林宥嘉- 我总是一个人在练习一个人

               There was a bright pink sticky note on the chartreuse wall in the hallway that lead to a staircase with kitchen on the right and the living room on the left. ‘The maid comes on every Sunday, 8. (Groceries and cleaning) Medicine in the first drawer from right on the kitchen table.’ My top five priorities in life: One, maid. Solely with one purpose, cleaning. Everything except laundry and doing dishes are too much of a hassle for a lazy bum like me to handle. Two, guitar. Can’t live without it. Figuratively. Three, daily intake of warfarin pill. Can’t live without it. Literally.  In need of thinning my blood because of Thrombophilia. Four, books. Round trip ticket to nirvana. Open book, off to Neverland, close book, back to the netherworld. Five, FOOD.

            The first place to explore in a new house – Kitchen. Just like Red said, the cabinets, refrigerator (probably every corner in the kitchen) was indeed fully stocked with anything that can transform into delicacies. Already getting excited of testing out new recipes I read from the night before, I fished out my phone from the back pocket of my jeans. My hands reached out to grab a few cheese bread sticks in the basket to munch on while waiting for the web page to load. Instead of popping up the mouth watering picture of the dish, I received an ‘Opps’ from the search engine.

           No internet access? Not that I mind.

           Setting aside the phone on the counter in the kitchen, I wandered into the living room. There was a comfy furniture set and a stone fireplace. Then, on the right was a porch that faced west; with a beautiful lake view as well as a promising sunrise view. There were sparkling clean bathrooms each on both floors, and a large guest room was situated right opposite of the master bedroom. Occasionally, I checked out the books in bookshelves that were almost everywhere in the house. My mood could not be any better. What a pleasant surprise, I don't recall Red taken a liking in reading.

            Everything was so different compared to what Red had in her house, as if this house was owned by someone else instead of her. Reaching the back door that was facing the pine forest, I gulped down the fresh air that was hardly present in Seoul. Satisfied with having my lungs filtered, I was about to retreat into the house, but a moment of blinding flash from the far corner on the right changed my mind. A garage? Noticing the silver roofing and the wooden wall that was almost covered by the greens, curiosity got the better of me and I found myself approaching the building. It looked more like a barn than a garage as the building came into a full view, the grass beneath my steps crunched softly as if complaining the pressure of my legs acted on them. Gradually, the crunching sound decreased, leaving only the rustle sound of the friction between my shoes and the stones on the ground.

            Oh, so there is a path to that barn. I did not take much note of this discovery and continued my way to the barn and eventually stopped in front of the entrance. There was no lock in sight, so I just randomly pushed the already slightly ajar wooden door which creaked loudly and stiffly moving inward. I coughed and sneezed as my sensitive nose caught on with the dusty and damp air inside, but it was surprisingly bright considering there were only two windows high up at the back and the front of the barn with high ceiling. Bales of hay were everywhere and the stacks of boxes in the corner attracted my attention to one of the boxes had its contents fell out of a fairly large hole which I assumed as the work of a rat.

            There was a stench in the air, but I ignored it while peeking around the boxes and even noticed there were actually furniture piling behind the bales of hay. Did someone actually live here before? I shifted my legs and caught on a foreign object underneath my right foot. Crouching down to get a closer look at the object that was half hidden under the layers of hay, I noticed it was something made out of leather as the cover. Making sure I was only touching the corner of the object, I lifted it up and a sound of surprise escaped from my mouth. A book? No.. It’s a journal.. Catching glimpses of the book that was filled with no doubt handwritten words as I flipped it open. I was about to take a clearer look on the content, but in the quiet building, I easily heard an unfamiliar sound that was not far away.

            Shifting my eyes from the newly discovered object to the surrounding that was pretty much in the same state as I came in, somehow my gaze landed on a pair of circular objects that oddly stood out in the dark corner in front. They certainly gleam, almost alive... Eyes! Dawned on my realization, I fell on my bottom at the same time the journal I was holding earlier flung forward and dropped with a loud ‘thud’.  My sudden movement seemed to startle the owner of the eyes for it jolted and I saw the outline of its body that blended in with the shadow until now. Everything stilled for seconds, I can hear my own rapid heartbeats and it’s loud yet ragged breathing.

            Goose bumps crept all over my body as I noticed its shift of gaze from me to the journal, then to something else, I silently celebrated because it finally averted its attention from me and this meant a chance of escapement. Following its gaze, I found myself staring at the cheese bread stick that was lying on the ground, which I assumed it must have flung out of my pocket during my fall. With sudden courage, I picked up the bread stick and waved slightly in front of that pair of eyes. Truly indeed, it was hungry as I expected, judging by how its gaze followed the bread stick in my hand.

