CHAPTER 3

Who's that?

Being surprised by seeing the silhouette of a mysterious person, Anna took few steps forward to find out who was seated on her spot.

There she saw...

There she saw a handsome young man in his 20s writing something down in his notebook seriously.

Anna stood for a while without her own control of actions, admiring his beautiful face which shone like a full moon when a gentle autumn breeze moved away the not-so-long black locks from his forehead.

Anna clutched her handbag not knowing what to do. She does not want to miss her time in the park and at the same time she thought that it would be rude to make the person move away from the bench.

Wait, he does not seem like an American, Anna thought.

She took a few more steps closer to confirm his ethnicity and made sure that he was definitely not from her country.

The guy who was so focussed in his writing lifted his head only to see a petty figure of a woman standing at some distance.

Anna continued to look at him without blinking which made the foreign guy little uncomfortable.

Anna stepped out of her trance when another wave of cool breeze hit softly on her face.

The poor guy turned to the side only to realize that he had spread all his belongings on the bench without leaving a single space.

Suddenly, he set all his belongings to a side so that the lady could sit on the other end of the bench.

Anna walked closer to the other side to make herself seated.

"Oh, hi", the foreign guy greeted Anna with a warm smile that would melt anyone's heart.

"Hello", Anna replied in a gentle tone and exchanged the smile with the unknown guy.

For Anna did not really feel that the guy seated on her right is a stranger. She felt like she already knew the person since long before.

Strange, isn't it?

Her thoughts spoke to her.

Anna kept her thoughts aside when she heard his voice again.

"I wonder whether you could help me by listing out few most famous places out here in California."

"Yes, sure! We ha-"

"Haha, I'm sorry to interrupt but I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Jihoon from South Korea. Nice to meet you!"

Jihoon spoke as he lend out his hand for a handshake.

"Oh, haha... I'm Anna, nice to meet you too!", Anna extended her slender arms and shook his hands as a greeting.

To her surprise, Jihoon withdrew his hands immediately from hers as he felt so awkward.

Anna would be lying to herself, if she said that she didn't feel more awkward than Jihoon. She smiled lightly to ease off the situation and continued to talk.

"We really have a lot of places to visit! Yosemite National Park, Death Valley, Disneyland, the topmost famous Sequoia National Park and..."

"Oh! Think I have really lot of works to do then! Haha, could you please list out the names a lil bit slow so that I could note it down?"

"Yeah, sure...haha"

Just then, Anna realized that she has been blurting out the names of the places like an express train...out of excitement.

She composed herself and listed the names of the places once again, one by one this time.

"Mr.Jihoon..."

"Drop the formals. Call me Jihoon."

Jihoon plastered a smile on his face which made Anna smile as a reply.

"Okay. Jihoon, it's okay that you asked but you can look up for the names of the places in Google, right?"

"Yeah. But, I thought it'd be far more better to get the opinions from the native people of California...that's it."

"That's right."

There in the park, Anna sat for sometime, getting even more awkward as time passed by struggling within herself, not knowing how to take on the conversation.

She decided not to ask or enquire anything from Jihoon because she did not want to get embarrassed.

After spending sometime, Anna glanced at her tiny wrist watch and her eyes widened on seeing the time.

It has already been forty minutes - the time she leisured in the park.

Forty minutes flew like four seconds, she thought.

As the sky was getting even more darker, Anna excused herself to leave.

"So... I guess, I gotta go now...Enjoy your trip in the US!"

"Thank you...Anna."

Jihoon flashed a smile again which made Anna smile involuntarily.

Anna raised from her seat and started journeying towards her house.

Meanwhile, Jihoon too began to feel like the woman, whom he met just now is not a stranger.

It's kinda strange...umm..anyways, Jihoon's thoughts echoed in his head.

After spending few more minutes, Jihoon left the park not forgetting to take his belongings with him.

********

Anna reached her house safely within twenty minutes as the park and her house are at a stone's throw.

Anna loves to live simple lifestyle. Her house is a medium sized one, enough for one person to live and move around. After reaching her house, she made her way to the shower to take a cold bath. As it is all that she needed after a tiring day.

Finishing the shower, she put on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt and felt so cozy and happy that the texture of the fabric gave her.

She rushed to the kitchen and started to fry some steak to feed her and to...calm down her hunger.

After finishing the kitchen chores and killing some time watching the TV, Anna climbed onto her bed and lied so lazily.

The comfort she got from the mattress after a long day can't be compared with anything else.

Ugh...This day was really frustrating with those perverted guys...the evening was kinda good though...

But, why didn't I feel strange around the Jihoon guy, even though it's my first time seeing him??

Have I seen him somewhere before? Probably no...but still...

Wait...

Why am I going so beyond with these thoughts now???... Let me sleep peacefully!

But...

Anna can't deny the fact that the forty minutes she spent in the park, with that guy beside, brought a kind of relaxation within her.

She turned off the night lamp in the nightstand as the time arrived she always sleeps at. Closing the weary eyelids, Anna drifted to her dreamland.

*********

Jihoon reached his apartment after savouring some delicious savouries on his way back. No wonder, he absolutely loved the American delicacies!

Just after reaching, he checked the time and decided to get some rest as he has tons of works to do the next day.

He paced ahead to the small study table he had near his bed. He grabbed a small piece of bright yellow sticky note and wrote "Tomorrow's Plan" and noted the things that he has to do the following day. Actually, he planned to visit the Yosmite National Park and write a report of it, after doing some research with the help of Google.

Just when he was ready to get on his bed, his phone cried.

Jihoon smiled on seeing the caller ID.

It was no other than his best friend, Minho.

"Hey! Minho!"

"Hey, Jihoon! Did you reach there safely? How's America?"

"America is great. But it would have been even more greater, if y'all had been here...haha"

"Hey...enjoy your time there, okay? Don't worry about us!"

"Okay, Minho. I guess I have so many works piled up and I planned to visit a place for the report tomorrow."

"That sounds great! Have a nice day tomorrow and have a good night!"

"Yeah, see ya!"

Jihoon hung up the call and plopped on his bed letting out a sigh. He replayed all the happenings of the day in his mind.

How peaceful it was at the park!

The image of Anna smiling beside him flashed right in his thoughts. Jihoon could not deny that the time he spent in the park brought in him some inner peace. And on top of that, he didn't even feel strange sitting beside Anna though he neither knew nor met her before.

These thoughts that were playing in his head made him smile and he couldn't help it. He got ready to fall into a deep slumber to boost himself with new energy for he has to do so many works the next day.