There’s an urban legend that’s been circulating for years about a taxi cab that doesn’t take you where you want to go, but where you need to go.

 

Hitomi is by no means a newcomer to this rather dilapidated town, but it’s the first time for her to hear it among her colleagues. She’s not one to listen to gossip and urban legends on a daily basis, but the topic has been repeatedly brought up that it’s impossible for her to not catch a word or two about it.

 

And now, it’s hard to ignore it since it comes from her best friend.

 

“Did you know about the cab—”

 

Hitomi holds up her arm, sighing when Yuri casts her a betrayed look. “I know about it,” she says, sighing again. She leans back against her seat, her hand reaching at her piping hot coffee sitting on her table, almost dangerously close to the edges. “Wonyoung told me about it.”

 

“Apparently, the rumor has been circulating for a few years already,” Yuri says, crossing her arms when the cold wind passes by them. The cafe is oddly crowded today, leaving them no choice to lounge on the outdoor table despite the biting coldness. It’s only the beginning of Autumn, but it’s always so mercilessly cold here. “But when I asked mom and dad about it, they got no clue.”

 

“I asked Eunbi-unnie myself,” Hitomi pauses to take a sip of her beverage. In an instant, warmth blankets over her, wrapping her in a comfortable temperature that fights off the cold. “She heard about it the first time during her university days, but passed it as an urban legend of olds.” She shrugs her shoulders. “I wanted to pass it as that as well, but my colleagues at work kinda bring it up every day.”

 

“Don’t you think it’s a sign?” Yuri proposes, intrigued rather than worried. “You always take a taxi cab after overtime.”

 

Hitomi waves her hand dismissively. “I’d rather go to my true destination, thank you very much.”

 

—

 

Just her luck, the file she’s been working on for the last few days just needs to be corrupted only one day before she needs to submit it to the manager. She has no choice but to take an overtime, at least until she can finish 80% of the content. 

 

By the time she finishes working on the file, the building is already close to being deserted. There’s only less than five of her colleagues in the office, each minding their own business with the printer and their computers, depending on what kind of things they are doing. They don’t even spare a glance her way when she rushes down to call a cab, as it’s already too late for her to take a train to her home. 

 

It’s a good thing that despite living in a rather dilapidated town, the people here are mildly respectful to one another. Crimes are rare, making it as one of the safest place Hitomi ever known. Perhaps the reason why everyone is being so mildly respectful to one another is due to the reason why they’re so wary of one another for some reason.

 

Hitomi can’t blame them. She’s been here since highschool and she still can’t trust anyone but her family.

 

And Jo Yuri, but that’s because Yuri is also an outsider, too.

 

During the day, everyone seems to go on with their day as usual. Talking to each other and such. But once dusk settles and the moon hangs up high in the sky, a hush of silence seems to envelop the town. It’s creepy, yet oddly comforting. People seem to erect a barrier around them, refusing to say even a word out of necessity. Perhaps in this town, only outsiders are brave enough to start a conversation once the sun completely disappears on the west.

 

Hitomi isn’t among them, but she’s forced to everytime she needs to. Her apartment is quite far from her workplace, a walk will take slightly less than an hour during the day. At night, it can stretch to more than an hour due to her needing to make a detour, since the bridge she needs to cross only opens during the day.

 

The call connects quickly, needing only one ring before the operator picks it up.

 

“Hi, I—”

 

“Miss Hitomi on IZ Ent. We got you.”

 

Hitomi smiles, finding herself nodding at the light, almost angelic voice that always greets her whenever she takes an overtime and needs a ride home. “Correct. I’m wearing green.”

 

“Gotcha. We got Miss Sakura as your driver. She’s a little oddball, just saying.”

 

“As long as she’s not creepy.”

 

“Hardly, but I’ll let you decide for yourself.” The voice behind the call says, giggling. “Thank you for calling!”

 

“Thanks,” Hitomi mumbles just as she ends the call, her eyes catching a sight of a light blue car coming from around the corner. She waits until the driver comes closer and rolls down the window. 

 

“Miss Hitomi?” the female driver queries, her eyes oddly faraway, almost unfocused when she looks at her. Still, Hitomi shrugs off the way the hair on the back of her neck stands, bristling. Hitomi has her share of finding drivers that refuse to see her eyes, opting to look a little above her head or a little to the left or right.

 

But this is the first time for Hitomi to have this kind of shiver running down her spine at this one driver.

 

The unsettling feeling refuses to be fended away, but Hitomi decides to ignore it for now. She might be a tad bit smaller than the driver, but she by no means a weak woman of her own. She secretly holds a karate belt, though she won’t easily disclose what color her belt is.

 

“Yes,” Hitomi manages, forcing to make a sound, trying not to be unnerved too much by the driver’s strangeness. “Are you Miss Sakura?” She further queries, her hand tightening around her bag. She doesn’t usually ask for the driver’s name, but since Chaewon did tell her, she might as well.

 

Sakura blinks at her, silent for a few seconds. Then, she nods. “Chaewon told you,” she mumbles, her eyes moving away.

 

Ah, so that’s her name. Hitomi hurriedly goes inside the car, closing the door with almost a loud slam. She winces. “Sorry,” she tells the driver when Sakura glances back.

 

“It’s fine,” Sakura mutters tonelessly back, pushing the pedal, rolling the car forward in another suspenseful silence.

 

—

 

“Your destination, miss?”

 

—

 

Hitomi always keeps herself alerted whenever she takes a cab. She knows she can sleep and nothing bad will happen to her, but she’d rather be safe than sorry. Crimes are extremely low here, but it’s not nonexistent. She can trust Chaewon to give her drivers with integrity, as she always did before, but it doesn’t hurt to be wary of strangers.

