It wasn't easy to say the least, trying to climb up about three meters on unsteady rocks. Not only was it hard to balance on them, but they were also slick with some kind of liquid. Suho, believed it to be a ruptured water line, or at least the lack of smell was leading him to hope that. If it was something else more toxic...well he didn't want to think about that.

He had climbed up first, testing which rocks would hold the weight of a human better, trial and error causing him to fall down a few times. Asia had insisted that she give it a try, but Suho deterred her, convincing her that it would be safer if he went up first. The sheer amount of times his foot misstep and he banged some part of his body on the way down, convinced Asia enough that it was safer for her on the ground.

It took another five times before Suho's fingers gripped the top of the wall. He only needed to land one more solid step before he could successfully pull himself out of the hole. He chanced a glance down below, catching sight of Asia's hopeful face. His hair was sticking to his face with sweat, running the offending liquid into his eyes. He rubbed a dusty, blood clotted, hand across his eyes, pushing the loose strands of hair off his forehead.

His left leg landed on one steady rock, pushing himself up and over onto the floor inside of the store. What he saw above knocked him off balance. The complete upper part of the stores walls had crumbled, showcasing the outside to be as devastated a mess as the hole he climbed out of. The air left his lungs, frame frozen at the sight of nothingness. The street lights, the people, the buildings, the road...it was all destroyed. Nothing was the same as it was when he first entered the store, it looked as if a demolition crew came through. But Suho knew it was much deeper than that, and that he was as fortunate as anyone to still be alive.

"Suho!" Asia shouted up at him. This was her fifth time calling for him, she was beginning to wonder if, if he had left her. Mentally she was praying that he hadn't, she didn't want to face the challenge of survival on her own.

"Suho!" She shouted again, silence following as usual. She shook her head, hair bouncing around her face, spreading dust in front of her. She had to climb out, with or without him. Unfortunately, it seemed that it would be without him.

The rocks were still slippery, but she had a good memory, allowing her to climb place for place that Suho did. She had made it mid-way up, before a familiar face showed itself. The sheer relief she felt at his face was unreasonable, but she was thankful he hadn't left her. Especially when he reached down his hand to help her up. She climbed two more steps before extending her hand to grab for him, thankful that his grip was secure.

Upon climbing over out of the deep hole, she had paused, completely astounded at the sight in front of her. The reaction that overcame her body was worse than Suho as tears immediately sprang to her eyes. This was her neighborhood, where she worked and lived, but before her was nothing but utter destruction. Suho didn't know how to respond to her sudden sobs, they almost scared him. He was expecting her to be shocked, as he was originally. But he didn't calculate that this was her home, she had a stronger bond to the place than he did.

He stooped down next to her, placing a strained hand on her shoulder, "Should we go look for your family?"

It was the only offer he could give, because he knew that would be the first thing he would be interested in doing if he were in South Korea. But having a friend come along would make it easier. True, he was no friend to the sales lady, but he seemed to be the only other person around that was breathing.

Asia wiped at her tears as she shook her head, no. Quietly, she looked to the man next to her, getting her first good look at him since the earthquake ended. He looked just as distressed as she felt, his pale skin shining through the layer of dust that was clinging to him. His thick eyebrows slanted in worry, as he made a questioning face at her answer in confusion, pink lips contorting in a pout.

"My family lives in Georgia," she started, seeing that Suho was having a hard time comprehending. "They live in the south of America, another place. They don't live in San Francisco."

"Oh," he started, shaking his head in understanding. "Then, why are you here?"

He wasn't sure why he asked that, it was none of his business, really. But he didn't understand why she would be one place where her parents were not.

"I attend university here," she mumbled, eyes glazing over at her surroundings. "But I want to go home now."

Tears fell from her eyes again, it was like she couldn't control them, despite her being too old to cry over something like going home when she knew she physically couldn't.

"You and me too," Suho mumbled with a slight disparaging smile on his face. "We should find an authority. You know, for safety."

She looked to him again, just noticing his accent and unsure way of speaking, "Where are you from?"

He gave another smile more on the embarrassed side, "South Korea. I'm still learning how to speak English better."

"You're really good already," She smiled back, standing to her feet. She glanced around at the rubble of a store she used to work in, letting out a sigh of air. She walked to the crumbled wall, stepping outside only to be further shocked.

It looked like a desert wasteland. Not a soul was around, and not a thing was standing securely.

"We need to find an evacuation route," Asia started forward. "But I don't know where I am going."

