Sooyoung's POV

Slowly, I move my legs. One step at a time. I am already in front of my apartment. I am not sure whether or not to enter. I don’t feel like resting on my bed. I lock back the door and turn my body facing the hallway. I lean my body against the door as I sigh, remembering the last phone call I got after my working hours were done.

Before my mind goes into lala land, far away from the reality, the loud sounds of footsteps caught my attention. Without knowing, my feet quickly move, following the sound. I’m curious. Those sounds lead me to my apartment’s exit stairs which I never aware of. The sounds fade off somewhere upstairs. I wonder if someone is there. I took my shoes off, avoiding the squeaking footsteps as I climb up the stairs quickly trying to find out what’s going on.

I know nothing which level did the owner of the sounds went, but I keep on going until the end of the stairs. There was a door, and it’s not lock. My guess is right; it’s a door leading to the rooftop.

 I slightly push the door open. I never know how beautiful the scenery from top of my apartment. In a middle of a city, the night is fill with the lights twinkling at the ground and even up in the sky. Those unpleasant feelings are no longer in my mind, stabbing my heart like an hour ago. This is the miracle of beauty.

I take more steps towards the edge of the building, just to get closer to the gorgeous landscape. 

“DON’T COME ANY CLOSER!!!” What? Did someone just shout at me?

 I look around, trying my best to see with my poor night vision eyes if there’s someone near me. There’s indeed a stranger, standing far to my left, on the edge of the building. I think that’s about five feet away from me. I wonder how come I didn’t notice his presence. The beauty of the city must have caught my attention, leaving me clueless that he’s been standing there all the time.

“Hmm? Oh? Am I taking your spot? I’m sorry, then I just went the other way,” I am an idiot. My mouth speaks faster than my mind could even think. Obviously, he’s trying to jump off the roof.

Although the surrounding is very dark, I could clearly see his shock face. He turn his head towards me, “What?”

I know how dumb I look like right now. I don’t know how to react either when I realize what this stranger is trying to do. I thought of just giving him a smile and play along with it.

“The scenery, don’t you think it’s very beautiful? It is as if the city is celebrating the festival of light. Awesome, don’t you think?” I giggle while trying my best to stay composed and not to show him any sign of worry-ness.

 I mean, if he really does trying to kill himself, and I am beside there while he’s doing it, doesn’t that makes me the suspect or something? Anyhow, I’m sure people will come and questioning me about a guy who fell down the building when I’m near him. Troublesome. And it is still troublesome since obviously I am the last person he talks to even if I manage to escape right now to avoid seeing him jumping off. Good, that means I’m officially stuck with this guy.

“There’s nothing beautiful in this world. It’s all fake. I better be off from living in such lies,” Those words from him.. I’m positively sure he’s planning to jump off anytime soon.

“I know it’s fake. The lights on the earth are the fake ones but the lights above are the real ones. But that’s how I see my life every day. Did you know that some of the stars that we see right now might have already gone by this time? The light travels from it source and finally after a hundred thousand of years, it reached to our eyes. They travel really far, waiting for us to praise its beauty even after the death of their source.” I point to the sky and we both end up staring at it for a couple of minutes.

His back seems to relax a little before it goes stiff again and force me to answer his question, “What are you trying to say?”

There’s something that make me realize. If he wants to end his life, he could just do it right away. Why does he keep on talking to me? It struck me right away, I know he wants me to safe him.

“There’s a famous proverb I heard from a Southeast Asian friend, she said that life is like a wheel. When your wheel of life moves, there are times when you are at the above and there will be times when you are at the bottom. This is why when you are at the best of whatever you’re doing; remember that there will be a day when you are going to fall. So prepare for it. But when you are always at the downside of whatever you are doing right now, bear with it and do your best to get yourself up to the top. So, if a person choose to end their life during the fall, it’s pitiful because the person will never get the reward of being on top of life that comes afterwards.”

“So you think, my life will be better if I continue on living?” The stranger is still in his position, doesn’t move even an inch from the first second I talk to him.

“Yes, and I’m willing to help out if you don’t mind. I live in this building and I don’t want to hear any ghost stories about a person who commit suicide at the rooftop. Hahaha.” Wait, another slip of my idiotic mouth! Did I just laugh? SOOYOUNG! THAT’S NOT EVEN FUNNY! WE’RE TALKING ABOUT THIS GUY’S LIFE AND DEATH!!

Gosh, I’m really bad at comforting people. Screw it! I think I’ll better get going. If he wants to die, just let him. If there’s CCTV here, there must be some people came here already and consult him not to jump. I’m the only one for the past 30 minutes and I think I’ll be fine if I left.

I am about to give up advising this person when he suddenly took one step behind.

