"Even if it is a little bit of warmth, give it to me so that I can treasure it. I am already frozen and endlessly cold."

NELL < Stay > 

»»————-　　————-««

With heavy footsteps, Yeseul marches her way uphill, dizzy with the sun glaring above her head.

Outside her apartment building, she takes a moment to collect her breath, silently cursing her absent-mindedness. The late night alcohol in her system has been getting in the way of her usually systematic thought process in the morning. 

Stepping into the ground floor of the tiny lobby, a familiar, raspy voice echoes from above the stairway.

Yeseul freezes in her Ted Baker embroidered pumps. 

"As for the washer, there's a laundry right across the street. To get a ten percent discount for every visit, you just need to leave a good review for our agency on the app."

Of all the days to leave her thumb drive behind, it has to be a day where granny landlady is visiting, presumably with a new tenant. Granted, it is weirdly comforting to find the new tenant non-immune to granny landlady's unchanging tactics, her clouded mind darts to the date of the month. She flinches when she realizes she's two days late on her rent.

The lines between her brows wrinkle in nuisance. 

Not wanting to cause a scene, Yeseul backpedals in stifling silence. Stepping out into broad daylight, she assesses her options urgently. A narrow space on the right side of the building, housing nothing more than a sturdy lamp post, calls out to her. Taking advantage of the shadowless noon, she keeps out of sight with her back against it, wiggling her concealed toes anxiously. 

As beads of sweat begin to form along her temples, approaching footsteps become increasingly loud and clear. She holds her breath, waiting impatiently for granny landlady and her client to take their leave. 

"Shall I carry you on my back, haelmoni?"

A male with a light, slightly nasal speaking voice brings up the question, smoothly, out of nowhere. It makes the elder laugh, while the crossed-arm woman behind the lamp post lets out a condescending sneer. 

"If it's not too troublesome... Aigoo!"

Yeseul imagines the landlady grinning like a Cheshire cat as the younger man piggybacks her, down the hill, back to her office. But most of all, she imagines the fraudulent smile of the younger man who is doing everything in his power to win the landlady's heart and concession. 

She rolls her eyes in part disgust, part disapproval. 

When the street returns to quietness and tranquility, Yeseul comes out of hiding, pacing herself as she climbs up the stairway. Her pumps clicks and clacks confidently against the cement of the cold floor, until she comes face to face with the door of her unit. 

Inside her residence, Bomi, with her flat body right below the curtain's tail, meows at her sudden visit. Yeseul rushes over for a quick pet on her head, all the while with eyes trained on the kitchen table.

With a vague memory of where her thumbdrive might be, Yeseul scrambles high and low for the small electronic stick. She sticks her head under the table, under the chairs, waving her lighted phone across the ground. She sweeps her hand across the kitchen sink, opens and closes the refrigerator door, scans the cat food area. The drive is no where in sight.

Finding no trace of luck across her living area, she opens the chest of drawers in her bedroom. Pressed for time, her hand swipes across the stored items sloppily.

"Just where can you be?!" She lets out a frantic yelp as minutes pass, squirming on her feet.

The feline, now quietly sitting at the foot on her bedroom door, meows indifferently in response. 

"Not now, Bomi...," Yeseul breathes, registering the breathlessness in her voice. Turning to Bomi with furrowed brows, her state of over-concentration scares off the cat unintentionally. 

Bomi rolls her face away from Yeseul's agitated glare, lying flatly on her back with her paws up in the air. In a rare display of playfulness by the usually high-strung cat, Bomi's stomach protrudes sharply, and Yeseul swears she could see a tiny stick, resembling the shape of...

"Oh my god, no. No, no, no, no.... this isn't happening right now," Yeseul covers her widened mouth, her voice shrinking by the end of her sentence.

Glancing down at her watch, she sees that it's fifteen minutes past twelve. She cannot afford to waste any more time with her approaching afternoon meeting. Moving closer to her cat, Bomi's moist eyes indicate that she is just as troubled as her master. 

As much as Yeseul would like to trash it out on Bomi, she knows she shouldn't have misplaced her things so carelessly in the first place.

"Bomi," With knees bent, Yeseul sighs pensively as she tickles Bomi's distressed chin, "I think we need to get you to the doctor's..."

The mere mention of the doctor, however, causes the cat to jump out of Yeseul's hold, running back into her dark lair under the curtains. Her defensive actions remind Yeseul that she doesn't exactly have the fondest memory of the place where she was stabbed with a long and sharp needle.

"Bomi, they won't hurt you, I promise," Yeseul hums, trying not to show the trembling on her lower lips. 

Burning with a need to get her cat to the doctor's, both for the cat's safety and the retrieval of her work, she will make up a story if she has to. 

Packing her cross-body bag and the eco-friendly pet carrier bag, Yeseul's voice morphs into a high-pitched brightness that even Bomi isn't well-accustomed to. "How about... a picnic in the park, Bomi? The flowers have um... attracted many butterflies these days. What do you say, Bomi?"

With her open pet carrier bag at the foot of the door, Yeseul opens her door, ready to welcome Bomi with open arms, in her bent over posture. 

The open door catches Bomi's curiosity right away, but instead of running towards Yeseul, she rushes forward towards a pair of firmly planted legs behind a crouched down Yeseul, camouflaging its raven body and tail against the black loose khaki pants and all-black sneakers. 

