That cant be him!

HE DID NOT!

MIRESA, SEILIU

"Aarrggghhh!" Bam!

The book Lina was just reading hits the wall of her hotel suite. John who was just in the living room peeks in to see what the commotion is about.

"What happened now?" he asks while making himself comfortable in Lina's bed with his phone. John is currently into mobile gaming, trying new games all the time.

"This is your fault!" Lina tells John for maybe the thousandth time.

"It's about that guy again? I told you before and I'll say it again, he had a dozen ways to reach you if he really wanted to." John responds coolly, repeating what he always tells her.

It's been over 2 years since that night and Lina still can't read a romance book without imagining her "pizza guy" as the male lead character. She's still hung up over a stranger who didn't bother reaching out to her.

They have checked with her agent, which had the staff check all the company emails to see if he tried to get in touch through them, multiple times. She even personally checked with Director Chen and Mrs Chen for any message for her or if some guy was asking for her, and there were a few, but none of them was her "pizza guy". After 6 months of expecting him to do something but without any lead, Lina was beyond upset at him. She was feeling so sad and upset at him that she even went on a few dates to try and recreate the feeling she had for this guy, but it didn't help at all.

"I need closure from this. That's what I need." Lina announces to no one in particular as she paced in her room. Its absurd to think that she is hung up on a guy for this long when they just had a few hours of shared moments and memories.

"We tried looking for the guy, not very hard I agree, but we did try Lina. What you need to do is to go out and socialise." Sam, her other security, tells her from her open room door, walking towards her.

He grabs her face on both his hands, squishing it almost comically as he loves to do and tells her, "Come on cutie, get dressed, I'll take you out."

"Where are we going?" John asked without looking up from his game, still comfortably perched in Lina's bed.

Sam and John are inseparable. They were buddies from their time in the military and opened a security business. They were Lina's first personal bodyguards hired by her agent when she was starting. Due to Lina's instant success, she had a few rough fans from the get go so a bodyguard was a must. From the start until now, John and Sam are Lina's main security detail.

John and Sam's security business has already expanded and they now provide security to top notch celebrities and even politicians. They tried staying in the office to just manage their growing business but that didn't work out very well for them. They're too used on working outside that staying in the office is a torture for them, they need to be where the action is.

They only personally work with Lina as her detail most of the time and only assigns replacement to her when they need to do training for their personnel personally or if some appearances are required from the owners. They hired their sisters instead to run the office so they can go around the world with Lina. Some rowdy fans and the constant barrage of stalkers too obsessed with Lina here and there keep them alert and happy with their life doing a job they love. The very calm life Lina leads with just enough excitement, their words and not Lina's, allows them to work remotely when needed and not be in a constant stress that is included in protecting high profile names with a long list of enemies.

"Karly invited us for her birthday party tonight. Since we're in Miresa earlier than expected, let's check her party. If you don't like it, we'll come back and eat junk food. What do you say?" Sam asks Lina.

Karly Chu is an up-and-coming new designer in Seiliu. They have worked together before and she liked her. She's funny and honest, in her opinion. They weren't expected to be in Miresa in another 3 days. She finished her advert filming in Onama quicker than expected which was good for all of them and decided to fly to Miresa to get some rest and get used to the time change sooner.

What John said makes sense, "pizza guy" can't avoid her easily. Her face is plastered almost everywhere. She's got adverts all over the world. From all sorts of food and daily used items, phones, computers, home appliances, games, fashion and cosmetics – she's got contracts for all of those. She's had countless press conferences for movies, dramas and other PR appearances in Pirend alone and he had not showed up, not once. She even starred in a very popular drama in Glol and was ranked most watched international drama in Pirend last year. You can say that unless that person lives in an island with no electricity, everybody knows Lina or has seen or heard her.

She needs to end this one-sided attachment she has developed towards a guy she doesn't even know the name of. She's tired of scanning the crowd to try and see if he's there whenever she's in Pirend. The disappointment that hits her when she can't find his face there is always difficult to handled.

