dau no longer enjoys the silence of the road to and from his family’s ranch.
not since after the fire he doesn’t — what used to give him comfort and solitude from the bustle of downtown, away from all the town gossip and pitiful gazes and empty condolences over his family’s losses only made him feel even more isolated. the road was a long one, turning from smooth pavement to uneven gravel as soon as the flatland turned to hills that fostered nothing in sight except for the kim family’s ranch only a few more meters ahead.
from the road and over the wooden fences was a timber structure that once resembled something of a barn. it pained him to look at it for too long now — what once was a place he’d visited so often was now something that was burned to its core and flatlined. the barn hadn’t been the only place the fire spread to, but it clearly was where it began. it was a shame for anybody in town to behold. the only thing dau had to be thankful about was that their ranch was such a ways out of yunhwa that unless somebody came looking for it, nobody could see the destruction unless they’d wanted to.
(and he often wondered just how it’d all happened in the first place.)
the sound of car tires struggling against the dirt road immediately turned dau’s attention southward. apart from other ranchers nearby, who more often than not would simply come on horseback, there wasn’t anybody in the ranch’s vicinity that normally rode automobiles on the backroads. dau’s family’s truck was a tank, built to withstand even driving on the off roads in four wheel drive. tires having this much trouble were certainly the sign of a car — and driver — who definitely weren’t from around here.
dau doesn’t have to take himself on horseback too far down the slope of the road into town to see a female on the side of the dirt road. he could see the outline of large cases of luggage surrounding her on both sides, an all tell sign that she definitely didn’t intend to be left here.
he approaches her with a smile, the shade from his straw hat shielding himself well from the open sun; she, on the other hand, the poor doll, was left with nothing. “need any help?” he asks, disembarking from the horse’s saddle and eyeing the mighty large suitcases that dau could just tell weighed far more than she did. “those bags of yours lookin’ pretty heavy.”
it’s obvious that from wherever this girl had come from — the city, probably, as indicated by just how polished and well dressed she looked against the contrasting empty countryside, that she’d found herself in the wrong spot. dau invites himself to reach for one of the suitcase handles and test the weight of one of her bags: not as bad as he’d assumed, surprisingly. he looks at her again, much closer this time, and sees she’s actually quite a sight. a city girl, clearly, but stunning nonetheless. he clears his throat in an attempt to shake the thought. “where ‘ya tryna’ go?”
