Note: Dialogues in Italics are spoken in English and in Bold are spoken in German

After finishing her study in Germany, Hae Rin was planning to tour around Europe a bit before she returned to Korea. Upon hearing her plan, an acquaintance of hers, suggested her to visit a fest in the nearby town which was pretty famous around the continent.

And because of her suggestions, Hae Rin had booked up her accommodations and everything else well in advance and when she arrived in the town a few days before the fest, she could see how the town was gearing up.

On the eve of the first day of the fest, Hae Rin was running late for her meeting with some last minute client. So she hopped out of the halted bus without a second thought and stumbled on a suitcase of a passerby walking on the street.

Luckily she managed to steady herself quickly and helped the overturned suitcase to an upright position, while mumbling out a few sorry and excuses before making eye contact with the owner for a brief second while he mumbled out similar words too. She bowed one last time before she turned around and rushed out towards the meeting spot.

A while later, she made her way towards the same bus stop but instead of stopping there, she continued to walk past it, towards the Asian store to get some condiments and such. She pulled out her earphones from her jacket pocket and plugged them in her ears.

As she was walking past a hotel, she noticed the same man from earlier, standing in front of the hotel lobby. His expressions seemed frustrated as he spoke with someone on his phone. Their gazes locked once again but this time, the two acknowledged each other with a slight nod of their head, as she continued on her way.

When she returned a few minutes later, with a bunch of bags in her hand, the man was now sitting in front of the hotel, looking dispirited. She slowed down, wondering if she should ask if he needed any help, but a moment later decided to simply carry on with her work.

However, the nature had other things in mind. One of her carry-on bags snapped and the contents spilled out, and as she tried to catch them, the earphones unplugged from her phone, making the song play out loud through the phone’s speakers.

She sighed, as she picked up the spilled contents, having decided to ignore her phone in her pocket for the moment. Another pair of hands popped in and helped her collect the things. When she looked up to thank the person for helping her, it was the same man from earlier.

“Danke Schon [Thank you],” she uttered in German, as he stuffed the last item into her backpack.

“You’re welcome,” he replied in Korean, smiling softly and when she stared at him with a raised eyebrow, “The songs, then your bag,” he said in his broken Korean, pointing at her bag which had some Korean foods and snacks in them.

She let out a chuckle, “But I assume you’re not Korean? By the way, you can talk to me in English.”

He let out a sigh in relief, “Oh, thank God! My Korean isn’t so good. Would you like a hand with that?”

“Oh, no, thank you though!” she shook her head. “Is everything alright though? You seemed troubled.”

“Oh well,” he hesitated for a minute, then he narrated the incident of how his hotel reservation got cancelled because of some discrepancies between the hotel and the third party website he had used. “The guy at the counter only speaks limited English and so, he had asked me to wait for another person.”

Hae Rin immediately offered to help and walked over to the counter to talk to the receptionist. Only when she started speaking to him, did she realize that she didn’t know his name. “Hey, under what name have you booked the room?” she asked, instead of asking for his name directly.

“Under my name, Eric Nam,” he replied.

“I’m Kang Hae Rin, by the way,” she introduced herself finally, which let him figure out the trick she has just pulled on him and he simply chuckled.

She spoke with the receptionist in German for a while and in the end, returned unsuccessful. “I’m sorry, he really couldn’t help. They currently have no vacant room. They are fully booked for the entire fest. I’ll try to look for some alternatives online.” She told him, taking out her phone and typing things on it.

Unfortunately, none of the lodging, homestays or rental sites had any vacant rooms for the following week. She even searched through the smaller motels and inns but none of them turned fruitful. “There are two places nearby that don’t have any info about the room availability online. We could try there.” She picked up her things and motioned him to follow suit.

As the two made their way to the taxi pickup area, they made some small talks while she continued to look up the motel’s address to book a taxi and that was when the realization hit her and jitters started to set in. But the taxi has already been booked, so there was no backing out now.

Her grip on her bag's strap tightened as a taxi pulled in front of them and confirmed their booking. She gulped hard as Eric pulled the door open for her. After a brief second of hesitation, she took a deep breath and got in, followed by him.

Ever since the accident, she couldn’t get into a car without having a breakdown, even if she wasn’t the one driving it. If Jaemin or Jun was with her, things were a little different since she could squeeze the life out of them through the entire ride.

Since that wasn’t the case now, she squeezed the side of her thighs that was hidden under the bag on her lap while trying her best to zone her mind out. Eric was saying something about the passing views but her brain hardly processed any of them.

Meanwhile, Eric noticed her suddenly being uncomfortable and wondered if it was because of his bag that was placed in between them and so, tried to adjust it. His hand touched hers briefly and she relaxed and when he retracted his hand, she tensed back again.

Although it confused him a bit, he once again wrapped his hand around his bag, which in turn made contact with hers and her tensed form visibly relaxed and so, he continued to stay so until they reached the destination. She jumped out of the vehicle as if she was trying to escape a predator and exhaled deeply, her eyes tightly shut.

However, she regained her composure within a few seconds and acted normal like nothing of sorts had happened while Eric also went along with it. They reached the motel and inquired about room availability but it was the same story as all those other places.

So, once again they booked a taxi and headed towards this other place she found. And throughout the ride, she acted the same way as before and Eric tried to help her in the same way, even though he wasn’t sure what he was helping her with. At the end of the ride though, he could deduce some things from the similar patterns.

And just like before, this turned out to be yet another fruitless trip. By now, they both have pretty much run out of options. She was lost in thought for a moment as they both stood in front of the motel. Then she turned towards him and uttered the most reckless thing she has ever done in her life, “What about my place? I have a couch at my place which is pretty comfortable and maybe you can,” she mumbled at the end, starting to realize what she was implying while he stared at her stunned.

However, even before she could either retract her invitation or wait for his reply, her phone started ringing. “I’m sorry, I gotta take this,” she excused herself and answered the call.

“Have you gone crazy?” the voice yelled from the other side.

“Well, hello to you too,” she replied, sarcastically.

“Very funny,” he retorted, “Seriously though, what the hell were you even thinking?”

The two continued to go back and forth with the argument for a few more minutes, “So, what do you think?” she asked again, finally calming down.

“What do I think?” he started but took a deep breath and calmed himself down, and let out a huge sigh, “He does have a clean sheet, but still –”

“Alright, thanks for the info. Talk to you later. Love you, Aiden.” She immediately hung up. “Sorry about that,” she smiled sheepishly at Eric and a second later, she finally gained courage and asked, “So? Are you taking up my offer or?”

He stared at her blankly for a moment, lost in his thoughts. “If it’s alright with you, I would like to take up the offer.”

She smiled, hearing it, “But before I take you home, just know that I’ve sent a copy of your passport to my friend. If anything happened to me, they’d know it’s you. So, no funny business.”

“Oh dang! Now I gotta change my murder plans,” he joked while she rolled her eyes, before the two broke into laughter.

She was about to book another taxi for them to go to her place, but he interrupted her and told her that he had no issues taking the bus or even walking home if it wasn’t that far. He wasn’t sure if these other modes of transport stressed her as well, but he was sure she wasn’t comfortable traveling in a taxi. So he tried to offer her an alternat