i keep getting sidetracked...

title taken from Leslie Cheung and Maggie Cheung's movie in 1985. Really loving the aesthetic in it despite the weird plot.

really should be focusing on the story for now.

A lone ticking of the clock.

As soon as the automated voice declaring the name of the station, a crowd of passengers unloaded from the train, the rumbling steps bombard the platform in a hurry, autopilot strides. It was soon past the rush hour, and the numbers of people come and go becoming less and less frequent until the clock points to 10 PM. It was left to one or two except for a figure that stay unmoving at the bench around the station.

As a high school girl at the final year, hanging around the trains station from afternoon until night instead of studying for the finals might not seemed like the wisest thing to do. As the airpods attached nicely in both ears, playing a list of podcasts, the girl seemed unperturbed by anything before she took out a flyer and scan it slowly.

Across the bench, the train conductor motioned her hands to signal the remaining passengers on standing behind the yellow line.

The high school girl decide to wait patiently until the passengers have been disembarked.

“Excuse me…”

The train conductor flinched at the call, her face never stays in one expression, mostly flustered for she had been caught stealing looks.

“Excuse me…” The high schooler squinted her eyes in an attempt to read out the golden plaque attached on the conductor’s uniform. “Byulyi-sshi? There’s something I’d like to ask…”

The flustered face soon turn into bright smiles as she comply, and after muttering her excuse in a sound that sounds soft and gentle, she rubbed the surface of the bench with her gloved hands and silently taking a seat next to the girl.

“Thank you for not asking on why I keep sitting here for hours.”

Busted.

“It’s fine.” A polite smile split the conductor’s face. “Even though a girl in a high school uniform sitting here since the afternoon seems like giving enough reason to worry.”

The firm tone in her sentence make the girl hung her head low apologetically.

“It’s fine, really. In fact, I should be saying sorry if I might come off as uncomfortable to you.” Byulyi refers to the time she keeps glancing at the high schooler, checking on whether anyone resembles a guardian or parents coming to fetch her, slowly kept on toes just in case someone shady snatched her up. There shouldn’t be anything outrageous spoiling the railway station, no sir. Not on her watch.

“I am really sorry. I just seemed to be so hung out about something. After this I will go straight home.”

A thought of telling her that there’s no need to be in such a hurry come to Byulyi but she perhaps it was kind of inappropriate. “So, you were saying? You said you have some questions.”

Reminded of her mission earlier, she press the flyer flat and show it to Byulyi.

“I’m planning for a date trip, but I just can’t seem to find the right destinations that suit it.”

The power of youth. Byulyi internally gushed at how the sentence was uttered in a shy mumbling, a contrast to the girl’s mature appearance in a uniform. The duality just stuns her. “Do you have any place in mind?”

“Um…”

“Okay, what would you like seeing if you were on this trip?”

“I’m fine with anything, really.” The girl gave a smile that didn’t quite reach into her eyes. “It just have to be enjoyable to him, as a surprise.”

“That’s not quite good.” Byulyi clicking her tongue, almost asking for her name but stop in the middle, since not knowing about her personal information would protect the girl’s privacy. “A date goes two-ways. If one of you didn’t enjoy it, in the end it will just ruined the whole experience.”

“You think so?”

“I know so.”

“Have you been into a lot of dates, Byulyi-sshi?”

“Okay, I have to think that we are getting a little bit sidetracked over here.”

The dulcet laughs ringing through the station, and hearing that made the world seem just a little bit brighter. Now how did that happen?

“I like a lot of things, but maybe sea, and something refreshing…”

“Sea, got it.” Byulyi snapped her fingers in an exaggerated fashion and the next minutes spent with the train conductor pointing to aquariums and the trendiest cafe she was told by her colleague this morning, pausing a bit to consider the most efficient route that should be taken, totally unaware of the girl’s eyes fixated on her as she went on. The train conductor just have that animated expression that is becoming even more fascinating as it goes on.

“And that’s just about it.” Byulyi ends her sentence with a voice that echoes a little too loud, filling the silence around the platform that is almost desolate. Questions like this should have been the concierge’s job, but Byulyi’s more than happy to help. It’s almost the end of her shift anyway.

“Thank you.” The girl said with a small smile. “I will surely look into it.”

“A special someone?”

Something stopped the girl before she answers with a whisper. “Sort of.”

“That’s nice.”

The girl’s expression making Byulyi wonders if she somehow saying something wrong.

“I’ve been looking forward to it-”

Both of them were shocked by a sudden ring that blares in the middle. As the girl rummages through her pocket and picks out a phone, she took quite a while before pressing a button and put the phone closer to her ear. “…Hello?”

My lovely Hyegi, where are you?

“At the train station.”

It’s quite late already. What are you doing? You should be going home.

“I’m planning for our date next week.”

Byulyi silently witnessing when the girl’s lips shut in a thinned line, not saying a word in one solid minute.

Hyegi, I’m so sorry but… My wife has been snooping around. It has got to the point where she hired a private detective. I told you before that we couldn’t meet these times.

“But you promised. For next week.”

It was the first time for the train conductor to hear a sentence filled with so much dejected charge in it.

So sorry my baby. Just know that you are in my heart always, and I think of you always. I can’t wait to meet you already…

“You know what? Forget it.” There is an edge in her tone as she continues. “I should have known.”

Hyegi, don’t be like this again-

It was cut abruptly when the high schooler press the end button. As the silence hung low between them, nothing stops the train conductor to leave, but she stay seated there, looking elsewhere in order to give the high schooler time to sort out her feelings.

“I am so sorry for that.”

The girl’s face slightly reddened as she said it. Byulyi shook her head and smile, but it soon turns into a twitch at the corner of . The loudspeaker was not on, but there was almost no one around that Byulyi heard most of it inadvertently. She can only pray the girl will not perceive her as an e