Nightfall had come by the time Se Rim’s art history class finally let out. She looked out the window and took note of the darkness as she descended the stairs and step foot into the building lobby. It was one of the most extravagant lecture halls on campus but also the most remote, about ten minutes walk away from the student parking sector. Se Rim buttoned up her coat and prepared to approach the security desk. The security guard there, Mr. Jung, was a pleasant little man who always offered to walk her to her car when it got too dark to wander the campus roads alone. Se Rim couldn’t help being a little skittish. It was dangerous for someone to wander alone at night, even on campus. Particularly, it was dangerous for women.

“Ready when you are, Mr. Jung,” Se Rim said, adjusting her collar and walking up to the security desk. But she jumped in surprise when she saw, not Mr. Jung, but another young man. Very young, in fact. Probably no older than she. The young man at the desk was trying to spin a pen with his thumb, and he looked up at her with an easy smile after she spoke up.

“You’re not Mr. Jung,” Se Rim said, and he laughed.

“Nope,” he said, setting the pen down. He sat up and folded his hands on the desk, leaning forward at attention. “Are you looking for him?”

Se Rim dropped her arms by her side. “He’s usually here at this time,” she said, feeling nervous for no apparent reason. “Is… Have you seen him?”

The boy swallowed hard and dropped his gaze down for a brief moment. “Oh, man,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I guess you haven’t heard?”

Se Rim paled. “Heard what?” she asked. The boy in his breath and leaned back in the chair. She wanted to reach over the desk and grab him by his sky-blue uniform lapels and demand he tell her what happened to her dear friend, Mr. Jung.

“He died,” the young man said. Se Rim froze, her shoulders drooping and her heart breaking upon hearing the news. Dead? Mr. Jung had worked at this building for years and he was always polite and offered to walk nervous young ladies to their vehicles when it got dark and –

The young man suddenly burst out laughing, and Se Rim gaped at his obscene behavior. A man is dead and he was laughing?

“Excuse me!” Se Rim said, raising her voice. “What is so funny?” He turned to her, wiping tears from his eyes, he’d laughed too hard.

“Hey, calm down,” the new security guard said. “It was just a joke! But, man, you should have seen your face, you – ” sensing that she wasn't the least bit amused, he cleared his throat and straightened out his tie. “Mr. Jung got promoted to head of security. He’s in the Public Safety office now. I’m taking over this post from now on.”

Se Rim groaned, and the young man sat back down on the black task chair. He reached for the pen again. Se Rim looked back at the young man and, this time, got a better look at him. He was tall and she could tell he was well built, even through the sky-blue cotton shirt that all the security guards wore. His black hair was unkempt and lightly grazed the tops of his eyes. A flirtatious, impish smile completed the ensemble. The name “KIM J. I.” was engraved on the silver nametag he wore. Se Rim rolled her eyes.

“Anything I can help you with, Miss?” Kim J. I. asked. Se Rim looked back at him, remembering that she was going to ask the security guard to walk her to her car. But now she wasn’t feeling quite up to it.

“No, nothing,” she said icily, and the young security guard pursed his lips (which made him look cute, actually, but she wasn’t going to tell him that). Se Rim fixed her coat again and was about to walk right out the exit and walk herself to her vehicle. But she heard the task chair rolling on the floor, and the security guard stood up.

“Hey, wait!” he said, running around the desk and catching up to her. Se Rim stopped when he stood in front of her. “You’re Se Rim, right?”

She was surprised. Kim J. I. smiled again. Se Rim was about to ask him how he knew her name, but he’d already begun explaining himself.

“Yeah, Mr. Jung told me about you,” he said. “He said you need help getting to your car?”

Se Rim was appalled. “Are you suggesting that I’m incapable of getting to my car?” she asked. She’d never said such a thing to Mr. Jung since she knew that he wasn’t doing it to insinuate anything, but Se Rim felt like being defiant with Kim J. I. because he was so… childish. Kim J. I. looked a little offended, and surprised.

“No, of course not,” he said. “I’m just… doing what Mr. Jung told me. If you’d rather walk yourself, though, that’s okay, too.”

