A Soft Place to land

12

"She wants to see you."

Uncle Kyung's words left Wolf shellshocked for the rest of the day, even as he presented his sales pitch to the other department heads, worked on rescheduling and fixed his squealing junior's computers. All he could think of was that his mother had actually made plans to see him- and although Uncle Kyung told him that his parents wouldn't arrive back in Seoul until a little bit after New Years; Wolf still felt somewhat excited,, and pretty nervous.

Even on his way home, he felt his stomach bubble up just thinking about it (or it could've been because he hasn't eaten anything but breakfast porridge for the entire day.), despite feeling the cold rain drenching him from under his umbrella.

By the time Wolf finished his shift, the sun had already set and the slight drizzle from that morning had shifted into relentless heavy rain that pelted the windows of his workplace.

And, despite the weather notification he got on his phone that morning, Wolf honestly didn't think it would be that bad. So when he dropped by the convenience store that afternoon for an umbrella, he purposely chose the clear hooded plastic one for the sake of saving some cash.

But looking out the window, he seriously doubted whether it was going to make it without snapping in half just from the force of the wind. To make matters worse, Wolf chose to walk home today, also in favour of saving cash.

Work Efficiently, Spend Efficiently, Live Efficiently- as Uncle Kyung would always say.

So Wolf set off to journey his way back home, in hopes of ordering a pizza and a couple of cans of beer to unwind after a long and (emotionally) draining day.

And, that my friends, is how he ended up here. Standing in the middle of a random street somewhere near his apartment, with no idea where he is or how to get back home.

His phone had also died while he was walking, so there was actually no way for him to know his exact location- given that the only signs around the place were advertising shady motels and equally as shady pop-up bars that served the classic soju and jjajangmyeon combo.

The street was lined with them. Tent after tent, and motel after motel. No matter where he walked or which corner he turned, it seemed that the place was just full of motels.

Why would there be a place with this many motels and pop-up bars in seoul? Why the hell are they all clumped together?

As he was walking by, Wolf stared down one of the pop-up bars, and started to contemplate whether or not he should just take a break from looking around and spend some time just hanging out in there. The more he looked, the more appetizing a bowl of cheap jjajangmyeon sounded.

At Least he wouldn't be riddled with heavy rain if he were to stay there for a while, he thought, knowing that his cheap umbrella was ready to give up at any moment. But before he could even try to turn around to walk towards the jolly green tent, he felt his body collide into something. Or more like, he felt something collide into him.

Although the impact was heavy and painful - almost akin to getting hit by a flying sack of bones - Wolf found that he was indeed still standing. And, when he looked down to see what it is that had flung into him, he was surprised to see that it wasn't a sack of bones, but someone that he hadn't expected to bump into again.

He watched as Gray Yeon looked up at him with wild, dilated eyes after falling to the asphalt in all of his rained down glory with a busted lip that left a trail of blood dripping down his scratched chin.

Wolf sighed, feeling his umbrella finally give way and snap in half.

It was gonna be a long night, and all Wolf wanted was to have some beer and pizza.