Always once a month

Chapter 1

On a warm evening one day in July, she was watching her Kdrama as usually, as a man stepped inside the Internet Café in which she was working. Someone entering the Café was nothing unusually, so she first didn't pay much attention. If that person wanted a computer and use the internet, he had to come to the reception desk, show his ID and wait for her to tell him which station was for him. If he only was here to pick someone else up, then there was no reason for her to do anything at all. However, only a few seconds after the man had entered the Internet Café he already stood in front of the reception desk. Reluctantly she looked up from the computer and gave the man her brightest smile. This smile was a sign that she wasn't happy at all and was ready to murder, whoever annoyed her. Fortunately – or unfortunately, depending on the view – it was against the law to kill someone and her boss might freak out, when she killed a costumer, thus she stayed put. Why had this man to show up right at this moment, when the drama was getting so intense? She was missing the best part of the show just because of him! How dare he! When she finally met eye to eye with the costumer her smile wavered. The man in front of her had covered half of his face, which gave his eyes more focus, since they were more or less the only thing one could concentrated on to identify him – his eyes were enough to know, who he was, because there weren't that many people out there that had two different sized eyes and even less visited the Happy Internet Café. One day she had seen him without his "disguise" and what she saw wasn't bad. He wasn't the handsomest, but he definitely was better than the average – but still far away from her beloved Kaikai. No one was as handsome as him! No one! In truth, if it weren't for those mismatched eyes – one big and one normal – the man would look quite appealing to the eyes, however the way it was there was always something that seemed off – though, even with two normal eyes the man wouldn't be as handsome as Zhou Zekai.
Her smile got softer. She knew the man and she also knew that if he had known that she was busy watching an important drama, he wouldn't have disturbed her. Without much of a conversation she opened a computer station for him. It was the same station she always assigned to him. Since the first day he came into this humble little Internet Café – that wasn't so small anymore – he always was in area A – an area in the darkest corner of the Internet Café that always looked dirty despite being cleaned as much and throughout as the rest of Happy. When he first come he even asked for a station that was in a corner, a bit off from everyone else. Back then she hadn't asked why or put much thought into it – strange people existed and she didn't have to understand them –, but over the time her curiosity grow stronger and stronger – why was he not ordering a private room on the second floor, when he wanted to be alone, when he didn't want to be annoyed or disturbed by others? She didn't ask. As the man named Wang Jiexi walked towards area A, she watched him carefully, as if she would get any answers to the question just by staring at his back – she had to admit that he had a nice clothing style, it stood out in this mostly by university students occupied place; he as a whole stood out.

Back to her drama, she tried to concentrated once more, but missing such an important part was frustrating. Now she had to watch the episode again, when it was available online for re-watching. Well, she had plenty of time until her shift would end, so she could watch a few more episodes and dramas. Yet, now that Wang Jiexi was here, she knew that soon her peace would be interrupted again. It was this time of the month again.
Just as she was about to complain about her questionable luck, a strange and undefinable feeling arose in her. It was that feeling one had, when something bad was about to happened or when being watched without knowing.
Had she missed a costumer? No, no one stood in front of the reception desk and between the time Wang Jiexi left and her sitting down wasn't enough time to sneak in, right? Maybe her boss was behind her? She slowly turned around, but all she saw was that no one stood behind her. No one to the left. No one to the right. Above? Was someone above her? As silly as this thought may sound she didn't dare to neglect it and looked up at the ceiling. Still no one. Beneath her? No. So, what if the costumer was just very small and she overlooked him? She stood up from her chair and lent over the reception desk to see if there was a costumer, but once more no one was there. When no one was around that meant she wasn't watched by someone, but that something bad was about to happen. It was like in her dramas where the male protagonist had a feeling that something was off and only because he followed said feeling was he able to rescue the female lead from a dangerous situation – than they would kiss and be happy ever after. Unfortunately, she neither was the male lead in a drama nor did she have a significant other that she needed to protect – or was this a sign that something bad was about to happen to her beloved Kaikai? But how was she supposed to help him? They lived in two different worlds and she didn't even know where he was right now. Theoretically, she could send him a message on Weibo, hoping that he would see it and act accordingly, which brought up another problem – she didn't know if he really was the one that had to face something bad soon or not and she didn't know what it actually was that was supposed to happen.
Before she could sit down again and check out Zhou Zekai's Weibo – maybe he had posted something that could give her a clue –, she saw a suspicious shadow at the entrance. Had that been her imagination? Was that shadow maybe the reason for her uneasiness? Outside stood a man – trying to hide behind a pillar of the building – covered from head to toe. He wore a long-sleeved sweater, a scarf and sunglasses – it was July, it was hot! Suspicious! Very suspicious!
After watching the back and forth of the man she sat down with a heavy sigh. It was this time of the month, so she should have expected that this would happen again. Her uneasiness faded away.