“I’ll have you know,” Se Rim said, though she wasn’t exactly sure why she was saying this at all. “That I, a woman, am perfectly capable of getting to and from the student parking sector on my own, without the help of… you!”

“Wow, you go, girl.”

“And the only reason I asked Mr. Jung was because… well, because…” Se Rim said, stuttering. She wasn’t sure she wanted to admit to him that she was nervous to walk on her own because the walk was about ten minutes away through a remote part of campus and there had been reports of armed robberies there before. Kim J. I. waited patiently for Se Rim to continue, but in the middle of her outburst, he suddenly interrupted:

“I think I’d feel better if I walked you to your car,” he said, and then he threw his hands up in surrender. “I’m not saying I don’t think you could do it! I have no doubt you can. But it’s dark and the parking sector is far, and I don’t think I, on good conscience, can let you go alone. So will you let me walk you to your car?”

Se Rim huffed her breath and brought a hand up to her forehead. Truthfully, she did want some company walking to the parking sector, but why, oh why, of all days did Mr. Jung choose today to get promoted and leave this post to the guardianship of this buffoon? Although he was an admittedly cute security guard, his behavior earlier did leave her feeling a little doubtful of his ability to guard anything. Kim J. I. looked at Se Rim and then flashed a smile, knowing that he’d won the round.

“Just wait a second,” he said, walking back to the desk. “Let me get my jacket.”

He grabbed the black uniform jacket from the task chair, pulled it on, and was adjusting it when he met Se Rim at the door again. He stuffed some keys into his pocket and opened the door for her.

“Ready when you are,” he said. Se Rim sighed and walked through the door. The cold air pressed against Se Rim’s cheeks and she tried warming them with her palms. The young security guard caught up with her in a short jog, and then he reached for her bag.

“Let me get that for you,” he said. Se Rim moved the bag from his reach.

“No, no, I got this,” she said obstinately. “You’re doing enough already.” She continued walking and Kim J. I. eventually fell into step beside her. Se Rim didn’t offer much conversation, but she could tell that the talkative young security guard was itching to speak.

“My name’s Jongin, by the way,” he said cheerfully. “I’ll be working this shift at this post from now on. Just thought I’d introduce myself since I have a feeling this nightly might turn into a regular thing. Mr. Jung said it was a pretty regular thing with you.”

“Well,” Se Rim said hugging herself. “The path to the student parking sector cuts straight through the most remote part of campus – ”

“Did you know that people call it the Hadal Zone?” Jongin said, feeling pleased that he knew this bit of trivia. Of course Se Rim knew it was colloquially known as the Hadal Zone of campus, so named because it was, aside from the occasional streetlight, the darkest part of campus during the night. It was also the most abandoned because nobody ever really passed through it except to get to that damned parking sector.

“I knew that,” Se Rim, hoping it didn’t come out sounding too snobbish. Jongin shrugged.

“I’m just… trying to make conversation,” he said and then laughed nervously. “Are you sure you don’t want me to carry your bag? I feel like I’m not doing enough.”

“You’ve done quite enough, trust me,” Se Rim said. Jongin shut up for a moment.

“Are you still upset because of the joke I played on you earlier?” he asked. “Sorry, honestly. I was just… trying to break ice. Although, looking back, that probably wasn’t the smartest way to start out, huh?”

“Well, for one, I don’t think it’s smart to make jokes on people’s lives,” Se Rim offered. They continued to step lightly as they finally started to enter that infamous Hadal Zone, which was little more than a deserted two-way traffic road with bits of forest lining both sides. Se Rim had always been spooked by the darkness, and by the sinister stillness of thick forestry. Granted it was just a patch of pines lining the road, but Se Rim still couldn’t feel comfortable. Unconsciously, she was drifting closer to Officer Jongin.

“You really don’t like me, do you?” Jongin asked, looking up at the tops of the trees while they continued walking. He seemed perfectly at-ease.  Se Rim began to fold her hands together at her chest.

“I wouldn’t say my first impression of you was the most genial,” she said. “You know, Mr. Jung wasn’t nearly as talkative as you.”

