It was frighteningly cold and exceptionally chilly that night. The sky was pissing in a full force and pouring all of its water content to the earth, together with the lightning and thunder accompanying the party. The night was pitch black and scarily unhealthy for anybody to be out of their shelter at this very moment. The roads were heavily wet with ponds of water everywhere on them, making it hard for vehicles to roar and wheeled at their fastest speed. At this ungodly hour, barely a single soul could be seen on the surface of the globe where the rain, storms and harsh wind were having a blast – a certain densely populated metropolitan called Seoul.

Yet here he was, driving warily across the darkness of the city at careful km/h while glancing occasionally at the boy sitting on the passenger seat. The little boy was sleeping soundly but the man was worried sick because the temperature was so bizarre and he was afraid that the rain would object their journey to that woman’s house somewhere over the city. The woman – his divorced wife who was also working as a medical officer – today supposed to be the day she took care of their little son. After their marriage broke 2 years ago, both of them claimed the custody over the boy in which at the end they agreed to have him staying at their place 1 week after the other.

It was hard but fairly doable especially because the guy was working as a freelance writer and he had more free times to take their child to and from his ex-wife’s house. It was a 1 hour journey from his place but in this bad weather, he couldn’t even estimate if he could arrive before the midnight passed. He knew his ex-wife and how little is the patience she had for waiting, especially waiting for him. That was the reason why they decided to divorce anyway.

The little boy squeaked and woke up at the shocking sound of fierce storms. He rubbed his eyes and almost teared up when he realized the noises on the sky.

“Daddy…” the boy – name was Jonghoo – clutched on his father’s arm. The man gave Jonghoo’s hand a little squeeze, trying to lend him some courage. The little kid was 5 and of course wasn’t very fond of loud disturbance in his sleep.

Kyungsoo slowed down the speed and go easy on the accelerator at Jonghoo’s muffled sobs. His heart painfully throbbed against its cage and as if he wasn’t worried already, his son started to wail and asking him to stop the car and hug him. The man had to maneuver the steering with only one hand as Jonghoo refused to loosen up the grip on his right arm.

“Jonghoo yah… it won’t be long until we reach your mom’s house, okay? Shh, don’t cry baby. Dad is here,” he tried to ruffle the boy’s hair. Chokes of cries were heard and he knew Jonghoo was still scared that the thunder might harm his tiny body. To pivot the car to the roadside seemed impossible with the unfavorable condition surrounding them right now. The lamps standing along the road didn’t even provide that much of a help either.

But Jonghoo insisted so after few minutes of quick thinking, Kyungsoo decided that his son was more important than anything else and he was the dad so he was supposed to be the one protecting his own child. He directed a signal to the side and realized that the rain had started to calm down. Kyungsoo could only thank the earth for that.

There a few meters in front of his car, Kyungsoo saw another car probably taking a break from the harsh weather or trying to sooth down their beloved ones just like what he was doing. Kyungsoo didn’t pay any attention to that as he pulled Jonghoo onto his lap and rocked him back and forth in an attempt to provide comfort and safe haven for his boy.

The car in front of him wasn’t moving and Kyungsoo had to take another look at it from his seat. He noticed the emergency lights blinking profusely from the sports car’s back. From his lack of knowledge and interest about those of fancy cars, Kyungsoo could still see the ‘McLaren’ logo on it, instantly telling him that the owner must’ve been filthy rich to drive that one.

He hummed a little while still holding Jonghoo but the boy moved from his embrace to the passenger seat again. Kid had now stopped crying and Kyungsoo was just so relieved that he could continue their initial journey to his ex-wife’s house.

When his car was about to leave the place, Kyungsoo managed to steal another glance at the McLaren that still hadn’t show any sign of moving or canceling the emergency lights. He saw a blurry image of a man on its driver seat. Kyungsoo had to squeeze his sight in order to get a better view of the man over the window of his own car. Something strange suddenly swirled in his stomach and sent a bolt of uneasiness to his head. Kyungsoo stopped his car again and asked Jonghoo to wait.

He ran to the driver’s side of door and knocked on the window. The man inside didn’t bug. Instead, Kyungsoo witnessed the guy’s flailing limbs. His hands were jerked upwards and he looked incoherently functioning, probably trying to say something. But Kyungsoo couldn’t catch on to that and he knocked again. The car owner looked like he was suffocating or something like that so Kyungsoo tried to open the door. Much to his dismay, it was locked and he couldn’t think of anything to rip open the metal door from outside.

“Excuse me, mister! Hey, can you hear me? Hello! Excuse me! Are you okay?!”

