➴ downtown。

@park sunghoon. “Only like me cause her daddy don’t, took her soul cause i don’t got one of my own—.” Perfect synchronization marked her every move, each taken step accentuated by the complex layers of the beat, and the way her body rolled drawing attention to reverb of the bass as she recited the lyrics engraved in her subconscious while she fluttered about the space in retrieval of the needed materials.

The least daunting task reserved for the last of the night, it only took a maximum of half an hour to swap out the tires of the bike she had been working maintenance on, the towel draped through her partially rolled down jumpsuit released solely to wipe the excess grease from her gloves, a habitual routine of her post cleanup, peeling off each glove to reveal the alabaster complexion littered with stygian ink trailing up the length of her wrist. A single glimpse of her screen answered her mental inquiry, leading to her strut towards the front, where the newly acquired inventory lay haphazardly in boxes stacked off behind the front desk, the collection was growing too vast for her preference and relying on the men she worked with to tidy it had long since proved futile; she would gradually decrease the extent just as she had been doing on the nights when she stayed a bit later than the others. kicking open the drawer to retrieve a box cutter, she hauled the first two boxes back to her workspace.

It wasn’t often that Minjeong forgot to lock up and turn off the external illuminations, she was simply preoccupied and charted the task off for when she was ready to leave instead, it made more sense that way, or perhaps it was just her indolence convincing her of such. Regardless she never felt the need to heed the men's warnings as no one frequented the shop at hours such as these, and the blonde had reason to believe that would remain the case until she had seen it with her own eyes, and there he was like the very personification of the forewarning she had mentally drowned out so many times before, his stride initially caught her attention as she was already approaching the opposite direction, a smaller box nestled against the curve of her hip and supported under her arm, with one mere glance she could tell he wasn’t a local, but all that affirmed was the extra money she could extort and with that she drew closer, her words obscured by the gum she was chewing. “what can i do for ya?”

@kim minjeong. His yearn for this distinct adventure was ephemeral, for the inevitability of his dark brown orbs flitting through his surroundings, the quicker he came to his sense of cognitive. What the hell was he doing? He’d lost his mental direction of a map, he was lost. The roads have changed, not even the identification flaps reading the street’s name had a ring to it, suddenly the air felt inauspicious.

Sunghoon wasn’t one to ignore salient signs, not if he could help it, and the dashboard drew his attention once more to that, realization always hits harder in the air of spontaneity. He finally crept up to a stop light, the thick bar swinging spinelessly in the warm winds, staring back at him a harping red. Sunghoon tore his gaze, reaching for his device in lieu of awaiting the signal shift, a few taps led him to discovering his surroundings, thankfully. A mechanic shop was nearby, a sole left turn and straight shot away. Yeah, the brunette could make that in enough time. At least his calculations swore so to him. A green cast shined across his direction, leading him to step on the gas and wake the engine from it’s temporary rest with each complete stop he took. The directions he steadied imprinted themselves a mental imagery that he then began to follow.

Slowing to a considerable speed, he made sure to keep his sights open, he couldn’t miss the building. And soon enough, it came into visible recognition. It appeared a rustic structure, safe for the flashing lights that read it’s name with one, possibly two missing letters when the second one failed to flash the same sequence the others did sometimes, that brought down the appealing reputability that he read through the reviews, but stupid decisions couldn’t have perfect remedies, now could they? Sunghoon heaved a sigh as he turned into the space designated for the buildings parking before shutting off his vehicle. The gapping entrance space mimicking a garage door was open, a sign they were? He wont know until he found out. A knot he tried to swallow away formed in his throat as he approached the entrance to find out.

@huening bahiyyih. seven days, one hundred and sixty-eight hours, ten thousand and eighty minutes.

with the gentle caress of the sun’s rays and the comforting shield of the moonlight⸺day in and day out, her soul has always met nothing but the mundane. years ago, her obsidian orbs filled with ardent affinity for the resplendent colors of her world would gleam under the soulful dance of the warm morning’s coruscating lights. yet today, much to her dismay, the vibrant hues of a freeing blue, a cheerful yellow, and a solemn green flushed themselves to a resentful and bleak cloud of gray.

when was the last time she vividly heard what made the universe alive? every footfall in sync with hers, every beeping of a car intercepting another, every laughter that tells a story⸺all of which fell silent, as if she stood in a period devoid of life and time ceased to move forward in hers.