“It helps pass the time though, doesn’t it?”

“On the contrary, this is the longest walk to the parking lot I’ve ever been on.”

Jongin laughed and took note of the way Se Rim was holding herself and darting her eyes from one dark patch to another. “Relax,” he coaxed. “What are you, afraid of the dark?”

“More people should be afraid of the dark,” Se Rim countered. “It’s a perfectly natural thing to be afraid of.”

“It’s just you and me,” Jongin said, gesturing to the vast darkness on the outsides of the circles of light created on the ground by some lampposts. “I’ve been down this part of campus a dozen times and I’m still here, aren’t I? Besides, isn’t that why you asked me to walk you in the first place? So you wouldn’t feel scared?”

“Still,” Se Rim said. “You can’t ever be too sure. All sorts of things could be lurking around here, like… like serial killers and wild animals.”

“This far in the campus?” Jongin said as they passed another lamppost. “I don’t think so. The wild animals probably wouldn’t come this close to the road anyway; they know that cars pass through here during the day. Except squirrels; squirrels never learn.”

“You didn’t discredit the serial killers though,” Se Rim said, crossing her arms. Jongin laughed again.

“Don’t worry, if any serial killers jump out, I’ve got your back. I’m trained in this sort of thing.”

“Forgive me if I lack confidence. You’re just so young, that’s all. How much experience do you have being a security guard? How’d you even get recruited?”

“I didn’t get recruited, exactly,” he answered. “I got put on really strict probation by the Council of Deans and getting an on-campus job was one of the requirements. This beats working at the mailroom. At least I might get the chance to write up citations now and then. Or in this case, walk people through the darkest, scariest parts of campus.”

“I’m sure that makes you feel very important,” Se Rim said, although hearing that he wasn’t an actual guard did make her a little uncomfortable. What if an actual emergency happened? “What’d you get put on probation for?”

“Ditching class too often, normal stuff,” he said. He turned to Se Rim and was amused at how nervous she still looked. With a surge of boldness, Jongin draped his arm over her shoulders in a friendly sort of way.

“Relax!” he repeated. “I promise if something bad happens, I’ll protect you.”

Se Rim felt a little awkward with his arm around her. Besides the fact that she’d only just met him that day, she was also much shorter than him. And his arm was actually a lot closer to wrapping around her head than it was to wrapping around her shoulders. Never mind that he was also enormously attractive and she could smell the base of his cologne and laundry detergent he used on his shirt. This was probably the closest she’d ever been to a boy, excluding her father and brothers.

“What’s the worst that could happen?” Jongin said, and almost as though rehearsed, the lampposts flickered and died.

Se Rim was so astonished that she gasped and left Jongin’s protective embrace. There was nothing but blackness now, darkness thicker than any fog. She heard Jongin sigh.

“That was way too ironic,” he said.

“What’s happening?” Se Rim said, her voice shaky and slightly panicked.

“Calm down, it’s obviously a power outage. These things happen,” Jongin reasoned. “Big campus, small generator. Completely normal.”

“I can’t see a thing.”

“Yupp, well that tends to happen when it gets dark. Alright, wait a second.”

“You’re not leaving, are you!?” Se Rim asked. She turned her head from side to side but still couldn’t make out a single thing. When five seconds passed without an answer from the security guard, Se Rim’s heart leapt into . “Jongin!” she called out. “Where are you?”

“I’m still right next to you, I haven’t moved,” Jongin answered. Though she couldn’t see him, Se Rim would’ve bet all her money that he was probably smirking. “I’m looking for my flashlight, I don’t remember which pocket – ah, here it is. How do you turn this thing on?”

Se Rim heard him rustling around his pockets. She still couldn’t be sure where he was, and she wanted to reach out and hold something, anything to assure her that she was still here on this earth and everything would be okay. Se Rim stretched out her arm and tried to find his sleeve. Maneuvering the darkness, the pads of her fingers finally touched something smooth at the same time Jongin finally his flashlight. The light shined upward between them and Se Rim blushed, realizing that she had touched his face, right at the corner of his lips. Se Rim drew back her hands as though she’d touched a hot kettle.

