1.

Clutching an umbrella in his hand a young man rushed across the street, cursing as the passing cars splashed him with mud. He stopped at the bus stop trying to clean off the dirt but missed another car passing by, splashing him even worse than before.

'Hey, !' he yelled after the offending vehicle before throwing his umbrella to the street, looking at his watch. He was late and he was soked. There wasn’t any sense in trying to go to his job interview now.

Instead of entering the building he had worked hard to get to, he turned back, running across the street to catch the next bus home.

---

‘The next candidate Jung Pli Kyo did not arrive’, a young secretary informed her boss who looked up at her expectantly.

‘A pity,’ the CEO shrugged, looking over the small picture the man had attached to his application form, ‘seemed like a good choice’ he smiled and handed her the papers.

‘Please call in the next one, then’

2.

‘This club is so out of my league’ Hyesung yelled in Minwoo’s ear who kept smiling and nodding and laughing as if he had actually heard a thing. Because of the loud music the probability of it having happened was extremely low.

‘You what? A drink? Sure I’ll get you one. Hold mine’ he pressed his Bloody Mary in his friend’s hand and moved over to the bar, immediately starting to chat with someone over there. Realizing that the drink wasn’t coming anytime soon, Hyesung borrowed Minwoo’s and wandered over to the other side of the club, finding a quieter place where to drink in peace. It was nice having a rich friend but sometimes Minwoo just didn’t get it. Hyesung didn’t know these people and they didn’t want to know him. Rich people with rich people, that’s how the world turned.

Finding a seat that was not occupied or puked on, he took a big gulp out of the bitter juice while letting his eyes wander over the young, rich and hopeful. Short skirts, loud voices, showing off and brand products. Brand products everywhere.

He lifted his eyes upwards as he took another gulp and felt his mouth go dry. Some of the crème de la crème were sitting there on the second floor in their private lounge. He recognized some of the idols he otherwise only saw on posters he passed by daily on his way to work- and then a tall guy standing out among the others.

Like an exotic prince who didn’t need to be interested in happenings around to appear charming. Judging from the way he was dressed, he must have been a young businessman. Must be nice to have all the money and not a worry in the world, Hyesung sighed as he emptied his glass in one go.

‘There you are!’ Minwoo yelled at him, grabbing his hand and dragging him back to all those loud people, ‘I need to introduce you to my friends!’ he shouted over the buzz before saying some kind of a name Hyesung couldn’t even make out and forgetting about it right after. He glanced up to look what his exotic prince was doing but he had already disappeared.

---

Eric looked over at the crowd on the dance floor, trying to act interested in what his girlfriend was telling him. He didn’t dislike her but he did dislike places like these. Too loud, too unrefined, very cheap. Everything about it was just wasted money- but she had insisted on coming here and he couldn’t say no. His parents liked her, which was rare, so she was the perfect marriage material.

Bored, he decided it wouldn’t hurt for him to get another drink. It was then when Eric noticed a guy, not much younger than him, sitting alone at the wall and emptying his glass in one go. He chuckled at the sight and his girlfriend turned to him in surprise.

‘What’s so funny?’ she smiled, fluttering her eyelashes.

‘Nothing’ he grinned back, turning his head to see what the guy was going to do next but to his great disappointment he was already gone.

‘I’m going to get another drink. Something for you?’ he asked and, receiving a negative sign, went over to spend some quality time talking to the bartender here who seemed to be a nice guy and hopefully would kill some of his boredom during the long evening.

3.

Hyesung gawked at the wallet in his hands, not believing that he was the first to find it. Inside of it was cash, a lot of it, and credit cards, some photos of a very beautiful girl and more business cards than he had ever seen in his entire life.

‘Eric Mun’ he read the name out loudly, wondering where he had heard it before. Racking his brain for a good bit longer and not finding the answer, Hyesung decided to keep inspecting the content of the wallet. There had to be a way to contact this Eric Mun somehow.

He found a phone number scribbled on the back of one of the photos and decided to call it. What’s the worst that could happen? He had not intended to keep the wallet; he had just found it and was trying to locate its owner. Maybe he would even get a reward.

Dialling the number on his phone he started biting his nails out of habit while waiting for an answer. The voice he reached on the other side did definitely not belong to Eric.

