“Minwoo, go back home right now!” A lady in her mid-forties shook her head as she spoke, hands busy with whipping up a dish for her customers. “I don’t want you moving around so much!”

The said young man raised his head from the book he was reading, sighing. “Stop treating me like some patient, mom. It’s been years since I’ve exited the hospital.”

“Two.” The reply came with a glare, which was quickly replaced with a smile to the customers. “I’m sorry, please enjoy your meal.”

“Yeah, two, and what did the doctor say when I left? Oh right, I was perfectly fine.” Minwoo replied dryly, fidgeting a bit in his seat for a better position to read in. “While being home-schooled is nice and all, you’ve got to stop babying me.”

“Well then, I’ll have you know what a shock it was to see you all bruised up with a swollen face that I could barely recognise my own son.” Minwoo’s mother stood akimbo before the 23 years old baby-faced man. “Even your father in heaven wouldn’t recognise you!”

Minwoo kept silent, himself not conscious enough half the time he was in the hospital to know exactly what he looked like. The only thing he remembered of the incident was how the neighbourhood gang kept searching for trouble around “their territory” and treated him like he was some kid. He knew he was at least three years older than the leader of the group of teens going around then, but he didn’t have the biggest built and decided staying out of trouble was a better idea.

He doubted they’d believe he was older, anyway.

“I appreciate you coming down to accompany me at the shop but if you’re not going to do anything-”

“You don’t let me do anything.”

“-then you better go home.” The lady finished off, glaring at Minwoo again for talking back. “Oh yeah, don’t you have homework?”

“Mom.” Minwoo sighed. “Exams have been over since forever, didn’t you celebrate my supposed graduation with me? I got my degree, but I guess having an unemployed son doesn’t help you remember that.”

“You’re not fit for employment.” She brushed her son’s words off, then starting to clear the plates she specifically told Minwoo not to touch.

“Ugh.”

Staying in the hospital for an extended time then with nothing much he could do had him yearning for some books, which his mother supplied in large quantities due to her not being able to visit much with her stall starting to grow. When he finally got discharged, he wasn’t allowed to go back to school and ended up being home-schooled. He didn’t think he had any specific subject he wanted to study, but his mother wanted him to get a university degree no matter what. Said she didn’t want him to end up tending to a shabby stall for all his life and a degree will get him somewhere at least.

Yeah, somewhere. And she doesn’t let him out of her sight.

He thought of his options then and how he wasn’t that amazing a student back in school, and eventually stuck with his books and opted to study for a literature degree. His mother was almost over cloud nine (into cloud ninety or even higher) at his choice of a degree that seemed to not require much moving about.

He returned to reading his literary biography book, a genre he only recently started on. It was interesting reading them and trying to live life in others’ shoes seeing how he was caged by his mother, but some parts made him want to go out and experience life for himself.

“-and apparently he’s from around here.”

Minwoo paused, mentally noting the page he was at before putting down his book. What did he hear?

“Are you serious? Why do bad things keep happening around here?” An office lady sighed, talking to her colleague as they read the daily newspapers. “Well, I’m glad it’s just vandalism though. Troublesome, but at least it doesn’t hurt people.”

-

Donghyun thought he had to pop by. It was the same location, but the stall evolved into an actual shop. While Donghyun couldn’t remember the young boy who had helped him escape, the mother’s face stuck. Possibly because of how she cried when he visited her after finishing up the case.

“Afternoon.” Donghyun smiled as he bowed lightly, the thought of the then young boy lingering.

No, it’d still be rude. It’s best if everyone moved on.

Minwoo held his breath, himself situated in the corner of the small shop yet again reading his book until he noticed this crowd of men entering due to the noise the shortest of them made. Most of the people involved in the incident then were from around the neighbourhood, and there was only one silly man that got caught and beaten up who Minwoo didn’t recognise.

He remembered asking his mother how he survived, because the last thought he had before going unconscious was how unfilial he was to be meeting his dad before his mom did. His mother then passed him a newspaper covering the arrest of the gang. Along with photos of the gang’s crimes was the photo of a young policeman, Kim Donghyun, who made the arrest possible.

Minwoo swore he didn’t expect the man to take his words seriously, reading the news over and over again. He thought the other was just an innocent man caught up in the dirty businesses of the mafia and hence helped him escape. Since then, he wanted to meet the policeman again. Thank him for letting their neighbourhood regain its previous peace, thank him for his mother’s growing shop, thank him for giving him a second shot at life.

And there he was, taking a seat right before him after placing orders.

“Are you sure we should be discussing confidential stuffs here?” One of the men in the group asked, obviously eyeing Minwoo, the only other person in the shop. He probably didn’t think the owner would bother to hear much of their conversation, being engrossed in cooking the dishes ordered.

Minwoo self-consciously adjusted his seating position, chiding himself for staring at the back of the policeman’s head so obviously.

“It’s fine, Hyunseong. The case occurred around here and there’s nothing that confidential. I wanted to pay a visit to the owner here too.”  Donghyun smiled, not noticing Minwoo behind him but turning to the shortest of them who had been noisy since their entrance instead. “So Jeongmin, I heard you came yesterday for a walk.”

“Yep! Wanted to get a feel of the area. The security’s not very good around here, most shops don’t have security cameras.” The said Jeongmin shrugged. “I think that’s why the cases are so often although it’s only been a week. There’s pretty much no restriction. The acts of vandalism haven’t been removed though, apparently the police told them to leave it for detectives they contacted to investigate it first. I think that means us.”

“It seems the person is going artsy though.”

“I can’t help, the ambiguous words aren’t my forte.”

Minwoo blinked. Is it just him or do the two of them look really alike?

“He sure did leave a challenge though.” The wary man spoke up, and Minwoo blushed slightly. He could feel the other’s gaze on him even though he was hiding his face with his book. “If we were to arrange it chronologically, it starts with ‘survival’, ‘game’, ‘opportunist’, and the recent one was ‘catch me’.”

“If you can.” Minwoo mumbled, covering his mouth quickly when he realised what he had done. The flustered action made him drop his book and draw even more attention to himself. He watched as Donghyun turned to look at him, thousands of scenarios running through his mind.

A pause.

Minwoo tried not to let his expression falter too much.

The other didn’t recognise him.

-

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Aww, you guys just make me feel so loved <3

Heh, so did anyone guess it was Minwoo from the start :3?