A tall man came out of the car. His silhouette immediately popped out as soon as the car halted roughly at the exact moment when I lost my balance. I can’t see him clearly since my contacts seemed to be a little bit jammed up when I fell. I tried my best to blink and simultaneously roll my eyeballs as I get it back to place.

The man continued walking towards my direction. I’m glad that the lights of the bus were still fully functional as I get to see my glint of hope. Wearing a distinct white long sleeve shirt beneath a leather jacket I can see his well-maintained body structure. From a distance I can already see his sense of composure and his aura which magnifies protection. His footsteps are inaudible even if I can see him hurriedly planting them on the ground while he ran as fast as he could to aid me with my clumsiness. His big strong hands grabbed me with care as soon as he reached the spot where I fell and with a hoarse voice he asked.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt somewhere? Oh! You cut your elbow. You’re bleeding! Let me take you to the hospital.”

I am still shocked with my fall but I am more surprised on how he spoke with such form of concern. I can tell by the tone of his voice. He sounded worried sick about it and I am totally puzzled until I am able to regain my sense of speech.

“Wait!” I exclaimed and tried to withdraw my arms from his grip as I gave him a very perplexed look.

He was flustered for a while. He looked blankly at me and suddenly flushed red. I frowned as I looked at him who’s now sheepishly smiling at me with absolute embarrassment.

“You see Kris, your bus stopped even before it can reach Sylfaen because something went wrong with the engine. It is a good thing that it was only meters away from our town. As soon as the driver reported about it, passengers transferred on the spare vehicle and you were left here because they didn’t notice you were still sleeping at the back. Uncle Haru looked for you because he said you had his snapback and he needs it back.” He said quickly.

I can’t be mistaken. I heard him say my name. NO, technically he addressed me by my nickname. I stared at him struck frozen and still can’t believe the fact that this is really happening. He is one of them. I lost my ability to blink as I surveyed his perfect face. His puppy hair is a good compliment for his gorgeous physic. It concealed his masculinity a bit for him not to appear too overwhelming. If only he’s not wearing those mushy pyjama pants.

He crossed his long legs awkwardly as soon as he noticed me watching his fashion sense. It is no big deal at all. From my personal point of view, he can run all over the town just wearing a garbage bag and will still manage to look good even so. His face, though handsome has a comic impression that made me chuckle as soon I caught him looking at me with a puzzled face.

 “Kris, I think we should go now. I should remind you that you are bleeding and it is getting late.” He is firm with his words yet still warm like an older brother.

I nodded and he rushed inside the bus to take all my belongings that I left and escorted me readily to the police car. He even fastened my seatbelt for me since I cut my elbow pretty deep. Now I can feel that gush of pain. As I twitched to find a more comfortable position, he adjusted the warmer and he helped me lean my chair too.

While I am looking at him oddly, he let go in an instant and faced to the opposite direction. With a shy voice he stuttered as he spoke,

“I’m.. I am this town’s Sheriff. Sorry for my late introduction. I got distracted when I saw you fell. I’m Junjin by the way. It’s been a long time. I guess it’s hard for you to remember.”

The engines of the car came to life as he stepped on the gasoline and we started moving forward swiftly.

“Nice to meet you Junjin.” I muttered. I still can’t believe I’ll meet one of them as soon as I get here. This is a very peculiar coincidence. Strange.

Silence filled the car as we went to our destination. It is too awkward for me to start a conversation. And all of a sudden..

“We will go to the hospital first. I’ll feel much better to see you treated before I take you to your Villa.” He said with a serious voice and his eyes full of worry.

“Nana will get worried too if she was here. I’ll take full responsibility until you get home.” And then he let out a deep sigh and bit his thumbnail reflexively showing a sign of tension in his eyes.

I am not sure how to react. It’s our first meeting but why do I feel so secure around him? Nana? He called my grandmother Nana? My mind shrieked with questions why and how he will call her the same way that I did. I would like to speculate more but it was written on my grandma’s condition that I cannot ask them about this sort of stuff. This is killing me. I am only given the right to gather information that they will voluntarily give. Annoying. I’m wondering how many more I’ll meet as I spend my whole month here trying to figure out what brought me here in the first place.

“Hey! Loosen up a bit. What’s with that expression? Does it hurt?” he asked. I didn’t notice I was frowning too much.

“Oh, I’m sorry to bother you. Don’t worry about me. No, it’s not my wound. The pain is bearable. I’m just.. I’m just lost right now and confused.” I said to him. This is almost the longest line that I said starting this morning until now.

He laughed at me. I didn’t know why it sounded so relieving. I smiled too. The awkwardness was erased and he continued.

“If I was on your shoes, I think I will feel the same way. Rather than being confused I’ll be paranoid. Hahaha! I know Nana is full of wits on this kind of thing but I never imagined she will ask you to be in this mission. But it’s a good thing to see you again. If you just know how much we missed you.” Now his eyes are full of excitement. I can tell he is really happy; tears are already swimming on the edge of his eyes but won’t fall down because he is trying not to let them escape.

Nana already told me about the fact that they know me already. But I can’t understand how these people will miss me even if I can’t even remember a single moment with them. Since when did we know each other? I’m not sure but I will review Nana’s instructions later. This is too much for the day.

It was then when I noticed lights pinned to the darkness on a blurry distance. We are finally entering the town where I will be exiled for a vacation. As we enter the ark structure saying “WELCOME to SYLFAEN” I got sudden chills – everything’s going to start now. I am still not sure if can make it but I will do my best to find out what Nana’s so crazy about this whole deal of staying here.

“Beautiful isn’t it? It looks like stars from here. We only have a very small population in this town unlike in the city where you are from. Almost all of the people know each other. We live a very simple life here.” He said with such satisfaction in his voice.

Junjin made our conversation naturally adaptable. He also told me some good to know information about the town such as the changes that happened, the new establishments and even gave me a map personally drawn by him.

“I know for a fact that you have no sense of direction. I made this for you so you won’t have a hard time identifying which is right or left. Here take it.” he said as he tapped on the steering wheel with teasing eyes.

I looked back at him full of disbelief over what he just said and tried to control my expression. My heart thumps crazily but I can manage. I should. The thing that he just said – it is not something as obvious as a birthmark. Even my secretary in the office does not know about that because I hide it with so much care. It is one of my hidden weaknesses.

I darted my focus on the map to avoid making a fool out of myself. I jerked with laughter when I realized that it looked like more of a scribble than a map but he did his best on putting the important places where I can get my commodities. He knew I was coming. His handsome face is still unbelievably joyful like a kid. With his husky voice he tried to explain one by one what are the dos and don’ts in Sylfaen and he will stutter from time to time and will just recover with a very contagious laughter.

I had a good time. One of the longest 30 minutes of my life, thanks to him. I begin to feel that it wasn’t a bad idea at all to take the risks from Nana’s game. If everyone is as warm as this person, the cold weather will totally be overpowered. I didn’t even notice that we are already in front of the town’s mini hospital. Blue led lights drew its name making it visible at the top of a dark void saying: SYLFAEN Hospital.

“We’re here. Let’s go inside.” He reached out to me again to assist me in removing my seatbelt. In no time he was out of the sedan and appeared right in front of my side to open the door for me.

He called out the nurse to assist me and told me that he will be out for a minute to check something. The nurse asked me to sit first on the waiting area with a gentle voice and called the doctor in a hurry. It’s not a very huge hospital at all. Like what Junjin said, it’s not a big town to begin with.