The window was even punched from the inside and Kyungsoo really tried so hard by squinting his eyes to see if the man had come to his sense.       

“Please open this,” he pointed a finger at the door while mouthing the words to the hardly-breathing guy. Kyungsoo’s fingers were curling so tight at the umbrella he brought together with him.

The man – still struggling with his difficulty to respire – had barely succeeded in unlocking the door of his lavish car. The sound of his stuttering breath was vehement enough to Kyungsoo’s hearing. It was jiggered and restrained, asking to be saved from stopping at all. Kyungsoo hold the man’s wrist and noticed the abnormal pattern of his pulse. The umbrella in his hand had been thrown away without him even realizing it.

He looked at Jonghoo who was staring at him from his seat. Kyungsoo then looked at his foot and realized he was wearing his housemate’s pair of shoes and the freelance writer was positive that Byun Baekhyun wouldn’t forgive him for leaving this much dirt on his brand new Dockers. He chewed his lips, contemplating. This guy in front of him was fighting for oxygen and Kyungsoo’s rectitude always told him to never, ever leave a person who are in dire needs of help. He ignored the thought of what Byun Bakhyun might do to him for damaging his shoes.

Undoing the neck tie around the man’s shirt collar, Kyungsoo immediately ducked down and popped one of the buttons of his shirt. He saw few scars on the man’s larynx area. That was probably from the history of this similar situation he might’ve experienced before. Though Kyungsoo was no doctor, he knew some things regarding health thanks to his wife. Well, ex-wife now.

“Airway obstruction,” he hissed to himself. The man in the driver seat was as pale as a porcelain doll now. Kyungsoo’s eyes lingered around and he saw the thing he needed the most at the moment; a small pen knife and a straw. The writer held them tight and inhaled sharply. His finger traced the skin of the man, trying to locate the right position before he could perform the very much needed cricothyrotomy. He knew it would endanger the man, given their unsterile environment but he had no time to worry about that.

With a firm grip and nervous heart, Kyungsoo sunk the pen knife onto the area right below of the man’s Adam’s apple. The small incision inflicted some blood seeping from the broken vessel. Kyungsoo quickly held the wound tried to supply some oxygen after inserting a hollow straw he found in the car just now.

The McLaren driver gradually stopped convulsing. His breathing pattern started to come easy but his eyes were fluttering in daze. Kyungsoo took the man’s necktie and tied it softly around the spot on the skin he had left a scar. The thunder suddenly loudly, startling him. Kyungsoo looked at his own car and his dear son who was waiting patiently for him. Wetting his dry lips, the writer threw one last glance at the man in front of him.

“Young and good-looking. Whoever you are, please be safe. I’m sorry for this is all I could do,” he dialed the 911 and informed them the location before running back to his son after he’d been assured that the aids would arrive in less than 5 minutes.

It started to rain again and Kyungsoo didn’t have the time to turn back to grab his shoes – Byun Baekhyun’s shoes – that was unfortunately stuck on the ground, stubbornly wouldn’t come off from the muddy soil. Kyungsoo had to leave one of the pair there and could only pray to everything in the world that Byun Baekhyun won’t kill him for this.

“What happened, daddy?” Jonghoo tilted his head as soon as Kyungsoo slammed the door of his car. The conflicted man stared at his bare right foot before exhaling a regretful sigh.

“Nothing, sweetie. Let’s go to your mom’s house,” he flashed a reassuring smile to the little boy.

In his head, Kyungsoo couldn’t stop thinking. He was worried. Rather than the McLaren guy he helped before, his mind was actually swirling around the idea of what he should tell Baekhyun about his now tattered shoes. He tapped his fingers on the joints of the steering. His ex-wife’s front gate came into sight before he knew it.

Even from afar, Kyungsoo could see Yejin’s impatient glare. The woman was eyeing him intently when he stopped the car and carried Jonghoo out.

“You’re really late tonight,” the female doctor didn’t even hide her cold expression. She immediately took Jonghoo from Kyungsoo’s embrace.

“I’m sorry. Something came up and it’s raining too hard just now,”

“If that ‘something’ is a thing related to your lousy working schedule, I reckon you to just leave Jonghoo here, Kyung. I’m more than capable of hiring a babysitter for him. That’s more relieving than worrying about his well-being while he stays with you,” Yejin huffed. Kyungsoo was deemed speechless. He casted his gaze downwards, not wanting to prolong the argument.