The unexpected turn of event leads Yeseul to call out Bomi's name in a surprising shriek of distress. 

Standing motionless with a large army green carrier by his side, the man's eyes move away from the number plate '301' on the door, down to the ground below his feet. A little creature has sneaked its way into the narrow gap between his feet, sending tickles to his ankles. 

Watching the sudden reception with wide-eyed curiosity, the man bends his back without second thought, his large hand gentle on the cat's crown. Although a little shaken, the cat reacts affectionately to the touch, curling its form according to the petting of his hand. 

From her crouched down position, Yeseul watches in horror as her cat engages in a friendly exchange with a total stranger, clad in an all-black ensemble. Bomi must have thought him to be family, as they both were coated in the same color. Insistent about stopping the interaction, Yeseul rises to her feet with an unsettling chill in her spine, seeing the man's face completely covered beneath his bucket hat.

As a single woman living out on her own, she can't help but to replay her sister's warning about the menaces of Noksapyeong. She holds her breath as she pulls out her phone, prepared to tap the emergency button any second now. 

"Bomi, is that your name?" The man asks in a clear, warm voice.

Yeseul feels the heat rising on the back of her neck. The stranger has not only heard the owner's desperate cry for her cat's return, but has also chosen to disregard the owner behind him by playing and entertaining the feline. 

But more importantly, that voice oddly rang a bell to Yeseul, and it seems to belong to...

"Shall I carry you on my back, haelmoni?"

The sight of the sycophant petting Bomi repulses Yeseul immensely. Pushing through her door, she barks her way into the stranger's personal space. 

"Excuse me, will you please step away from the cat! She's hurting!"

At the exasperated cry of the woman behind him, the man retracts his arms in reflex. Startled, the four-legged animal sitting between his feet stiffens uncomfortably. Straightening his back, the man turns his head slowly, shifting his eyes to meet a pair of cold, hard eyes smeared with soft, peachy colors on its creases. 

With a bountiful frown sitting between her brows, Yeseul confronts the man unapologetically. Her heart falls when Bomi's body and tail hardens from the unpleasant tone of her voice. Nevertheless, it does the job of removing the sycophant's toady hands from Bomi. She braves herself for his face reveal, forgetting the peril of having a mysterious-looking stranger mere inches away from her. 

In the back of her mind, a tattoo-inked, sleazy-looking, facial-hair covered middle-aged pervert  would flash his abominable smile at Yeseul. Fight or flight; she'll have to raise her fist to fend off the incoming attack by the despicable stranger, or storm out of the chaos with Bomi safe in her arms.

Relaxing his back, the man instead turns his head slowly, taking Yeseul by surprise. 

Beneath the black bucket hat, the man looks to be a few years younger than she is. His eyes are large and round, nose pointed and tall, lips a little purple. His tanned skin looks light against his contrasting blackwear, and the permeated daylight on the third floor merely accentuates the sharpness of his jaw. 

Save for the little scar on his left cheek, he isn't exactly the outright picture of a menace.

"I'm sorry," the man offers, upon seeing the pained expression on the woman's face. "I'll step away from Bo... um... from her now."

Taking notice of the wariness in his voice and choice of words, Yeseul eases slightly at his unforeseen demeanor. She watches as the man lifts his leg slowly, careful not to step on Bomi's tail. His large eyes are trained fondly on her pet cat, to which the feline responds with an attention-seeking purr. With a large stride, the man draws further from Yeseul, coming face to face to his door.

Bomi, nevertheless, stays close to him like a shadow.

Stealing a quick glance at Yeseul, the man's clear eyes are unmistakably filled with guilt and dilemma. Yeseul, in her arched brows, takes a step forward, determined to have Bomi back in her arms and care. 

As the cat stretches out her tiny limbs to escape her master, a small but pointed object protrudes from the side of the cat's belly. Paying close attention to the cat, the man crouches down for clearer inspection. His unanticipated movements garners an impatient screech from Yeseul, and all hell breaks loose when he reaches out to rub the cat's belly.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

Finally having a grasp of the situation, he now understands the words 'she's hurting'. Despite the woman's continual reproach, the man picks up Bomi in the gentlest of way, wordlessly.

Bomi sits uncomfortably on his arms, meowing away. Petting Bomi on her chin, he distracts her momentarily with the playfulness of his eyes, before letting her off into her portable carrier. With eyes never leaving the man, Yeseul's loud but meaningless ramblings finally come to a standstill when Bomi is safely relocated to her home. 

With his task finished, the man straightens his back and brushes the crease on the lower of his oversized t-shirt. Nibbling on his lower lips, he gives an awkward bow to Yeseul, acknowledging her as his next door neighbor. 

There is a ring to his voice, indicating his ironically nervous yet even-tempered conduct. "It was... um... nice meeting you, as your next door neighbor... Goodbye."

Before Yeseul is able to reply, the man gathers his belongings in the narrow hallway, pulling them hastily into his unit. The loud thud of the door echoes against the silenced hallway, leaving Yeseul to deal with a cold pang of misery.

A decade ago, Yeseul reshaped herself as a highly-independent woman, with 'helplessness' wiped out from her dictionary. 

Just who is this person who managed to evoke this petty emotion in her, exposing her in a state of vulnerability and inadvertently saving her from her self-inflected distress?