Kihyun liked to think of himself as a simple man. He wasn’t someone specially ambitious. He had always wanted to stay in his hometown, basking in the familiarity of everything, spending time with the same people he had been with since day one, working and helping a community he had grown to love. He liked following his routine, doing the same everyday, because it made him feel safe.
His mornings consisted in waking up early, taking a shower, making breakfast, waking up his little brother, Jooheon, and going to work. He worked at a hotel as a receptionist, the only place where he saw strange faces, and was mainly in charge of attending foreigners since his English was really good. After his shift was done, he would go to Jooheon’s taekwondo class -he obviously didn’t participate in the class, he just liked to watch- and then walk home with the other. 
The walk home was usually the highest point of his day. He and his brother would take the longer path and stroll around the beach, their steps clumsy and slow after a long day, and would probably just sit on the sand and watch the night waves crushing against the ground, threatening and mesmerizing them. 
Of course he hadn’t always been this structured; he had made his bad choices and the beautiful people of this town had helped him back on his feet. Their help was what had shaped him into what he was today. Life seemed so simple when he did the exact same thing everyday, as long as he didn’t break his routine nor the rules everything would be okay. And he liked it that way, he finally felt at peace.
“Jooheon-ah, you have to stop getting so hyped up out there, that’s why you keep getting hurt” he scolded his brother on their way down to the shore. They were walking side by side, the youngest’s steps sloppy from tiredness and his brother carrying both of their bags. Jooheon hadn’t even taken off his taekwondo outfit because of being too lazy to do so and was holding his right shoulder after having fallen down on it while fighting -reason for Kihyun’s scolding.
“Come on, hyung, it’s nothing” he shrugged it off like a stubborn boy, making the other huff.
“Yeah, it’s nothing... And then I have hospital bills to pay because of you being so careless with your health!” the receptionist yelled, not minding the volume of his voice since the crashing waves swallowed most of it.
“Aish, fine” the youngest grumbled, rubbing his sore spot.
For a few minutes, the two brothers stayed silent, walking through the beach and watching the night sky. Everything seemed completely ordinary, like any other night in the man’s life, making his bad mood fade a little. However, his inner peace was shaken up a bit when his brother spoke up again.
“Hyung, look! Over there” he said, pointing at a silhouette in the distance. “Who is that?” 
Thanking to have put on his contact lenses, Kihyun obeyed his brother’s indication and found a man walking towards the crashing waves. At first glance, he seemed to be enjoying the scenery like both of them, but he felt something was off about it. 
First of all, he didn’t look like any of the locals there and it wasn’t tourist season, so the presence itself was unnerving, and second, he looked almost too calm.
“He’s getting in the water!” Jooheon yelled in amusement when the man got his feet inside the icy water. “He must be Russian or something, hyung. You know, from those countries where it’s winter all year. He must be going for a swim”
Kihyun didn’t say anything, holding his breath the moment the stranger got his entire body under a huge crashing wave. He was intending to release it as soon as the man got to the surface again, but time was ticking and he was nowhere to be seen.
This settled an unusual panic in the receptionist’s guts, something he hadn’t felt in years, and suddenly he found himself running towards the place where the stranger had disappeared, dropping his things and screaming to his brother.
“He’s not swimming!”
His feet started burning from the sudden and unwanted effort he pulled off and his breath was ragged by the moment he reached the place where he had last seen the man. Without a second thought, he entered the threatening waters and started looking around and getting deeper into the sea, reaching down every time he could. 
“Hyung!” his brother was still yelling in the distance, getting closer at a slower pace because of his lack of energy, but Kihyun couldn’t hear it, too focused on his task of saving someone’s life.
Suddenly, he felt something hit his leg when another big wave crushed over him and he held his breath to reach down again. It was a body, he was sure.
Without a second thought, he grabbed what felt like an arm along with a piece of fabric and pulled up, getting hit by another wave in the process and coughing out the water he had swallowed. When he managed to get the body up, he shouted his brother’s name another time, urging him to help him. He didn’t even check if the man was still alive, he just wanted to get him to the shore.
After his cry for help, he felt his brother next to him immediately, grabbing onto the stranger’s other arm and pulling him along. He didn’t know how much it took them to escape the ocean’s claws, but once they were out, they were coughing and gasping for air, laying the drowned man on the ground.
Before he even let go of the other, he checked on the man’s pulse, thanking the heavens for his first aid diploma, and started performing CPR as soon as he felt his missing heartbeats.
It took a few tries, but after giving him mouth-to-mouth -ignoring completely his brother’s ‘ew’- and pressing on his chest rhythmically, the stranger became conscious and started coughing and throwing up water.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “What’s your name?”
The other seemed completely disorientated, as if he couldn’t even understand him, and that’s when he noticed he was also bleeding through his head.
“Wh-what happened?” the stranger stuttered, though it wasn’t in Korean and Kihyun was lucky to be the one with good English.
“You drowned, sir” he answered, since the other seemed older than him. “I need you to stay still until professional help arrives” he continued, turning to look at his brother, who seemed petrified on his spot. “Jooheon-ah, get Dr. Chae here! Call the hospital!” he ordered, being obeyed immediately. “Could you tell me your name?” he went back to speaking to the man.
“I am...” he mumbled. Kihyun waited patiently for him to finish his sentence, though it never came.
“You are...?” he insisted, seeing the other looked lost.
“I am” he repeated, more determined, though still a little gone. So, the receptionist decided to just drop it.
“Okay, don’t close your eyes, sir. Just listen to my voice, I’m right here” he said, focusing on the head’s wound and stripping his shirt to press on it with the cloth.
It took almost ten minutes for the paramedics to arrive. Luckily, he had managed to keep the man awake, hoping this would all be forgotten by tomorrow and he would go back to his happy routine.

Several hours later, Kihyun sat at the local hospital’s waiting room. He had sent Jooheon home since the younger looked like he was about to faint from his lack of sleep and decided to take care of the police questions by himself. 
After arriving to the building, he had taken his last glance at the stranger, who was on a gurney, surrounded by doctors and medical devices while taking him to one of the emergency rooms. He didn’t even have time to think about the state of his appearance before a nurse practically cornered him to ask about the patient’s personal information and his relationship to him and ‘who was going to take care of the bill’. In the end, no matter how many times he tried to explain the situation, he was left alone only after promising he would take care of the bill. If he hadn’t had so much going through his mind at that moment, he would’ve probably filed in a complaint.
When he finally decided to go to the bathroom, he realized he was completely drenched and his shirt had a huge blood stain on the side due to his attempt to stop the bleeding on the other’s wound. The saltiness of the water was starting to make his skin itch and he felt an incredible urge to go back to his apartment and take a shower but his more logical side decided on the contrary. He didn’t want to seem suspicious or something for the police and he knew his friend, detective Shin Hoseok, was already on the way with his coworkers ready to interrogate about this incident.
So, there he was, drenched in salty water and a stranger’s blood, wishing he was home sleeping and clean, ready for another one of his monotonous days.
“Kihyunnie” he heard the moment a man stood in front of him.
“Hoseok-hyung” he answered immediately, standing up to bow at him and his partner, Mingyu.
“Are you the witness?” the elder laughed amused. “You were the last person I expected to find here!”
“What do you mean?” the receptionist chuckled surprised, not fully understanding.
“Well, you know, you’re not the kind of person to be involved in this kind of situations” the detective patted his shoulder, nearly making him bend his knees. “At least not anymore”
“Ah...” he mumbled, not sure if happy by the comment.
“So, do you mind if we ask you some questions?” his friend’s vo