A new day begins, but the same routine continues until the end of our lives… but not for our protagonist.

  “Okay, backpack, check. Laptop, check. Keys, check. Wallet, check. Phone, che—wait, and my phone?!”

  Jeff frantically patted several parts of his body, searching for his phone.

  “Master, your phone is in your back pocket.”

  “Ah, thank you very much, Esfer… and stop looking there.”

  And with the checks finished, Jeff grabbed the doorknob, and as he opened it, he was welcomed by the same old hallway of his apartment building.

  As he stepped out and locked his door, he heard the sound of another door opening to his right.

  When he looked over, he saw a girl with orange hair, wearing a light blue blouse with small black patterns and dark blue jeans. It was Alejandra, Jeff’s neighbor… and the girl who accused him of being a stalker.

  Jeff had interacted very little with Alejandra, but even with that, he could tell that she was a narcissist with an air of superiority about her beauty—unfortunately, she was beautiful.

  So he had no desire to interact with her, but his parents had not raised a rude person.

  “Good morning, neighbor,” Jeff said as he greeted her and went straight toward the stairs, but this time he heard something behind him.

  “…Who was that?”

  Jeff couldn’t stand it and shouted from the stairs, “It’s Jeff!!”

  To which Alejandra replied, “Ah, the stalker?”

  “I’m not!!”

  “Shut up! brat!” a shout was heard from the upper floor of the apartment building.

  Jeff shouted an apology to Mr. Frank. He was about to keep going downstairs, but he stopped and went back toward Alejandra.

  “What do you want?” Alejandra asked.

  “Nothing, just go first and I’ll watch you from a distance.”

  Alejandra just looked at him like he was weird. “Ha, and why would you do that?”

  “Did you forget already?” Jeff asked irritably. “It’s to see if your stalker shows up.”

  “Oh, that,” Alejandra said. “Fine. I don’t care about your excuses to look at me, just don’t stay close to me.”

  With those words, Alejandra left, and Jeff followed her steps from a distance.

  “It’s going to be a very long morning.”

  .

  .

  .

  At the entrance of Green Vida University, several groups of students could be found. Some were alone, listening to music or looking at their phones; others were in small groups of friends—two, three, even six people.

  There was also a group of several pretty girls, and at the center of that group was Alejandra. Around them, many people could be seen admiring the group, and more specifically, Alejandra.

  And lastly, there was Jeff—who was not looking at Alejandra, but at all the others who were looking at her.

  *Esfer, do you see anything?* Jeff asked his living and helpful sphere.

  “No, master, several have characteristics similar to the stalker, but I don’t see anything suspicious.”

  “Several?”

  Jeff felt irritated by that answer. He had not found any suspect or any clue on the way to the university, and finding out that there were several people with those characteristics meant that there were more suspects than he had imagined.

  Jeff decided to walk on and pass by Alejandra’s group so he could go to a place he had in mind, but at the entrance he saw two people, who were none other than his friends Mike and Miguel.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Hey, what are you doing standing there?” Jeff asked, addressing his friends.

  The two, upon hearing him, turned their gazes toward him and greeted him as well. When they were close, they began to talk.

  “Hey Jeff, we were waiting for you to go to classes,” Mike said with a smile.

  “Sorry, I have to do something first. I’ll see you later.” Even though it weighed on him, Jeff said goodbye to his friends, leaving them confused.

  .

  .

  .

  In a university hallway, once full of noise and now calm due to the start of classes, the area was left deserted, except for one soul… and a sphere.

  “Alright, which locker was it?… Esfer, do you remember which one she said?”

  “Yes, master. Apparently her locker was… this one.”

  Esfer stopped in front of a locker that belonged to Alejandra.

  “Alright, where do I put the camera? There.”

  Jeff looked toward the corner of the hallway, which allowed a view of the locker, and had a black stripe that ran across the entire corridor.

  “Esfer, give me the camera I asked you for.”

  With those words spoken, Jeff extended his hand, and a small camera appeared there, with a small stand and adhesive.

  “Very well… now take it and stick it there.”

  Jeff handed the camera to Esfer, who took it without much enthusiasm.

  “Master, I respect your actions… but I feel that you are becoming a stalker by doing this,” Esfer commented, somewhat worried.

  “Don’t worry, it’s to do a great good.”

  “Of course, to protect Miss Alejandra from the stalker,” Esfer commented cheerfully.

  “And so I don’t end up in jail.”

  Esfer looked at him with some anger, and Jeff only smiled innocently.

  With a sigh, Esfer flew away and placed the camera in the position Jeff had indicated.

  “Very well, we’ll have to retrieve the memory later.”

  With that, Jeff and Esfer left the hallway, heading toward his classroom.

  .

  .

  .

  “Ah, finally a short break from these classes,” Miguel commented as he walked out of the classroom. Beside him were Mike and Jeff.

  “Yeah, let’s go eat something in the cafeteria.”

  “Jalo (I’m in).”

  “I, um… I have to do something. Sorry,” Jeff said with a certain nervousness.

  “Really? Alright, see you later.” With that, Mike and Miguel said goodbye to Jeff, who, after losing sight of them, headed somewhere else.

  With light steps, he moved along the university paths until he reached the university quad, where several college students were resting in the shade of the trees and others were playing with a frisbee. Among all of them, there was a group of people gathered and talking; looking more closely, Alejandra was there with several friends and possible admirers.

  Jeff decided to take a seat by a nearby tree, in a place where he could see Alejandra and have a clearer view of the others.