Jongin shone the flashlight in her face, and Se Rim squinted. Then, he shone it on his own face, from below. The shadows cascading over his face reminded her of Rorschach inkblots. He smiled again, comforting her.

“There, now we have light,” he said. He turned around and pointed the flashlight at the ground and then pointed with the toe of his shoe to the edge of the asphalt road. “If we just follow the edge of the road, we eventually reach the same place.”

“Right,” Se Rim said, slightly breathless. Jongin looked back at her, looking a little worried.

“You okay?” he asked and then laughed gently. “It’s just a power outage. It should be back by the time we get down to the parking lot.”

Se Rim was reluctant to go on. She looked around herself and could still see nothing. At this point, anything could be lurking in that darkness, waiting for the proper time to strike. Images of childhood nightmares crept back into her mind, poisoning her imagination: black figures in the closets, bloodied hands shooting out from under the desk, phantom faces at the windows, the ghosts that bump around in the night. The ghost stories her brothers had forced her to listen to would take shape and come to life, breeding in the darkness, waiting to swallow and strangle her. This fear of the darkness may have seemed irrational to many others, but to Se Rim it was very, very real.

“Se Rim,” Jongin called, getting her attention again. She looked back at him, no longer trying to hide her fear. Jongin was confused and slightly frustrated at first. Mr. Jung had told him that Se Rim was a slightly skittish girl, but now this childish fear was bordering anxiety.

Jongin dropped his shoulders. It was just then he realized she was scared, and in the most honest sense of the word. Jongin had been afraid of the dark once, too, when he was five or six. But by the time he was ten or eleven, he’d successfully weaned himself from the light enough to face the dark undaunted. He’d never met anyone like Se Rim, whose fear transcended childhood and maintained itself this far along. He advanced toward her carefully, bringing the flashlight with him.

“Hey,” he said soothingly once he was in front of her. “I’m going to turn off the flashlight, okay?”

Se Rim’s eyes widened. “What?” she said. “N-No! Why would you do that?”

“Just for a couple seconds.”

“No! Don’t!”

“Just for a couple seconds!” Jongin said, and he lifted the flashlight so it was in front of their faces. He turned it so Se Rim could see the off button. He pushed it slowly, and the darkness swallowed them up again. Se Rim closed her eyes, but then realized that she should be keeping them open. Her heart was racing again, and her breath came out jaggedly.

“Jong – !”

“I’m still here,” Jongin said. “Try to calm down.”

“Don’t tell me what to do! Turn the light back on! Please!”

“Just wait a second,” he said. “I want to show you something.”

“Oh god.”

“It’s not erted, I swear.”

“For your sake, it better not be.”

Jongin laughed.

“Don’t laugh,” Se Rim said angrily. “Turn the light back on. Now.”

“Fears are maintained by avoidance, Se Rim,” Jongin said. “If you’re ever going to get over your fear of the dark, you have to face it.”

“Please don’t lecture me with clichés,” Se Rim said quietly. There was a rustling in the darkness and she gasped.

“Calm down, it was a squirrel. I told you they never learn.”

“How do you know?” Se Rim asked.

“Trust me.”

“I don’t trust you.”

“Well, then trust in yourself,” Jongin said. He smiled, but he knew she couldn’t see it. He could hear her labored breathing in the stillness. “Now, hold your breath and count back from five, slowly. It’ll help you relax.”

Se Rim closed her eyes and groaned a bit. She really would rather that Jongin just switch the light back on. But in the dark, she couldn’t just grab it from him, for fear of grabbing his face again, or his hand. Or worse. So instead, she did as he said. She held her breath a moment, and started to count down from five. At five, she was starting to hear the rapid pace of her heartbeat. At four, her hyperactive brain was starting to slow down. At three, she relaxed her shoulders. At two, her mind had cleared. At one, her tired heart began to slow. And then she let her breath loose.

“So what is it about the dark that scares you?” Jongin asked, his voice whispering.

Se Rim lifted her head and stared at the black void where she guessed his face must be. “I know I shouldn’t be afraid anymore,” she said. “It’s embarrassing at my age.”

