@โงห b. wooseok Minah's eyes widened at Wooseok's familiarity with the Song family. She hadn’t expected him to know her landlords, let alone dive into memories about them. As he mentioned Mingi, she sighed softly.
“Song eommoni’s been kind, but Mingi- her son… I’ve definitely /met/ him,” she said, tucking her hair behind her ear. "He keeps showing up with dinner his mom asked him to bring, but it's starting to feel a little… strange." She hesitated before adding, "He just stands there sometimes, like he's waiting for me to say something. I even caught him /checking the plants outside my door/ once. It's like he's keeping tabs on me." She flushed slightly at how petty it sounded, but wasn't comforted. "I moved here for peace, not to be watched."
As they reached her street, the unlit lamps deepened her frown. "And these lights? They've been out since I moved in." she muttered and lets out another sigh. "It can't be helped."
When Wooseok insisted on walking her to her door, she relented. “I’m in unit 204,” she pointed and led the way walking before Wooseok. Glancing back, she murmured, “Thanks. I’d probably trip without this.” She rolled her eyes, thinking that Mingi would love another excuse to hover. As they reached the top of the stairs, it struck her that she couldn't even thank the man before him, "Oh, and I haven't even gotten your name, how rude of me."
@โงห k. minah Oh -- his shot in the dark guess was completely wrong. Embarrassing. He looked over at her again... was she older than she looked? Wooseok couldn't tell, but to hear a familiar name mentioned in the conversation, the awkwardness from his false assumption had completely disappeared. "Ah, the Songs?" He replied, tapping his steering wheel, "I'm familiar with them." It was Song Ahjussi who helped Wooseok fix up his first car, after all. He hadn't seen Song Ahjumma nor their son, Mingi, since Ahjussi's funeral. With the mention of the Song family, Wooseok began steering toward the old pier. "How is Song Ahjumma?" He asked, making friendly small talk. He assumed that if she was renting out one of the apartments, that it would be through her. "And that br- her son, Mingi, I heard he's been fixing up cars, have you met him yet? He's still just a kid in my memory, I can't believe he's all grown up now," He continued to yap like an old man of the little that he only remembered for trying to hit up his girl under the guise of tutoring sessions. Mingi may have been a child then, but Wooseok never let his guard down around him nor got over the innocent crush a young Mingi had on his then-girlfriend.
As they drove toward the apartments, the sun began to set over the ocean and by the time they reached their destination, there was nothing but dark outside. Wooseok put his car in park with the headlights still on, but he looked around to see that the area lacked any illumination toward the apartment. "Yeesh, what happened to the streetlights?" He said aloud to himself before turning off his engine, keeping his headlights on. She'd already gotten lost once, Wooseok wouldn't forgive himself if she got lost again on account of him not finishing his job before properly seeing her arrive home. "Which apartment do you live in? I'll walk you there," He offered as he whipped out his handy dandy flashlight, adding on as he pointed at the vague darkness, "And how long have the lights been out like this? You've got make a complaint to the town to fix it."
@โงห b. wooseok Minah felt a sense of relief that Wooseok had agreed to help. Her tenseness eased, and in spite of her embarrassment, she was thankful for the stranger's kindness. His calm quirky confidence reassured her that everything was going to be alright, even though she was far off from where she was supposed to be.
She got into the car as he opened the door, feeling a bit awkward. Wooseok would pat the SUV and smile reassuringly, reminding her that he was just a person trying to do the right thing, someone she could trust. The ride in the car, now that it was moving, was a smooth one. The low hum of the engine eased Minah as she looked through the window, still unsure what this place was, but less panicked with someone who knew the town. There was something about him, his presence probably, that made her feel like he could be trusted, maybe because there was no one else she could lean on at this point. He was her only chance to get home, or at least get to somewhere familiar.
Wooseok would look over at her every so often, checking in with her silently. He was so easy-going that eventually she was comfortable around him, though she was still very much embarrassed. "Should I drop you off near the university?" She shook her head immediately when he suggested that she was a student. "No, um, I'm not a student," she said too fast, and then mentioned her street. "I'm staying at the Song Apartments by the old pier. You know it?" She hoped he did. Afterall, he claimed to be a police officer right? He had to know Haepung like the back of his hand.
@โงห k. minah Wooseok air through his teeth as he nodded and listened to her situation. As someone who was born and raised here, he wouldn't understand, but he'd come around to helping lost tourists around more than a few times in his prime. Perhaps, it was because he stuck out like a tree that they found him approachable? He pressed his lips together, silently apologizing to the stranger before him for how difficult his hometown is to navigate. It must being a girl all alone in this town. He glanced around the empty vicinity - there was no point waiting for anybody to approach, in fact, with crime seeming to run rampant in town since he left, perhaps it was better to get going before anyone passed by.
It didn't take much to convince Wooseok. He slapped his palm against his car, showing off how sturdy this big ol' SUV was before beckoning the girl and opening the passenger door for her. "Come in, let's get you out of here," He replied with friendly smile, resisting the urge to muss up this young girl's hair like he would to his nieces and offering his hand to help her climb into the SUV instead.
