Chapter Text
One more hour, Wonwoo said to himself on and on again every second of this one hour. But how can one hour seem like four? Or five? The moment his work was finished, he sighed, resting his body on his chair. Taking off his glasses and running his hands over his face, the korean man smiled weakly as he realized he could go home early.
It was almost two hours past his shift's end. Being a lonely korean in the capital of Japan is already exhausting as it is, but working in the current employment situation is excruciating.
Wonwoo put his glasses on, took his briefcase and turned off the computer. As he went to his home, he still needed to go to the subway station, maybe not so filled with people, but this was enough to make him feel happy. He was going to celebrate with gaming or maybe reading. “Maybe reading is enough”, he said so to himself loud enough that somebody beside him, on the escalator, heard him. It was a girl.
There weren't that many people on that Thursday night at Tokyo subway station, which was oddly surprising. The girl who stood beside him was a student with her uniform. Other salarymen were around, some in the same company as him. There were a woman and her child two steps further, the latter talking excitedly and lively to their mother. She smiled, petting the child.
It was a cruel joke to the poor ones around, like a white dot on a plain dark surface. Poor employees.
The only son of the Jeon family was already too familiar with the sounds inside the subway station. Chattering, giggles, whisperings, complaints. The fact the students were the ones to say more complaints than the ones who worked their asses off the entire day was funny enough. However, it made sense though. They had an entire life ahead to live, and far more energy than the poor unfortunate souls who had to give theirs to make a living. To barely have one.
Blinking a few times, the vibration coming from one side of the tunnel woke Wonwoo up, and then he saw. A girl, a student, barely 17 years old, hesitating to trespass the yellow line on the floor. She was hesitating, but she was still trying to do it. To kill herself. Suicide, the easiest way to escape from your reality and fears, yet the hardest and toughest decision in life someone could make. Yet, no one seemed to care.
Right, this was Japan in the 21st century, where society was more rough with everyone, but especially the younger ones, and even more with women. When the adults are too tired because of a day working their asses off for more than a shift to care. To care for a child about to die. To throw her life away.
Wonwoo lifted his trembling hand to his facc, adjusting his glasses once more.
Looking at the girl, who was probably 10 years younger than him, she was pretty looking, but there was something in her face he couldn't get. Maybe it was the light, or the fact that he had some good meters between the two of them, but she had that face when someone is exhausted enough to give up. Maybe others would've seen it in movies, but Jeon Wonwoo knew better. Long dark hair, sad face, white skin. She resembles his mother.
He breathed slowly. The vibrations were getting closer and the girl didn't seem like she was backing up. He didn't care anymore about his briefcase, letting it go off of his other hand and dropping it on the floor.
He will not let this girl die.
The train was close and she got one step closer to it. Luckily he was tall and agile enough to catch her before she fell off the platform. Still, it wasn't fast enough so she wouldn't fall at all, and he fell with her in his arms.
It was all too fast.
They were on the floor, she was on top of him, on his arms, unable to feel the coldness of the hard metal pressing against Wonwoo's back. He gave her one last look, and she looked was about to cry. He smiled at her, weakly, like it was his duty to say “it's alright, it's going to be okay” to her. Only it wasn't. Feeling the warmth of her body in his arms, listening to her sobs and sniffing, he hugged her, tightly just as he pressed his eyes shut. He thought he was saving this child, but he ended up not only ensuring her death as well as his own. Laughable. He was not going to read today.
Rails trembling. A light beaming in their direction. Screamings. Then, nothing.
For a second he felt the smell of white daisies, a shiver passing through his body and a feeling he couldn't describe, like he was touched. Not by someone, but by something.
He heard murmurs and whispering once again. He did feel a cold surface against his back, not hard and cold metal, and for sure not that beaming blinding light. Opening his eyes, adjusting the light to his sight, he didn't see the subway station either and neither did he find the girl that was once in his arms. While looking for her, he looked at his surroundings, trying to absorb the strange ambiance.
It was a large space and there were more than ten people around him, and he could guess it just by looking at one side and not the entire place. The lighting was weak, coming from what he could guess it was candles. Did he die? Was he in some heavenly trial? Does heaven need that many judges? Would he stay in an office suit forever?
The korean man found the japanese girl and he breathed more easily, not worried anymore, even though the atmosphere wasn't that welcoming. Fixing his own clothes and getting up, he began to understand the murmurs and what was being said. “We did it!”, “The ritual is complete!”, “We summoned the Saint!”, all at once and everywhere in an accent that resembled some european language. But how and why were they speaking korean?
“Oh! Welcome, our magnificent Saint! I'm prince Hwang Hyunjin, first of my name and heir to the Salutania Kingdom, our kingdom. Our land is suffering from a disaster…”, and so the said prince continued, rambling about his said kingdom to one foreigner girl.
And, as others realized as well, one foreigner man. Wonwoo cleared his throat, making a noise everyone would hear and notice him.
“Huh… Excuse me?”, and with everyone actually looking at him, he made them as uncomfortable with his presence as he was with theirs and that weird place, like he wasn't supposed to be there.