Her heartbeat rose and she heard pounding in her ears. Any moisture in disappear. She didn’t freeze like how the people always seemed to in movies. Instead, she stared at the boy and took a step back before stopping. This was her house, kind of. What right did he have to be here? She thought of something to say, but he spoke up again.

        “Are you okay?” he asked, his voice sounding a bit shaky. Was he nervous too? Why was he asking if she was okay, she came from her house, he came from nowhere. Before she could catch herself, she spoke.

        “Are you okay?” she asked, with her face scrunched in confusion and mild annoyance. He tilted his head a bit and looked at her. Maybe he lives around here too, there wouldn’t be a random guy in the woods.

        “I think so,” he said before cracking a small smile. He was kind of attractive. No, scratch that, he was straight up adorable. But this just made her more on edge.

        “I live” she started before pointing behind her “there. We just moved in,” she said. He nodded at her and look to where she was pointing.

        “You live in a bush?” he asked, trying not to laugh.

        Her face dropped, he must think she’s so weird. “No, like, there’s a house and I live” she paused to let out a shaky breath “in it,” she said as she gulped. He kept looking at her, eyes roaming all over her face and body. She didn’t feel uncomfortable, but just like she should make a good first impression. Deep down, she wanted to be able to see this guy again. She was trying to be friendly that way he might not try to avoid her forever. They stared at each other for a moment. She soon realized she should finish her story.

        “And I live there, with my parents, not by myself, that’d be weird.” she said, eyes still locked on his. He didn’t say anything so she felt the need to keep talking. “We moved in four days ago, maybe five, I can’t remember. But the thing is, um.” she paused, not sure if she should tell him about the animals and if that would weird him out. He raised his eyebrows, questioning her why she stopped mid-sentence. She decided it wasn’t important and to just skip over it. “I just wanted to look and see what’s back here. I was nervous, that’s why I kinda freaked out. I thought I was going to die, maybe, but you're not dead so I guess it’s safe.” she finished, feeling stupid at her awkward explanation.

        “I’m not dead.” he said with a chuckle.

        “Nope, you’re alive,” she said. He made no move to reply and kept his eyes on hers. She stood there for a second, then blinked a  few times before checking her phone. She didn’t remember the time it read once she put it in the back pocket of her jeans.

        “I should uh, um,” she said, taking a step forward, but he didn’t move. She went to walk around him, but his voice made her freeze.

        “Would you like a tour?” he asked from her right.

        She looked up at him, he being a head taller. She had no idea what he meant by tour and the rough look in his eyes made her want to run away. During his internal battle, he smiled and grabbed her wrist.

        “Let’s go.” he said.

        For whatever reason, she didn’t mind going through the woods with the strange boy. He could be taking her to a witch’s house and turned into stew and she wouldn’t mind. They started the walk by going forward until the dirt path disappeared. Then he turned her to the right and they went closer to a thin body of water.

        “I didn’t know there was a creek back here.” she said.

        The boy looked at her and slid his hand down into hers. The girl checked their hands while the boy brought himself closer to the ground. He tugged on her hand to sit next to him. Iseul sat on the forest floor and looked at the water in front of her. This was nice, random, but nice. The only other experience she had with guys was one or two ‘boyfriends’. She only hung around them during high school. Even those lasted for just a few weeks before they would get bored with each other. Even though she just met this boy, sitting by the water and holding his hand was relaxing. She felt fuzzy inside as a million different questions came to mind. Did this guy have a girlfriend? She hoped not, that would be rude of him to hold hands with a random girl if he did have one. Where did he live? How old was he?

        “What’s your name?” she asked, wanting an answer to the simplest of her questions.

        “Mark? Maaarrrkkk? Where are you?” someone’s voice said in the distance. Iseul was still looking at the water before turning her head in the direction of the noise. She looked back at the boy who was st