  *Esfer, do you see the stalker?*

  Esfer reflected for a moment before answering. “Hmm, there are some people who match the stalker’s height and skin tone.”

  “Alright, who?” Jeff whispered.

  “Two are in that group, and the others are playing or talking outside Alejandra’s group.”

  *I see. Just as the letter said, he didn’t approach Alejandra, so we’ll rule out the two people. That leaves us with those who are around her.*

  “But we must not rush, master. The simple fact that they have the same height or skin color does not mean they are the stalker.”

  *Of course. We need something that links them… the letters! We can ask for the letters that are given to Alejandra and see if any letter is similar to the stalker’s handwriting.*

  “What a great idea, master. With that, we will surely be able to catch the stalker.”

  “Yes, now I am one hundred percent sure that this will work.”

  .

  .

  .

  “This shit isn’t working,” a very tired Jeff said. He had very dark circles under his eyes, hair more disheveled than usual, and a weary look.

  And it was no wonder; two days had passed since his investigation began, and he had come up with nothing.

  The number of people giving gifts was large. Even after separating them by the stalker’s characteristics, the number of suspects added up to more than sixty.

  It was a monumental amount, causing him to review many letters, searching for a resemblance to the stalker’s letter, but even so, none of the letters matched the stalker’s. This left him with fewer suspects, but still with more doubts.

  With no more data to search for in order to know who the stalker was, and with very little time left before the deadline Alejandra had given him, Jeff realized that his situation was very bad.

  “Shit, once again I can’t see anything,” Jeff said. He was sitting on a bench, and in the distance Alejandra was with her group of friends, with people around her watching or being caught up in her bustle.

  “Esfer, do you have anything?”

  “No suspicious behavior, master.”

  “What do we do no-?”

  “Jeff.” A voice was heard behind him, making him jump in fright, and when he turned around he could see his friends, Mike and Miguel.

  “Huh? What are you doing here? And why did you scare me?” Jeff asked his friends, but they did not respond, leaving Jeff confused.

  “What the—” He couldn’t continue, as Miguel and Mike grabbed each of his arms and dragged him to another place, to a hallway with no students at all.

  “Jeff, what you are doing is wrong,” Miguel said, seeing that there was no one nearby.

  "He's talking about your attitude toward Alejandra… we’ve seen it. Every time you weren’t with us, you went to watch Alejandra from afar,” Mike said.

  “Besides, you arrive at the university after Alejandra, and when leaving, you go out after Alejandra,” Miguel added.

  “Huh? You were watching me?” Jeff asked incredulously, thinking he had been discreet about it.

  “That’s right, and that’s why we have the obligation to tell you that you need to distinguish between love and stalking.”

  He could never have imagined that his friends would call him a stalker in his life, but what hurt him the most was…

  "Love?! No, you're wrong, I'm not interested in Alejandra, I wouldn't even want to be with her."

  Mike and Miguel were perplexed by Jeff's denial. They were about to ask him what was wrong with the university's beauty, Alejandra. But then they thought.

  "If you don't like Alejandra," said Miguel.

  "Why do you always look at her?" Mike added.

  "Huh? Well, that's...

  .

  .

  .

  "So, you had a misunderstanding with Alejandra and you're looking for the real stalker so she doesn't report you to the police?" Mike said, recapping what Jeff had said.

  Although, of course, Jeff hadn't mentioned anything about Alejandra's true appearance or their conversations.

  "That's right, and I have to catch that stalker this week or I'll go to jail."

  "Verga (damn), your situation is tough... see you around," said Miguel, walking away, but Jeff stopped him, hugging him from behind.

  “None of that. You already know my situation, now you help me.”

  “And what do we do? What can we do to find a stalker?” Miguel asked.

  “How about we don’t look for the stalker? Let the stalker come to us,” Mike said confidently, while Jeff and Miguel looked at him.

  “So? How do we do it?” Jeff asked.

  “…I proposed one part of the plan, now it’s your turn to do your part.”

  The three of them kept talking, planning something, but nothing came out. They didn’t know how to make the stalker come out.

  The “planning” lasted until the end of the break, forcing the friends to end their meeting without any plan, with a dejected air between them, and with Mike asking if he could keep Jeff’s Pokémon card collection when he went to jail.

  .

  .

  .

  “Hey Esfer, do you think you could create a new identity for me?” Jeff asked, dejected, as he walked to his apartment.

  “It’s possible, yes, but I wouldn’t like you to use that option.”

  “Neither would I, but what can I do? Even with my friends we couldn’t come up with a plan,” Jeff said, discouraged.

  “Well, master, you and your friends didn’t cover the whole spectrum.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, all the plans you proposed were made without keeping one thing in mind: Alejandra.”

  “That’s true, but I don’t think she’ll want to help me.”

  “You ask her, and I think she will.”

  Jeff let out a tired sigh. “Alright, so what plan do you have in mind?”

  “Well, as your friend said, we need to provoke the stalker to make him come out of hiding,” Esfer said cheerfully. “And I have an idea that the stalker, his number one fan, won’t be able to ignore.”

  “I like the sound of that. Tell me.”

  .

  .

  .

  At Green Vida University, you could find many students in the cafeteria, in the quadrangle, and other places, all gathered together. But in one hallway, there were only two people… and a mythical sphere.

  Jeff was sweating and trembling; what he was about to do wasn’t easy, but he had to do it.

  “Alejandra, go out with me,” Jeff said with determination, courage, and confi—

  “No, I don’t want to.”

  He’d already been rejected!!