Wednesday, March twelfth 1997.

She had been looking through the kitchen window since she arrived home. Unfortunately for her, she had been unable to stop thinking about the boy. Even Jihee, whose head was usually in the clouds, had realized her distraction.

The boy was really attractive, his features were delicate and his eyes were as black and deep as a bottomless pit, but in a good way. She didn’t deny those facts at all, moreover, she could even imagine Yoonji dying from envy if she discovered this one day. ‘It’s everything predestined!’ or ‘Han Yebin! I can’t believe a nice and cute guy has approached you out of the blue and talked to you first and you haven’t made a move yet, you are really something!’ She would have repeated those comments over and over again. Yebin shook her head as she laughed at her own thoughts, if Yoonji discovered this, stopping her friend from pestering her about the subject would be really difficult.

But it was precisely that out of the blue what caused her a certain discomfort, maybe she was being paranoid and she should stop watching those late night American crime programs on the TV, but making a mountain out of a molehill was her specialty. So she came up with a plan during one of the many hours she spent spacing out in college.

If I remember correctly, Mrs. Go said the store closes at 2AM. Well, my plan couldn’t be simpler: wait until half an hour is left for the store to close, and that’s it, that’s the plan. The boy will go at the same hour, I won’t be there, Friday will come, I won’t forget about buying the groceries anymore, we won’t see each other’s faces never again and I will eventually come back to my pathetic, lonely and boring life as a student. Sounds pretty cool. One hundred points for Han Yebin.

And that’s how it went. She arrived home and showered. She did everything that was in her hand to spend time without thinking about him, but she always found herself walking baby steps to look through the kitchen window pane every five minutes.

During the course of the almost two hours she saw no trace of the boy, which seemed really fishy in Yebin’s eyes, because her window was oriented towards Level’s, and the boy usually took up to ten minutes to grab whatever he wanted to buy at the store, so if she didn’t see him enter, she should have seen him exit. She grew nervous.

She looked at the clock that was placed above her TV. 01:37AM. She sprang up from her seat automatically and grabbed the clothes she saw first in her room, as she was in her pajamas, a way too big grey t-shirt, and black sweatpants. I have to start thinking about my wardrobe; everything is so dark and monochromatic. She wore the same indigo blue sport shoes she used when she was a member of her school’s athletic club and her purse, and lastly left her house like a bat out of hell. She tried to do the small trip to the store the quickest she was able to, due to the thunders that could be heard not so far away from there.

‘I hope it doesn’t rain…’ She mumbled in an almost inaudible voice before crossing the cross walk that would take her to her destination.

Mrs. Go wasn’t inside the store that day; she was gathering all the trash bins that were outside Level’s.

‘Yebin! You’re late today! I thought you wouldn’t come! I’ll be in the backroom tidying some boxes, please don’t be ashamed of shouting my name when you’re finished if I’m not already up here, okay?’

‘Alright, don’t worry.’

She didn’t have to push the door open, it had a wedge. The warm air didn’t hit her face that night, the heater was already off. The music, however, still flowed through the small store speakers.

Yebin released a relieved sigh when she noticed she was the only person there –besides Mrs. Go, who was in the back of the store. She chose something light for dinner, since it was really late, but something several meters away from her; in the records, tapes and book shelves, caught her eye.

‘Hellsing? Since when does Mrs. Go sell Japanese mangas?’ She uttered under her breath once she had approached the shelves. She was interested in the plot nonetheless and soon enough she opened the book and began leafing through it.

‘You should read it. The story is magnificent.’ Spoke a deep voice behind her, making her jump in surprise.

Yebin turned around to see the one and only Kim Taehyung, who stood a pair of meters away from her, with a bottle of Fanta in his hand and a funny expression on his face, probably because of her reaction. With the same clothes as her, again.

‘Do you enjoy reading mangas? If you do, then read it. I strongly recommend this one.’ He pointed to the book that rested in her arms with a gentle smile.

What a weirdo.

‘Yes, of course, maybe another time…I have to go, it’s late.’

‘It’s a very surprising coincidence that we have met three nights in a row in here, but I’m not complaining, it’s really nice–‘

‘Oh, are you here too? It’s too late for younglings like you both to be up this hour.’ Mrs. Go’s voice interrupted him, and Yebin couldn’t help but think she owed her one.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

She bowed to Taehyung and basically ran to the cash register, but he followed her.

‘6600₩, please.’ Mrs. Go said as she put the girl’s dinner inside a little plastic bag.

When Yebin handed her the money and was prepared to go Mrs. Go’s voice stopped her.

‘It has begun raining, be careful.’

She smiled at her fleetingly, thanking her for the warning and got out of there in a blink of an eye. It was becoming quite overwhelming. Could he be spying her? He didn’t look like the type to do so but what else could explain those ‘coincidental meetings’ at Level’s with the same clothes. A chill ran down her spine.

There were barely any cars circulating down the road, and she sped up to her apartment block’s gate, not because of the rain, because she could have sworn seeing through her peripheral vision Kim Taehyung heading towards the same direction as her, when he left the store.