an unfortunate change in genre

Part 50

The street was eerily familiar.

Choi Han could remember walking along it so many times that his mind was numbed to it. He'd forgotten all the details though, decades of time spent in the Forest of Darkness numbing even the memories of his mother's face.

Yet, the recollection was sharp and vivid now that he was back here. A strange sort of discomfort from knowing exactly where the convenience store was around the corner and knowing that the tree in front of him had roots that had cracked the concrete of the sidewalk just enough for a slab to jut out and potentially trip the unwary traveler.

The sky was the same as he remembered it and he wondered what exactly it was that was so different about the sky here and the sky there but they were different and it brought a lump to his throat.

He'd prepared for the possibility of seeing South Korea again when he'd agreed to find Roksu in his own memories.

He just wasn't prepared to recognize the surroundings so intimately.

It caused him to hesitate, his steps stuttering to a halt and his search for his liege placed on hold as the experience of being here consumed him with such totality.

He was drawn back to reality by the screeching of tires and why was it such a familiar sound.

With shaking pupils he watched his own shade disappear from next to the child he'd just rescued.

Choi Han swallowed thickly. He was sure that they said this was Roksu's memories, not his own. But there it was, his last blinking moment before he was dragged into another world for years of hellish solitude with the only promise being that he'd be able to save that child again.

The child in question stared at where he'd been. He was markedly unconcerned that a person had just disappeared but he was young and perhaps he'd thought his eyes were fooling him.

He looked up towards the sky and back towards the car that almost hit him and then once more to the spot where Choi Han had been.

And then with a very familiar nonchalance, he began to walk towards that convenience store Choi Han mentioned.

Heart pounding in his chest, Choi Han followed suit. His feet felt heavy on the ground beneath him but he needed to keep going forward. He needed to see his face.

The boy easily slipped out of everyone else's notice, even after the reckless driver was still being lectured. Choi Han caught up just around the corner, expecting to see the boy close to the entrance of the convenience store.

To his surprise, there was no child at all. Grimly he wondered if he'd disappeared too, the same way Choi Han had. Had he gone to that forest and been eaten before Choi Han found him? Or...?

A rustling sound from the alley beside the convenience store caught his attention and he looked inside.

It was strangely meticulous how he worked. Slowly moving aside garbage, finding edible foods and setting them aside, and balancing on a box to lean over the dumpster lid.

<Eat, Choi Han. Food's important.>

He liked to think he knew Kim Rok Soo better than most people, that he had a deep understanding of Roksu-nim and he did. He really did.

He understood that food and proper meals were important to him. He understood that it ran deeper than a simple gluttony and he understood that Kim Rok Soo had his reasons that were intensely private in nature.

His young face was unfamiliar but the eyes were just the same. His pensive frown as he worked was the same too. He'd set aside a box to fill with edible goods and grabbed an expired rice ball that was luckily unopened.