“And what’s with your bare feet? Look, Do Kyungsoo. I know you’re not that well-known for a writer but can you at least dress properly especially when there’s Jonghoo with you? He learns from adults and what do you want him to learn from his own dad? To be as incompetent and useless as you are?”

Just like the harsh wind outside, Kyungsoo’s heart dropped and shattered at the harsh tone of Yejin’s words. He knew that his pay was not as high as Yejin’s but to think that those hateful remarks came from the woman he used to live with, Kyungsoo couldn’t help but felt all bitter again.

“Please take care of Jonghoo. I’m leaving,” he decided to back off instead of putting any hope high. Yejin would never invite him or at least offered her hospitality to him even in this wrecked weather.

Sighing heavily, Kyungsoo groaned to himself before throwing the dirty shoe on his foot and decided to just drive without them. He could only pray to all the deity up there that Baekhyun would already be asleep when he got home later.

“You did what?!” Kyungsoo ran out of luck the very next morning as one furious Baekhyun stood in front of him while holding the damn pair of shoe. The writer had never resent an inanimate object this much.

“I’m sorry, Baek. I’ll buy a new one for you when I get the payment,” he knew he was stretching it because both of them were aware of how a freelance writer was paid. It highly depends on the number of commission for article write-ups for now. Kyungsoo had tried to write some story books but so far no publication house was interested to close the deal. Apparently even his experience as an ex-journalist for a tabloid was not enough to convince people to invest in his little creativity.

“I mean, if you at least bring them back in a pair, we can figure how to clean these so I can still wear them again. But there’s only this 1 side and that’s literally the most useless thing to even be kept in the closet??” to be fair, it was a brand new shoes and Dockers is not that cheap considering Baekhyun had been saving up several months just for this.

Kyungsoo felt like .

“That guy… almost died,” the writer mumbled guiltily.

Baekhyun tossed the shoe aside and plopped down next to Kyungsoo’s seat. He spooned a mouthful of cereal from the guy’s bowl to feed himself. The middle school teacher heaved a silent breathe as he looked at Kyungsoo’s gloomy expression.

“Look, I’m not saying my shoes are more important than that person. It’s a good thing that you didn’t just go without helping him. Damn it Kyungsoo, I’m so proud that you even know what to do in that situation! But you know-” Baekhyun stopped in his track as the other male’s face fell even gloomier than 3 seconds ago. He rolled his eyes.

“Okay, let’s just drop this subject. It’s fine, you saved a guy from dying and that’s all that should matter,” he patted Kyungsoo’s shoulder softly. “Though, I still insist to see the other half of my shoe so I can decide whether I should throw them away or find some kind of power cleaner, something like that,” Baekhyun’s light chuckle sent a tingle of relief down Kyungsoo’s chest.

He beamed at his best friend, feeling grateful despite the guilt still hanging like a dead skin on his sore body. They agreed to go to the place that little incident took place in the evening.

Kyungsoo made a mental note to save up his next income so he could at least make it up for Baekhyun somehow.

The Saturday morning was thickly laced with cold breeze after last night’s heavy downpour. It could’ve been the perfect weather to sleep in again but Kyungsoo decided that he needed to start writing the article he had been putting on hold for several days now. It was some new brochures requested by The Swan Hotel for their upcoming Valentine promotion. He glanced half-heartedly at the materials they provided him with.

It was very common for a writer to write something completely unrelated to their personal life, but Kyungsoo honestly dreaded this particular project. Each time he had to think about Valentine, his stomach lurched uncomfortably. Since the divorce happened 2 years ago, he really hadn’t been looking for a new partner or even a fling. Kyungsoo was not that old – 30 to be exact – but he just found himself becoming less and less interested in having a love life.

Commitment, he pondered, was not for just anyone. He and Yejin started going out since high school and it was only natural that they decided to get married after living together throughout the college years. Everyone was happy, their friends thought they were a match made in heaven, and getting a son at a tender age of 25 made he felt like his life has been on the right track all along.

But who would’ve known that their seemingly perfect marriage could be ruined by the burden of commitments? Both of them had inconsistent working schedule. Kyungsoo understood Yejin’s nature of work that doesn’t allow her to even put her responsibility as a mom and wife first before her patients.

Kyungsoo quitted his job at the tabloid company to accommodate their household situation. He took care of Jonghoo most of the time as soon as Yejin’s confinement period came to an end 3 months after giving birth. He worked from home, trying his hands on all kind of writing jobs because that was probably the only thing he did best. It had always been his dream to be a writer, a successful writer and not these… odd jobs he got himself into now.

Funny how people think that love conquer all. Kyungsoo snickered. In the end, not even love could save his marriage.

