Chapter 1:

Case 01: Decaffe

It's probably nothing

If I got a penny every time I had a stalker, I’d have one penny, which isn’t a lot. But it’s weird that I even had one.

I woke up to a familiar sight.

A slightly messy room, one half-broken laptop I use to write a web-novel—maybe one day I can make some money from it so I don’t end up on the streets.

Yeah… it’s not going as well as I planned, but at least it’s decent, I guess.

My phone buzzed.

Who the fuck would text me at 4 in the morning?

That slight annoyance disappeared as soon as I saw the text. Or rather, the image attached to it.

It was me… which would be normal in 99% of situations.

Except the person who sent it was my ex, who—mind you—cheated on me twice in a year, but that’s a story for later.

It was me, at the mall, hanging out with my friend… and there was one, two… fucking three?

One while I was in the restaurant.

Another at the game center.

And the last one when I was on the bus.

That’s over three hours of “accidentally” running into me or… worse.

Yeah, that’s weird as hell, but it could be some new TikTok trend. Who knows.

Oh yeah, did I mention we’re in the same school? My ex… yeah, calling it that is awkward, I’ll just call them “Decaffe,” since, you know, it’s all bitter but gives no energy.

So yeah, Decaffe and I go to the same school, but I’m their junior, so we don’t really have any reason to meet.

Right now you might be asking, is that all? Of course not. I’m not that much of an overthinker.

It all started two weeks before the final exam. About a month after the initial casual 4 a.m. photo.

For some context, I live far away from my school—I’m talking the other side of town type of far—so I usually go home by bus. That day, I went to watch a movie at a mall near my house. I’m not telling you what I watched, but it was fucking good.

I was in a good mood, so I decided to do what any responsible IG user would do—post it on my story.

Now imagine this. You take a photo of your ticket at like a 50-degree angle so it actually looks decent, like there’s something going on instead of just ground and paper.

Now imagine how fucking shocked I was when I looked at it again and saw Decaffe in the picture, just… looking at me.

At first I wasn’t sure, since it was a bit blurry, but I recognized the outfit. White hoodie with a green blanket wrapped around them. Weird as hell, I know.

I wasn’t sure at first—it might’ve been a coincidence—so I just kept it in mind.

The next day, I went back to that mall. Basically routine. I was waiting for my friend to hang out, but what happened yesterday still made me uncomfortable, so I was on high alert the whole time.

And just as I was looking for a book, someone touched my shoulder.

Which, in that situation, felt about as threatening as a stranger dragging me into a dark alley.

Turns out that person was…

My friend. “Lemon.” Yeah, lame fake name, I know.

Lemon is one of my closest friends for like five years. We live near each other, same class, sit next to each other. Rom-com setup type of thing.

I was always open with Lemon, so I told her everything, and she just said I was overreacting.

Hanging out with friends really helps, you know. It made me forget all the fucked up things that may or may not have happened. We walked around, bought some stuff, and while I was walking her home, she suddenly stopped and dragged me into a different hallway while I protested and joked about consent and stuff.

She turned around, looked at me with the most serious expression I’ve ever seen, and told me she saw someone who looked like Decaffe, wearing the exact same outfit as yesterday—which is definitely not normal considering this mall is across town, and they live like 2 hours away.

At that point, we both felt like this was a real threat.

After that day, I stopped going to that mall and decided to go straight home, but I kept hearing from Lemon that she still saw Decaffe there.

Though I couldn’t quite escape them at school.

There was a school event that some of my classmates were participating in. Me, being the kind and considerate person that I am, sat at a booth contributing to the exchange of oxygen for carbon dioxide. (Nothing.)

I was playing one of those offline two-player games with Lemon, but there were hella ads, so I turned off my internet. We played for like 20 minutes, and when we were done, I turned it back on and guess what happened?

Decaffe sent me a photo.

Of me.

While I was playing with Lemon.

We both looked at each other and immediately decided to leave the event.

The next day, I was buying lunch and someone—yeah, it’s Decaffe—lightly scratched my back. Which is weird as hell.

They asked me what I was eating, so I showed them the plate, and they just straight up reached in, bare-handed, took one of my fries, and ate it.

I just laughed and walked away because what the hell was I supposed to do?

The last bit is exam week. We have two days.

We took the test in different rooms… right next to each other. Thanks, plot writer.

After the first exam day, I was talking to my friend about answers—yeah, nerdy, I know—and what about Decaffe? That thing practically launched itself at me.

I’m talking walked out, looked around, saw me, and ran straight at me.

Asking where I was going after. I lied, like any responsible person being stalked would do.

The last day, however, was fucking weird as hell.

Me and Lemon were reviewing before the exam, and Decaffe walked up to me with that same weird outfit. I’ll let you guess what they did.

…

They pulled out a ziplock bag.

Filled with photos.

Then they took one out.

It was me.

At the mall.

And what disgusted me was that… it wasn’t the only one in the bag.

After that, we went on summer break.