MidKnights Lover

Man in Blank

“I’m so excited!” Julie squealed as we settled into our seats on the plane.

She was grinning from ear to ear and I knew I had the same goofy grin decorating my face.

It was finally here. We are actually on our way to LA to see MidKnights!

“Same! I can’t wait to see Chanwoo in person. And hear his voice,” I was all but bouncing in my seat with excitement.

“See, I’m looking forward to seeing One-One. I bet his dancing is so much cooler in person!”

I smiled. I loved that we had different biases. I preferred when my friends and I had an interest in different guys. I was weird like that.

“Want to listen to their music?”

I glanced over to see Julie scrolling through the plane’s movie list.

“Nah. There’s this movie I’ve been dying to see. Besides, we’ll be listening to their music live in a few days anyways, so why overdue it?” with that, she selected her movie, put her headphones on, and quickly became engrossed in the movie.

I understood the logic of her statement. For me, I could never get tired of listening to their songs. I love music anyways, so I doubt I could grow tired of it. Either way, I was really looking forward to this trip. We had left early so we could spend some time exploring the Korean markets in LA. I was especially excited to try the food. This was going to be a wonderful trip.

The flight was thankfully uneventful. We landed, grabbed our bags, and fought our way through the masses to find a taxi.

As we wound our way around a family, I felt a tap on my shoulder. Turning around, I found myself face to face with an extremely tall Asian holding my phone in his hand.

“You dropped this,” he said slowly, but clearly. It was obvious he spoke English regularly, but was not his first language.

Too shocked to form the words in Korean I followed my natural instincts, “Thank you. Thank you so much!” Why did his voice sound familiar?

He gave a nod, then headed in the opposite direction. I too, turned to find Julie was already a good ways away. I rushed to catch up to her, pausing only to avoid colliding with people.

After catching up to Julie, I allowed myself to reflect on the encounter. What a strange guy. I’d known people in Korea would wear masks for style, but this guy had been decked out in black from head to toe. Black cap, black mask, black shirt, black jacket, black pants, and black shoes. Was the guy going to a funeral? His voice though. It was deep, but not too deep. It was like listening to a song. Maybe that’s why it seemed so familiar.

We made it safely to the hotel and easily found the room. Crashing on the bed I closed my eyes not wanting to start unpacking just yet.

“I’m starving. Why don’t we go get some food before we start unpacking?” Julie asked, almost as if reading my mind.

Springing myself into an upright position, I pulled out my phone.

“What should we eat?”

We began checking out the various restaurants in the area. We probably spent a good thirty minutes trying to decide, before settling on a Korean place within walking distance of the hotel. I dug out a jacket, figuring it would get a bit chilly, and we were on our way.

We laughed and talked the entire way. Within minutes we arrived at the restaurant. It was a nice place, but because of how early it was in the afternoon it was nearly empty. We were guided to a booth, placed our orders, then continued our conversation.

As we cleared our plates, Julie leaned in close to me. She spoke in a hushed tone, “Don’t look now, but there’s a guy that’s been staring at you the entire time we’ve been here. “

“Yeah right,” I denied, shaking my head back and forth. Guys didn’t notice me like that. Ever. “He’s probably been checking you out.”

It was Julie’s turn to shake her head.

“His gaze definitely followed you when you went to the bathroom. There’s no way he was watching me.”

“Uh, creepy?” I said, attempting to move the conversation in a different direction. I shifted a bit uncomfortably in my seat. My confidence in myself only went so far. It was hard to believe a guy would be watching me over Julie. Julie was the beautiful blonde that did her hair and makeup perfectly each morning and was the perfect amount of shy and flirtatious. I really should be taking lessons from her to perfect the art.

“He’s really cute,” Julie said, wriggling her eyebrows. So much for changing the topic.

Thankfully the waitress decided to pass by at that moment.

“Excuse me. Could we pay for our order?”

With a look of surprise, the waitress replied, “Your order has already been paid for. By the gentlemen over there,” she nodded where the guy Julie had been mentioning moments before was sitting, “he also wanted me to give you this.”

Reaching into her apron, she pulled out a napkin and handed it to me with a wink.

“You sure are lucky,” and with that, she went back to work.

I opened the folded napkin to see a phone number and a small note.

Call me. Phone finder.

Phone finder? The guy in black who returned my phone.

Julie was leaning over the table, “Phone finder? Who’s phone finder?”

I glanced over at the table to see an empty seat where ‘phone finder’ had been sitting. Directing my attention back to Julie I explained to her what had happened at the airport.

“You don’t think he followed you here, do you? I mean, he was watching you pretty intently. Or he could have bugged your phone with a tracking device. Or…”

Hearing the rising concern in her voice, I started shaking my head. “I didn’t get that feeling. If he had been following us, why did he make himself known? If he had bad intentions, he would’ve waited for an opportunity to snatch one or both of us.”

Julie nodded her head, visibly relaxing. Inside, though, I was starting to get anxious. I may have said that to ease Julie’s worries, but that didn’t mean I was ready to let my own guard down. It seemed too much of a coincidence running into him here. Out of all the restaurants in LA, how is it we both ended up in this one?

Not only that, but what do I do with the phone number? Do I call him? I really don’t know much about the guy. I don’t even know his name. Is it really a good idea?

Julie had moved onto other topics as my thoughts had drifted, but I couldn’t bring myself to concentrate on what she was saying. I kept thinking about Pan, the guy in black. I decided it was easier to come up with a nickname than keep switching from phone finder to guy in black. My favorite childhood character was Peter Pan and the name seemed to suit this guy. Either way, whatever I decided to call him, I couldn’t decide if it was a good idea to call him. Maybe I should just sleep on it and an answer will come in the morning.