Priceless

1

   I hung my apron up, washed my hands, clocked out and walked out the back door of the restaurant and started walking across the parking lot. Heading down the alleyway in the back, my usual route to avoid the busy streets of Seoul, I walk quickly, but I'm not in a hurry. I just like to walk fast to burn calories.

Some time later, closer to my apartment, I walked around the edge of the park, not brave enough to venture into the shadows and sparse lit  patches of various visible ground. Out of nowhere, but let's just say the brush off to the side, a man stood up and stumbled toward me.

"Whoa! Omo! You scared me!" I said, nearly jumping out of my shoes.

The man stopped, and hung his head. I could see by the street light behind me that this guy was dirty. His clothes were stained and muddy and his jeans were ripped. He was barefoot.

"Are-are you okay? Are you a kidnapped victim?" I asked stepping back, tilting my head a little so I could try to see his face under the muddy, worn hood of his jacket.

"Ah...Ani. I just..." At last he spoke and it was like he hadn't said anything in a long time. Well, sorta. He stopped speaking when he saw me staring and lowered his gaze.

"Are you hungry?"

I don't know what made me ask that, and I was surprised when it came out of my mouth, but he looked up and I found myself walking with this total stranger to a nearby noodle shop with seats outside. We sat at the outside table, the farthest from the restaurant, because- oh my G-Dragon, he smelled horrid.

I watched this poor filthy soul slurp down 5 bowls of cheap ramon noodles and four sodas in front of my very eyes. I just couldn't help but stare at him and numbly sip my juice through a straw. I would have eaten with him, but after the first bowl went down between blinks, I kindly offered him mine.

All full now, he put his hands on the edge of the table and didn't look at me. He didn't remove his hood or anything, but what part of his face I could see, was just as dirty as the rest of him. It seemed like he'd lived sleeping in the mud for a long time.

"So...where are you from?" I asked quietly.

He didn't say anything to me.

"Do you live around here?"

He shook his head. At least it was finally a definite answer.

"What's your name?"

....And then... nothing. Again.

Maybe he's one of those old loony guys that just wandered away from his family.

I sighed and rolled my head on my shoulders.

"Okay. You need a bath and I was going home when you jumped in front of me... I don't ever do this-what I'm about to do..." I looked at him and I couldn't tell if he's watching me or not, but I sighed and continued anyway, "but you can use my shower. So come on, before I change my mind."

I got up from the table and threw away his trash for him and then grabbed his hoodie's tie string, the only thing not visibly gross with dirt, and walked away from the shop and down the street again for a few blocks. It felt like I was leading an animal and I seriously felt bad for him, but really I didn't feel threatened at all.

 Walking up the stares to my studio apartment, I lead him by the tie string and he followed behind me, close but far enough to where his stench wouldn't suffocate me. I unlocked the door at last and kicked my shoes off and watched them fly across the landing.

"Go inside, now," I said and pointed inside.

He hesitated and so I dragged him by that tie string again and pulled him inside.