‘I’m sorry for bothering you but this is the only number I could find in the wallet of- uh- mister Mun? I found his wallet on the street and there are a lot of important things here that I think he would want back-’

The woman on the other side let out a pleasant laugh and excused herself, saying that Eric Mun was her son and a very careless guy. She told him the address he should come to when it was convenient for him and drop the wallet off. And with that their short conversation ended.

It being Saturday and all his friends having other plans, Hyesung didn’t have much else to do so he found the nearest map and looked up the public transport going closes to the area he needed.

‘I must have mistaken something’ he muttered when he got off the bus and looked at the villas in front of him, then at the card he had scribbled the address on - he hoped this Eric wouldn’t mind him damaging one of his business cards. From the looks of it, he could afford to get some new ones.

Insecurely Hyesung found the house the woman had named and tried his luck in contacting someone from its inhabitants.

---

Eric’s hand searched inside his jacked and when he didn’t find what he was looking for he cursed colourfully. Excusing himself from the cafe he was at, Eric went out to look if he hadn’t dropped his wallet somewhere. There was no sign of it and he growled in frustration, hitting the nearest trashcan with one shiny shoe.

‘I’m going to kill someone’ he promised and the people passing him started to walk faster. Nothing was going according to his plans today. First, his friend had stood him up, then his girlfriend had been too busy to spend time with him and now this. Eric couldn’t take so much happening to him in one day.

His phone let out a squeak and he grabbed it angrily, ready to yell at whoever had dared to call him in such bad mood but realized that it was his mother and he could not possibly yell at her.

‘What is it, umma?’ he knew that his voice was starting to turn whiny and he was acting like a spoiled brat but the day was really bad and he felt like the whole world was against him.

‘Oy, my son, I hear you are in bad mood,’ she , letting out an annoying laugh. This woman- Eric though- had way too much free time on her hands.

‘But I have some good news for you’

‘Please, omoni, I’m busy now, could you call me back later?’ Eric tried being more polite despite sounding like he was having a bad toothache. From all the possible moments she had to pick out this one-

‘Are you, maybe, looking for your wallet, my son?’ she asked in her calm, pleasant voice and all Eric’s anger melted away, ‘because if you are, a very nice, well-mannered young man has just returned it to me’

Eric took a deep breath, thanking all good spirits on his side that there were still people giving a about returning his valuable possessions to him.

‘Too bad he didn’t stay for tea,’ his mother kept chattering in his phone despite Eric having stopped caring what she was saying, 'he had such a nice face-’

4.

‘That’s a friend of yours?’ Eric asked when he caught a glance at a framed photo in his co-partners office. He hadn’t seen it the last time he’d been there.

‘Ah, you mean this picture?’ Minwoo laughed as he picked up the frame and passed it to Eric, ‘yeah, that’s Hyesung. He gave me this sappy thing for my last birthday,’ he chuckled, resuming his looking for the document he had put here somewhere. It was a pain having to come to the office all the way from their meeting but this was absolutely vital.

‘Who gives a picture of himself as someone else’s birthday present?’ Eric murmured but his eyes traced the photo carefully. It wasn’t a photo of Hyesung alone- his hand was comfortably resting around Minwoo’s shoulder while the shorter man’s hand was circling his waist. They both were looking and laughing at the camera like they were in the middle of shooting a cheesy commercial. Even the background seemed appropriate- some kind of a beach, the ends of their trousers rolled up, their feet bare. It looked like a scene of a romantic movie and Eric’s mind started to wander, a strange longing settling in his heart, when Minwoo shouted victoriously, startling the other businessman and he nearly dropped the frame.

‘Hey, careful with that,’ the shorter snorted, taking it away from him, ‘Hyesung’s going to kill me if he finds out I broke his gift after I pestered him so much about it’

Minwoo flashed him a grin before placing the photo back on the shelf with utmost care. He turned to leave when Eric surprised himself more than the other.

'Can you- maybe- introduce me to your friend?' 

Eric wondered what had come over him right after he said that. Minwoo looked at him with a curious expression, tipping his head to one side like a puppy before he waved the paper in his hand, motioning for him to follow. Eric almost lost hope in receiving an answer to his question but as they were walking down the hallway, Minwoo smiled cheekily.

‘You know I would do a lot for you, Eric Mun but- ’ and he winked at him playfully, ‘- Hyesungie’s mine‘  

-end