Every direction that one takes can determine a new direction. By taking a new direction occasionally, you’ll usually end up in similar places. But the person who is daring enough to take a new turn at every corner really has no certain place. Where can the directions of the world really lead you? To a place of happiness – perhaps sadness. But, I suppose you take the roads you want because you’re looking for something. That something ends up to be one of either two things: exactly where you were looking for or a dead end.

Travelling to the new part of town just to meet a friend, getting lost and running out of gas seemed like a dead end to me. I slammed my fists onto the steering wheel as I steered towards the side of the road and parked my car. I took out my keys and went out to feel fresh spring air in my nose. Looking up at the blue sky and then from left to right, I sighed. The only thing I was thankful for at this moment was that my car broke down across the street of a strip of stores. But that makes no difference if you don’t know your way around or anyone.

Crossing my arms, I walked across the car-less road to the stores. From what I saw, everyone chose to walk around these parts. My car was the only one parked on the streets and the parking lot only contained three ‘vehicles’: a beat-up truck, a green bicycle and a yellow school bus. Although the lack of cars would usually show no business in the stores – as I walked closer to the stores, they were buzzing with people. In order, there was a mini-supermarket, a hair salon, a coffee shop and a place called ‘Restlessness’ that took up the length of two streets combined.

I leaned on the wall that was connecting the mini-supermarket and hair salon. My head on the wall, I heard the many voices from inside loudly. Turning my head so that my ear pressed against the wall, conversations were heard. I pushed myself off the non-sound proof wall and sat on the curb instead. There, I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and dialled my friend’s number.

“Hello?” she answered.

“My car is out of gas,” I mumbled into the phone.

I heard her giggle into the phone. “It doesn’t matter Heebin-ah. Nobody drives around here anyways. Just tell me where you are and I’ll get there soon enough.” How small could this town be that she would be here so soon? I told her a vague description of where I was and she sounded like she knew exactly where I was sitting. Yekyung had only lived in this little part of town for about a month and suddenly she was an expert on it? I guess like her name, she was an odd, unique one.

After looking at these empty streets I suddenly felt a pang of loneliness despite Yekyung coming in just a few moments. It felt like I was so busy, but really, I had nowhere to really go. Sighing, I pushed off my hands and stood up, wiping the dirt from my bum. “I shouldn’t live like this,” I mumbled to the clear sky above me.

Just as I was about to check the time on cell phone, Yekyung came jogging down the sidewalk in her usually type of attire; long flowing flower skirts, a bright cardigan and a childish tank top underneath it all. Oh, not to mention her love of sandals no matter what season and thick-framed black glasses that emphasized her greenish-brownish eyes. No matter how odd she may be, no one else would be able to pull this off but Yekyung. Yekyung was just Yekyung and you couldn’t describe her any other way.

She ran up to me and gave me a great bear hug that almost
made me tumble over. “Wow, I haven’t had one of your bear hugs in so long.” I laughed as I hugged her thin frame back. She let go and patted my arms like a mom would. She got a good look at me and smiled widely.

“I haven’t seen you in like three months. No one’s really seen you since the last year of high school. I’m surprised that I even got you to come down to this part of town. It was really hard to contact you!” she exclaimed and kept staring at me like she didn’t want me out of her sight.

“Well you know, after that incident in the last year of high school, I just kind of wanted to shrink away for a while,” I quietened at the last part. Yekyung squeezed my arms sadly and nodded. Everyone knew that story, or they thought. ‘Did you hear what happened to Heebin?’, ‘Who knew it would happen? That’s just a bit evil don’t you think?’, ‘No way. She deserved it.’ I quickly shook those unwanted memories in my head and smiled at my cheeriest friend. When I decided to open up again, I’m glad that she was the one who got in contact with me first.

We pondered in silence for a second and then she snapped her fingers. “Right, so you needed gas. There’s like one gas station around here since we don’t really use cars.
But, there is a guy I know who makes a lot of runs to the gas station and would gladly pick up a tank of gas or whatever it is for us.” I nodded and then looked at our surroundings.

“So what exactly is there to do here? I mean, this area is still developing and it’s quite small since not many people know about it. What do you fill your days up with?” I asked. She laughed her signature loud laugh, linked her arm with me and then started to walk across the strip mall.

Yekyung shook her head at me. “You make the life here seem so boring; but anyone here will say they prefer it to the city, well except for when one is in desperate need to go on a shopping spree.” She turned to look at me. “But, let me tell you, you never really get bored. For instance, this strip mall is one of the biggest gathering places, that’s why it’s so packed.” She pointed inside the windows. We were now in the middle of all the stores and I could see how everyone did seem pretty close in all those tight areas.

“Then which place do you hang out the most?” I questioned. She blushed and then pointed shyly to the end where the place “Restlessness” was. I squinted at it and started to walk towards it, Yekyung in tow with me. “So what exactly is ‘Restlessness’? I mean, it’s twice as large as any of the other places that I’ve seen so far. And, it’s the only building without windows, what’s that about?” As we approached, I felt Yekyung slowing a bit, like she was hesitant, because of this I paused in my stride and looked at her.

“Are you okay? This doesn’t seem like the Yekyung that I know,” I said worriedly. She shook her head and put her regular face back on.

“I always feel this odd vibe from there even though I go there practically every day. It’s like I have to mentally prepare myself before entering or else I might just get blown away from all the awesome and odd feelings in there.” She started doing these weird hand movements like she was controlling air waves or something and stuck her tongue out the side of as she concentrated on the ‘Restlessness’ sign that hung large and proud. I laughed and smiled genuinely at her.

“You’re a cute one Yekyung. Let’s go inside because now I’m intrigued and want to see what it is.”

She nodded and happily skipped towards the entrance and then paused as she held onto the door knob. She took a deep breath and then opened it revealing what ‘Restlessness’ was to me.
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First chapter up :) Enjoy and comments please eheh.

07.07.10