Light bled from the curtains and shined onto my face. I groaned and rubbed my eyes. I stretched, getting the tension out of my muscles.

What time is it even? Normally, a building being this light in the fall means around 9 or 10. If I remember correctly, Eunkyung woke up at around 5. I brushed my teeth and dragged myself to the kitchen. 

Eunkyung was cleaning the table while An Hwan was making breakfast. Eunkyung noticed I entered the kitchen.

“Hm? Good morning!” Eunkyung called.

I glanced at her. Her hair was combed, which is pretty unusual unless I just woke up super late. She also had changed her clothes to gray shorts and a lime-green t-shirt. 

“Good morning,” Hwan added. “Breakfast will be ready in a couple of minutes so take a seat.”

“Good morning guys,” I said as I made my way to the table and sat on the chairs. Eunkyung took a seat across from me. 

Hwan brought to the table some yogurt, hard-boiled eggs, and two cups of milk.

“Don’t tell me you want coffee. Milk is better for your age. Unless you’re lactose intolerant, you’re going to have to drink the milk.”

“I don’t have a problem with milk. I drink milk daily. It has vitamin D, which is very good for your bones,” I said with a shrug.

Hwan took a seat next to me.

“Well guys, let’s get eating,” he said, with an enthusiastic grin.

After gobbling my breakfast, and chugging down my glass of milk, my stomach filled. 

I wiped my mouth with a nearby napkin.

“Thanks, Hwan, for the breakfast.”

“No problem.”

Once I and Eunkyung ate breakfast, Hwan packaged the breakfast and returned the rest to the fridge. 

“So, are you guys fully recovered? Like, physically? Does it still hurt anywhere?” Hwan asked. 

“Just a little. My ribs are bruised, but I think they’ll probably go away soon.”

“What about you, Eunkyung?” he asked, glancing at her.

Eunkyung also shook her head.

“I’m fully healed and I’m not tired!” 

“I’m glad to hear that,” Hwan said with a wide grin.

I couldn’t help but laugh at their enthusiasm. It’s amazing how fast we recovered from what can seem like a traumatic event so quickly. Are these the benefit of being with others? The support and encouragement that we share… maybe it’s one of the biggest advantages of working with others.

“Well, I think you guys should be on your way now. I’m going to be moving to another city because my job takes me there. I’ll give you guys my phone number in case of an emergency, or if you guys are going to engage with anything dangerous. Try not to do anything irrational.”

Hwan left the living room to get his phone from his bedroom. 

Just like that? It’s a bit hard to believe that after all of this, we’ll just have to part ways. Before the BHK attack, Eunkyung and I planned to travel to Busan, the other end of South Korea. Pretty far away, meaning I’ll probably have to quit or drop my classes. The plan was to stay there for a month or so. I was kind of hoping that he’ll ask if he could join us in our search. 

“Maybe you should ask him?” my inner voice echoed.

Ask him? If he didn’t want to be included in any more trouble, I would be annoying the hell out of him. It’s also asking too much from him. My inside panicked a bit. I really wished that he would come with us, but at the same time, I’m afraid to. As I glanced around the room trying to think of a solution, I noticed Eunkyung biting her lips. The look in her eyes… it seemed as if she lost a puppy. It wasn’t that difficult to infer that she also didn’t want to leave Hwan.

When An Hwan entered the room, the fear of affecting him seemed to completely vanish. 

“My phone number i-”

“Hwan,” I boldly said.

My words seemed to startle him.

“U-Uh yeah? What?” he said, seeming a little bit confused.

“If it isn’t too much of an inconvenience, would you mind joining our team to hunt BHK? Like…coming with us to Busan for a while  to investigate BHK a bit more??” 

I felt stupid asking the question, as the answer was probably no. In the corner of my eyes, I could see Eunkyung’s shocked face. She was no longer biting her lips and her eyes seemed to light up a tiny bit.

Please say yes, please say yes, my inside voice screamed.

