to go sit and grab a drink?"

She nodded, and followed him to the bar

"So..Happy Birthday to you." She toasted her beer to him before taking a sip

He was confused how she knew about it being his birthday, and realized it must be that sticker his friends had made him put on

"Thank you. I knew this sticker was childish, but I need to thank my friends since I got a birthday wish out of you."

The guy was danger. She knew. But she made no attempt to get up or move away

"Do you want to go somewhere else? I can hardly hear you talk over the music!" he suggested

If she had any common sense left, she would have rejected the offer. She was taught to not follow strangers anywhere. But she wanted to follow this stranger. So instead of declining politely she found herself asking "Where?"

"There is a great roof garden in this hotel. It has great view of the city too, and cool at this time."

"What about your friends?" she asked

"Being a birthday boy means I can do whatever I want. Besides, they are here for dance and drinks not for me" he shrugged "What about you? Shouldn’t you inform your companion?" he added

She was here alone, but right now she didn’t know how much should she disclose to this good looking stranger.

"I guess I should. I never know if I might get kidnapped by you." She quickly typed a message to her bestfriend Bomi to let her know of her whereabouts and slipped her phone back in her phone

"I like a woman with precaution. But I promise you, I will do nothing that you don't want to."

With that, they left the crowded dance floor and headed to the rooftop garden

The garden was empty at this time of the night. It was already past 11pm. And there were vending machines selling coffee, beers and light snacks. Being hot mid-August, the cool breeze blowing in the rooftop was a pleasure.

He went to buy some beer and snacks while she looked at the view spread before them.

He stayed silently, observing how she was taking in the view. Being born and raised in Seoul, it had been a while since he saw Seoul from someone else's perspective. Her eyes were shining, trying to take in the view as if to engrave it in her memory. She looked ethereal with the wind blowing her hair, and looking a bit flushed whether it was from the heat or from the earlier dancing..

He just wanted to keep observing her, but the cool can of beer was reminding him that he needed to give the beer before it warmed up

"Are you here for work or pleasure?" he asked, handing her beer after she turned

"What makes you think I'm not from here?" she opened the beer with a pop

"Give me some credit. I just gave an exam to become lawyer. I'd like to think I have that much deduction skills." He looked mock-annoyed

"All right Mr. to-be-lawyer. I'm pretty sure my satoori is a tell-tale anyway. I'm here because I won a free ticket."

Usually the free tickets came as a pair, and he was really curious about what happened to the other ticket. But it was not in his place to ask.

"I just wanted to relax for a day before going back to reality." She added

He got what she meant. Everybody needed to escape reality once in a while to remain sane in this world.

"So how is relaxing going so far?" he asked

"Oh, wonderful! I didn’t think I would have so much fun! I wandered around the city on my own, went to get massage, and now I am having fun with a stranger on a rooftop of a hotel" she smiled at him