An Act of Persuasion; (Luka & Youngjae)
Nothing was familiar. It was like the day when Youngjae had first landed on Earth and had absolutely no idea where he was, what he was doing and how he was going to survive. The walls of the buildings here were scarred with vulgar words in the gaudiest colours, the paint still wet and still corroding Youngjae’s sense of smell. There were unidentifiable dark patches on the ground, wounds carved by the inhabitants—or perhaps, as Youngjae skirted around a streak of red, the inhabitants instead were wounded. It was dark, despite the sun still not having set yet, as if the light had forsaken these narrow alleyways, the buildings clamouring together in an act of safety in numbers.
Maybe he shouldn’t have fallen asleep on the bus, but he did, and he had thought that this was the most direct route back home, but now he didn’t. He stared at the unfamiliar surroundings, a sense of dread pawing at his insides as he realised, well, he was truly and utterly lost. He couldn’t see the sun from which he could calculate a fairly northerly direction, nor had the stars risen yet. He was in a liminal space between light and dark, a place where shadows blended together into one single tone and suffocated the senses. He did the only thing he could and continued to place one foot in front of the other, blindly turning corners.
He rounded a corner, and thought there was a darker shade to the monotone grey. As he approached, the outline condensed and sharpened, forming a figure in the alleyway. Almost with a sense of relief (despite the dread that had now sat up fully alert and ears pricked), Youngjae trotted up to the other.
“Excuse me,” he gave an uncertain smile at the stranger. “Could you tell me the way to the nearest main road?” He wasn’t about to tell the other where ‘home’ lay, he decided that it would be simple enough to find a main road and navigate from there.