Yim Young-jun looked up from the car he was repairing just in time to see Alex stagger into the garage. Alex was a mess. His face was swollen and covered in blood, his shirt was ripped, his helmet was missing, and the front wheel of his bike was bent nearly double. "What the hell?" Young-jun asked.

"Can I use your phone?" Alex asked. "Mine was shattered by one of my assailants."

"Yeah," Young-jun said, pointing to the phone on the wall as he came out from behind the car. "You gotta call the cops?"

Alex shook his head. "I've gotta call my agency and tell them I'll be late with morning's deliveries."

"Alex," Youg-jun said as he took off his nitrile gloves and threw them in the trash, "you need to call the police."

Alex held up a finger to signal Young-jun to be quiet for a second. "Hey Somi. It's Kim Alexsander. Can you put on the big board that I'm going to be late with my morning deliveries and I'm not going to be available for any afternoon deliveries." He paused, evidently listening to the other half of the conversation. "No, I should have them all there by noon, but I can't guarantee anything better than that." Another pause, followed by a rueful laugh. "Yeah, extenuating circumstances. That's one way to put it. Some extenuating circumstances attacked me and my bike with a baseball bat this morning." . . . "No, the deliveries are fine - I was able to throw my bag into a hedge before things got too violent." . . . "Thanks Somi. You're a lifesaver. Talk to you later."

After he hung up the phone, Young-jun asked "Now will you call the police?"

Alex shook his head. "As you're aware, I'm a gay man. In what world would coming to the police's attention benefit me?"

"But there's that new hate crime law!" Young-jun protested.

"That law is totally useless," Alex said, pausing to spit some blood down the floor drain. "Even if the police did find the guys who did this to me, all they have to do is say they were beating me up for some other reason and - presto! - no hate crime. No, if I could use your bathroom to wash my face, I'll have just enough to time to take a bus downtown and make these deliveries before I'm much later than I already am."

"Of course," Young-jun said, pointing toward the bathroom.

"Oh, and can I stash my bike her until about one? s stole my U-lock so now I don't even have a way to keep what's left of my bike safe until I can get to the shop this afternoon."

"Yeah, sure," Young-jun said as he moved the bike to the back of the garage.

"Thanks, man," Alex said, stopping and putting his hand on Young-jun's shoulder. "I don't know what I'd do today if you weren't here."

Young-jun reached up and put his hand on top of Alex's. "I just wish I could do more. If you won't call the police, will you at least go to the ER and get checked out?"

Alex shook his head. "I've got to make my morning deliveries, then I've got to fix my bike so I can work tomorrow," he said as he made his way to the bathroom.

"After you fix your bike," Young-jun called out, "then will you go to the ER and get yourself patched up?"

Alex turned around, drying his face with a handful of shop rags. He saw the concern on Young-jun's face and said "Fine. Then I'll go to the ER. Okay?"

Young-jun shook his finger at Alex. "I'm going to hold you to that." After a moment's silence, Young-Jun had an idea. "You want to borrow my car to do your deliveries?"

Alex shook his head. "That's really decent of you to offer, but parking downtown is a huge problem - that's the entire reason bicycle messengers are a thing. By the time I found someplace to park at each stop, it would have actually been faster to take a bus downtown and just hoof it. Beside, I don't have a driver's license."

"But you do know how to drive, right?" Young-jun asked.

"I took driver's ed, so I could drive in a pinch, so long as I didn't have to parallel park," Alex said with a laugh. "But anyway, I've gotta be off to catch the bus. See you this afternoon!"

Lee Ji-eun knocked on the door to Baek Myung-han's office. She was about to turn and walk away, assuming he must be out, when the door opened.

"Dr. Lee!" he said. "What a pleasant surprise!" He backed away from the door and gestured for her to come into the office.

"I was about to go out for lunch and realized I wanted some company," she said with a smile. "Are you by any chance free for lunch?"

"Sure thing!" he said. "Just let me grab my phone and my umbrella. Did you have someplace in mind?"

Fifteen minutes later they were sitting at a table outside Choy's New Orleans-style Po-Boys, waiting for their sandwiches to be delivered.

"Would you believe I've never eaten here before?" Myung-han said. "I've passed by it before, but I didn't even know what a po-boy was."

"You're in for a treat," Ji-Eun said. "There's no other sandwich quite like this. I'd come here just for the bread - I always ask Mr. Choy where he gets his bread, but he says it's a secret and won't tell me."

Just then the waitresses brought their sandwiches - shrimp for her, roast beef for him - along with a stack of extra napkins.

"I think I'm going to need those," he said, indicating the