— ambivalence; j&j.
@theseelenine
The inexorable cold which swept across the nation on the dreadful night served nothing more than a disturbance, where the breeze pierced through the veins of nightwalkers, leaving them momentarily paralyzed. The contrast in temperature during day and night didn’t help the ill female either, only worsening as she took a step out of her house to grab some medicine that she ran out of at a nearby twenty four hours pharmacy. Her fragile frame was wrapped in thick wool clothing and coats, and her footsteps were hurried yet reluctant, slightly regretful to be out by herself after experiencing the cold and acknowledging how remote the residential area was at night. It was inevitable, to be feeling a sense of fear at that rare sight.
It hadn’t been long since Jieun found herself strolling around the pharmacy as an opportunity to hibernate from the cold, and before she knew she was then back on the streets. A relief, she mused in silence, that the merciless breeze must have went to the other direction. Taking a step at a time, her eyes were fixated on the pale moon hanging in the dark sky, dimly conscious that she was rarely in the present moment at that point of time. Drifting in and out of her reflections of the day, she hadn’t notice that she had turned off and wandered off to a road that was foreign to her, until the sound where a gush of wind meets the plastic bag of a stranger behind her was audible. Qualms and apprehension was building up inside her as she payed attention to the hustling footsteps that was approaching, attempting to bury the curiosity that made her wanted to take a glance behind. Scurrying without second thoughts, she passed several dimly lit lamp posts to arrive at a dead end, before navigating herself to the north-east direction where her eyes previously landed on a shadow casted at the edge of a wall. It was an instinctive move, and as much as it was ostensible for her to fear someone who was probably just a mere stranger, scenarios of previous stalker encounters she had at the peak of her career flashed into mind, letting the once felt anxiety take over.
Taking brief quick glances towards the side without exposing her face to the “stalker”, she picked up her pace and went towards the shadow, only to be greeted by a man in full black, where his back was the only thing visible at a distance, her vision muddled by the blending of the dark and the male. Impulsively, she reached out of the male’s frame to tug on his coat, eyes directed to the back still. “Please, help,” A pant and a murmur was all that it takes, to put her in a forthcoming unrest that she was oblivious to at that instant.