When The World Stops

Being off

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Sweet night by V

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October, 2020

'Was it always this cold?' 

She shifted in her seat on the wooden bench, her hands frostbitten. Her breath formed impatient clouds in the cold morning. 'Maybe you just lost all the warmth in your heart.'  Memories flashed before her eyes. 

'Nature has the power to heal dear.'

Her therapist's words got the best of her, again. Her dammed words like she understood, like she didn't pretend to just sit on a fancy chair and air out nonsense only to drain out wallets.

"What can nature do to a broken soul anyway." 

The one thing she found more frustrating than extinguished creativity were sleepless nights and she seemed to be having a whole lot of them. This particular one drove her out of bed and up achasan mountain way before sunrise. If her mother and her father were around, they would be making jokes and falling over how un-athletic she was . 

The beginnings of a smile vanished when she remembered the cause of her pain 'They're ashes.' 

"Fuck this shit." Her tongue wet her cracked lips, eyes watering not just because of the cold as she reached into her coat pocket, patting around till she felt two familiar buds. Placing them into her ears she played the one playlist that seemed to soothe her hot tears.

'Mono by RM.'

She was lost, her small broken heart in a world full of marching people and of all the places, she had to live in the city of fucking opportunities amidst a global pandemic, Seoul. She didn't want to sound like she was drowning in misery but nothing was going right in her life and this album was the thin thread she hung on to. 

She was pulled out of her thoughts when a tall wheezing man clad in a black padded jacket leaned on the tree next to her bench. His silver hair was stark against the dark dawn. Her body now on alert pulled out her ear buds and stared at his distressed form. The strange man still continued to take in deep breaths through his mask and out of nowhere his arms waved in her direction. She flinched ready to take out her pepper spray.

"Ex- shit..Excuse m-me...miss, but what's ..." He stopped holding up a finger while taking another deep breath. "what's the time." He said finally taking his hands off the poor tree and straightening his posture. 

"You have a watch." She stated warily ready to get off the bench and kiss 'getting help from nature' goodbye. If she was gonna die, it was gonna be her way. The man flustered, glanced at his watch, he gave the skeptical woman an apologetic look before squinting at his watch and blinking hard like he found it hard to focus his vision.

She watched him struggle for a few seconds before giving in. "5:03" She simply said. 'What's the point of pepper spraying him, he's already half blind.'

"Thank you...?"

"I'm not telling you my name." 

"....."

"Okay...um..do you mind if I sit here miss." He asked politely while struggling with his hiking bag. 'I can definitely outrun him .'

She nodded, relaxing into her seat but she still kept an eye on him. She creased her eyebrows watching him struggle with unclipping the bag strap around his torso. He let out a nervous laugh catching her side eye as he proceeded to fiddle with the clip. Familiar thin eyes.