“That’s okay,” he said. “It’s pretty common.”

“In children,” Se Rim said mournfully. “I’m practically an adult now. It’s… It’s not that I’m scared of anything specific like monsters or ghosts or anything like that. There’s just this looming, ading sense that something bad is going to happen to me, you know? When the lights go out and everything is menacing.”

Jongin nodded, forgetting that she couldn’t see the gesture. In a way, he felt bad for her. “You know,” he started to say. “The dark can be really scary, and even things that aren’t scary in the light get transfigured in the dark and end up real menacing. But it doesn’t have to be. Want to know how?”

Se Rim scoffed a little but decided to humor him. “How?”

“Well, when it’s dark, you don’t have to worry about what other people think of you,” Jongin said. “You don’t have to worry about the way you look or what you do. It’s just… like a place where you go to escape the pressures of being in the spotlight all the time. It’s quiet and it’s private. You can be in the dark with someone else and still feel completely alone.”

Se Rim listened intently to what he said, trying to take his honest advice to heart. She looked around at the darkness again, this time choosing to let it engulf her for a few moments. Instead of letting the thickness of it strangle and choke her, she tried to think of it like floating on water, letting her thoughts loose in the emptiness. And he was right; in the darkness, she wasn’t worried about what he might think of her. In that moment, the darkness was no longer a looming, evil force; it was a nothing-place, where she could let her demons loose without being afraid that they might overwhelm her. The seconds they spent totally submerged in the dark became a form of catharsis for Se Rim, a way of transforming the dark into something else.

After what seemed like an eternity, the lamppost lights finally flickered back to life. Se Rim and Jongin found themselves standing, facing each other, under the watchful incandescence of the streetlight. Se Rim could see his brown eyes again, and his black hair, and his sky-blue shirt, and “KIM J. I.” Jongin backed away, blushing from the proximity. He laughed again and put his flashlight back into his pocket.  

“Well, I guess we won’t have to deal with darkness for that long after all,” he said, smiling. “Come on, let’s go to that parking lot now.”

Jongin turned and walked ahead first, and Se Rim eventually caught up and fell into stride beside him. The ground became firmer and more level when they finally reached the outer edges of the student parking sector. Se Rim began pulling out her keys as they neared her car.

“Here we are,” Jongin said when they reached her vehicle. “Safe and sound, just as I promised.”

Se Rim smiled, for what seemed like the first time since that evening’s walk started. “You kept your word.”

“I do so a lot and people are always still so surprised,” Jongin jested in reply. Se Rim began loading her things in the car while Jongin watched from the side. He chewed his bottom lip. Se Rim, having finally loaded her things, turned to him one more time before getting into the driver’s seat.

“Hey,” she said and Jongin turned his attention to her. “You… don’t really think I asked you to walk me because I’m incapable, right?”

Jongin smiled. “No, of course not,” he said. “I… just couldn’t, in good conscience, let you go alone.”

Se Rim smirked. “Well, thank you, anyway,” she said. She was about to get into the car before Jongin called her once more. Se Rim turned to him, waiting for him to speak. Jongin shrugged before talking.

“Just because I still have a feeling this is going to turn into a regular thing,” he said. “I thought I’d say this now. If you’re scared of serial killers and wild animals, that’s okay; I can protect you from those. But I can’t protect you from the dark. Only you can do that for yourself.”

Se Rim blushed a little but took his words to heart. Jongin smiled again, bid her goodbye, and turned around to walk back up the Hadal Zone and to his post. Before he could go any further, Se Rim called his name.

“Jongin,” she said, and he turned to her. Se Rim rubbed her wrist a bit. “You know when you said that the darkness is a place where… you can be completely alone?”

Jongin nodded. Se Rim paused a moment and lifted her chin to meet his eyes.

“Well, I didn’t feel alone when I was in there,” she said. “I didn’t feel alone when I was with you.”

Jongin smiled, keeping his hands in his pockets. “Well, I’ll be at my post whenever you need me,” he answered. “I’ll be ready when you are.”