thanks!
to be clear, enemies don’t wait for you when they’re close. rather, the elements of a room do not change when the rat in that room doesnt make an action (e.g. stepping a tile or using an item. bumping into a wall does not count as an action). the one exception to this is the ghosts, which move when the other rat makes an action. pro tip: you can use this to your advantage, by intentionally forcing a ghost to spawn on the other board, attacking that ghost will count as an action and change the parity of all the enemies, allowing you to prevent taking damage :)
it is undoubtedly a tricky game!
I already found the ghost waiting technique, but during that time you still have constraints on where to move, which often lead you to more constraints, and finally a dead end. It did save me sometimes, but as you also gather more enemies around during that time. For what I experienced, it didn't save me that often and sometimes you even lose more hearts at the end