 

Sakura, as expected of a local, doesn’t open any conversation throughout the ride. The silence is unbearably uncomfortable after what Chaewon told her before that, but Chaewon wasn’t really warning her.

 

Not really.

 

“Excuse me,” Hitomi suddenly says, realizing the car is heading in the direction of the closed bridge. Sakura turns, but just very slightly. “Miss, the bridge is closed?”

 

Hitomi sees Sakura blink slowly from the rearview mirror. The unfocused faraway look returns, but the car is still going steadily forward, barely swerving to the left or right. Sakura isn’t high, for sure—she’s just weird. “We’ll need to be on the bridge for your destination, miss,” she says calmly, “we’re nearing your destination.”

 

Hitomi frowns. Her frown deepening when she realized that the car is now climbing the bridge, the panels showing that it’s closed are nowhere to be found. “My destination is Bloomiz apartment complex, Miss Sakura,” she says, enunciating her destination. 

 

The woman on the driver’s seat glances back again. “So it is,” she agrees, “but you are needed somewhere else.”

 

“What does—”

 

“We’ve arrived,” Sakura suddenly announced, turning around when the car finally screeched to a halt, just at the early quarter of the bridge. A ghost of smile creeps up to her lips, and Hitomi be damned since she immediately thinks of how pretty Sakura looked with that smile on her face. “I take no charge when destiny calls, Miss Hitomi. Please, do exit the car.”

 

Wordlessly, Hitomi obediently exits the car, her hands clasping around her bag tightly as she watches Sakura make a u-turn, inclines her head down, and leaves without any words.

 

Hitomi releases a long, suffering sigh. While she often crosses the bridge during the day because of one thing and another, she has never done it before during the night. Mainly because the panels that prevent any methods of transportation, and the security guards that always deter everyone from crossing the bridge. 

 

But she witnessed it herself how the panels seemingly disappeared when Sakura headed towards it, how the security guards nod their head in acknowledgement at Sakura and not demanding them to leave. 

 

Taking a deep breath, Hitomi walks forward, in the direction of her apartment. Her home is already very near, it’s placed right after the bridge. The journey usually takes less than ten minutes to walk from one end to another, but perhaps it’ll take a shorter time since there’s no people on this bridge. Usually, she’ll need to slow down her pace due to the sheer crowd. Now, she can run if she wants.

 

But that sheer fact of being alone makes Hitomi afraid. The bridge is by no means dark. It’s actually very well lit, but it’s just that the deafening silence and pitch-black darkness around it during the night is what makes it so daunting to cross. Sure, the sight of the glimmering town far from the bridge is a sight to behold, but it doesn’t make it any less of a scary situation.

 

Still, Hitomi swings her foot forward. Right-left, right-left. She sings a song in her mind, hoping it’ll distract her from the horrifying what ifs popping out in her head. The bubbly tunes of a children's song proves to be effective in fending the thoughts away, but she knows she’ll bolt the moment she sees something strange here.

 

—

 

Hitomi stops abruptly in her spot the moment she sees a person about ten meters in front of her. A brunette, her hair a mess due to the wind. She’s leaning against the concrete railings, staring at a distance.

 

Hitomi almost mistakes her for a ghost if she doesn't see how the girl shifts her weight to the left, then to the right. Her action is very human that Hitomi finally resolved to go on with her way. She’s also seemingly too enraptured by the sight of the glimmering town, looking so lively with the lights on—despite Hitomi realizing how dead and empty the town is during the night.

 

And so Hitomi continues with her journey, careful as to not startle the girl.

 

But then, the girl raises her foot, hooking one on top of the railings.

 

Hitomi’s eyes grow wide in instant, her body immediately moving forward in speed she doesn’t know she possesses. She arrives right on the nick of time, just before the stranger can fling her whole body to the other side of the railing and into the abyss.

 

Wrapping her arms around the girl, Hitomi forcefully pulls the slightly smaller person away from the railing. The girl doesn’t put up too much resistance, but she sure is heavy for Hitomi’s standard.

 

Though it may be due to her skipping her lunch and dinner, leading her to feel too weak compared to normal.

 

Eventually, they fall down together with a loud oof from their lips, with Hitomi groaning loudly when her hits the hard ground with the girl falling right on top of her, squishing her flat to the ground.

 

“What are you thinking!” Hitomi can’t stop herself from hissing, frowning deeply when the girl hastily got off her lap only to run back to the railings, climbing it up with haste. What an ungrateful brat. “Are you thinking of killing yourself by jumping off the bridge? The only thing that’ll happen is you having broken bones, and not instant death by this height!”

 

The girl, perhaps no older than her, pauses on her attempt to climb on the railings. Thank you God for giving her a short height! Hitomi muses in her mind, feeling relieved when the girl ceases her attempt, knowing it’s to no avail. 

 

She turns around, cocking an eyebrow up with a look of disbelief on her face. “I know,” she grumbles under her breath, puffing her cheeks. She lifts up her head only to glare scathingly at Hitomi. “But I wasn’t thinking of committing suicide, you know!”

 

“Could’ve fooled me,” Hitomi glares back, dusting the dirt of her light-cream colored pants, silently lamenting at the stain the dirt left on her ants. She crosses her arms once she’s back to her feet. “Why are you in the middle of the bridge? This bridge is closed every night!”

 

The girl raises an eyebrow. “I could say the same thing to you,” she hisses, harrumphing as she turns back to face the darkness. “The securities let me in for some reason. No IDs query, no reason for crossing. Nothing. The panels weren’t there either.”

 

“I found it hard to believe.”

 

“Well,” the girl scowls,