Hyejung left for her date that night after plenty of reassuring from me while she took far too long to pick which bracelet went with her dress. The apartment had been dead silent except for the ticking of the clock in the living room as soon as she left. I had the night to myself. Scratching my head, I figured I should go out when I could and meet new people to be with instead of staying in. Most of the time, I only talked to Hyejung.

My mind wandered back to Pretty Eyes as I quietly returned the clean dishes to their proper locations in the kitchen. We were crossing paths often. I was certain that it was him at the library and him again at the mall earlier, or else I would have to get my eyes checked and I was seeing his face in double. I frowned at myself. He was a stranger. I shouldn’t even think about him. What was his name? Even I didn’t know that.

I even considered for a whole minute that I should call Junmyeon and ask for his name at least. I felt like I had a duty to know him more. Throwing myself on my bed and closing my eyes, I told myself to not even bother.  

I woke up the next morning to the light from the sun stabbing through my eyelids. Staring at my ceiling and feeling the presence of the Data Booklet next to my bed, I realized that I had forgotten to finish my lab report before falling asleep. Rolling to my right, I didn’t even remember putting my blanket on myself. Hyejung must have put it on me when she got back.

Remembering Hyejung, I stood to wander out of my room to check on her. Through the tiny crack at her door, I saw Hyejung’s still sleeping form sprawled diagonally across her bed. I wondered how her date with that Luhan guy went. She fell asleep with her clothes from the night before. I couldn’t tell if that was a good sign or not.

Sighing and trudging back to my room, I dressed myself before I could go out to find some decent breakfast and maybe finish my lab report before that night.

I ended up wandering into a place called Coffee Republic with my laptop after finding out through a little sign that the normal café that I visited was down for construction. Letting myself in, I noted the few amount of people that occupied the tables. It was still early in the morning, after all. Choosing that my favorite new spot was going to be at the corner beside an outlet, I sat down and lifted the lid of my laptop to repower it to life. I could read the menu behind the front counter on the wall from where I sat and looked over the names of unfamiliar foods.

“Can I get anything for you?”

I shifted my attention to the waiter that appeared by my table with a notepad at his hand. He kept a pen poised over the paper while he waited for my answer. I could have sworn I forgot to breathe as soon as I locked gazes with Pretty Eyes... yet again. He waited patiently with his warm smile. Noticing I was taking too long to answer, I said the first thing that I read off of the menu.

“Bagel with cream cheese.”

“Regular or whole grain bread?”

I didn’t even think about what that meant. “Regular?”

With a nod, he jotted that down. “Anything to drink?”

“A medium cappuccino is fine.”

“Great. I’ll be right back with your order.” Placing his pen in his pocket, he returned to the front counter of the café to ring up my order.

This was weird. Too weird.

Why was I suddenly seeing him everywhere? Hearing his familiar voice as he conversed with another customer who asked about espresso shots, I was definitely one-hundred percent sure that it had to be him. Maybe they were triplets who worked in three different places?

Pretty Eyes came back a moment later after I had organized the table in my lab report with my bagel on a plate. He didn’t act as surprised as I was. It was like we had seen each other for the first time with the way he spoke and acted. Maybe my theory was right. They were triplets? Or maybe his face was common in Seoul, though he was more on the cute side to have his looks be so common.

I picked at my bagel and sipped my drink, still conscious of the things he did around the café. His uniform was a black button-up shirt that I thought suited him. Even as I kept my eyes glued to my laptop screen, I was still aware of his kind goodbye’s to the customers who were leaving after paying and his constant back and forth between the front counter and tables. I thought that the bagel wasn’t actually that bad, though it was more of Hyejung’s taste.

“Are you stalking me?”

I flinched at his voice suddenly so close beside me. Pretty Eyes was busting the table next to mine with a towel without making eye contact with me. He was practically whispering.

“What?” So he did recognize me then.

“Are you some sort of paid critic to come and judge me while I work so you can write a report on me later?” He glanced at my laptop.

I pointed at it innocently. “This is my lab report.”

“Sure,” he curtly said. “If you don’t want to tell me that you’re a critic, then I’ll pretend to not know.”

It was my turn to look at him oddly. “But I’m not a person-critic. I’m not sure that job even exists.”

Pretty Eyes shrugged. “You never know.”

I scoffed. “I’m not stalking you. I promise. Are you sure you aren’t reading my mind from a distance and stalking me?”

He scrubbed at the table slower, maybe considering what I offered. “Superpowers don’t exist like that.”

“You never know,” I said, quoting him.

He seemed to get my joke because he grinned.

I bit again into my bagel. “That table is plenty shiny now.” Hearing that, he stopped from wiping at it and awkwardly straightened out. “But if you want me to leave, I—“

“No, no. I didn’t mean to be rude.” Pretty Eyes looked at me this time with some apology in his expression. “I was just curious, because you’re everywhere I am.”

“I don’t know, but I’m not stalking you,” I repeated, wanting to get that fact across. If he thought I had some obsession over him, he was wrong.

“Then are we in an inception movie?” He glanced around the shop for any signs of cameras planted on the walls or any camera men that would jump out. “Or in some kind of prank show?”

I laughed, nearly choking on my drink because he seemed genuinely confused that he had me believing it for a moment as well. “No, none of that.”

Spotting the name tag he had attached to his uniform, I took a glance at it. Pretty Eyes turned away just before I could read it as an elderly lady with a cane entered the shop. He greeted her with a friendly good morning and gave me a final look before hurrying to the lady to a seat. He held an arm out in support as she grasped on to it. I had only caught half of the second syllable of his name... unfortunately. Turning back to my work and idly sipping my cappuccino, some part of me hoped that he’d look my way again and start conversation.

He never does as he gets busier with work and I ask myself why I was hoping for that in the first place anyway.

“You know, the lab was due yesterday,” Junmyeon said over the line. With my phone wedged betwee