Winter has arrived and covers the city of Seoul. The wind is blowing a bit hard tonight. Park Dara waves her long hair back so as not to obstruct her view while she hurries along the small and quiet road that led to her apartment building. She shivers because the cold begins to penetrate her thick jacket and sweater. She wants to get home quickly, drink a cup of hot chocolate, and eat a bowl of ramen. Just thinking about it has made her stomach growling.

“Hey!”

Dara jumps in surprise and spins fast. Her eyes widen staring at the woman with short blond hair who had stood beside her. As soon as she recognizes the woman as Lee Chaerin, her neighbor who lives in the downstairs apartment, Dara breathes a sigh of relief.

“Chaerin,” Dara sighs while holding her chest. “You really surprised me.”

Lee Chaerin clicks her tongue and smiles broadly. “You’re easily surprised.”

“You know I always feel anxious when walking alone on a quiet road,” said Dara. “And I have good reason for that.”

“Okay, alright. I’m sorry. Come on, let’s walk quickly. I’m almost frozen,” Chaerin said, holding Dara’s arm. “It looks like you bring a lot. Do you have another book today?”

Dara takes out two books from her bag. Both are famous classic books. “These two books just came in today, so I’m the first person to read them.”

Yes, Dara works in a public library in Insa-dong and she really likes her job. Since her childhood, she was very fond of reading books and her dream was to work in a library, where she could read books to her heart’s content, without interruption, and without the need to spend money.

“Do you want to read it?” She asked Chaerin who looks at the two books with a frown. “I’ll lend them to you when I’m done.”

Chaerin’s eyebrows are raised high and she glares at Dara. “English books? Really,” she said. “You really know my English knowledge is just ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘thank you’, and ‘I love you’. Moreover, I don’t like reading books. This simple brain of mine can only understand comic.”

Dara laughs then changes the subject. “Today you come home late,” she said.

Chaerin nods. “Yeah, I had an appointment with a friend,” she said lightly. “Oh, Seunghoon must have been almost starving to death now. He had called me earlier and asked when I would go home. I don’t know when the kid can grow up and stop pestering her sister. I can’t wait for him to graduate from college and become a lawyer. At that time I will pester him to no end.”

A few minutes later they arrive in front of their apartment building. Actually the building that’s mentioned as an apartment building doesn’t really resemble an apartment building in the mind of most people. The building is only a small, two-stories building. Each floor has two apartments facing each other. There’s no elevator, there’s only a stair that aren’t too wide.

On the ground floor, apartment 101 is occupied by an elderly couple named Shin, who is also the person in charge of the building. The apartment opposite them, number 102 is occupied by the Lee siblings. Lee Chaerin is 25 years old–same age as Dara–and works as a hairstylist in Gangnam, while her younger brother, Lee Seunghoon, is a student majoring in law.

Dara herself occupies apartment 202 on the second floor. Apartment 201 is currently empty. When Dara first moved to this apartment building five years ago, the resident of Apartment 201 was a young architect who had lived there for a long time, then last year a young couple replaced the architect. The husband and wife occupied the apartment opposite Dara’s apartment for a year and last month they decided to buy a small house then moved.

Even though the building is old, the condition of the apartment there is not bad at all. The room is quite large compared to other apartments in general, the facilities are adequate, and the rent is cheap. It’s impossible to find an apartment like that in downtown Seoul.

Each apartment there has the same arrangement: a kitchen, a living room that leads to a narrow balcony that serves as a place to dry clothes, a small booth specifically for toilet, a small bathroom equipped with a water heater, and two small bedrooms. Apartments 101 and 201 have balconies facing north, while balconies of apartments 102 and 202 face south. Besides that, all of the apartment residents there are nice people and Dara has considered them like their own family.

When they arrive at the door to apartment 102, Chaerin turns to face Dara. “Oh yeah, do you know that the new tenant of Apartment 201 has arrived?”

Dara’s eyes widen. “Really?”

Chaerin nods. “I haven’t seen the person myself, but Seunghoon saw him this morning.”

“A man?” asked Dara.

Chaerin nods again. “Seunghoon said, the person came alone and went straight into apartment 201. He didn’t come out since then. Strange, isn’t it?”

Dara’s eyebrows wrinkle faintly. “Didn’t Seunghoon go to campus this morning? How can he know that person is out again or not?”

Chaerin shakes her head and waves her hand. “Seunghoon did go to campus, but Grandma was still at home at the time,” she said, referring to Grandma Shin who lives opposite her apartment. “Grandma also knew that someone had entered the apartment this morning and all day Grandma had put on her eyes and ears. That person hasn’t been out until now.”

“Is that so?” murmured Dara while pondering. “Perhaps Grandpa Shin knows who rents the apartment.”

“I don’t think so,” said Chaerin. “Grandma said, the person who had come from the beginning to see the condition of the apartment and take care of everything about the problem of renting is not this man. Maybe he used agent services or something like that.”

“Oh...”

Chaerin pulls out the door key from her handbag and smiles. “Alright, I have to go in and feed my spoiled brother. Good night, Dara.”

“Good night.” Dara waves and rushes up the stairs while rubbing her hands that felt cold even though they are wrapped in gloves.

When she reaches the door of her apartment, she stops then turns and looks at the door of apartment 201. Her forehead wrinkles. She doesn’t hear any sound from behind the door. Is it true that someone rents the apartment? Why is there no sound? There’s absolutely no sign that someone is inside.

All of a sudden bad thoughts cross Dara’s mind. What if the new tenant falls ill? Dara quickly shakes her head to get rid of the idea. Don’t think weird things. Maybe the person is not at home. The person could have left the house when Grandma Shin was not paying attention.

But still there’s a possibility that the new tenant hasn’t really come out since morning. What if the person is sick and too weak to get out of bed? What if that person doesn’t have anyone to ask for help? What if the person has heart disease and is now in pain? What if he fainted inside there? What if he is dying?!

Dara shivers at the possibility. Then she pats