Zeda's trip to South Korea quickly turns into a waking nightmare. With each day, the feeling of being hunted grows stronger, especially as people around her turn up dead. A mysterious man named Hyunjin, tied to the dangerous world of the Korean mafi...
(Full title track playlist available, won't let me add link anywhere on here so it's on my page, or message me and I'll DM it to you <3)
**********
(April 16th, 2023)
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Thunder crashes.
Rain cascades down the large windows lined with grey curtains, looking out to the smoggy but sparkling city.
A flash of lightning.
And then the ground begins to rumble.
Everything goes dark.
I hear a scream. But it's just my best friend, Roxy, in the other room.
"Holy shit, Zeda!" She calls after her shriek and rushes into the hotel bathroom where I had been finishing my makeup, and she turns on her phone's flashlight.
"Do you really still want to go out tonight?" She asked me, shining the light in my face.
I squinted and shielded my eyes with my hands.
"It's just a little rain." I said, and then a resounding thunder crash rumbled the ground.
A little storm wasn't going to stop me from anything. In fact, I loved the rain. I grew up in Washington. Monroe to be exact. A tiny town where almost every day the sky was painted a beautiful shade of gray. I always knew it would be a good day ahead when I looked outside and saw the clouds meshed together blocking the harsh sun above.
I loved the smell of rain in the air, the sound of it, how deeply soothing and mind numbing it was. It was always there to aid me in concentrating or sleeping. I adored watching it, too. The rumble of the thunder, the flashes of lightning so bright that for a mere second it looked like it could be daylight.
It did have its downsides as well. I hated being in it. The smell immediately lost its appeal as soon as it was absorbed into the fabrics of clothes. Soggy shoes, ruined electronics. Not to mention trying to drive in it.
My main reason for my fondness of it was probably my mother. She chose to live in a town like Monroe after all, with a population of only twenty thousand. We would sit and watch out the windows together when I was young, not saying a word. Anytime I was overwhelmed or sad she would sit me down in front of one and tell me to look into the clouds.
"The feelings will pass." She would say. "But the rain will always be here."
My friend Roxy was like the rain. She had her good and bad qualities, as do we all. She was a great friend when she wanted to be. Always there for me until a man was involved. For her that was often and I was envious.
She'd been in my grade since the beginning, kindergarten. I always knew of her, but we'd never spoken until I was thirteen, when I lost my mother in a car accident. I was never an outgoing child, but I knew that event changed me internally as well as externally, and she began to notice me.
She herself had lost a family member, only to suicide instead. She always said she made a pact with herself to step in if she saw someone was going down the same path, which I was, despite my young age.
She left the popular crowd part time to hang out with me, and we ended up getting along well. Instead of spending my lunch hours in the library she would leave her table of elites to sit alone with me.
I was always some sort of outcast. I had a few friends in middle school but when high school came, right after our family's loss, I lost contact with every single one. Until Roxy came along. We were inseparable.
She was my rock, but once high school turned to college, she really started to change. We were roommates in our dorm, and her whole life seemed to revolve around men and seeking them out. No matter what we did, where we went, her eyes were wide open for opportunity.
I did envy her for it sometimes. Her ability to befriend anyone, to talk to strangers, to have such confidence in herself.
We started going on road trips together late into high school, but once we started earning our own money, we started taking vacations. We first stayed within the confines of our countries borders, but eventually, we began to explore outside it. France, Germany, The UK, Mexico, and this would be our second time in South Korea.
The lights came back on.
Roxy looked at me with concern as I lowered my arms.
"We have a limited time here and it's Friday night, Roxy." I argued. "You were the one insisting we go out every weekend night no matter what, remember?" I reminded her.
She sighed and shook her head. "Alright ... Well, are you at least almost ready? It's already after eight o clock."
"Yeah." I told her.
We had been in Seoul for almost a week now and had two more left on our trip. We reserved our first few days here for sightseeing and making lists of all the things we want to do before our time is up. But tonight, is our first scheduled night to go out, let loose and have a few drinks.
This would be our final trip together for a very long time, as college had ended for both of us just a week before this trip, and our future plans involved moving to different states.
I thought it would be fun as a last little hurrah, a girl's trip, but she definitely made it clear she was in search of male company. Which made it very ironic that she was the one questioning if we should go out.
Granted she hadn't brought it up since we departed on our flight, but before then she was very adamant that she'd be on the hunt. That's not to say she was specifically going for Korean guys; she just wasn't a big fan of the men where we are from. 'Anyone out of town will do.' is what she would always say.
"I hate to tell you, Zeda, but our cab is here" Roxy said after a few minutes, she was leaning against the doorway looking down at her phone.
I sighed, grabbing my purse and heading out the door.
