It's Way Too Late To Stay Locked Up Inside Ourselves

3 am

What the hell am I even doing here.

Se-ri looked around the unfamiliar surroundings. She had never been to this part of the city. Now it was deserted. The long shadows punctuated only by the yellow street lights did nothing to put her at ease.

I never should've gone to that party.

She fought the urge to stamp her foot. Se-ri's team manager, Hong Chang-sik, looked so crestfallen that she wasn't coming to his birthday party that she had been moved to attend at the last minute. Now it was three o'clock in the morning and she was very tired and very sober. Her feet hurt. And while Se-ri knew that she looked damn good in her white bolero jacket, it afforded little protection against the damp chill of early morning.

Se-ri had been looking for a cab for over twenty minutes. She checked her phone again. The closest Uber was still 60 minutes away. Where the hell was she anyway?

Then, the hair on her arms stood up. Someone was walking toward her.

Stay calm. It could be nothing. Just keep walking. Se-ri came to the next intersection and, on a hunch, turned right. But she could still hear someone behind her. Se-ri hastened her steps, the heels of her boots sounding out the pounding of her heart.

And then she felt her arm yanked so hard she fell backwards. Se-ri cried out as her knees hit the pavement. A man shrouded in black pushed her head down into the sidewalk and grabbed the cell phone that had skidded next to her head.

"Hey!" a voice rang out from across the street. She heard the man above her curse under his breath and then take off. Se-ri sat up and watched as a tall figure in a leather jacket dashed diagonally across the street after her attacker. A garbage can rattled to the ground in their wake.

Se-ri struggled to catch her breath. She felt something warm running down her face and touched it gingerly. I'm bleeding.

Her purse was gone. Her phone, also gone. Se-ri could feel the tears pricking. Stop it. Get a hold of yourself.

And then she heard footsteps again and her heart pounded anew. Se-ri ground her teeth, stealing herself to fight. She squinted and then saw the light gleam off a leather jacket.

It was the man from across the street.

He quickly held his hands up as if in surrender and stopped five feet away from her.

"I tried to catch him but the bastard got away. Actually took a shot at me and then I lost him." He looked down at the sidewalk and clenched his jaw in anger; seemingly as much at himself as her attacker.

When he looked up, his expression looked stricken.

"You're bleeding!"

Se-ri touched her face and then looked down at her aching knees. Her tights were ripped to shreds and her knees were a bloodied mess.

"My name is Ri Jeong-hyeok. I just want to help. Do you need to use my phone? Can I call the police for you? Take you to the hospital?"

"No!" She drew in a shaky breath. "No —- no police. No hospital." The news coverage will be a circus.

"Okay," he replied slowly. "Is there someone I can call to come get you then?"

But who was there to call? Se-ri had put her team manager to bed — passed out drunk. If she used the car service, it would become the subject of company gossip. She had no friends to speak of. And she sure as hell couldn't call her family. The answer was a kick in the stomach.

"I —- I don't really have anyone to call."

A lump formed in her throat. Between the attack and saying that truth out loud in front of this stranger, a sob was clawing its way from within her chest. It tore through the silence. Suddenly, he was by her side.