Lu Han felt edgy, edgy enough to come to the police office. A pretty man, of about mid-twenty, with auburn hair and doe eyes, he drew a lot of both female and male attention and rejected all of it.

Kai welcomed him warmly in his back office at the Donghae City Police Department . “Hey, Lu,” he said when he saw him at his office door. He smiled and waved him in. “What can we do for you this morning?”

Lu Han returned his smile and slid into the creaky old wood chair. He wasn’t at all sure he was doing the right thing. “Well, I’m not sure you can do anything, Kai. I’m probably just being paranoid.”

Kai leaned forward a bit to rest his arms on the desk. “I never ignore paranoia.” His tone was encouraging.

                “Yeah, but I don’t like to give in to it.”

                “Apparently, something is bothering you enough to come here, so just tell me. We’ll figure out how to handle it.”

                Lu Han hesitated, biting his lower lip. “I don’t want to get anyone into trouble.”

                “I doubt you’ll get anyone into trouble who doesn’t deserve it. What’s going on?”

                Kai's logic made him smile again, uncomfortable as he was. Once more he hesitated, reconsidering, but then reminded himself this was the whole reason he’s come here: to get information so he could put this matter out of his mind. He had enough on his plate already without worrying about some stranger who was acting a little…odd.

                “Well, there’s this guy who comes and sits in the park across from my house every night at one in the morning. At first I just thought he was resting there, but…” Again a moment of hesitation. It sounded so stupid when he said it out loud, but he forced the words out, anyway. “He sits in the same bench every night, Kai, and it’s like he’s staring straight at my house. He just sits there and stares. Not at my windows or anything specific that I can tell. Just at the house. Then about twenty minutes after, he gets up and walks away.”

                Kai frowned slightly.

                “I know, I know,” Lu Han said quickly. “Public park and all that. And he limps so badly, he’s probably just resting. And if he was any threat, why tip his hand by doing it every night?”

                Kai held up a hand. “Hold on. Every night?”

                “Since I first noticed him. I mean, honestly, I thought it was nothing, but when it kept happening night after night…well, finally I started checking to see if he’s there. He is, every night.” He said and looked down at his hands, feeling even more awkward now that he’d framed his concern out loud. “It’s probably nothing. I’m making too much of it.”

                Kai shook his head. “You’re not. You have every reason to feel uneasy. And you’re not the only one who has noticed this guy, although I hadn’t heard before that he’s going to the park.”

                Lu Han’s curiosity rose. “What does he do?”

                “He’s staying at the Meridian Hotel. Walks into town every night at the same time, gets a drink at Momo’s and leaves. It’s enough to get a few people speculating, but not enough to get anyone wound up. But this park thing…You’re sure he’s looking at your house?”

                “It could be coincidence. The bench is right across the street. But it’s like…” He spread his hands, trying to find the right words. “He never looks around. Never looks away. Just right at my house. Now maybe I’m overreacting from all the stress at work lately. I haven’t been sleeping very well, which is why I’m looking out my window at that hour. But if he’d just turn to look in another direction I wouldn’t even be worrying about it.” Which might not be exactly true, but he’d be worrying a whole lot less.

                Kai nodded. “Okay, I’m going to check him out. We’ll run a wants and warrants on him, a background check, find out what’s going on. Trust me, if there’s anything squirrely, we’ll uncover it. Should I call you at work?”

                “Try my cell.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small wallet, withdrawing a business card. He passed it to him. “I’m taking a few days of vacation time to try to relax.”

                Kai smiled. “I should use a few of those myself. Kyungsoo wants to take a cruise, but I have trouble imagining being confined to a boat for a week.”

                Lu Han laughed. “I hear they come into a port every other day. You’d survive.”

                He winked. “What Kyunsoo wants, Kyungsoo gets.”

                He knew full well Kyungsoo would get his cruise, because Kai would lay the world at his feet if he could, and not because he’d give him a hard time. He laughed, anyway, knowing that’s what he wanted to see.

                After he left the office, he stood on the sun-drenched street, feeling the kiss of autumn, that amazingly wonderful sensation of crisp air and warm sun that always made him glad to be alive.

                Even if he was worried to death about work.

                With a supreme effort of will, he forced his job out of his mind. He’d taken these few days to get away from that, and he refused to spend his vacation time worrying about his work problems.

                The problem, however, was that in taking his vacation on impulse like this, he’d made no plans about how to spend his time, hadn’t made arrangements with his friends to take off at the same time so they could go backpacking or drive into a bigger town for some shows and shopping.

                A planner by nature, he laughed t himself now for not having thought this through, then decided he’d practice winging it. His friends often teased that he wasn’t happy unless his life was laid out two weeks ahead in his datebook. The criticism might be a little on the extreme side, but there was more than a kernel of truth to it.

                So, here he stood, and decided there was no time like now to try making up his day as he went, first with a trip to the bookstore down the street. It would be a perfect day, he decided, to curl up with a book in his backyard. A little chilly, but that’s what he had the clay fireplace out back for. He could light it, drink hot chocolate and coffee, and enjoy the luxury of uninterrupted reading until the sun sank too low.

                Feeling his spirits lift, he hurried down the streets to the bookstore, a tiny, musty and wonderful place full of new and used books that covered the entire spectrum. A fictional world was just what he needed right now. Vampires, ma