Sores, Panic and a Clumsy Stalker

And Mio closed her eyes, expecting the worst.

The blow never came. Nor did a cold knife or a guttural command. There was only silence, a silence so heavy you could almost touch it. A second passed. Then another. He opened one eye, a slit of pure cowardice. Then the other.

The suspicious client was still there, just a few steps away, completely motionless. His posture was not threatening, it was... static and still.

" It's okay, he's not a thief. It's something worse." Mio's brain, always ready to offer him the worst-case scenario, went to work. " He's an evil sorcerer I knew it. He's going to cast a curse on me so my burgers will always burn. Or he's a yakuza extortionist and this is the beginning of my tragic story as a wasabi mule. "

Finally, that guy spoke. Or, rather, he tried to. " My... no. You..." His voice was an awkward mumble, as if the words were foreign objects in his mouth. Giving up, he pointed down at his own shoes.

Mio looked down. She had the laces of one of her sneakers completely undone. The lace hung limp and pathetic.

" Is he showing me his shoelaces? Is it a sign? A secret Mafia code? Ah! He wants me to tie them! It's a test! If I do, maybe he'll respect my servility and let me live. If I don't, he'll surely dissolve me in acid. "

Terrified and confused, and against herself, Mio dropped to her knees. Her internal battle was a chaos of sirens and red lights, but her trembling hands moved out of survival instinct. With a quickness, she made an awkward but functional loop in the stranger's slipper.

When he stood up, he saw something he almost couldn't process: a very slight curve to the subject's lips, a smile so subtle it was almost an optical illusion under the shadow of the cap.

" Thank you " he said, in that same strange voice.

And without further ado, he turned and slowly walked away down the alley, disappearing into the darkness.

The air that Mio had been holding in her lungs came out in a hiss. The adrenaline suddenly left her and her legs, turned to jelly, gave way. She fell to her knees on the dirty floor. The fear, which had been trapped inside her, finally overflowed, but this time not in her thoughts, but out loud.

" It was scary! " She gasped, her voice echoing in the empty alley. " It was terrifying! I thought I was going to die! From a shoelace! Who does that?! A psychopath! "

Footsteps sounded again in the alley. Mio suddenly fell silent. The guy had heard everything. He had turned around and was now walking towards her again, this time with an outstretched hand, as if he wanted to help her up.

It was too much. Sheer terror gripped her. "Don't come any closer! " she shrieked, crawling backwards like a frightened crab. She jumped to her feet and ran for the back door of the store, bursting in and slamming it shut with a clang.

He left the subject alone in the alley.

"Guys! You've got to hear this! There's a...! " she started to say, running into the kitchen where Sara and Kenji stood.

But the universe, in its infinite comedy, had other plans. His foot slipped on an oil slick that had gone unnoticed. Her arms flapped in the air like windmills before falling backwards onto a prep table, setting off an explosion of condiments and bits of lettuce.

When her companions helped her up, she was covered in hambuguese relish. The scare of the psychopath in the alley was replaced by the humiliation of smelling like house salad. Thanks to that, and the impossibility of cleaning her up at all, her boss sent her home early.

After the longest shower of her life, she got ready for college. He had night classes. As she walked through the now dark streets, every shadow seemed like a threat. She felt a sensation on the back of her neck, the unmistakable feeling that someone was following her. She turned around several times, but saw no one.

"It's your imagination, Mio. The stress is getting to you. There's no bumbling psychopath following you home... right?"

She managed to convince herself, but the feeling didn't quite go away. When she reached the campus, the feeling returned with more force. This time, as she turned her head quickly, she caught a glimpse out of the corner of her eye of a tall, dark figure hiding awkwardly behind a tree.

Her heart's went out. "It's not my imagination!"

She began to walk faster, almost running. She heard some hurried footsteps behind her and then, as if it were a scene from a comic movie, a resounding PLAM! followed by a muffled groan.

Mio dared to look over her shoulder. The figure that was following her was sprawled on the ground, having, ironically, tripped over her own untied shoelaces.

This did not reassure her. It only scared her more. A persistent stalker and a clumsy one at that was too strange a combination for her to process. She wasn't going to stay there to find out more. She ran as if her life depended on it, not stopping until she was inside the safety of her faculty building.

Leaning against the wall, her breathing labored and her heart in her throat, her thoughts were in chaos. She was safe, at least for now. But a terrifying question formed in her mind: who was this boy and why wouldn't he leave her alone?