yet she continued to persist, swiftly tidying up departed tables, scrubbing away at food stains on the surface before a new customer arrives. the manifestation of her perseverance pouring from the plains of her skin, beads of sweat glimmering under the moon’s faint brilliance tangling with the street light’s tangerine flare.

the rise and fall of her chest was evident, coupled with the uncomfortable moisture of her hot breath tainting her plastic work mask, the sticky sensation tracing her skin. however, there was nothing but silence in her exhaustion while she willed herself to gather her bearings. from the corner of her eye emerges a beautiful figure of a young woman seemingly enticed by the appetizing aroma of tteokbokki, twigim, potato hotdogs, and egg breads behind her. younjung draws in a deep breath, her eyes curling up and crinkling at the corners to welcome their newest customer.

dainty hands pull at the backrest of the unoccupied green plastic chair, and she settles herself beside the woman, gently pulling her linked speech cards out of her apron’s pocket. she bows her head towards her first before showing her the topmost card that read, “hello! welcome to our food booth.” she eyes her once more, making sure that the young woman has read the card before flipping it to the next, “i’m younjung, your server for tonight.” she raises a hand meekly, waving at the woman as a friendly gesture before a new card is flashed. “i am hard of hearing, but i will tend to your cravings with all my might!” she affirms her statement with a series of nods, now showing the last card. “please fill out the paper form to place an order and signal me with a pat to my arm when done. thank you!”

@park sunghoon. It had been at least two hours since the last of her coworkers left for the night, the usual forewarnings amongst useless reminders were tossed her way, which only encouraged the halfhearted grunts in response before Minjeong all but begged them to just go, this wasn’t the first time she had singularly stayed and it wouldn’t be the last.

Nimble, slender digits fluttered effortless in their actions, despite there being no one but her in the garage, she preferred the atmospheric solitude of her earphones, at least the one that still worked properly. her teeth in annoyance, Minjeong yanked off the pair by the strings in one swift motion, instead she connected her phone to the ty bluetooth speaker that she knew would eventually fail one of these days, but it’ll do for now. It wasn’t important enough to urge the blonde to do anything proactively about it, and the men never seemed to care much for replacing it. ‘it still works you just gotta give it a good hit and it’ll be fine’ they would all remind her as if she hadn’t discovered the makeshift way to revive the device, but she had long since learned not to question their methods less she yearned to hear loads of lectures and unnecessary mansplaining.

Soon enough she was engrossed in the process, the boisterous bass of her current musical hyper fixation filled the cluttered space of her workplace, just barely drowning out the occasional clank of metal as she seamlessly switched between gauge sizes to suit her needs, she had decided to stay late and finish up a bit more of her workload before the next influx arrived during the weekend.

@kim minjeong. Awfully quiet, warm yet atmospherically stuffy, that’s the weight of how Sunghoon’s night ticked by. Not even his ever-so-useful Laptop could save his night this time, he needed to get out.

The resounds of his footsteps echoed throughout the wooden floors in a guide to the sole barrier to the outside, Clad in nothing more than a loose pull-over, all the loose items, necessities rather being his hand held device and the keys, that he collected on his trail were stored in the front pouch of said garment. The subtle hum of the engine greeted him as he approached the vehicle, it never took him long to settle in, the instant poke of indicators flashing an array of beams in hopes of being noticed across the dashboard, the most important detail being what exactly would fuel his after dark journey. It’d proven to be ineffectual, with no sense of direction in thought came with just as low intentions, and Sunghoon was already turning the very opposite direction of where to mollify what would’ve saved him his time.

His sights only dipped to glance towards the low lights of the dash, the sliver line of red proving his gain of speed as it rose to considerable half across the rounded display, Sunghoon eventually reached out of familiarity territory, just that swiftly. But little did he know, he’d only had a couple of miles right before he would appear stranded within these outskirts.

@kim mingyu. In his line of work, Jisung had met many types of people, so the remark from the other male hadn't came as a shock, but only caused the smaller to let out a half-hearted chuckle, his nose scrunching up from the smell of dirt. The words going right over Jisung's head, he had heard them, but he didn't pay any mind to them at all. He had come this far but wasn't about to give up now. "Gotta be to keep the job." Was all he said, when Jisung had set his eyes on something it was hard for him to give up on obtaining it, no matter what it was. So when he heard the answers firm denial in wanting to do the interview he hadn't paid much mind to it, it was the following words that Jisung clung too.