            Keeping myself calm, I exhaled and inhaled several times and repeating one exact sentence. Chase the bread. I tossed the bread stick as far as I can away from the door and sprinted for the exit at the next moment. As much as I wanted to escape from the barn, I was also curious to what was it in there so I took the risk turning my head back. Half expecting, half dreading to what I might see, I must say I never regretted this action of mine. A blur of a big and brownish figure dashed for the bread stick, I would have kept looking back if I didn’t miss a step and almost tripped. Slamming onto the door right after I stepped into the house, my body slumped against it as I tried to catch my breath while replaying what I saw earlier. A big brown wolf.

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            After having a cool shower and food in my stomach only then my brain started to function normally because I started to doubt what I saw. Why? Apparently there were no recent records of having wildlife wolf in South Korea, not to mention North Korea too. So it’s either I was hallucinating or there was someone wearing a wolf skin going around to scare the wits out of people. Some dangerous psycho? I shuddered at the thought, somehow having a real wolf was better than that. Also, I forgot to take the journal I discovered in the barn. I’ve always liked to read adventure, mystery and fantasy genre fiction or non-fiction, so that the journal was pretty tempting for me. I debated whether I should tell Red regarding to this little encounter of mine, but then thinking back, it sounded ridiculous and myself being gutless.

            Ugh, maybe I should just go back and check again. I looked towards the direction of the barn that was out of sight and dazed out for a moment. Giving out a sigh, I got down from the stool and went up to the refrigerator to search for anything that would be appetizing for a wolf or whatever it is. In the end, I found a big slice of beef that was twice the size of my face, however, I was troubled with how should I serve the meal for the 'thing' in the barn. After collecting my thoughts,  I decided to pop it into microwave for several minutes to defrost it and served it blue. If it eats, then it should be an animal for a high possibility but then again raw beef was becoming quite popular among people too. I forget that humans are beasts in disguise.

            Bringing the beef along with a torchlight and a baseball bat (Red was not joking when she said I can almost find anything in this house), I went to the barn for the second time. Okay, I have to admit, I got nervous again, I couldn’t help it when the atmosphere around the barn was practically screaming danger to me and the sky was darkening as well. The door was left as how it was when I dashed out, so I could still see the inside of the barn and the journal that was lying there, waiting for me to pick it up. Seeing the journal definitely motivated me because my body reacted quicker than my brain at the moment. Some squeaky sounds slipped off from my mouth and by the time I realized it, it was too late for me to do anything except for shutting my mouth. My nervousness level shot up to the sky and my eyes darted around, dreading that the wolf might bounce right to me.

           All of a sudden, the surrounding became still and soon I can hear a faint sound which I recognized as what I heard in the barn earlier in the morning. ! It's growling! Not sure whether it’s a good or bad sign that it responded to my supposed-attracting squeaky sound, I can only carry further on with my plan. Stepping a little closer towards the door, I looked around for that pair of gleaming eyes while keeping an eye to the journal that was only a few steps away. The low grumbling sound was now louder so it was probably somewhere close. True enough, it was just right there, rather than I found it, it was the intense gaze I felt from it which gave away its position.

           That pair of orbs has been as mysterious as ever, but this time I noticed they were pale brown, with slightly dark gold that reflected light. It seemed to be more luminous than I last remembered. I was too mesmerized with them even until its owner was getting impatient and growled rather loudly to snap me out of my trance. “Uh.. Food?” I croaked out, feeling rather unsure what to do at the moment, Shifting my legs in hesitance, I just simply threw the beef towards its direction and waited for anything that might happen. At first, there was no reaction and the thought of being gnawed by the creature flashed through my mind, but disappeared as fast as it came because I finally see something else other than the brown-gold eyes.

          A paw that was coated with white fur stepped out, another followed shortly and a pair of legs was seen with the tip of the fur that was slightly yellowish in colour. My breath hitched when I got to see the 'thing' in the barn clearly for the first time. The black nose that has been just beneath the darker shade of brown fur, which extended upwards and formed a somewhat ‘T’ shape as it parted to sideways on the forehead. The cheeks were covered with light brown fur and slowly faded to white as it reached upon the jaw with a thin curvy black line that indicated the lips. I could feel the sweat seeping out of my palm lines when I thought of the sharp teeth that were just behind that thin layer of the lips.

          I noticed how the pointy ears were pulled back and the brown eyes were squinted, Is it... Judging me? Quiet baffled that even an animal, a wolf was judging me, anger bubbled up in me as I rashly took a few steps forward to pick up the journal and stormed off. I did not even care about whether I startled the beast, which might have angered and put myself in a dangerous situation. All I cared about was that, the wolf, pissed me off.