Winter held her hands to the sky to feel the cold breezy wind that is being propelled by their moving rusty blue pick-up truck. Despite being in the middle of the city, the streets are almost empty. It is already near ten in the evening. Most people working and roaming in the city have already gone home to relax and rest. Only a few people are present. Most of them are also heading towards their homes.

The lights on the buildings and the streetlights are on, yet only a few people roamed the city at this hour. Winter found this odd, especially since it was a Saturday night. People could be inside bars and clubs right now. They’ll probably start walking on the streets in the early hours of the morning after all the partying has ended.

Because of the almost empty environment of the city, Winter and the rest of the strangers she was with began to feel a bit freer. The girl seated in front of Winter, the one with the bob cut, began standing and spreading her arms to feel the cold city breeze.

"Ryujin! Sit down!" Her companion scolded her.

"Come on, babe, join me! It’s fun. "

"Stop being childish!"

The boys sitting beside Winter also started to have some fun by raising their hands in the air, feeling the city breeze. One of them, the one with bigger eyes, also stood up like Ryujin did. He is clearly enjoying this, it is evident in his smile.

He’s cute.

The other guy just looked at him endearingly and smiled. His eyes smile brightly in the midst of the night. It was a good night.

A few minutes later, their rusty pick-up truck stopped at a brightly lit building bearing the sign: Texan Bull. It was the restaurant that the receptionist, Beomgyu, referred to.

"Hey, let’s just eat together, if that’s alright with you all." Yeonjun suggested.

"I’m fine with that." Winter replied, as she started going down from the back of the truck.

"I’d like to dine with you guys as well." said the gentle guy, who then held out his hand to help Winter get down, which caused him to earn a weird glance from his companion.

"Thanks." Winter said.

"How about you two?" Yeonjun then asked the two other girls.

The girl named Ryujin looked at the woman beside her, whom we could assume to be her girlfriend, for answers.

"Yeah, I think it would be nice to eat with you all." The straight-haired girl answered.

"Cool. Let’s go. "

"Excuse me." Beomgyu tapped Yeonjun’s shoulder before the latter could open the restaurant’s door.

"Yes, Beom?"

"What time should I pick you guys up?"

"What do you mean by that? You should eat with us!"

"Yeah, come with us." The guy with the nice eye-smile invited him too.

"I would love to, but nobody will be at the motel tonight."

"Oh come on, this is just once in a lifetime. And besides, I doubt someone will rob that place. No offense. " Yeonjun said while giggling, which caused Ryujin to laugh as well. Unfortunately, the latter received glares from her companion.

"I guess you’re right. Fine, just tonight. It’s Saturday night, I might as well have some fun. "

"That’s the spirit!" Yeonjun said as he led the group inside the restaurant.

As the group entered the restaurant, they noticed they were the only ones at this hour, with the exception of a few staff sitting at the table while talking. The moment the staff noticed that they had customers, they hurriedly went up and greeted them.

There are rustic tiles, wooden tables, and there's even a dart board. This looks like something out of a cowboy movie. The building is clearly based on a Wild West saloon.

The group then found a vacant table that could hold all of them. Yeonjun went and took the center seat. On his right sat Beomgyu, Winter, and that gentle guy. To his left sat Ryujin, her possible girlfriend, and the gentle guy’s companion. They then ordered their food after sitting down.

While ordering, Yeonjun noticed that Beomgyu was somewhat nervous.

"Hey, are you okay? Are you worried about the motel? "

"What? No- I mean, yeah, a bit. "

"If you want you can just go back there earlier. Sorry for forcing you to eat with us."

"It’s fine. It is actually a good thing you invited me to eat with you all. It’s the first time in a while that I have not eaten alone. Maybe that’s why I’m nervous."

"You’ll be fine, trust me." He said as he shifted his attention to ordering.

After ordering, Yeonjun began a chitchat while waiting for their food to be served.

"You know, while ordering, I realized we still don’t know each other yet. I only know this guy," he said as he placed his hand on Beomgyu’s shoulder, "our dear receptionist and the only person who is running the motel, Beomgyu."

Beomgyu’s ears suddenly reddened since Yeonjun made him the center of attention.

"Anyway, my name’s Yeonjun."

"Your name sounds familiar." Ryujin commented.

Yeonjun’s face changed for a split second, and then went back to his previous self.

"Oh, I am part of a band. I am the lead guitarist, in fact. Maybe that’s why my name sounds familiar to you. "

"Makes sense, I’ve been casually listening to some indie rock bands. Ah, I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Ryujin, by the way. Nice to meet you all. "

Their table was then filled with a couple of nice-to-meet-you’s, until Ryujin spoke again.

"By the way, this is my girlfriend, Yeji." She said as she put her arm around the girl.

"Hello." Yeji said with an awkward smile.

The others soon began introducing themselves. After Yeji’s turn, Winter decided to introduce herself next.

"I’m Winter, I’m happy to meet you all. "She said with a sweet smile. Someone’s heart right now melted after seeing that smile.

"I’m Jaemin." The guy beside her said, with a deep voice. Winter is finally able to know his name after being beside him for about an hour already.

"And I’m Jeno." The other man said, coupled with his eye-smile.