“How’s Yejin, by the way?” he heard Baekhyun’s voice from the kitchen. Kyungsoo hummed wordlessly as he tried to remember how it went last night.

“She’s fine, I guess,” he just shrugged. Truth to be told, it hurt his pride so much how she looked at him with the distaste in her eyes each time Kyungsoo was in her proximity. Sometimes he wondered if all of those long years of living together really meant nothing to Yejin. He didn’t even know a person’s heart could change so drastically like that.

“I heard that she’s going out with one of the doctors at the hospital,” Baekhyun chirped in after a while. Kyungsoo stopped typing on his laptop.

It was not a rumor. It was exactly what was happening. Kyungsoo knew a 5-year old wouldn’t lie, at least not for something they witnessed before their own eyes. So when Jonghoo asked him one day “Do you know the doctor who was kissing mommy that day?” he knew that Yejin had moved on from their failed relationship.

Kyungsoo should be cool about it because they’ve agreed that there was no more affection or romantic interest between them when they filed the divorce. They had promised to put in a lot of effort to love Jonghoo though. They could love Jonghoo without loving each other. That was what they agreed on, but it didn’t make Kyungsoo felt any better knowing that the woman he used to be so in love with is now embracing some other guy.

“I didn’t ask that just to spite you, you know. What I’m trying to say is that you deserve to be happy too, Kyungsoo. I know it’s been a long ride since high school but if she’s moved on to somebody else, it’s because she can and you deserve your own happy ending just as much,” Kyungsoo could feel Baekhyun’s eyes boring a hole on the back of his head. He sighed in agony.

“I’m 30, Baek,”

“So what? Yejin is 30, and I am 30 too. It’s just a number and it’s not even that much. No age is too old to fall in love, Do Kyungsoo,”

The writer snorted at that. Baekhyun always had his ways with words. Kyungsoo closed his eyes for a moment, tried to imagine having that feeling again. Being in love.

It didn’t even last for more than 5 seconds.

“Well you can’t force a feeling. I do hope you’ll find the right person to love again, but it’s your life and your heart. No one but you have controls over that,” Baekhyun’s words startled him.

Kyungsoo hated to admit it but Byun Baekhyun really could pass as a mind reader. That guy could read him like an open book. He turned his head to look at his housemate who was smiling sheepishly while still marking some exam papers.

“How is it that a single guy is giving a divorcee a relationship advice?” Kyungsoo chuckled.

The English teacher turned red, coughing to hide his embarrassment. It’s true that Baekhyun had been single for years. But that was because he really loved his job more than people – probably except Kyungsoo – and Baekhyun was literally married to this profession since he started teaching right after college.

Kyungsoo had known him since they were freshmen in high school and he knew that despite his easygoing nature, Baekhyun had always been careful with who he was in a serious relationship with. There was one time he went out with a male college senior but it ended on a massively bad note as that guy told him that he had impregnated a woman he met in a night club. Baekhyun was livid and Kyungsoo swore he had never seen him that devastated before.

The rest, for the better or worse, is history.

“Are you sure it’s this road?” they looked around as Baekhyun’s car moved slowly along the side of the road. Kyungsoo had doubt, but he could tell that this was the right place. There was a direction signboard he saw last night when he stopped the car to calm down his frightened son. It was dark then, but Kyungsoo decided to trust his instinct for now.

A flash memory of the fancy sports car entered his mind. The writer wondered what happened to the guy after he left. He could only hope that the ambulance arrived and got him to the hospital without an issue. Who knew what kind of infection could’ve gotten into that man’s wounded skin in that situation? Kyungsoo shuddered.

“Let’s go out and see if we can find the shoe,” he suggested as Baekhyun pulled his car over.

The soil was still muddy but it was decidedly better than the soft puddle of mess he had the shoes stuck in last night. Kyungsoo craned his neck and tried to look further. He was pretty sure that he didn’t go too far when he was struggling with the mud after helping the McLaren owner, but he still couldn’t find the shoe anywhere around.

“I don’t think it’s here, Kyung,” Baekhyun had stood tall, turned around, crouched down and scrunched up his eyes to get a better look, but to no avail. The navy-colored Oxford was nowhere in sight.

“That’s strange. I don’t think anyone would take a stuck shoe from the mud for any reason though,” Kyungsoo raised a brow. Not only that, he was also positive that the shoe wouldn’t be too obviously visible from the roadside. If anybody was driving along the road, they wouldn’t even notice it at all. He frowned in confuse.

