Looking back, it had been a coincidence. Nobody had forced Jongdae to go and enjoy, or at the very least try to enjoy, the art gallery. No one said he had to take the skytrain to get there either. The segways of his mmind just happened to interwine in such a way that yes, Jongdae had to venture out there to see the new abstract exhibit by Wu Yifan and yes, he definitely had to get there by skytrain.

So that's what he did, allowing the rest of his, er, mind segues to take care of the rest.

In other words, Jongdae let everything else-he let him happen.

 The air smelt of rust and hurriedly-brewed coffee was corrupting the atmosphere. Jongdae never particularly liked either of the sources of those scents. He'd always feel compulsed to wash his hands after coming in contact with metal, even if such contact was made by an event as brief as handling sparse change he'd forgotten he had put in his pocket. Coffee only served as a constant reminder of the new life he'd been forced to adapt to-his days of waking up to a prepared breakfast and doing whatever he desired at the designated 'after school time' were over. Now, Jongdae barely had time to put together something to eat in the morning and the aforementioned 'after school time' had been shifted a few hours later into the evening.

 The intentionally-robotic voice of the train schedule announcer broke Jongdae's own train-his train of thought, that was-as it screeched the time of the arrival of the coming train. "The next train to Downtown is arriving in two minutes."

 Jongdae let out a weak sigh, which then turned into a confused one. He had no classes today and it wasn't raining outside or anything. Everything was going swimmingly neutral, so what did he have to sigh about?

 It was always like this, though he'd never had the motivation to do anything about it. He thought back to high school Jongdae, who had always been the kid that never raised his hand in class and always silently hoped for others to ask the questions he had. And the thing was, this happened because he was lazy, not shy. He'd hung out with Byun Baekhyun and Park Chanyeol, the two loudest (and most obnoxious) students in his class. Their antics overshadowed his, leading to why he'd never be part of the questions others asked Baek and Chanyeol when they were alone. It was always "Where's Chanyeol?" they would ask Baekhyun and always "Is Baekhyun sick?" they'd ask Chanyeol. Never once had he heard them ask "So where's Jongdae?" or "Is it just two muskateers today?". The reason for that was probably because Jongdae couldn't actually be present for others to ask those questions but he firmly stuck to his own logic that he was always going to be the least prominent one of the three, or as Baek dubbed them, the "Beagleline".

 So far, university life had been the same. Chanyeol had already created a name for himself when he'd accidentally set fire to fourteen books in the library on the first week and if Jongdae was perfectly honest, it wouldn't be long until Baekhyun screwed up too. Cursing only a little to himself, Jongdae waddled onto the train that had just arrived. The unecessary noise in his surroundings made him unecessarily irritated; he knew today could be a worse day if he tried.

But like always, he never did.

 The art gallery was five stations away. There was an abundant amount of seats available so Jongdae quietly cheered for such opportunities and luck. The sources of the noise around him had settled down and resumed their relationships with their mobile devices. Jongdae decided to join them and catch up with his own phone. Then he remembered the lack of social media platforms he'd joined and the lack of games he'd downloaded. So he just slid his earbuds in place, letting the music take him to another place and tim-

"Hey, um, excuse me."

Jongdae looked up and around him.

"Yeah, you in the green hoodie."

 Jongdae was wearing a hoodie that was that one shade of fluorescent yellow that could also seem lime green to others. Or maybe it was a shade of lime green that could also look fluorescent yellow. He noted his own somewhat interesting choice of looking like a highlighter-if he was a sentence in a paragraph that teachers wanted their students to 'highlight only the important parts' on, he would be one of the sentences that would stay pasty printer white. Not even the people that would practically paint the entire sheet of paper with highlighter would notice him.

"Dude!" The voice very nearly screamed. A few heads turned to look for the source of the noise. Jongdae's was one of them. Seriously, who was even-

"I'm right beside you!" Jongdae whipped his head to the right. Nobody was-

"Other side!" Jongdae whipped his head to the left. A young man who looked around his own age sighed (well, he had a reason to) and gestured to the map on the panels above them. 

"Hi! Yeah, I was just wondering if you knew how to get to the aquarium? You know, the aquarium, you know? The aquarium. And how to get there. The aquarium, do you know?"

He sounded like a broken record. Jongdae pondered the boy's question for a second before answering. "Um, if you mean the aquarium-"

"Yes. The aquarium."

"Yes..."

"Yeah, the place with all the fish and stuff."

"Of course. Well, um, you're kind of on the wrong train."

"What?" The boy widened his already huge eyes.

"Actually, you're definitely on the wrong train. So um, sorry..."

Owl Boy (Jongdae silently decided this would be what he would refer to the wide-eyed boy from then on) shut his eyes tightly and sighed again. "Oh. I really thought it was this train."

"Sorry, man," Jongdae was actually kind of sorry, "It's not this one."

"Okay," Owl Boy nodded to himself, "That's cool. That's fine."

Jongdae wondered if he should turn back to his music or was this not the place to stop this conversation? Maybe he should say something else. Something helpful.

Tell him how to get to the aquarium A voice in his head encouraged.

Should I? Jongdae asked the voice. I've never had a conversation that lasted this long. Not with a stranger anyway

Do it anyway Jongdae heard Or else that little period of time you can still speak to a stranger after previously talking to them but with an established context will pass and then you'll regret that you didn't just help him because you overthought this

"Okay, fine," Jongdae found himself answering out loud.

Owl Boy stared at him. "You talkin' to me?"

"...Yes!" Jongdae practically screamed. "Um, you can transfer to the skytrain that comes..."

He leaned his head upwards to check the map, "...in two stations from now."

He in his lips as the 'now' evaporated into the air. Okay, okay, he'd done it.

Owl Boy started to nod to himself again. "Okay, okay. I see. Thanks."

Okay, Jongdae wasn't done yet. "You're-" he started, then realized that "you're welcome" didn't feel like the correct response to this "thanks". "-I mean no problem."

Now he was finished talking to Owl Boy. Or so he thought.

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