I observed him from my angle. What is he doing here? That man suddenly stopped spraying. I quickly hid myself. He bent down to choose a spray with another colour beneath his feet. There were quite a few sprays scattered on the floor. That’s when I took notice of what exactly he was spraying on the wall. “Make Art not War” How corny. I just wanted to head back to my corner as I accidently stepped onto a spray which was laying around on the floor randomly and slipped. “Ouch!” The man immediately turned around and looked at me with a startled expression. We stared at each other awkwardly for a while until he finally broke the silence.

“Are you okay?” He approached me with hasty steps and offered me his hand to help me up.

I ignored it and got on my feet by myself. “I’m fine.” I answered.

“Sorry bout that. Thought I was the only one here and didn’t care about keeping the sprays organized.”

I didn’t quite know how to answer and just nodded. I could feel his gaze on me and kept avoiding it nervously. He chuckled. He must have noticed how uncomfortable I felt being in this situation. I could feel how the heat was starting to rise in my cheeks. “I’m Yongguk by the way and you?”

“Janice.”

After my respond, the silence set in. Is it my turn to say something now? Just when I was thinking about what I should say he rescued me from my dilemma.

“So I thought I was the only one here. What are you doing here at this antique factory?”

“The same I could ask you… I’m here quite often actually. Never seen you around before.” I answered snappishly.

“Really? So basically I stepped into your territory?” He asked amused. “I’m sorry to have entered this place without your permission.” he bowed and grinned.

“This is not really my territory…” I said flustered.

“That’s what I thought. I was just joking.” He laughed loudly.

I looked up at him and smiled. He reminded me of a bear with that deep voice, especially when he laughed. His voice gave off a warm feeling. He abruptly stopped laughing and smiled back at me. Again I could feel how the heat was rising in my cheeks. I tried to avert his attention away from my face and pointed at his graffiti.

“So did you come here to do that?”

He looked to the direction I was pointing at. “Yeah…kind of.”

“Why exactly did you decide to do it here?” I asked curiously.

He looked at me with a serious expression. It looked like he was thinking about something deeply. “This toy factory means a lot to me. Or more like the toy my grandfather had bought me means a lot to me. The toy’s name is Tiger and he’s my best friend.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “You must be joking!” and laughed even louder. “You really like pulling jokes don’t you?” But he kept looking at me sternly. “This was a joke, wasn’t it?” I asked hesitantly.

“No, it wasn’t.” he said in a serious tone.

Wow, now he has turned into a scary bear. I gulped. “I’m sorry… I didn’t think that…” I nervously tried to find a proper apology when his face expression had softened.

“I guess it does kinda sound off coming from a person like me.”

“Yeah… a little.”

He smiled. “I didn’t have many friends when I was little since I’m quite a quiet person… and maybe also because of my scary voice.”

I snickered. For some reason I can imagine that. Although I found his voice quite…attractive…

“My grandfather used to always play with me. Though having my grandfather as my playmate was already more than enough for me, he always worried about me being lonely, especially when he had to work in the garage. So he bought me Tiger. And that’s how me and Tiger became best of friends.”

I had to smile. Even though he doesn’t really seem like it but he actually has quite a soft heart.

“That’s why this building is precious to me. It reminds me of my grandfather...” he continued.

“But why MAKE ART NOT WAR? Why exactly would you choose this quote? And why graffiti?” I started to get interested of him and wanted to know more about him.

“Well...since I’m not really so fond of talking I had to find another way to communicate with the world. And that’s how I discovered art. I express myself through art and MAKE ART NOT WAR is what has been in my mind lately.” he explained himself.

“To me you don’t really seem like you don’t like talking.”

He laughed. “You’re right, for some reason I’m talking quite a lot right now. Maybe you’re a person with whom it’s easy talking to.”

“You’d be the first one saying that. People kind of avoid me.” I said, turning myself away from him. “Well, it’s not like I wanted their attention anyway, so whatever.”

After a long silence he asked, “Would you mind if I paid attention to you?” emphasizing the I.

Surprised I turned around.

“What?”