IN THE DARK AND HIDDEN

She had always known how nyctophilic she was, how much she loved and appreciated the dark and the solitude that came with it. She would find herself at late or wee hours of the morning, leaning against her balcony and staring into the dark.

She appreciated the lack of luminary pollution too, it made her see and appreciate the dark effectively. Her street only boasted of dimly lit streetlamps and whilst others might have complained about how eerie it made the environment look, it magnified the prominence of the moonlight; and she prefered the natural lunar glow to that of bulbs and electricity.

She was twenty-one and leaning against her balcony one night when he she had first met him. It happened too fast, a little faster than that and she would have completely missed it.

She definitely would never miss how professionally he slid and hopped, springing from roof to roof with so much elegance and vigour that made her know, he had been doing this for way too long it had been incorporated into his nature.

The way he was slick with his actions too, whoever he might have been, was definitely the perfect choice for the act.

Maybe a little too perfect, because he hadn't expected her to be there that night so he should've been taken aback.

But he was not.

When he slid past her apartment and in that split second when she properly saw him, the glint in his eyes and the glint in his weapon(?) that was exposed in time as his cloak parted way for it, her heart leapt on excitement.

She had never been more excited for the night than after that moment.

He smelt like Cedar, she had noticed in that moment too. As she walked to the bus stop to get to her workplace the next morning, she passed by a cedar tree and it reminded her of him. She loved that the little bit of remembrance on that busy and dull morning brought a little bit of enthusiasm for the day.

She had not met him yet but he was already brightening her seemingly boring day despite coming in the night. She longed to know who he was.

Stepping into the building of her workplace, she greeted a few seniors and adjusted her name tag hung loosely on her neck. She rearranged her hair too and headed straight to her department.

"Ah Mona, you're finally here" Jiyoo, their team leader's voice rang out. She wasn't late though, just not as early as everyone else was. They were already present and sat in their various desks, trying to get work done.

She belonged to the Graphics designing team alongside Jiyoo and three others; Youngjae, a middle aged man who seemed to love coffee than his work. Minah, the classy lady who looked out of place, working amongst a team. She dressed and looked like she should've owned her company, despite working with one of the smallest units in her workplace. Then Noah, the youngest amongst them, a new intern who just graduated from high school.

Her team took care of the graphics and cover art for the company's cosmetics brand.

They were her only friends and sort of a family figure too. She was a pretty private and socially awkward person and so they were the only people she interacted with daily.

She waved slightly, a form of greeting and walked to her desk. "Hey guys"

She caught Noah frowning and pouting slightly at her and she narrowed her eyes slowly, wondering what she had done.

"What?"

"Aren't you forgetting something?" He said.

"I don't know, why don't you tell me?" She folded her arms in her seat.

"It's my birthday" he slowly let out. Mona let the information sink in for awhile before her face lit up, a balanced contortion of glee and guilt. She sprung for her seat and lunged at his head, hugging it tightly.

"Seriously??? I'm so sorry I forgot about it, your lunch is on me today" She ruffled his hair and he mummured about her messing it or so.

"It is your birthday?" Minah adjusted in her seat, asking and glancing up. Noah gasped.

"you mean you don't know it's my birthday too?" He exclaimed dramatically. "I bet the rest of you don't even know it's my birthday too" He pointed accusing fingers at everyone in the room and they fed him with guilty faces back.

"you guys are much worse than I am" Mona mummured. "I mean, I only forgot, you guys DO NOT EVEN KNOW ABOUT IT"

Minah rolled her eyes and Youngjae was going to say something in his defense when Jiyoo came in.

"What is the ruckus for?" She questioned as she came into the room, a stack of fresh paperwork in her grip and they mentally sighed at more work.

"Apparently it's Noah's birthday and everyone forgot about it" Minah explained.

"I am buying him lunch as compensation though" Mona shrugged.

"Save your money sweetheart, let me treat us all to lunch" Jiyoo said pitifully. "Noah honey, happy birthday. Now let's get to work"

They were sat at the company's restaurant, having lunch as Jiyoo promised. They were teasing Noah and talking about random stuff. Youngjae said something to Noah and the latter blew him a kiss in return making him gag and earned him a pinch from Minah. Jiyoo narrowed her eyes at them all and Mona just giggled.

She was still indulging in her food when she caught the whiff of that enticing scent. It was almost too identical that it engulfed her senses and masked the smell of her food. She shot her head up and caught the retreating figure of a staff walking past their table with his tray of food.

He smelt just like Mr. Night Walker and she couldn't take her eyes off him.

"Who's he, unni?"she nudged at Jiyoo and the said lady looked up to also catch a glimpse of him.

"Who? Him? We have like over 500 workers in this company, of course I wouldn't be able to tell who he is." She sighed.

Mona stared at him as he took a table on the right side of the hall already occupied by people she assumed were his teammates by the way they greeted him as he arrived.

" Do you know him?" Jiyoo asked her again.

"Not really" She shrugged. "He just reminds me of somebody"

Jiyoo nodded slowly, shifting her attention to the rest of the table. Mona kept her gaze on the man though. That Cedar scent.

She was surprised no one else said anything about it, maybe they weren't as excited as she was about some Cedar scent. She smiled once again remembering that night.

It was crazy how the memory of him agitated her.