Hui glanced through the window. The weather suited his current mood. Smog was hanging above the skyscrapers and one couldn't see anything a meter ahead. Everything seemed heavy and it was hard to breathe. The man turned away from the window. He couldn't look at his reflection in the glass. It was such a pitiful sight. His blonde hair was in disarray and his brown eyes seemed completely empty. He sighed and approached an old chest of drawers. There was a small framed picture of a young man with bleached hair. He scanned the man's face. He missed him. He missed his cat-like eyes, his small nose and his never disappearing gleeful smile. Hui caressed the photo with his fingers and he shut his eyes tightly. He didn't want to cry. No more. - he thought - No more crying, Lee Hwitaek. The man shook his head and put the frame back in its place. You have to take action. - he said to himself and he got up.

"Hwitaek, can you attach this to the carrots?" - his co-worker, Changgu, nudged his side, which caused him to jump. Changgu had a huge roll of neon-orange stickers in his hand. - "We have to tag them, there is a new palette."
It was already the next day and Hui felt groggy. He had been thinking about the man from the photo whole night. He swore that he won't do that anymore but he couldn't resist. He finally made a decision. He will do it today after he'll finish today's shift.
"Yeah, sure." - he mumbled and took the stickers.
The man went to the back part of the shop and there was a huge box full of carrots in packages. He had to stick each label to each package. He groaned. This will take him at least half an hour and he couldn't use magic in such prosaic case. Yes, Lee Hwitaek was a wizard. Just like most people in Korea. Unfortunately, he wasn't very talented and that's why he worked in a grocery shop. His spells always caused troubles. Suddenly, he heard a bell jingle and an elderly woman in fur entered the shop. She approached the counter and eyed Changgu. Hui could almost sense his colleague's nervousness. The lady looked very out of place there.
"One kilo of Mandrake, please." - she said offhandedly.
Changgu gulped.
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but we don't sell mandrake here, it's a grocery shop."
The lady flushed deep red.
"Do you think that I'm stupid?! Of course, I know that it's a grocery shop!" - she yelled suddenly - "I can see that you have mint, sage and rosemary, why don't you have mandrake?"
"I'm so sorry, ma'am, maybe you can go to the Chemists across the street? I'm sure that they have it." - Changgu began to stutter.
"What an incompetence!" - she exclaimed and walked out slamming the door which caused the bell to tinkle madly for next two minutes.
Changgu stood there, startled.
"What the hell was that?" - asked Hwitaek but all he could do was shrug and get back to what he was doing before.
"It will be a long day." - he thought.

7 hours later he was getting ready to go home when he suddenly saw a pair of sparkling eyes beside him.
"Hey," - said Changgu softly - "you look down and I was wondering if maybe you would like to go out with me? I know that we aren't really friends but you looked so sad recently..."
"Right now?" - Hwitaek was surprised. Usually, the didn't talk much. The blonde man scratched his head. - "Er... I can't really go out with you. I'm very busy tonight."
Changgu stared at him for a second and then nodded his head.
"I see. I just wanted you to know that you can count on me." - he said and then smiled sheepishly.
Hui didn't know how to reply so he just smiled back.
"See you next Monday!" - he said after a long pause and took his bag from a chair behind the counter.

He got out of the shop and headed in the direction of the main street. He had a plan. He had to go to Seoul's main public library. After 20 minutes he stood in front of a huge building with marble columns. Something fluttered weirdly in his stomach. He worked here. Hui stepped inside and then got into the main room. Behind the reception desk was sitting a young, tanned, brown-haired man in round glasses who Hui immediately recognised as his ex-co-worker, Hongseok. The man had a name tag anyway. Hwitaek wanted to slip unnoticed. He wanted to avoid conversation at all costs. To his relief, everything went smoothly. He looked around and quickly began to look for the section he needed. Tr