Suho's eyes widened comically, "What do you mean? You live here, you should know better than me! I'm a tourist!"

She turned to give him a worried look, "I've only lived out here long enough to know how to get to my university, this job, and my apartment without using GPS. I'm sorry you got trapped with me."

"No, no, no, don't be sorry," Suho, jogged to catch up with her retreating form, hand grabbing at her forearm. "Look, I'm just scared, ignore me. I'm just, I, I don't know." He hung his head, fingers still tight around her thin arm.

Her eyes gazed up at him, she could see he was genuine. The insecurities going through his head must have been grand, considering that they both were new to San Francisco, but he was new to America as a whole.

"Look, Suho. I don't have my phone, I don't know where it is. And I figure your service doesn't work here without WIFI. So I can't GPS my way out of here. Our best bet is to find a map, and follow the evacuation route outlined on it."

He shook his head up and down as she spoke, thankful that those drooling English classes paid off. She would understand the map much better than he would anyway, so it seemed her plan could work in the best interest for both of them.

They resumed their walk down the abandoned street, trash flying in the wind pass them. It was ridiculous how beautiful it felt outside with all the distress around them. The first few blocks were spent in silence, the view around them distracting enough to keep them quiet.

That is, until Suho caught a reflection of himself in a shattered window, "I look awful," he mumbled, wiping at the dirt on his face, and running his hands through his hair. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Asia gave a snort of laughter, "I'm pretty sure I could ask you the same thing."

Her own black curls were filled with dust that she gave up on trying to get out, since it only polluted her breathing air. Suho, only side eyed her quickly, continuing to fluff his hair. She gave another laugh at his awkward looks, noticing that he was rather handsome with his innocent features, and nicely cut hair.

"Someone is obviously obsessed with their looks," she joked, turning to walk away from the shattered window. He looked at her retreating frame in shock, before scurrying off behind her, hands running over his thin cotton shirt and jeans to run the dust off.

"I'm not obsessed, I just looked...crazy?" he mumbled unsure of his word choice. "You can dust your hair," he started, reaching up to the curls on top her head, not expecting the buoyancy of her hair under his fingers. His eyes stretched comically wide, snatching his hand away from her hair and letting out an uncomfortable chuckle.

"Sorry," he apologized, bowing slightly.

She gave him a sparring look, completely used to the reaction of people, foreign or not, when it came to her hair. The side eyed glances Suho kept giving her, however, she was not expecting. She gave him a straightforward stare, opting him to spit out whatever it was he so obviously wanted to say.

"Your hair," he paused, tilting his head at an angle of expressed confusion. "It's like Lion's mane. So big."

He ended his statement with his hands in the air, making a circular gesture around his own head to demonstrate the veracity of her curls.

"Well," she smiled, nodding her head at his blunt statement. She was at a complete loss for words, so she settled with a, "thank you?"

"Never seen hair so big," he continued, a silly smile contorting his mouth, while shooting her a thumbs up in approval.

"It's...yeah," she ended dumbly, an insecure hand reaching up to pat her dusty hair.

They continued on their way, a comfortable silence falling around them. Suho felt lighter after engaging in a conversation about something other than the disaster surrounding them. The more they walked, the more they heard sirens, signaling that they were closer to people at least. That would help them more, even though they have yet to find a map that would help them further.

Taking a turn on the next street, a fire truck and an ambulance was spotted, doing the duty EMT's were supposed to do. Something Asia was not, in the slightest, envious of. Right ahead they could see a group of people walking, directed by police officers on either side of the street. As they made their way towards the crowd, they both noted the sheer amount of abandoned cars along the roadway, some of which that were still . The street they were walking up, didn't sport any obvious signs of an earthquake, the ground wasn't disastrously cracked, and the buildings weren't falling down, so Suho assumed that they may have finally reached safety.

He could feel his muscles relaxing - initially not knowing they were tensed - as they got closer to the crowd of people. Maybe, he could make his way to the airport and catch an emergency flight home. Asia could do the same and go back to her family, both of them would be safely away from California and the dread it's natural disaster brought to two non-natives.

"Maybe, if we follow the crowd, we will be led to help centers," Suho mumbled to Asia, his eyes still alert to his surroundings. She had given him a look, one he couldn't read, but he could tell she wasn't exactly on board with his idea. There was no reason, however, she shouldn't agree. It was the most logical decision, as a matter of fact, Suho was only stating the obvious.

"I hate following the crowd," she soon muttered in return. "Something about it just doesn't sit right with me."

Suho gave an indignant scoff, not be