My story begins on one of those days. The clouds hung like damp sheets in the dark sky, ugly and grey. Droplets clung to the ends of my umbrella as I wound my way through the throngs of expressionless business people that filled a rainy London at rush-hour. I wished I was going home too, like all of these other men and women. Carefree, thats what I wanted to be. I wanted to go home to a warm bed, and cuddle with a hot cup of cocoa and a good book. Any holiday time was way past due for me and my tired body. 

I'd just finished my day job at the nursery. Don't get me wrong, I love kids, and it had paid well enough for a while. But it was exhausting. I'd kept the job for over two years, but last year I had to pick up a second job in the later hours of the day at the local bar too. It paid for some of mum's medical costs, but I was always struggling to make ends meet. Nowadays, it felt like I hadn't slept properly for years. Catching two to three hours of sleep each morning wasn't nearly enough and the stress made me literally insomniac. The bags under my eyes were probably semi-permenant now, and I looked like a panda. I didn't even care anymore.

I sighed as I looked left and right before crossing the road. I missed the days when mum and I would mess around. When I was a broken hearted fifteen year old, finding out how untrustworthy teenage boys were, mum would buy nailpolish and ice-cream and we'd put face-masks on and paint each others nails and do up our hair for fun. I'd been an unplanned child when my parents were young, and after dad died mum did the best in raising me herself. She'd spend money on me first, every time. Mum had never been social or particularly the party-girl type, but she was always so pretty.

Even dad said she was the talk of the town when she went to teach English in the school in the small town in Korea that dad was born and raised in. He used to say I was even prettier than mum. I knew I wasn't and I wished she would always stay as beautiful as she'd always been. Her face had become gaunt because of the cancer. Her eyes were sunken in and her jawbones stood out. She had barely any meat left on her bones.The chemo was taking a lot out of her, but everytime I visited to bring her dinner, she'd smile and say she was feeling better and was going to get better soon so she'd be back home in no time. Even though we both knew she wouldn't. It broke my heart to watch her put on a brave face for me.

As I reached the other side of the pedestrian crossing, I nearly collided with a girl running with her phone held in the air, bringing me rudely out of my thoughts.

"What the hell!" I yelled at her. "You didn't even apologise, you stupid b-"

I was cut off whe she completely ignored me and screamed at the top of her voice, "Oppa! Nickhun Oppa! 2pm! Look here!"

I had been so engrossed in my own thoughts that I hadn't realised a crowd of screaming fans had gathered in front of the concert venue that I usually passed on my way to the hospital. Most other bystanders avoided the people, but I wasn't like most other bystanders. My eyes widened in surprise. 2pm was touring in London!

My dad had been an avid musician, and music had been my only link to him and helped me deal with the greif of losing a parent from a young age. I'd treasured it. Now my guitar lay in a dark corner of my room covered in dust, and my 2pm posters were falling off a bedroom wall that I rarely looked at. Life had got so busy that all the albums and picture scrapbooks I'd made of 2pm were nearly forgotten. I'd lost track of them, so it was hardly surprising that I hadn't known that they were in my hometown.

I craned my neck to catch a glance, but they were surrounded. They were really popular internationally, and London is so multicultural, so it was expected. I debated for a moment whether to join the rush of people or be realistic about the low chances of actually meeting them, and be on my way. But what if I could just see them. A glance of Nickhun would be enough, I don't need to meet him. This was a one in a million opportunity! Who would have guessed they'd be leaving their venue exactly at the time I was passing? And if I didnt get a glimpse now, I probably won't ever get the chance again.

Some men started started creating a barrier so the fans would stay off the road. I realised the boys were going to cross the road and the bariers were to stop the girls from taking pictures on the road. So I walked back across the road and waited, leaning against the wall of a cafe on the corner, waiting for them to emerge from the throngs of stupidly screaming girls. I figured that this was a more effective way of getting to see them, albeit from a distance, rather than screaming for them to look at me, fighting against other girls while getting hurt, and annoying them by shoving my phone in their faces. Not that I had a phone. It kept getting cut because I couldn't pay the bill so I got rid of it.

As I stood, I felt someone standing close behind me around the corner. I made to turn, but before I could, I found my bag being ripped from my arm. I caught sight of a kid barely in his teens, his face shadowed by his wet hoodie and his head lowered as he made off with all the cash I had on me and my food.

"Hey!" I shouted in surprise and anger, uselesly trying to grab at him. He ran across the road, heading for the crowd, and I knew if he reached it, he would be impossible to find so I ran towards him, pushing past the people waitin at the lights. I was stupid not to look either way for cars. I thought, naively, that because the mugger had made his way across safely without looking, and was already disappearing from view, I would make it across too.

I didn't see the car hurtling towards me until I heard the blaring horn. I saw it from the corner of my eye and my head reeled with horror. Bizarrely, I was still watching the kid get away with my bag and it was still annoying me more than the fact that I was about to get hurt. I closed my eyes as I realised the car would hit me and the air left my lungs as I gasped, but surprisingly, the impact came from a different direction. I fell onto the road, not because I'd been hit by a car, but because a person pushed me.

The last thing I heard was the distinct sound of someone else's body colliding with metal as tyres screeched on the rain-drenched road, and sreams of horror. I guess the fangirls had to witness whoever it was getting hurt end up in a bloody mess on the road. I felt relief that I would be ok, gratefulness for the person who saved me, and also guilt that they'd end up in a worse position than me. I had landed awkwardly on one leg and could feel the pain shooting up from my knee. The back of my head had hit the edge of the curb and I out, but not before I had the realsation that I had been saved from death by a stranger that might not survive.