Since I was a graduate student, the work load in my classes was little and I enjoyed a lot of free time around the city in cafés and sometimes shopping.
When I woke up in my apartment in the more or less beautiful area of Sadang, close to university, I decided to get a strong coffee, stroll through the library and maybe meet a few of my classmates for a cocktail tonight.

My neck was sore and I didn't feel entirely rested. Before I had fallen asleep last night, my thoughts had been partly with Seojoon and our meeting at the café, but mostly with the strange man outside of it. It creeped me out - I tried to calm myself with the thought that he had just mistaken me for someone else. After all, I didn't know this guy, nor did I have any monkey business going on, so there was no reason for people following me around. His gaze had been so persistent, though, that it was hard to be convinced that it'd been a mistake.

Before I could get ready for the day, I could see a FaceTime call popping up on my laptop. It was Irene.
I rushed over and quickly picked up. I hadn't talked to her in at least a month.

"Sedam, dear, how have you been?", she chanted as soon as the call connected.
"How have you been?"
Irene had the impact on people to immediately lighten up everyone's faces with a smile. The energy and brightness about her was a thing to make everyone fall in love with her at first sight. We had met in an international middle school, being the only two Asians at that time. Irene was born in the US and moved to Seoul with her parents in her teens. Though she barely spoke any Korean back then and I didn't speak English so well, it just clicked from day one and we were best friends from then on.
Her trade mark, the rainbowed color hair, like on every other day too, shined colorfully and chique on my screen. She was at home, sitting on her bed, it was night.

"New York is my favorite city in the world. I love living here, so it's been great! I didn't do any runway shows the past months, but had some smaller appearances around here. You should see the nightlife, meet the people - simply unbelieveable. The only thing missing is real Korean BBQ, I have to tell you. If I want to eat that, I have to pay a fortune for it! Anyways: How is Seoul?"
"All the same. It's been really cold, as loud as ever and nothing really new happenend. Oh - what am I saying! Just yesterday, something very interesting happenend", I told her.
"What was it?"
"Well, I was at the café reading, the café up on Namsan. And then, later that evening, Seojoon came in, looking for me! He didn't text before or anything, he suddenly just stood there and asked me for something insignificant."
"Did he break up with the other girl?", Irene asked.
"How would I know. He left after like five minutes again."
"I thought maybe the reason was that he realized he likes you better and tries to get back in touch with you? I don't know."
I sighed. "Yes, I don't know either. It messed me up a little bit. But then, something even freakier happened. There was another guy."
"How many guys are there? Is there something you aren't telling me?", Irene jokingly asked.
"I wish it was that way. But no, it was so strange. A man stood outside the café and just looked at me for a whole few minutes. Just standing there, all his clothes were black, staring at me. When he was done, he just disappeared into thin air. It really creeped me out. His gaze was frightening."
"That sounds like a horror movie. But are you sure he was looking at you? I mean, what reason could there be?"
"Tell me about it. Maybe it was just a crazy person. Who knows, I will probably never see him again anyways."

After we chatted a little more about her days and new apartment in New York, we promised to speak again soon and hung up.
I got ready and then headed out, and instead of going to the library, I made my way to the Kyobo Book Center in Gangnam. I decided that my bookshelf needed some updating.

I was strolling through the busy streets in Gangnam, countless suited people were rushing between lunch and work, only a few people took their time for a walk and the coffee shops were filled with students studying. Whenever I saw them, I felt so glad to have the busiest semesters behind me. How many times I had spent sitting there like that, studying until late night, only to do the same thing again the following day.
Before I went inside Kyobo, I put my headphones back in my purse and walked into the direction of the bestsellers. I hadn't been here for a while.
One book sparked my interest, so I took it from the shelf and was lucky to get a free spot to sit down and check it out.

I was into the book for fifteen minutes, when I got this weird feeling of someone looking at me. But when I looked up, the people around me were all drawn to their pages. Nobody seemed weird either, so I brushed it off and blamed it on the encounter from last night. It couldn't be.

I decided to buy the book a while later, paid at the counter and went out to grab a coffee.
I was waiting at a flash light to cross the road on the streets while the icy winter wind made me clutch my scarf closer to my throat. The light turned green.

I walked, and when I almost got to the other side of the road, suddenly a waiting car on the other side of the intersection hit the gas and was aiming directly towards me.
It was a matter of seconds, but it seemed to happen in slow-motion. Paralyzed by the shock, I stood there and saw the car coming at me at a deadly speed.
Not being able to do anything, in that moment, my brain went silent and the car was two seconds away from hitting me.

The next moment, with crushing weight, my body hit the concrete. People on the sidewalk were gasping, staring at the scene in shock.
What surprised me, was that the car wasn't what hit me. On top of me was a person, pausing for a moment to get a grip on the situation.
I felt a burning pain in my back and my head hurt, but other than that, everything felt as ok as it could be right now. Slowly, I opened my eyes to catch a glance at the person that rescued me. I could not quite see his face, but I realized it was a man, tall and pretty muscular.
Just when I was about to make out his face, the man quickly got up and got away.

What just happened here?

No, I wanted to know my savior. I, too, got up as quickly as I could and limped, considering the pain in my back, into the direction the man went.
His clothes were all black, so I looked around and actually made out a dark dressed person waiting at the other crossroad.
I rushed over there, and just before the lights turned green and the people started walking, I got a hold of his arm.

"Sorry, did you just-"
As he turned around, I immediately let go of his arm in shock. I was certain that he was the guy from last night.
He looked at me, a few strains of his pitch black hair falling over his eyes, which were dark as the night.
"Did you just... save me from that car?", I stuttered. It must be him. It was him, the guy from the café.
His expression didn't change. "You must be mistaking me for someone else."

With that, he was gone and lost in the crowd.