He stared at my face, his eyes locked on my eyes. I noticed his black bangs covering his forehead. 

He let out a laugh.

“You scared me for a while. I was hoping that you’d ask me that question sometimes. I was panicking inside about what I would do if you never asked me. That’s why I told you about my plans. You guys are really motivated to hunt BHK. I’ll do my best to help.”

The nerves inside me calmed down and I noticed Eunkyung’s slight smile in the corner. 

I smiled, unable to hide my happiness.

“Thanks, Hwan.”

He shoved his phone back into his pocket.

“Well, I guess I’m going to get my bags packed. Last night, I was thinking about what I would bring with me. I’ll have to call my company and tell them I’m quitting. I’ll just leave the house here I guess. I’m going to pack up my stuff. We can stop by your houses to pick up your guys’ stuff. Meet me by my car,” he said, waving to us.

After he walked off, I noticed Eunkyung smiling at me. 

“Thank you for doing that, Youngjae. I was going to ask him, but was too nervous to ask.”

She seemed much happier as she gave me a warm smile.

I could feel my cheeks start to heat up. For some reason, her smile seemed to be one of the best praises.

I cleared my throat and counted to 3, trying not to become red enough for her to notice.

“Let's make our way to the car now,” I suggested.

She nodded.

We made our way to Hwan’s Honda car. To my surprise, Hwan came out quite early. He must’ve just thrown everything in his bag, or his bag simply came prepared. 

“Well, it’s probably going to be quite a long time before we’re able to depart. Where are we heading, anyway?” Hwan asked.

“Busan, Haeundae-gu” Eunkyung replied, without hesitation. She glanced at me, waiting for my approval. I nodded.

“Haeundaegu… alright. That makes sense. The most recent ones happened near that place.”

He threw his baggage into his trunk.

The rest of the day was messy. I realized when I got into the car that it was 12:01, meaning I probably ate at around 10:20. We had 11 hours to get the rest of our travel bags, as well as get things settled out with my school, Eunkyung’s part-time, and Hwan’s job. We started with Hwan’s police officer job. He was given the choice to either move with them and continue working, or they pay him the severance pay and he quits. Hwan hasn’t made the decision yet, so his job didn’t take as much time as I expected. He just simply made a phone call and informed the police that he was going to take the severance pay and quit. Way simpler than I thought.

It concerned me what he would do after we returned, but he told me not to worry, as he’ll find something once they return. I decided to take his word for it.

Next, was my school. Since it was the middle of the school year, it is much harder to cancel them. When we arrived at the school, I realized that there was an accident at our school. Someone accidentally ignited a fire and nearly burned down a department. So, the school was canceled for a month or so. Unfortunately, that means my next summer break will be super short, but it did mean that I don’t have to worry about much. Amazing, I don’t even have to do that much work.

Of the three of us, Eunkyung probably had the most work. She had to fill out 4 pages of paperwork. So in the end, it looks like the least predicted work had the most work. Kind of interesting.

All that took us five hours. We were pretty distracted by all the things we had to do like I had to gather a bunch of my supplies, and Eunkyung had to take a quick visit to her house to gather her supplies as well. So distracted that we forgot about lunch. I didn’t realize my stomach was growling until we were about to depart for Busan.

“I’m kind of hungry,”  I said.

In the car, I was sitting in the shotgun seat. Hwan was driving since neither Eunkyung nor I knew how to drive. Eunkyung sat in the back seat, which she argues is better than the shotgun seat because you get much more room back there than a single seat. 

“Now that you mention it, I’m kind of feeling hungry too,” Eunkyung replied.

“I’m hungry too. We should probably get something to eat before we leave for Busan.”

Hwan stopped the car at a gas station. 

“You two should go in and get yourselves some food. I’ll refill my gas and I’ll be waiting for you guys in the car.”

“Alright, Hwan,” I said, pushing open my car door and exiting. “See you later.”