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Jinki always wandered to the park behind his house, taking an evening walk or maybe even a brisk jog just for some exercise and peace. Lately though, something about his park had changed. He found that there were more people around than usual and a lot of them seemed to be youngsters. They crowded the bench particularly, their eyes glued to their phones. Some of them mindlessly walking around the grass and paths, bumping into Jinki and shrieking in delight before stopping dead.

Then he saw it one morning over breakfast ‘Pokémon Go’ was plastered in the headline. The tag line ‘people are flocking to businesses and parks in the hopes of catching a rare Pokémon or battling each other in the Pokégyms.’ Jinki frowned as he began to read before he realised that this was the reason people were always in his way at the park these days.

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It was just a week later when he found himself running by the small lake in his local park once again. He had tried a different trail over by the farm and the woods earlier in the week, but he found it was too difficult to run whilst dodging trees; not to mention the endless amounts of tree roots he had fallen over. So, resolutely he had decided that this option was the lesser of two evils. CRASH. Or, he thought it was until he had somehow crashed into another person who was now glaring angrily at him from the floor.

“I’m so sorry, I was lost in my thoughts and I wasn’t paying attention!” Jinki spluttered whilst holding out a hand to pull the other back up. The person had soft brown hair and sharp hazel eyes and he felt his hand being slapped away as the other pushed himself up from the ground without the aid of Jinki.

“This is a disaster.” The young man huffed out, his gaze now fixed on his phone.

“Oh my goodness, did I break your phone? I’m so sorry, I can pay for the damages.” Jinki apologises frantically.

“I was SO close to catching that Squirtle, now what am I going to do? I needed it to power up! You can’t ‘pay’ for a Squirtle you moron, you have to catch it… and now it’s gone!” The man seethed with dramatic hand gestures.

“I…uhmm…what? What is a Squirrel and is your phone okay?” Jinki asked in confusion.

“Seriously old man? It’s a SquirTLE, like a turtle that squirts water…and my phone is okay but my XP points are not!” The boy curtly responds as he spins around on the spot as if he is looking for something, and yet he stares only at his phone screen.

“I am NOT and old man! I’m twenty-five thank you very much!” Jinki finally responds with his arms folded and a glare directed at the brunet.

“What?” The man’s head snaps up “oh right. I just assumed you were old, you know, since you don’t seem to even know what Pokémon is.” The other mumbled, slowly losing interest in the male before him as he was pre-occupied again with scrolling through his pokédex to see how many more he needed.

“Listen kid. Just because I am more mature than chasing around stupid cartoons and walking around whilst blindly looking at my phone, doesn’t mean I am old. Also, you clearly were too busy catching the turtle to watch where you were going, so don’t pin all of this on me. You aren’t hurt and your phone is intact so get rid of that snappy attitude or get out of my way so I can finish my morning run.” Jinki spoke, firmly and to the point. This seemed to finally get the other’s attention and the piercing look he received was intimidating to say the least.

“Okay, old man. Firstly, I’m not a kid, I’m twenty-three years old. Secondly, it’s a Squirtle S-q-u-i-r-t-l-e and thirdly, have you ever even played this game? Or watched the cartoon?” The man challenged with a raised brow and hands on his hips.

“Uhmm…no. I’ve never actually played it but – ” Jinki began but was cut off by the younger.

“Then you have no opinion on it. Don’t disregard the game until you have actually played it. Don’t write off something that you don’t even understand.” The brunet admonished as he shook his head as if Jinki was all that was wrong with the world.

“Fine, then care to enlighten me in the ways of Pokémon Go?” Jinki challenged and the pleasant surprise on the other’s face could clearly be seen.

“I guess…aren’t you busy with your run though?” The male asked warily.

“I’ve got time.” Jinki shrugged. “Oh, and my name is Jinki. Nice to meet you… kind of.” Jinki spoke cautiously but still gave a cheerful smile.

“Kibum…same to you. Kind of.” Kibum gave a cheeky smile then and the mutual laugh that resonated around them instantly changed the atmosphere.

It turned out that Kibum was pretty cool, his earlier hostility aside. The young man was friendly and he explained everything to Jinki, even allowing him to catch a few Zubats along the way. Jinki had to admit, he was really starting to take an interest in this Pokémon Go thing… but not quite for the usual reasons.

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