As he hopped back into the driver's seat, Wooseok drove familiarly toward civilization without any prompting from the girl, every once in a while glancing at her to make sure she was comfortable riding with him. "Where to, miss?" He asked as he got on the main road back to town, his tone imitating a taxi ahjussi, which he may have played too convincingly. His fingers tightened over the steering wheel as the cringe physically hurt him. He could feel the old age settling in him, especially compared to the girl who looked to be... college age? Wooseok honestly couldn't tell because every woman under 30 had started to look like babies to him. She could be in high school for all he knew. "Should I drop you off near the university?" He asked, making a poor educated guess.
@โงห b. wooseok Minah was startled by this voice, which seemed to come from the car, her heart skipping a beat at the sound of the roll of the window. Subconsciously, she took a backward step as she became attentive to the stranger coming to her. Her guard was still up until she spotted a police badge flashed by this man. This immediately relaxed the tension. A wave of relief washed over her, though this was immediately replaced by embarrassment. Here was this grown woman needing help from the police just because she had gotten on the wrong bus.
"I-" Minah stuttered, lowering her phone and holding his gaze. "Yeah, I'm new here. I moved in only a few weeks ago, and." She gestured to the unfamiliar street, sheepish. "I took the wrong bus, ended up on the wrong side of town."
At that moment, when Wooseok mentioned the bus came by only twice in a day and never after sunset, a pang of alarm struck her. In front of her, the road was empty without any other vehicle in view. She didn't immediately say anything as she was thinking about how to request help without sounding desperate.
"Would you be able to send me back?" Minah finally asked, her voice softer than she meant her to be. She prayed she didn't sound like a lost child, but in this moment, that was exactly how she felt.
@โงห k. minah It was a rare day to be able to get off work on time with no strings attached. Heck, in the last half-hour he had about nothing to do and lingered around the water cooler until his shift was over and he was able to escape to his car unscathed. Wooseok rolled down his windows and enjoyed the Haepung ocean breeze, enjoying his leisurely drive around town while the sun was still up, making a detour around places in town he hadn't been to in a long time.
There was a place he had no reason to visit now that he was an adult. No, it wasn't school, but a secret spot in town that was quiet, empty, and away from everything: the perfect place for teenagers to hangout and play hooky, smoke, or - as Wooseok often used it for - makeout. With his generation aged out of such activities, Wooseok couldn't imagine anybody loitering here anymore, so it was a surprise to him when he saw a young woman by herself at the dilapidated bus stop.
"Who's this?" Wooseok asked as he swallowed his throat, cautiously slowing down his car to take a glance at the woman. He didn't recognize her, but she didn't seem like a tourist either. Was she a ghost? Wooseok shook his head. No way she was a ghost, he knew somebody who could see them and she'd never seen a ghost here despite the urban legends that surrounded it. Still, it was those urban legends that kept people in town from using this stop and why the bus only came around it twice a day. Eventually, Wooseok came to a stop in front of her and confirmed she was, indeed, a human woman. But what was she doing all the way out here by herself when the last bus of the day must have already gone by? Obviously, she avoided his vehicle as he came to a stop before her, but... in this area Wooseok came to two conclusions about why a fully grown woman would be here alone: either she was doing suspicious activities or she was lost.
"Excuse me," Wooseok called out from his rolled down window before getting out of his car and flashing his police badge to the woman to ensure he didn't startle her too badly, "Can I ask why you're standing here all by yourself?" He looked around the area to see that there was nobody nearby. He wouldn't trust any of his family members in this area by themselves, especially as the sun was beginning to set. "Are you lost?" He asked, pointing at the bus stop and relaying "This bus only comes by twice a day, it doesn't come after the sun sets."
@โงห b. wooseok Minah had just ended her shift at the bakery, an hour earlier than she usually did. It was one of those few days that she left work when the sun was still up. Stepping outside into the afternoon's warmth, she allowed a small sense of relief as the evening crowd hadn't quite arrived yet.
She gravitated to the window seat, and once the bus started to move through the familiar parts of Haepung, Minah absent-mindedly scrolled through her social media feeds, setting her mind to nothing in particular. She barely felt the passage of time until it felt like something was off. She did finally look up from her phone to realize that the scenery outside was unfamiliar. The bus should have turned left at the last intersection, but instead, it had gone right.
It had slowly dawned on her that she had taken the wrong bus, and panic set in. She instantly jumped out of her seat, pressed the stop button, and ejecting herself off at the next stop. Stepping onto the pavement, she looked around, rather disoriented. The area was completely unfamiliar part of town. There were no people on the streets, and even the very bus stop was deserted.
"Aish." Minah bit her lip in frustration, stomping her foot onto the ground. A wave of helplessness washed over her. She hadn't been in Haepung long enough to find her way around unfamiliar neighborhoods.
She looked all around, hoping to catch something familiar, but it was just empty roads and silent houses. She had reached for her phone just to open Naver so that she could find her way home when she saw a car far away. It drew closer, crawling, before it came to a stop right in front of her. Minah hesitated for a while, looking around, wondering if the driver was picking up somebody else. She stepped cautiously to the side and directed her attention to her phone to figure out a way back without requesting someone's help.