"I love your smile." Yeonjun said with a laugh. "By the way, guys, you all seem new here. What brings you guys here?"

Winter decided that it was finally time to break out of her shy and introverted self by replying first.

"I wanted to find inspiration to get me out of my writer's block."Writing is my passion, but as much as I have wanted, the ideas do not come most of the time."

"Ooh, what kind of stories do you write?" Jaemin asked with a sheepish smile.

"Pretty random stuff. Mostly centered on growing up and maturity. "

Jaemin then proceeded to make an 'oohh' sound.

"Then, I decided to go on an unplanned trip to find inspiration. I figured out that by doing spontaneous random things, a writing idea might pop up somewhere. Initially, I asked my friends to come with me, but they were all busy, so here I am alone, chatting with strangers. "

"At least you were with us, and it is a lot better than being alone in an unfamiliar territory. Anyway, like you guys, I'm also new here. Jeno and I are actually lost. We accidentally rode the wrong train. "

Jeno scoffed at what Jaemin said.

"Hey, what's funny?"

"I'm just laughing at how absurd our situation is."

"I felt bad for the two of you." Ryujin suddenly said. "I guess it is our turn to tell our story now. You might also feel bad for our story. "

"Babe, you're going to tell them?" Yeji asked.

"They're strangers, so... I doubt they're going to use this against us."

"Just make it brief."

"Sure. So where shall I start? Ah yes, to give you a little context to our situation, I guess I shall briefly tell you our background. "

The others leaned in closer to listen to Ryujin's story. They are all interested in hearing about a stranger's life. All except Jeno, who has been repeatedly glancing at his watch, wondering why the order is taking so long.

"You see, Yeji and I are polar opposites. She grew up rich. I grew up in the slums. She's elegant, while I'm more on the reckless side. You probably get the point. Like I have said, her family is rich, filthy rich. Imagine her parents' faces once they found out that her daughter, whom they arranged a marriage with another person, is actually dating a lesbian gangster. "

"That's why you ran away?" Yeonjun asked.

“Yeah, that's why we ran. We ran away without money. Yeji's account was frozen by her parents. The one that we have been using all this time is our cash, and it will soon run out. That's why it took us so long to find a cheap but good place to stay."

"I'm also a runaway." Yeonjun took a deep breath before continuing. "No, I didn't run away from my parents like you two did. I was in a band. It used to be good until we fought a lot over creative differences, then it evolved into something much more complicated than creative differences. That's why I'm here. I got frustrated with all of it, so I wandered the streets with only my wallet and guitar. As you can see, I am quite reckless. So-"

"Good evening, your meal is here."

Their discussions were temporarily stopped since their long-awaited meal had arrived. They began eating while getting to know each other.

They laughed at Yeji's story when she narrated the time when Ryujin taught her how to efficiently take a . And because of that, Jeno kept bringing up that topic throughout their conversation.

They also cried at each other's stories, like Beomgyu's story when he got broken up with his lover of three years. Then there was another sad story of Yeonjun’s pet hamster dying. From a sad story, it became somewhat of a funny one when Yeonjun described how anti-climatic the hamster’s death was.

Not everything they said to each other is real, though. In the end, they are still strangers to each other. They just met each other about three hours ago, so it is normal for some of them to hide things from each other.

It was 11:30 in the evening when they finished their meals. They headed outside, and sat in the same places. Beomgyu took one last look at Texan Bull and smiled bitterly before entering the old pick-up truck.

He started the engine, and along with it, he decided to start his life again.

Back at the motel, they agreed to meet each other again in the lobby after they freshened up. It took them only ten minutes for everyone to get ready. It seems that they are all excited about playing games with each other.

Beomgyu then revealed to them the several board games and card games that the motel owns. The packaging of these games looks old, with faded colors and it has a thick layer of dust. Some even have a bit of mould in it. Beomgyu then got a cleaning towel and cleaned the game packages. The others also helped him clean it. The games still function well, though, and that's what matters.

Winter, being a curious person, decided to take a closer look at one of the board games. It was a pack of UNO cards that looked really different compared to the UNO cards nowadays. The packaging is not as colourful as the ones that were sold today. It only has the colours red, black, and white. There are two black-and-white coloured cards in the middle with the text "UNO" in red.

Manufactured in 1989, yup, it's old.

Yeonjun then decided to bring his guitar over to jam while playing games. Unlike the expectations of others, he actually brought an acoustic guitar, which looked aged. He then tuned it using only his ear. After getting the tune right, he strummed a G chord. He bitterly smiled. Nostalgia hit him.

And then they started playing games. They went with Monopoly first. Staying true to the first syllable of her name, Winter won the first round.

"I could have won if only Jaemin hadn't traded his properties to you." Yeji complained, and Winter just laughed it off.

After playing a few rounds of Monopoly, they decided to play card games next. For the first card game, they chose UNO. In the third round, Jeno made a friendship-breaking move by placing a +4 card, which caused a chain of +4 cards, which eventually caused Beomgyu to receive fourteen additional cards. Jeno then acted cute for Beomgyu to forgive him, which is surprisingly effective.

And when they thought it was just another peaceful round of UNO, Yeonjun had an idea.

"I'll be leaving after this round. I heard from Beomgyu that there's a club nearby. I wanted to check it out."