Insouciant | Mark Lee

7~ Him

~THIRD PERSON POV

It has been two weeks since the incident took place. Aera never saw Mark after that neither did she spoke to him on phone. Despite having his number she never really had guts to call and talk to Mark. She was still reasoning about the tingling feeling she felt when Mark and her eyes met. There was not even a single day when she did not think about Mark. Even his name would make feel jittery at times.

Contrarily, Mark had engrossed himself in the missions. Totally focused on them. Returning home after missions and sprawling on the bed, his mind would unintentionally drift away at the thoughts of Aera. How he somewhat missed the way she took care of his wound even though he scared her away, how her dark brown eyes displayed warmth, innocence, concern. Her eyes were a pool of emotions in which Mark would happily drown himself. Aera made him question the walls he build around himself. That was Aera for Mark, but the boy was too foolish to realize it.

Aera returned back to her normal routine. Going to college, hanging out with Jihoon and Soa, she also found herself a part time job at a café nearby. Aera was glad that she returned back to her normal routine.

"Aera, let's have a movie night today, what say? " Jihoon asked Aera as they were walking around in the campus of their university waiting for Soa. "Okay, I'm cool with it, bring some snacks with you." Aera replied. "Heyy~" They heard a distant voice. Both Jihoon and Aera turned around to see who it was. They saw Soa waving her hands in the air so that they can see her. She had a wide grin on her face. Jihoon chuckled at Soa's actions. Aera saw Jihoon and nodded her head, "You're so whipped for your girl," she said. Jihoon blushed and giggled at Aera's comment. She threw her hand on Jihoons's shoulder and said, "Let's go and get your girl loverboy," Aera said and Jihoon ruffled her hair. They started walking towards Soa.

"I'm in too~," Soa said enthusiastically as the bestfriends explained their plan. "My place at 8pm?" Aera asked the couple. "Yes it is!" they said and nodded. " Okay then, meet you at my place. Gotta go guys, duty calls. Don't forget to bring the snacks!" Aera said and waved as she was about to leave for her job. "Yes, be safe. Bye~" the couple waved back at Aera and left too.

Aera was right now at the café taking orders. "One iced Americano with four shots of espresso and one chocolate mousse, anything else sir?" Aera asked the customer infront of her. "Ok, that would be $11.45. Your name sir?" Aera asked the customer again. She felt intimidated as he kept staring at her. He didn't give any answer so she asked him again. "Sorry, but can I get your name sir?" The customer finally decided to speak up. "Why get my name when you can get my number?" he replied and winked at Aera. She raised her eyebrows in amusement thinking he doesn't reply to her but wants to give her his number. Aera awkwardly smiled at the male shifting her weight from one leg to another and retorted, "Sorry sir but I'll just need your name for the order."

The male stared at her for a few seconds and said, "Ok, just write my initials in capital then. It's BS," he then gave a lopsided smirk to Aera. She found him to be weird. His stare gave her chills.

Aera had encountered different kinds customers but he was different. His presence made her feel unsafe and uncomfortable. As his order was prepared Aera called out his name, he collected it and sat diagonally from Aera. She shrugged it off and continued working.

It's been three hours and that man was still there. He did not budge a bit. Aera's shift was almost about to end. "Aera can you come inside for a minute?" The café's Manager called Aera inside her cabin. "Let's see now what's this about," Aera mumbled under her breath and headed towards the cabin. "Aera can you close the café today please, I got an emergency back home. Just for today. I hope you don't mind," the  manager asked Aera.

Guess I'll have to ditch my today's plan. She thought to herself and replied, "Sure, I don't mind." "Thankyou so much Aera, I owe you a big time. Here, take the keys," the manager said and handed over the keys, "You can leave early tomorrow if you want," he added and smiled at her. "Thankyou, I'll close the café at 11pm." she said and left the cabin.

Aera came back and saw that the man was no where to be seen. He finally decided to leave. She felt somewhat relieved. Shaking the thoughts off, she continued working.

It was 11pm, Aera checked the clock and decided to close the café. After closing up, she started walking towards her home. Halfway through the street, Aera felt as if someone is following her. She turned around but there was no one. A chilling eerie was felt in the air. The empty streets just added more to the eerie. Aera fastened her pace. Now when she turned around again, she saw silhouette of a tall man following her. Fear ran through her nerves.

—————————————————————————————————————
A/N: im so bored. i literally got nothing to do.
anyway, sending some love your way, also i miss our dear leader. hope he gets well soon.