Finally, Seungkwan’s shift had come to an end. He avoided all of his fellow employees as he left, even purposely taking longer to finish what he was doing so they would all leave before him. Somehow, he managed to slip out of the door before he was locked in and made his way back to his apartment.

It was already dark, but his apartment wasn’t too far, so he had nothing to worry about yet. He scurried across the street and opened the door to his apartment complex, taking the elevator to his small room. He glanced over at the couch and wondered about the stranger he was taking care of.

So far there was no letter back. He constantly wondered if this person could even read or write Korean. Or maybe his Korean was too confusing. Or…perhaps this person didn’t care at all. He still had a couple days to appear, though.

In the meantime… Seungkwan took the milk candy he still hadn’t eaten and examined it. Who was the person who gave him the candy? And why did he only buy gum and candy? Was that something normal people did? He shook his head and shrugged.

Maybe the guy just wanted gum. That was the most plausible idea here. Nothing special. A guy just wanted gum was that so weird? Seungkwan was obviously over-thinking as always.

He checked the time and looked around. It was around 10 pm at this point. He should probably take the remains of the stuff he brought that Forest Boy so he could refill it, clean it and bring it back to him, before work.

He grabbed a flashlight, put on a sweater and left his apartment again. It was a quiet night. His neighbourhood was usually quiet anyway, but even the larger districts seemed quiet. Perhaps because it was a Sunday. Though it was slightly unnerving to Seungkwan, regardless.

He decided to get out of the area as fast as he could. As if being in the forest was any safer than being in the city.

As soon as he reached the forest, he flicked on his flashlight. It was much darker in the forest than it was in the city, obviously, but somehow, it put Seungkwan at ease. He was weird like that. At least he had the light of his flashlight.

He maneuvered his way around the forest until he found his stranger’s hideout. The stranger seemed to be asleep, and while part of him was tempted to find who he was helping, he knew the person, who he was sure was male, didn’t want to be seen yet. He made the effort to not shine the light near him, and instead shone it on the two things he always delivered daily.

He made a few second glances at the figure largely silhouetted figure of the male, biting his lip. He shook his head quickly. No, Boo Seungkwan. You can’t just breach someone’s privacy, he thought, picking up the basket and duffle bag, not noticing the pack of gum that had fallen on the ground. He spun on his heel, making sure all the clothing was in properly before walking out of the forest whistling a quiet tune to himself.

By the time Mingyu woke up in the morning, there was a fresh bag of clothing and some more food. The pack of gum he had bought, though, was on the forest floor, covered in dirt and bugs now. Mingyu wasn’t sure if he wanted the gum anymore, even though it wasn’t open. Regardless, he pocketed the gum after shaking the dirt and bugs off it.

He never did understand when and how Seungkwan managed the time to retrieve the bags and bring them back without Mingyu noticing him or him noticing Mingyu. Or perhaps he just hadn’t been tempted to find out who Mingyu was.

Mingyu looked up at the sky, or what he could see of the sky through the forest foliage. It looked to be about 7 in the morning. If Seungkwan went to university, would he be out of his apartment at the school by now? Or perhaps he was at work. Either way, it was a good time to check out the apartment complex he lived in.

By the time Mingyu managed to change clothing and exit the forest the sun had moved up in the sky a bit more. Mingyu judged it was around eight in the morning, now at the moment. He raised his hood and walked around, easily finding the district again, avoiding people as much as he could, even going through empty back alleys.

He made it to the corner store in no time and looked around. The only apartment complex around was one right in front of the store. Convenient for Seungkwan, to say the least. He hoped he didn’t have to run into that stupid manager. The guy kind of smelled bad, to be honest.

Mingyu shivered again. What a total scum for a human. He glanced at the corner store for a second, almost waiting for the manager to come out with Seungkwan and abuse him again. He shook his head and turned towards the apartment complex, waltzing inside to make it seem like he actually belonged there.

The interior of the building wasn’t too bad. At least not as bad as he was expecting. It was a bland white that Mingyu was tired of seeing from being in Heaven for so long. A gray or beige would have suited the place much better. At least the wallpaper wasn’t falling off the walls or the furniture wasn’t torn and destroyed like he had expected. However, the elevator didn’t seem to be working, which because Seungkwan lived on one of the higher floors and Mingyu didn’t like the idea of having to walk all the way up, especially since the invention of a much quicker method.

Nevertheless, he was satisfied with the general interior of the lobby. He hoped the interior of the rooms were just as good. Perhaps maybe a spacious area was too much to ask, but it would’ve helped. Obviously, he couldn’t go into any of the rooms, though.

The lobby door opened and Mingyu turned around to see Seungkwan. What was he doing here?? What about work? Or school? Mingyu ducked behind the front desk, which was currently abandoned. Seungkwan didn’t even notice Mingyu.

Wait. Why was Mingyu hiding? Seungkwan didn’t know what he looked like. If he was recognized, he’d only been known as that person who gave him candy, if anything at all. He shrugged and made his way out of the building casually, hoping Seungkwan didn’t recognize him or try to talk to him. Thankfully, he had his hood up still. He walked out without any words spoken.