A complete silence engulfed the two friends as they tried to come up with any kind of logical explanation. The road was vacant, save for a few people across the other side that didn’t even pay a heed to them.

“I swear I left it around here,” Kyungsoo croaked after a short while.

“It doesn’t make sense if somebody just stole 1 side of a shoe,” Baekhyun hummed. “Okay now this starts to sound creepy, but what if somebody saw the person you helped last night and report it to the police because he was bleeding and all? I mean not everyone know it’s an emergency aid, right?”

Kyungsoo paled right then. He gulped a chunk of saliva when he realized that Baekhyun’s theory was not completely impossible.

Now that escalated very quickly, isn’t it?

“D-do you think so? But I’ve called 911 and they said they would arrive in less than 5 minutes,” they moved into the car and Baekhyun slowly drove away.

“Alright, calm down. Things couldn’t possibly go down that fast,” Baekhyun reasoned. They sat in silence as neither of them could imagine what actually had happened to the problematic shoe.

All of this fuss, for a shoe. Seriously.

Kyungsoo winced as he remembered the guy he left in the McLaren. He was not completely knocked out by the time Kyungsoo increased the heater volume before closing the car door and left. The guy looked helpless and he wasn’t struggling when Kyungsoo pushed the pen knife onto his skin. That alone convinced him that the rich guy might’ve had similar experience before.

The McLaren guy clearly understood that Kyungsoo was not trying to harm him, so the writer ruled out the possibility that the man himself reported him to the police. As for another person who might’ve seen him… well that’s a bit of a stretch because surely the ambulance didn’t take too long to arrive.

Right?

Right.

“Right, that’s just impossible-” Kyungsoo was mumbling to himself when Baekhyun ducked down to turn on the radio.

“I can practically hear you thinking, Kyung. Calm down, seriously. Whatever scary scenario you’re imagining right now, it is so not likely, okay?” Baekhyun let out a small reassuring grin as he thudded softly on Kyungsoo’s arm.

“Moving on to the local news. KJ Group, the country’s one of the biggest multi-business organizations had just released a statement regarding the condition of their executive who was reported being admitted into KJ Hospital last night. The company’s representative in his speech for the press said that Mr. Kim Jongin, who is also one of the heirs of KJ Group, was found weak and unconscious in his car shortly after the 911 received a call from a citizen at 11:45pm yesterday from Jongno-gu, Seoul…”

Kyungsoo didn’t usually care about radio news but something about this particular news struck a nervous cord in him. Sensing the similar feeling, Baekhyun turned up the volume of the radio and they silently paid attention to the full report.

“According to the doctor, the 25 year-old Mr. Kim arrived at the hospital with an emergency aiding procedure had been done on him. It’s a temporary measure to help patients with airway obstruction and the doctor assured that the medical team had managed to perform necessary operation following up Mr. Kim’s condition. He is now in a stable state and is gradually recovering.

At the moment, KJ Group is trying to locate the person who might’ve been with Mr. Kim before 911 arrived, probably to determine if this is really a medical emergency or if there is any treacherous intention to harm the 2^nd son of the group’s president, Mr. Kim Junmyeon. KJ Group is…”

Baekhyun’s gasp was too loud to break the pregnant silence in the car. Kyungsoo shook his head.  

“It- probably is somebody else-”

The car came to a halt after Baekhyun made sure it’s save to stop it near a roadside.

“What was that sports car you mentioned the guy was in again?” the middle school teacher asked curiously. He suddenly slid open his phone and started to search for something on the internet.

“McLaren, maybe? I just saw the logo briefly,” his breathe hitched.

“Is it matte black?”

Kyungsoo tried to remember the details, only to come up with a weak sigh.

“Baekhyun, dude. It was almost midnight, the rain was crazy heavy and there was a guy struggling for oxygen. The color of his car is probably the last thing I should pay attention to, don’t you think?”

The other male was still searching for God know what on his phone so Kyungsoo focused on the radio again. He thought that the news was over, but before it ended, they made an announcement that actually might cut down his life by 10 years.

“Since 911 confirmed that the person who gave them the call about Mr. Kim last night didn’t provide them with his personal info, KJ Group has decided to disclose the fact that they found a navy-colored Oxford after their security team went to investigate the place this morning.

The details will not be made public, however the owner of the shoe is asked to come forward and present themselves to the conglomerate family before the end of this week. If they can prove that they indeed was only helping Mr. Kim to live, a special reward will be prepared and the inside source told us that it was no small amount.

a/n: i have no knowledge of medical terms and it's all just from reading ^^; sorry if i got things wrong >.<