You mean the mechanic where NPC's don't stand in a corner waiting for you forever and ever? Yeah, pretty much.
It's a roleplaying game. You're supposed to know what your character knows.
But that is where you are entirely wrong...they do stay in one corner forever indefinitely, unless you rest two feet over an invisible line without any kind of warning. As long as you know where the invisible line is you could literally wait in game years and those NPCs wouldn't move an inch. But rest on the wrong side of the line and they're gone in an instant.