"Okay, let's go!" She tells Sam and heads in to the walk-in closet attached to her room to get ready. The hotel staff has already arranged her stuff neatly earlier when they checked in. She changed from her pink short pyjamas and shirt to an off-white-colored ribbed midi length body con dress with short sleeved with a knee length slit on the left side and paired it with a nude pair of 3 inches double strap sandals. It looks good on her but she also chose it for comfort. She usually likes to keep her "off work fashion" very simple and neat. She brushed her hair that she placed in a messy top bun earlier, now its flowing down her back with some waves. She applied light dusting of powder foundation, some tint on her lips and cheeks and she's done.

Lina walked out to the living room where the men are talking. John changed his shorts to black jeans, wore some sneakers to match his fitted white shirt and he's good to go. Sam, the fashion conscious of the duo, is wearing a forest green button-down shirt that is from Karly's line, ripped dark wash blue jeans with plain black sneakers and is still styling his hair.

John puts his arms around Lina's shoulder, "Let's go have fun tonight then." And with an excitement slowly building in Lina's heart, they head off.

Lina can hear the music playing even before she stepped into the inside of the upscale club they went to. They were shown towards the VIP area immediately as soon as the Manager by the door saw her.

Whoa, they can fit that much people here? Lina thought.

It's definitely crowded but people make way for her when they see her, or maybe when they see her companions. Though both men look relaxed, Lina is sure they're scouting the place noting exit strategies already.

Karly was happily surprised to see them come.

"Lina, thank you so much for coming! And for bringing me a present." Karly exclaims while winking at Sam.

Lina laughs, she feels lighter already, "Well, enjoy, I guess". Sam walks past Lina and sits right next to Karly, he's a natural flirt. So she follows him and sits on his other side and John took the space right next to her.

The men around clamours near their table to try and catch her attention. Those that are brave enough offers her drinks, food and even to dance with them. All of it, she politely refused with a smile.

That smile makes one happy already though they have been rejected, they all have one thought - maybe later.

Lina was acclimatising with the ambience, enjoying the music playing, which to her sounds like it's more than one music playing. People around them are dancing, laughing, drinking and having fun in general.

A few minutes droned on, she was listening, or tried to, everyone trying to talk over the music which means they are shouting to try and be heard. Her dreaded headache is creeping in slowly. One of the main reasons she stays home is because she gets awful headaches caused by either sound, light and smell. And it's all here in one enclosed space.

John, of course, noticed it immediately and asks if she wants to go now.

"We just got here." she refused. She feels like that is considered ruder if she leaves now than not coming at all.

"Maybe some air?" she suggests. John gets up and is gone for a bit before going back to Lina.

"I'm taking her to the outside area for a bit. We won't be long." John tells Sam.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Sam asks Lina, as affectionate as usual, he checks on Lina's face and tucks her hair to the back of her ear.

"No, you are my gift to Karly after all. She can enjoy you for a while before I take you back." Lina tells Sam including Karly on her statement when she came to check on Lina. The group laughs and Lina goes with John.

There is an outdoor area connected to the VIP section of the club, John hands some notes to the guard for the area, "Please don't let people come in for 30 minutes." The guard nods and lets them passed the cordoned off area then stands in the middle to block incoming guests as soon as they were outside.

Lina almost instantly felt relieved with the fresh air. She realized how congested it was inside. She looks around and noticed they have a small bar area here as well. Only a handful of people around, mostly couples in their own little bubbles – different levels of closeness with each other. They don't care about people around them. Which certainly works for Lina. She loves places where people ignore her. It's a change from the usual scene where almost everybody microscopically pays attention to everything she does.

"I want to stay here for a while, you can go in if you want. It's pretty quiet here anyway." Lina tells John as she sat down on one of the outdoor chairs.

"Nah, Sam can take care of Karly." John tells her with a small smile. "I'll get a soda for me, what would you like?"

"Cream soda if they have, please?" Lina loves cream soda, it's one of her indulgences. Due to some family history of diseases, her dad doesn't let her have too much sugar and sweets which she follows even though her dad isn't around.

John walked towards the bar. Lina closed her eyes as she sat back in the comfortable low backed padded chair, enjoying the late summer breeze in the air. She still hears the muted thump of music from the inside, there's also some jazz music playing from the bar. It's a pleasant feeling to be there after the stuffiness of the inside.

She takes a deep breath in, before she opened her eyes, and looked around again. Then she noticed someone seems to be heading her heading her way.

She squints her eyes, trying to identify the familiar looking figure moving closer now.

This can't be him!