Seungkwan got sent home from school after getting sick. It came out of nowhere. Was it the candy? Nah, it was probably just his dinner had gone bad. He had a classmate email him any assignments and made his way back home.

As he entered the lobby of his apartment, he noticed someone was standing in a black hoodie, but when he looked again there was no one. He rubbed his eyes, thinking it was his imagination or a trick of his eye, and kept walking towards the stairs.

Suddenly, someone passed him. They had that black hoodie he thought he saw when he walked in. But where had they come from? As the figure walked past him, he glanced up at them, unable to see their face still. Seungkwan watched the figure walk out, wondering if he just witnessed a ghost or if he was just crazy.

“What the heck?” he muttered to himself, staring at the door long after the person had disappeared around the corner.

He shook himself from his trance-like state and started up the stairs to his apartment floor. He glanced back a few times just to make sure the person was in fact gone. But as he looked back one more time, he recalled the outfit the stranger was wearing. The black hoodie and sweatpants had been exactly like the things he bought at the thrift store for the stranger in the woods.

They also reminded him of the stranger who gave him the milk candy…but no. He shook his head. It couldn’t be. Or could it? Were the stranger that he just saw, the stranger in the corner store, and the stranger in the woods…the same person? He scratched his head, trying to recall the corner store stranger’s face but couldn’t even though it hadn’t even been that long.

A sudden realization dawned on him. If forest stranger was the one who he kept seeing around his neighbourhood, then…did that mean the guy was scoping out the place before deciding if he wanted to move?

Wait. He nearly tripped on a stair. Did that mean the stranger had seen him getting abused? Was that why he gave him the candy? Because he didn’t want to get physically involved but still wanted to help? Seungkwan’s head was spinning.

As soon as he reached his apartment, he unlocked the door, opened it, and stepped inside, collapsing on the couch. This was too much. Curse him for not remembering what the man had looked like. He lied down and decided maybe it’d come to him in his dreams.

Mingyu sighed in relief, sitting in a coffee shop in Gangnam. He was glad he could still make people forget his face if he wanted to, used mainly for secret investigations on Earth before. He looked out the window, gazing at the sky, silently thanking God for keeping some of his abilities, even if that meant they’d slowly fade away.

A waitress came up to him and asked if he needed anything. Water was the only free thing so he ordered that and continued looking out the window. It was then he noticed people were staring at him with their phones out.

For a bit, he tried to seem oblivious. Maybe there was something extraordinary outside the window that he didn’t see. Perhaps a ‘celebrity’. Soon, though, it started getting annoying. There were whispers, camera flashes, etcetera, every 30 seconds. Even his waitress lingered when she dropped off the water.

When he looked up, he saw he was surrounded by a dozen women, ages varying from high school to mid 30s. He blinked; they were looking at him. He touched his face, momentarily forgetting he was graced with such…angelically good looks. He offered a shy smile. 

“Sorry. Could you not take pictures of me?” he asked sweetly. “I just want to drink my, ah, water, in peace.”

A few high school girls squealed but retreated to their seats giggling to themselves. The older women took longer to leave, asking for Mingyu’s phone number, asking for a photo, and so on. Eventually, Mingyu got everyone to leave him, deciding to wipe their memory of his face when he left. Though the pictures would be a problem. He shrugged and stood up, grabbing the plastic cup his water was in and throwing it out.

As he left, a few more cameras flashed. Then, when the door closed, everyone who had seen Mingyu suddenly forgot his face and were left with pictures of someone they didn’t know why they took. Mingyu pulled up his hood the rest of the way back to his forest base so he didn’t have to deal with the same problem again.

Seungkwan couldn’t sleep at all. He couldn’t get the thought of the person he was helping scoping around the area. It also bothered him that he couldn’t remember his face even though it’d only been a day since he’d saw his face. Perhaps it was because he always saw many people’s faces, but he still felt like he should remember the person who gave him milk candy to cheer him up.

By the time he had to wake up again for school, he’d only slept for about an hour. It was pure luck that his lecture got pushed back to 10 am. At that point, though, Seungkwan wasn’t up for sleeping. He made a cup of coffee and finished it in less than 10 minutes, which probably wasn’t healthy.

He still had to drop by the forest. It had become a habit. Wake up, pack the food, pack the clothes, and go to the forest. He felt a lot more apprehensive after thinking about the stranger all night, though. Did he even bring back the stuff last night? No; he’d forgotten.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Confused and a little panicked, thinking maybe he forgot a payment or was late for work, he hesitantly opened the front door. He nearly dropped the mug, which he had been unable to put in the sink to clean, on the floor in front of him when he saw who was at the door.

    Author's note:

      Word count: 2272

A/N: This is just a bit more character build up to make both characters more loveable (as if they weren't already) and such. Don't worry, it'll get more interesting later. I just need to figure out how to end this series ahha. Not that it'll be anytime soon. I just have no idea where this is going right now haha. I never plan these things. I hope you like this chapter though. I'll try and get a chapter out soon.