It was raining outside the cafe where Sowon sat in front of her favorite café latte and chocolate brownies cake. The day has been quite tough for her in the campus after she had to do a lot of group task where she was the only one who seemed to be serious on working on it. Most of her friends were too busy talking about the new English professor who just came from United States that will replace the old one permanently because he went to England to pursue his Doctoral degree. At this kind of time, Sowon wished she could meet her bestfriend, Yerin and talk about it. But Yerin was busy with the opening of her second bakery store in other city so, it’s impossible to reach her at the moment. Instead, she decided to write in her diary. She was not really the type of person who would regularly write a diary, but she wrote it from time to time when she was in this kind of moment when she had either a bad or good day, but she can’t tell anyone yet. She thought that it’s just important to pour out her emotion in a thing like this rather than ranting it to a random person that wouldn’t understand her situation nor feeling.

She spent almost 4 hours in the café before she walked home. The rain was already stopped when she was out, but the street was still wet and there were puddles here and there. She never likes rain. For her, rain prevents her to do a lot of things cause you can’t just freely move from one place to another without getting wet. And she hates it when her sneaker and her shocks wet. It’s always uncomfortable when you have to walk with wet shoes. So, she was glad that when she wanted to go back home, the rain already stopped.

She walked to the bust stop and wait for 5 minutes before the bus came. She rent a rooftop room in the suburb area of Seoul. The neighborhood was located on a hilly surface with only small road and alley around. It was a good neighborhood even though it’s a little bit far from her campus. She took the bus for 20 minutes before she arrived at the bus stop near her place. She passed through the stairs a couple meters from where she got down as a shortcut. She could’ve passed the regular street but it will take too much time and energy since she practically has to go around.

“Give it to me!”

Sowon heard someone shouted when she reached near a small alley she always passed. It was unusual to hear such thing because it’s usually a quite calm neighborhood.

“Give it to me, you ing useless old man!”

Sowon stopped for a moment. She was curious about what happened. So, she was looking for the source of the voice.

“Do you really wanna die?!”

Just when she heard it, she saw the man who owns a small grocery store around there holding tight a bag with two bulky men held him and tried to take it out from him. There was a woman stand right in front of him. Sowon could see a blood on the corner of the man’s lips. She often bought some snacks from the man’s store on her way home from campus, so she quite knows him. He’s a good man. He gave Sowon bonus sometimes, like beverages, or ramyeon. And seeing him in trouble like that made Sowon felt that she couldn’t just stand still and do nothing.

“Hey, let go of him.” She said. “Or I call the police.”

The man was looking at her. He shook his head gesturing to Sowon to stop whatever she wanted to do and leave. But Sowon only glanced at him before she turned her eyes direction to the woman who was looking at her with a fierce stare.

“You wanna do what?” She laughed.

“I’m serious.” Sowon said while taking out a phone from her pocket.  

 The woman chuckled. “She said she wanna call the police.” She said while looking at the men behind her. they laughed.

“I’m okay, Miss Sowon. Don’t worry about me. You can go.” The store owner said.

“See? He’s fine. You can go now.” She said. “Miss…Sowon.” She added. Her hand folded on her chest.

The store owner realized that he has made a mistake by calling Sowon’s name.

“No, Miss Sinb, please, she doesn’t know anything. Don’t do anything to her.” he said.

Sinb looked back at him. She didn’t say anything for a while. “Fine. I wouldn’t do anything to her…if you give me that.” She said. She raised one of her eyebrows.

Sowon was about to say something but the store owner cut her and gave out the bag he has been holding on to one of the bulky men. They then let go of the store owner. Soon as she got the bag, Sinb and her subordinates left the scene. She stared at Sowon as she passed her.

“Are you okay?” asked Sowon to Mr. Kim, the store owner, after Sinb and the men left.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Answered Mr. Kim who walked closer to Sowon. Sowon held him soon after he reached her and help him to walk back to his store. “You know, even though you have a tall body and she might look smaller than you, it’s better if you don’t mess up with her.”

“Who is she? I never see her around here before.” Asked Sowon.

“Well, that’s because she never really came here herself except, she felt she needs to.”

“But you haven’t answered my question.”

“Well, how do I say this…” He was thinking for a moment. “I think it’s better for you to not know anything about her. It’s safer that way. Just remember to stay away from her.”

“Well…I won’t stay away if I ever see her beating someone again.”

“That…..is actually the reason why you have to stay away from her.” He said. They have already arrived at Mr.Kim’s store. “Anyway, thank you. Miss Sowon.”

“No, I feel like I failed to help you though.” She said. “Is it really okay that you give your bag? I’ll call the police if it was really important for you. I can testify as witness.”

He was not saying anything and only stared at the floor for a moment.

“No, it’s okay. That will be useless anyway.” He said.

Sowon looked at his eyes and she knew that it was not okay. But she couldn’t do anything for a while. So, she decided to let Mr. Kim rest for today and figure things out later.

She went back to her room and put the bread that Mr.Kim quickly grabbed and gave her when she wanted to left his place on the table. she thought to eat it for breakfast tomorrow. It was really one hell of a day for Sowon. She got tired and wanted to sleep right away, but she didn’t want to sleep before she took a bath, so she grabbed her towel and went to the bathroom. She the shower and just let herself hit by the water for a while with her face looking up and eyes closed.

‘Sinb, huh?’