"Excuse me, sir..." Sienna's voice cut through the night, a little breathless. "Sir, please wait..."
However, her voice blended with the noise of a passing car; the man probably didn't hear her.
She quickened her steps as she tried to catch up with him.
But the distance between them didn't shrink. The man's strides were long and effortless. No matter how much Sienna sped up, she couldn't quite close the gap. It felt almost unfair. It felt like she was chasing a moving train with bare feet.
"Sir..."
Before she could call out again, he walked straight into a building opposite the convenience store. The glass doors opened for him automatically, swallowing his figure in a matter of seconds.
And just like that, he was gone.
"It seems it's not him...!?"
Sienna slowed to a stop, her steps gradually fading into stillness. Her brows furrowed slightly as she stared at the glass doors, as if expecting them to open again and reveal him standing there, watching her.
But of course, nothing happened.
She stood there for a few seconds longer, her thoughts tangled between doubt and certainty.
'Geez... It's definitely not him. Maybe you're just tired and seeing things.' Her heart stubbornly argued back. 'No. It's him. It must be him!'
Sienna let out a small sigh and walked toward the convenience store.
"Fine! If I'm wrong, then I'm wrong. But if I'm right—"
She stopped mid-sentence when someone suddenly called her name.
"Sienna...?!"
She quickly turned around and was caught off guard to see Riley walking toward her.
"Riley, why are you here?" Sienna frowned, completely surprised as she looked at the man who was supposed to have already gone home after dropping her off. Yet here he was, casually showing up at the convenience store in her neighborhood.
Smiling, Riley opened the store door for her and let her enter before answering. "My friend happened to be in this area. He called me right after I dropped you off, so I'm meeting him."
Sienna wasn't entirely convinced. As far as she knew, Riley didn't have any friends living in her neighborhood.
"Which friend?" she asked casually as she walked to the frozen-food section to pick out her dinner.
"You don't know him." Riley continued following her. "But he's in that building across the street."
'The opposite building...!?' Sienna suddenly felt her chest tighten as she remembered seeing her savior's lookalike entering that same building earlier.
'Should I follow Riley there and try to find that man?' The thought lasted only a second before she dismissed it.
It was an office building. How was she supposed to find one person among hundreds of people? Besides, that man was probably not her savior.
After grabbing a frozen pizza and a pack of chicken wings, she headed toward the cashier.
"Look at you..." Riley chuckled as he glanced at the frozen food in her hands. "I offered to take you out for dinner, but you refused. Now you're going to eat those?"
"Well, I suddenly got hungry and started craving this kind of food, so..." She shrugged and let the sentence trail off as the cashier began scanning her items.
Then she turned to Riley.
"Did you find what you wanted to buy?"
He nodded and pointed toward the beer refrigerator in the corner.
"Beer."
"Wow. So you're planning to drink with your friend?"
"Yeah." He grinned. "Do you want to join us?"
The unexpected invitation caught Sienna off guard.
Just moments ago, she had briefly considered following him to the building across the street so she could search for her savior. Now Riley was openly inviting her along.
The offer was tempting.
However, the exhaustion she had been fighting all day slowly settled over her again.
"No. I need to go home and rest. You enjoy your night, but make sure you don't drink too much, Riley."
Riley smiled at her concern.
"I won't."
He placed the beer on the counter and asked the cashier to process it together with Sienna's order.
When Sienna reached for her card, Riley stopped her and paid first.
"No, let me pay." She quickly handed her card to the cashier as well, leaving the poor man looking back and forth between them in confusion.
"Take mine. Her card is already over the limit," Riley insisted.
Sienna lightly punched his arm.
"Fine. You win. Thank you."
Riley's smile widened with obvious satisfaction.
After leaving the convenience store, Sienna was about to say goodbye when Riley insisted on walking her back to her apartment.
"Let me walk you."
"There's no need. It's not far, and you have plans with your friend."
Of course, Riley refused.
"Seriously, Riley, there's no need to walk me all the way to the entrance. You might end up being late."
Still, he continued walking beside her.
"I'm worried you'll get scared if something suddenly jumps out of the dark."
Sienna couldn't help laughing. "You think I'm afraid of ghosts?"
An amused smile spread across his face as he glanced at her.
"Well, you're afraid of cockroaches."
"Oh, come on, Riley. Those are completely different things," she protested.
"Not really. You're still scared when they suddenly appear in front of you."
"You win," Sienna admitted with a sigh of defeat.
She stopped arguing and simply let him walk her to the main entrance.
Once Riley finally left, Sienna headed up to her apartment on the tenth floor.
However, just as she was about to unlock her door, her phone vibrated.
She pulled it out of her bag.
The screen lit up, revealing a message from Aunty Maya, her uncle's wife and the only person in her family she hadn't blocked.
"Sienna, your father knows your location."
Her fingers tightened around the phone.
For a moment, she simply stared at the message before slipping the phone back into her bag.
Taking a slow breath, she closed her eyes briefly.
The trouble she had been running from was no longer far behind her. It was already catching up.