"I'd offer to disagree." Jisung said he had been just as firm and steady with his voice. The prospect of his own work having been one of the only ways to get him to step out of his own comfort zone. If it was any normal situation, Jisung wouldn't have bothered past the first dm on Instagram, and left it there. "News articles are very much biased, and they love to paint things for a good rouse." He replied. He knew how easily the words could be turned around on him, but if he had to argue, he would say that his bias had been in the convicts favor. Had things gone well.

His hand dropped to his side, confused a bit when the hard hat was placed on his head, but it had only spurred Jisung's curiousity more, the guy in front of him certainly didn't seem that bad. Sure he was a bit harsh with his words but there had been more of a sarcastic undertone in their exchanges in messages, and then now he showed that he had at least cared about others, in subtle ways. "No." He shook his head, attempting to straighten his stance a bit, his shorter stature being hard to be taken seriously sometimes. "What you say may be true, but I know that there's got to be a reason behind it. There are plenty of actual bad people out there not being punished for their crimes, so.. i don't know.." he paused for a moment to take a deep breath. "I like to see things from a different light."

@han jisung. "I wasn't asking because I wanted to know- Wait. J.one. Why does that sound familiar..." The man dusted with dirt and debris poked the inside of his cheek as his tired eyes scanned the man before him. Realization dawned on him when he remembered the brief exchange in his dms the night before. His lips thinned. "Scammer. Wow, stalking my socials wasn't enough, you had to find out where I worked, too? You journalists are persistent, aren't you?" He shook his head in disapproval as he tossed the hammer to the side of Jisung's feet, the object clinking aggressively against the other dangerous metals the journalist probably hadn't noticed yet. The site was an active safety hazard and the small male stood out like a sore thumb.

"The answer is still no. Stop believing all the Reddit posts on me and read the official news articles. I'm not someone you want to be around." His own words stung like acid on an open wound. Mingyu thought 6 years would wipe away the lingering bitterness he felt since the day of his arrest, but after coming home to find some of his friends abandoned him including his ex, it was hard to believe that it wasn't his fault. Could he blame them, though? It wasn't like he was a model citizen. He was known to be quick to anger.

"I used my fist. I broke the law. I put the kid in the hospital. Bad people deserve to be punished." He turned away from Jisung's outstretched hand before placing a hard hat on him. "End of story. Watch your step on the way out. Get crushed here and you won't be able to write any articles." Placing a firm hand on Jisung's head, he gave it a few hard pats, his jaw clenching to keep his emotions at bay.

@kim mingyu. Jisung wouldn't like to admit that he was desperate to get an interview from the guy known as Kim Mingyu but he was. In every sense of the manner, he needed more articles to go into his portfolio and this particular case had intrigued him a lot, it was something that had felt a little personal to him as he was also bullied in high school, and this guy had went to jail for defending his sisters against her bullies. He wanted to shed a new light on the manner since everyone had been painting it in such a bad light. At least, that's what Jisung had hoped to gain from the interview anyway.

Showing up to the place of work of someone he had been potentially interested in interviewing wasn't new for him, but it was definitely a stretch. Jisung had been a man of research and just as easily as he was able to get the other information from the guy, he had found his work. If seeing him in person didn't change his mind, Jisung would surely give up his efforts... eventually. He knew when he would be wasting his time chasing something he'd never get.

Once he reached the site and had asked one of the workers about Mingyu, Jisung looked up at the taller man blinking with a small smile, flinching lightly at the harsh words, stumbling a bit he offered his hand out for the other. "I'm Jisung.. or J.one." He said, introducing himself, if he was finally talking to the man in person he thought it would be best to be on a first name basis.

@han jisung. Mingyu didn’t ask to be in the sweltering summer heat. He didn’t ask to be worked to the bone until every fiber in his muscle burned and get paid close to nothing. He never meant life to go the way it did, but he would do it again in a heartbeat if it meant keeping his sister safe. Minjoo was his life and the only relative that he bothered caring about. The only reason that kept him waking up every single day to drag himself to the construction site despite his aching muscles and unpleasant coworkers. He groaned and arched his back to get rid of whatever tension he could before taking a step back to examine his work. “Not bad for 27000 won an hour.”

Just as he was about to get back to work, his phone rang. The fifth call since this morning from a nobody journalist who wanted to interview him about his case. It was dumb. One interview wasn’t going to give him his life back. It was just a waste of time and he’d already wasted two years of it he’ll never get back. “One more and I’ll change my number, holy. Why won’t he give it up?” He sighed as he heard another site worker call out to him saying someone was here to see him. “What now?” The man groaned under his breath and turned around to see an unfamiliar man much shorter than he was. “Who the are you?”