“Should I die somewhere else?” He finally turns his whole body, facing me. The way he acts now, obviously asking me a second chance of his life. This is troublesome. Very troublesome indeed. I breath slowly try to calm myself. I need to get back to my sense. This person is trying to kill himself, he wants me to save him, and I’m refusing by giving up on him? Wow, Sooyoung, what has mom taught you before? I will definitely send to hell for this.

I watch him, wondering of what is the best method for me to help him. Should I keep him and help him get out off his problem? Should this be enough to get myself out of hell for the bad things I do in the past and in future? Mom always told me to do good to repay all the unconscious bad things I did….I should help him, shouldn’t I? Alright…

I take a huge courage to go near him, “Naahhh..”

“Huh? So it’s okay if I die here?” Those big round eyes of his are pleading for answers.

It took me some time to come up with the best answers, “It’s not okay, but I wish you to give some chances to your life before you kill yourself somewhere else.”

“I’ve given my life thousands of chances to recover. It never did change anything. I don’t believe in it anymore.” He looks away, avoiding my eyes. This guy is lying with himself. You could just jump right away but you are consulting with me whether to jump or not.

“That’s because I’m not there with you in those thousand chances. This is the a thousand and one, and I’m here. Don’t you want to give this unique extra advantage of your life another chance? I don’t know your problem. But I promise you. I’ll help you.”

“My real parents sold me to a gang and I’ve been raised by them for five years now. I don’t involve in violence because they said I’m too weak for that. Every night I worked in a bar as a dummy or camouflage for the police, not wanting their underground business to get caught. I worked hard every day to repay them the money they bought me. Now they told me, my parents sold my brother…” His eyes were teary and his mouth is hardly speaking any more words.

Softly, I tug his back shirt and pulled him away from the edge. He was sobbing uncontrollably as his hand just comfortably pulled my shoulder to rest his head. I let him. I pat his back gently while following the beat rhythm of slow ballad sad songs. It took him awhile before he realizes the awkwardness of two strangers hugging in the middle of the night- and plus, the stranger he just knew in less than an hour is relieving his sadness.

“Sorry.. I..” It is dark, but his embarrassment is clearly seen by the way he rubs the back of his neck.

“It’s okay. Want to come to my house? You’ll feel much better. At least for tonight. You really need to get some sleep. Sleep helps to ease your emotions. Trust me.” I pulled him towards the stairs.

“Is it okay? I mean, we don’t know each other..And you’re a girl. Staying in your house, even for a night..” I cut his hesitations with assuring that I’m living alone and he’ll be sleeping in my moms’ room. I convinced him again and again how I’m positively willing to help him. Jokingly, I told him I’m an angel sent by heaven.

Those persuasion I gave him, finally made his footsteps move again. I guide him to the stairs and to my apartment. The light from the hallway made both of us pause, observing each other figure. “So, this is how you look like.” I mumbled, realizing he is around my height when I’m on 5 centimeters heals, blonde curly short hair, have a fairer skin than I am, skinny with a very childish look. If he didn’t plan on killing himself just now, I won’t believe he’s a person who has gone through so much hardship. I must say, if he seduces a rich old lady, she might help him out by giving him fortune.

He gives me a weak smile before I unlocks and opens the doors of my apartment.

“Woaahhh.. What’s with the smell?” He uses his hand palm to cover his nose while using his other hand to hold me from further entering the living room.

“OH GOSH!!!! THE GAS! I FORGOT TO TURN THEM OFF!!!! Hey, help me out will you? Open all the windows and sliding doors. I’ll turn off the gas source.” I rush myself leaving him with quick actions releasing the smell away from my apartment. He’s indeed a good helper, before I could say anything; he already found the room fresher I kept in the cupboard at the living room. He keep on spraying the whole room and it doesn’t take too long until the smell really wears off.

I give him a warm thank you and show him the direction to my moms’ room. I stay at the door while watching him take a small tour around the room. He held up a picture of me with my parents and makes himself comfortable by sitting on the bed.

“Your mom is a very pretty lady. Same as your dad. You got good genes.” I chuckles upon hearing his compliments. Again I give him a warm thank you before asking him if he wants anything to drink. Being really polite, he told me anything is fine. So I end up making him a cup of hot chocolate. It's just something I learn from Harry Potter movie, which when he meet the dementors that happiness, chocolate is the best medicine to get his energy back.

I am almost done with the chocolate drinks when he appears behind me. I show him my hand, telling him to wait for his drinks. He makes himself at home as he pulls up the chair at the kitchen.

“My name is Luhan.” That struck me for a second, after such a long talk, we actually forgot to introduces ourselves. We laugh for another minute before I told him my name.

“Luhan, your name tells me you’re a Chinese. You don’t look like one.” He replies with another joke, “You don’t look like a Korean to me too.” I know he was referring to my skin tone, but there’s nothing to get mad of. 

We keep on continuing making jokes out of each other while waiting for the drinks to last, before preparing ourselves to bed.