Surrender Into My Eyes - { kth | y/n }

₩ 50,000

"Quiet in the library please." An orange-haired young man tapped me on the shoulder, attracting my attention. "Are you using that laptop?"

"Oh no, sorry, you can use it," I said smiling politely offering the laptop to him, meeting his gaze and touch quick enough that it hardly happened. "Thanks. Would you like it back after?"

Declining I shook my head, "I have my phone if need be, thanks anyway." Walking away, his orange sunset hair bounced off his skull effortlessly like a wave in a sunny ocean.

"Okay, what was I researching again?" It was a mundane Tuesday night, with little next to nothing to do. I was too lazy to attend any clubs, but that was because there were no clubs I liked.

When I was nine up to thirteen, every single winter through to summer for four years in PE we'd play netball. Nothing but the once enjoyable sport of not having to be involved that much, became a dreadful chore.

But nonetheless, it was Tuesday, 8:30 PM and I had no thoughts or intentions of going home. It wasn't that I was a bad child. It was the complete opposite, I was genuinely a very good child, I studied hard and did everything I was told outside of my house. Inside it was a different matter.

I had completely opposite opinions of my parents. The way children should be brought up, favouritism in a household, certain methods of doing things, things I liked even politics. So I and my parents in all reality didn't get along. In fact, we generally argued every night, life was just full of it.

But today, I just didn't want to go home. Not even to the food waiting for me, not one text, asking when are you coming home.

Either way, I was becoming peckish and the boy sitting in front of me at the end of the long table, with orange sunset hair, was reminding me of tteokbokkie, and currently, time was prodding my stomach to call out for a snack.

Lifting the lanyard from around my neck I tucked my chair underneath my desk, and shut my books and neatly tucked everything into my bag which could've well been Mary Poppin's with the number of useless items I kept stored like hidden treasure.

"Oh, you're going?"

"Ah yeah."

"Do you want your laptop back?"

"Oh it's not actually mine, I borrowed it from here so you can keep it," I replied kindly, in practical awe of how his hair reminded me of food. " Ah well I'm done with it anyway, thank you though."

"No worries," I said bowing before returning some books to a few shelves and walking out.

Breathing in the air of Seoul, I let my feet wander around, as my fingers wrapped around my backpack's straps. Pollution. Pollution was the lovely scent I was gifted with after walking out of a library that smelt of old people and good books.

▪▪▪

City lights were ablaze and the streets of Namdaemun's market always felt surreal, the smells of various meat glazing in front of your eyes like a note of money were practically impractical to resist in buying. Flags always strung above your head, indicating the millions of places you were too poor to ever see unless you were the grandchild of Steve Jobs.

And the sweet delicacies, radiating sugar and diabetes for every 10 you bought. The ridiculous amounts of merchandise planted on the streets and pop up stalls of people's own surreal creations.