The clouds are missing in the afternoon sky. Ji Yong looks out the open window. He feels the chilly wind against his face.  Something is begging him to jump out of the vehicle and run away. Fast. Before the truth catches up with him.

A nail, bitten. Verses of a song formed in his head. In the streets outside, a woman is slapped by her lover. Ji Yong closes his eyes and wishes he would stop driving. His wish is almost instantaneously granted.

Choi Seung Hyun turns a curve and slowly steps on the break. With a face void of emotions, he kills the engine. They have been in the car for more than an hour and no words have been exchanged yet. To their right is an abandoned building. To their left is a vandalized concrete wall. Up ahead is a sign. Dead end, it says.

Seung Hyun takes out a stick and places it between his lips. He searches for a lighter in his pockets but finds none. Ah, a match. He pulls it out from the dashboard compartment and inconspicuously lights a fire. But the sound of the friction blares in Ji Yong’s ears.

A breathy inhale, an inaudible puffing out. Smoke clouding the younger man’s vision. He is compelled to ask for a cigarette but he bites his tongue instead.

Silence. Numbing silence. Minutes after minutes of numbing silence.

Seung Hyun is still absorbed in his nicotine fix as Ji Yong tries to amuse himself by analyzing the packaging of his bottled vitamin water.

Calories: 50, Total fat: 0g, Sodium: 0mg, Total carbohydrates: 13g, Sugar: 13g, Vitamin C: 40% Vitamin B3: 20%, Vitamin B6 20%, Potassium: 150mg per bottle. He realizes the absurdity of the situation and puts the bottle down.

He hesitantly faces Seung Hyun who is the one looking away this time. Maybe reading the graffiti on the wall? Counting the lines on the pavement? Recalling the speech he prepared for this moment?

The boy in the passenger seat feels a knot in his stomach.

Seung Hyun on the other hand finishes a stick and takes another one out mindlessly. Yes, he is trying to remember the words he is supposed to say right now. He even wrote them down last night. But all the nouns and adjectives and verbs, which were meticulously selected are now gone.

His mind is blank as a washed out limbo.

Ji Yong watches him carefully. A fish-shaped scar on Seung Hyun’s nape. He never noticed that before. The older boy is wearing an old, faded jacket and his lower lip is chapped. Ji Yong’s nose turns acid. It’s been days, maybe weeks since their lips have last met.

The driver’s phone rings all of a sudden. Both of them are immediately scooped back to the cold reality.

“Hello?”, quickly answers Seung Hyun. “I’m… in a shoot. Yeah. Tonight. Uh-huh. Sorry, I’ll call you back later, they need me on-cam now. Alright. See y