The second time I met her was at the last meeting between me and my lawyer.

I hadn't seen her any other time ever since the other day. I almost thought she was avoiding me. Which didn't feel good. But who was I to judge?

But the last time I was meeting the lawyer, well until the official lawsuit, was today. I was worried and naturally, I was also scared.

When I walked into the large conference room the first person I noticed was her. She didn't change at all, not her hairstyle, her shoes; her clothes were the same type of business suits. But this time she was typing rapidly on a laptop.

As I looked around I noticed that my translator wasn't present, which was strange. He was always here before me.

I got up to ask the girl about the translator, since the lawyer was still busy getting all the papers ready. So I walked up behind her and tapped her shoulder.

I didn't expect her to react so badly. She flinched so hard that she almost knocked the laptop off the table.

Her voice, shaken and quiet, "Could you, please, remove your hand from me?"

I looked down to see that my hand was still upon her shoulder, I immediately snapped my hand back to my side. She visibly relaxed, her shoulders dropping. She turned to face me, her dark eyes never meeting mine, "Is there something I can help you with, sir?"

"Don't call me sir," I smiled gently, “I can't be much older than you."

"Alright, if that is what you want, sir."

"Hey! What did I say about calling be sir?"

She smiled sheepishly, "Okay, what should I call you then?"

"Luhan," I stated, and then asked, "What should I call you then?"

She paused for a moment, almost as if she was debating whether or not she should tell me her name. She seemed almost scared to give it out.

"Na Ling," she answered, her voice so soft I barely caught what she was saying.

"Anyway, do you know when the translator is going to be here?" I questioned, seeing how uneasy she was about giving out personal information.

She seemed happy to answer me, her tone much more confident, "He won't be here today since he has the flu."

"Oh," I replied, then asked, "Who's going to be my translator then?"

She then smiled and answered, "Me."

Okay, I'll be honest. I was happy she was going to be my translator. She was so intriguing, fragile but had a bit of iron in her. And I wanted to know more about her.

I stuck out my hand, "Nice to meet you."

She stared at my hand as if it was going to bite her so I quickly retracted it. Just then the lawyer cleared his throat and beckoned me over so I left to read over the papers that were ready to be sent to SME. I once again looked over at the girl, Na Ling, to see her still typing furiously on her laptop. I wondered what was so important that she practically ignored everyone in the room.

 The third time I met her was a coincidence. Well, kind of coincidence. I had heard that she liked to go to a particular restaurant from the secretary that, first of all was 40 years old, and second of all was extremely flirty. She had been trying to engage me into a conversation for 10 minutes and was failing, so I tried to make the best of it by asking about Na Ling. The secretary had said she was terribly secretive and the only thing that she knew about her was that she liked to eat at the congee place across the street for lunch.

So that was where I was, decked out in glasses and hair covered by a beanie (red hair draws attention that I really don’t need right now). Waiting for her to show up.

Desperate, I know. But I couldn’t stop thinking about her, the way her eyes were always downcast, the way her voice was both strong and weak, truthfully though, it was mostly the way she smiled. It was on her lips, but it wasn’t real, it was nothing more than a twist of the lips. So I was curious.

I had been sitting in the shop for an hour already; the workers were becoming snippy at me, even if I ordered their special. That was stupid of me. Their congee special was an entire pot, yes, an entire pot worth of congee. Even if Tao was here we still wouldn’t have been able to have finished it.

The tinkling of the chimes by the doors interrupted my reminiscing and I looked up to see a familiar head of dark hair in a ponytail.

Clearly she was a regular customer, the secretary wasn’t lying, and it showed. She was immediately greeted warmly by the workers and was engaged into a conversation by one of the female workers. Come to think of it the male workers all kept a respectful distance around her, and the only people she spoke to somewhat warmly was to women.

I tapped on the shoulder by a waiter, “Excuse me sir, but we have a customer,” He gestured to Na Ling, “And it would be helpful if you could leave. You have been here for the past hour and we have customers to serve.”

“Oh,” I replied, thinking of a way I could get Na Ling to sit with me, “Her? I know Na Ling! I was waiting here for her for a while already. I was wondering if she was going to show up.”

“Okay,” the waiter nodded, “I’ll send her over here.”

I watched as the waiter spoke to Na Ling, he gestured towards me and I sent her a small wave. She stayed still for a long moment; I nervously waited for her to decide whether it was safe to sit with me. Finally she nodded, and I let out a sigh of happiness.

I watched as she approached me with a tense look on her face. I realized I have never looked into her eyes before, and that just made me all the more interested in her. As she approached my table she shyly pulled out the chair facing me and sat down.

“Hello, Luhan,” Na Ling softly greeted, “Is something wrong with your lawsuit that I can help you with?”

“Oh! No,” I waved my hands in front of me, “It’s nothing like that. I was eating here thinking about what I should do, and then I saw you come in. I ordered too much congee, as you can see, I was hoping for someone to help me eat it.”

“Hm, alright,” she nodded, looking at the table that was covered with large bowls of congee, “I can see what you mean.”

“Dig in. I already had some, it’s really good.” I was so grateful she wasn’t going to leave.

I watched as she scooped some congee into a small rice bowl and tasted some, “So, what do you think?” I asked, concerned about whether or not she liked it or not.

“Mmh!” She looked up and sent me a tiny, a tiny, smile. And it blew me away. I don’t know how I could have thought she was just ‘pretty’, even if it was a tiny smile, it made her absolutely glow.

But it was only there for the merest second, it disappeared as if it was never there in the first place. It was no use though; her smile was already heavily imprinted into my brain. She seemed to realize that she was looking directly at me and immediately dipped her head down.

I looked as she hurriedly finished her bowl of congee, and wiped , “Thank you, Luhan. I will be going now.”

I sat there a little shocked as she quickly got up and left, putting a 10,000 won bill on the table.

I sighed sadly, she was gone. I had thought if we had lunch together we would become closer, and maybe exchange phone numbers, except I was wrong. She was as distant as ever, and I wasn’t anywhere closer to her than before.

Well, maybe not. That smile. It had to mean something; it was most real emotion I have seen from her. It was a real smile, more than just a movement of muscles; it had some meaning in it.

Na Ling, you’re one enigma I plan to solve.