Ji Hyun's POV

It was another one of my restless nights and here I was at one of the gym establishments that we owned working my insomnia away.

I was in my private training room and it was like nothing changed since the last time I’ve been here. The weights were still in the order that I left them. My punching bag was still hanging from its hook in the middle of the room and my old sneakers were still in the same corner where I left them before going to SM.

I dropped my gym bag on the floor and brought out my tablet to swipe it over to the video app that Mark installed not too long ago so that I could still monitor Hani while I worked out for tonight. The moment the screen flashed to her I was shocked to see Mark’s face instead of Hani’s sleeping figure.

He had a look of disappointment and I inwardly groaned before speaking.

“Ya. What are you doing? Where’s Hani?” I asked through the video call and I watched as he only maintained his expression before looking over his shoulder.

“She’s in her crib sleeping. Come home Ji Hyun-ah. I know your restless. But you could just read a book or something here at home you know.” He said and I could see his background moving from the screen. He was probably making his way towards Hani. I stared at the screen as he fixed the camera on Hani’s mobile that was arranged on the side of her crib and I smiled seeing how my baby girl was sound asleep not even making a stir.

And here I was dealing with my own instead of being in the same room as her. I sighed and grabbed my gym bag from the floor to make my way out of the training centre. I was locking up when my phone vibrated.

I took it out after dialing in my security code to lock the centre fully and saw that it was Mark calling. I swiped the screen as I entered the elevator that would take me to the car park.

“Yes Mark. I’m on my way home.” I interjected before he could say anything else. I could hear some shuffling in the background, he was probably making his way out of Hani’s nursery.

“Good. You know, you wouldn’t feel so restless if you just stopped t-“ I cut him off before he could say anything else. The last thing I needed was another lecture from him about my weight loss methods.

“Not even gonna hear you out on this one. You’ve probably given me around a hundred arguments about it and I still refuse to accept any of them. So what makes this one any different from the others?” I told him and the elevator stopped on the third floor. I shifted my bag and walked out listening to Mark’s silence on the other end of the line.

I smirked hearing how he just kept silent while I walked my way to my car. I just clicked the alarm off on my car when I finally heard him groan at the other end of the line.

“Ji, your body is not coping well. You know that. Could you just relax? You’re stressed enough as it is with with work and Hani, next to that, you are going way beyond your limit just because we saw Lu Han the other day…” He continued on while I made myself comfortable in my car.

I synced my phone to my BMW’s bluetooth and let his voice ring through my car. Here we go again with Mark being his naturally nagging self. I was starting to rev the engine when I swear to God I saw something move in front of me.

I let out a small gasp and it only made Mark stop in the middle of his rant.

“What happened?” He asked and I snapped back to his voice shaking my head at the hooded figure that I thought passed. I unlocked my brakes and pressed on the gas gently trying to gather my thoughts on what I just saw.

“It’s nothing. I just swear I saw something move. Probably a plastic bag or something.” I explained and maneuvered the car to the ramp and glided my way down.

“Are you starting to see things? I don’t recall paranoia being written down on-“ I stopped the car along the driveway waiting for a clear zone to enter the traffic when I told him to shut up about it again.

“Mark. Now is not a good time. I’ll see you later alright?” I told him and I heard him let out a breath before he gave in to my request.

The phone ended with a click and it was just in time for me to enter into the evening traffic. I was calmly driving through when I thought about what I saw earlier.

It definitely wasn’t a plastic bag and I was as sure as hell that it was a person. Something couldn’t move that fast by just being carried by the wind.

Shaking my head at the possibility I turned at the next intersection and noticed that not many vehicles were taking this road out of traffic. I shrugged and checked my side mirrors when I saw a vehicle following right behind me. Okay maybe I needed to go have a check up because Mark might be right about the paranoia thing.

This was still a public road and I’m sure he wouldn’t go as far as following me into my village residence, that was a private area and rarely did anyone go out this late at night. Plus, I knew every car around our place and this car behind me definitely wasn’t a familiar one.

I was minding the curves and saw road that would lead up to my village. I checked my mirrors briefly and I was right. The car was still hot on my trail. I made the turn silently praying that they didn’t follow but then again I was wrong, they made the turn alongside me and I just gaped a bit. He was definitely following me. This wasn’t a spur of paranoia anymore.

“I am smarter than you think buddy.” I muttered mostly to myself. I was not going to lead him directly to where I lived. There was no way in hell that I would lead this stranger to where Hani was sleeping.

I made a left instead of a right and drove my way to the clubhouse. It maybe closed at this time but they had some baseball equipment that would be useful for me.