Click.
The sound of a flip phone being shut echoed down a narrow alleyway, and the perpetrator of the sound, Xu Wei, lazily leaned against the cool brick wall just inside the mouth of the alley, taking a quick smoke break as he peered at the apartment just visible from his position.
When he was younger, he used to wish he lived closer to a main street. His apartment was located in the middle of a maze of alleyways that one could hardly drive a small car through on a good day; it was impossible if a motorcycle or scooter was parked inside. There were apartments scattered along the way, but his seven-story apartment building looked as if it would crumble if just one of the bricks near the bottom floor was removed.
Each unit had a small balcony where most of the residents would hang their clothes out to dry when it was nice out, like today. Some residents could only afford second-hand, old clothing racks that were in need of repairs, while others only had a flimsy string that they made into an impromptu clothing line, tied from one balcony to their neighbors.
He glanced at the first balcony on the fourth floor.
His mother hadn't put out her laundry today, she probably wasn't home.
Xu Wei pushed him off the wall with a small frown adorning his face and pocketed his vape before leaving the alley.
In front of the apartment building was a group of older men whom Xu Wei recognized as the first and second floor residents. While other buildings had designated spots for smokers, theirs had a designated spot for the board game-loving uncles. Who also happened to be practiced smokers, their cigarette butts places carefully in ashtrays they had practically glued to the table.
A few of them glanced up as he approached, and one of them yelled out. "Ah, isn't that Xu Wei?"
Xu Wei nodded nonchalantly, explaining before they even asked. "Just here to grab a few things I forgot to bring last time."
As he got closer, another man asked. "How's Shin Bao?"
Xu Wei stopped in front of them, basking in the morning sun. "Well, he's alright."
"Still cuddling up to you in the dorm?"
He covered his eyes with his hand and asked. "How did you know about that?"
The man chuckled. "He told his mom that you kicked him out of bed last year!"
Xu Wei finished the conversation with some small talk and added a note to give Shin Bao a good beating when he went home.
When he entered the building, he almost covered his nose out of instinct, then he furrowed his brows, thinking to himself. 'I haven't been gone so long that I lost immunity, have I?'
It was possible. The heavy scent of cigarettes mixed with a wet dog smell with a tinge of spilled soju, it wasn't a scent that was easy to get used to. No matter how many times he'd been ordered to clean the first floor in punishment, it always came back, like the smell had seeped deep into the cracked tiles on the floor, the muted wallpaper in the lobby, or even the dull lights.
Yet, that disgusting smell made him feel like he'd finally come home.
He shook his head and veered to the staircase, quickly making his way up the stairs while avoiding the odd creaky step out of habit. When he made it to the fourth floor without making a sound, he smiled to himself. 'I still got it.'
Once he exited the staircase, he stood in front of his mother's door for a long while, just staring at the familiar wooden door that seemed to separate him from his old life in some small way. He only moved when he heard someone coming up the steps, directly walking into the apartment without knocking.
A glance around the apartment told him that not only had his mom not locked the door, but she wasn't even home. Still, he called out. "Mom? It's me."
Only silence welcomed him.
Ten minutes later, Xu Wei walked out of the apartment building with two old shoe boxes filled to the brim with papers, only being kept closed by plastic hair ties he'd stolen from his sister before she moved out completely. He briskly walked through the alleys until he got to the car he'd rented at the airport, and only then did he let himself relax into the seat.
While he would have loved to see his mom, it would have been a bit hard to explain to her why he was here, and it would have been harder to explain the boxes that now sat neatly in his passenger seat.
Inside were years of evidence.
The first envelope came when he was in high school. At first, he had thought it was a prank by one of the other kids who lived in the apartment building. Perhaps, even their siblings that his sister had pissed off. He found it in his bag after coming back from his gym class.
Students always left their bags in their classroom for gym, so the thought that someone had casually walked into the school and made their way to his second-floor homeroom class didn't even tickle his mind. No, it only made sense that a fellow student had pranked him.
There was no letter, not yet. Only three simple photos.
He and Shin Bao were walking home from school together, a photo taken of him sitting at the second-floor window seat of his classroom, and a photo of him walking out of the alley with blood trickling down his arm after a particularly nasty fight.
Any of these could have easily been taken by someone who knew him, someone who lived in his neighborhood or went to school with him.
Xu Wei wasn't even mad. In his opinion, he looked quite good in each photo, especially the third one. His chin was lifted slightly as he laughed, and the sun brought out the color of his eyes. It was probably the most photogenic photo that had been taken of him, so he kept them even if they were a bit weird.
It wasn't until the second envelope appeared that he realized that something was wrong.
Habits can be dangerous. Whether intentionally or not, they build a series of dates and times that can be used to create a schedule.
If you left the house at the same time every day, someone knew that your house would be empty after that time. But, that also meant that if you left the house at 8, someone could round the corner at 8:01 and follow you to your destination, or worse.
Back then, there wasn't much news about stalkers, especially not in his area. His area was known for having some piss-poor people, some criminals that ran in local gangs or dealt drugs, but nothing like stalking. If there was any, it was just because you'd pissed off the wrong person and they were scooping out a time to deal with you.
The conversation about online dating and being careful about who you talk to online had just started to be talked about back then, and streaming had only just blown up, so people weren't as careful as they should have been.
However, these people didn't include Xu Wei. Xu Wei had been very careful when creating his accounts. He had different emails, he'd bought a phone card off of one of the local kids whose brother knew someone else, and he never mentioned his area. No, he even made it seem like he was a wealthy kid in a large city, and he even used a voice changer to make himself sound older back then.
He hadn't done any of this due to wanting to hide his identity online, he simply didn't want his family to be able to figure it out.
However, Xu Wei did have habits like everyone else.
His first habit was one that he'd inherited by watching his sister when he was younger. Although he wasn't particularly concerned about school, he would still leave his house half an hour before school started, even if it meant that he arrived fifteen minutes before the other students did.
His second habit was one that was born out of convenience. Starting at the age of eleven, he would do his own laundry every Wednesday after school and Sunday afternoons. His mother would do her laundry every Thursday and Monday, and his sister would do her laundry every Saturday if she was home.
If it was a nice day, he'd hang his laundry out on the balcony. If it wasn't, he would hang it in the bathroom.
His third habit could be considered his streaming schedule. Every day without fail, he would start his stream either at 7 pm after he had dinner, or before. Never later than 7.
He would always remember the moment he found the second envelope.
It was a Wednesday, however, it was also the middle of his summer break. Instead of starting his laundry in the afternoon, he'd decided to hang it out to dry that morning before he went out to run some errands for his mother.
When he got back home a few hours later, it was hard not to see the envelope that was taped to the outside of the balcony door.
Inside, there was only one photo. It was him at his desk, his back facing the window of his room.
The photo hadn't been taken from outside the window, though. The person's gloved hand reached toward him in the photo, almost touching the back of his neck.
Someone had been behind him while he was streaming in his own apartment.
He couldn't think of a person who would dare to trespass in this building, let alone his apartment, not when he and his sister were around. They'd have to be fucking insane.