Untitled, 2018

Chapter 6: Sandalous

He was bulked up in a face mask, beanie, and thick puffy jacket despite the heat of the night in such a crowd, and had a sad panicked puppy dog look in his eyes that beckoned me desperately to help. I panicked a little too and looked around, before I remembered the closed back door of the building. Hopefully it wouldn't set off the security alarms or something? I gestured to my right wildly and ran out the room, though I could see the betrayal in his eyes as he misunderstood.

It was a short hallway before I reached two sets of doors, and I kept one propped open with one of the sandals I came to the lab with (yes, they were open-toed because no, I'm not doing weird chemistry stuff and I won't lose any toes). I slowly pushed the second one open into the night, and saw the guy huddled in a ball behind a tree. His eyes lit up when he spotted me, and I gestured for him to wait because the guard was rounding by his tree. I'd probably be in trouble if they found me here after they closed down the building too. As the guard turned his back to walk towards the vans, I nodded at the tabloid guy and he sprinted at me with alarming speed, really. Desperate about his job? That can be scary. He pretty much ran into me and I rammed the door close behind him as we both stumbled in.

He was about to open his mouth but I smacked his face and went "Shhh". When I could no longer hear the guard in the vicinity, I pulled my ear from the door and breathed a sigh of relief. As I turned I realized the guy had been doing the same right behind me. We both stood still for a moment awkwardly, and then the guy suddenly jumped into action, as of remembering something and stumbled his way into the lab. Realizing that I had let a stranger into a university lab, I ran after him and grabbed his arm as he got into the main lab space by our intern rooms. But he easily resisted the tug and I ended up getting dragged along as he quickly found my room to our right and sprinted to the window.

He squinted out of the window anxiously, I guess looking for the celebrities that had run off. He anxiously typed a message on his phone and looked up to see the guard walking in the direction of the window. He immediately grabbed my shoulder and pulled me down with him roughly so we were in awkward squats next to the window. "Excuse me... who are you?" I asked in Korean. He panicked and pushed me so I stumbled and fell back on my butt. "What the heck- why'd you—" he pretty much hopped over in his squat, pushed me down to the floor and held a finger to my mouth to shut me up while hovering next to me and eyeing the window suspiciously. I lay there in shock for a good second before whacking his hand away from my face and sitting up, glaring at him.

The lights in the room were just enough to see the glimmer of his eyes but not much else above his face mask. He sighed with relief as he saw the guard walk away and I exclaimed, indignantly, "What was that? He couldn't even hear us!" He shrugged a little and muttered, "Yes he could." I straightened myself and brushed off the back of my pants and suddenly froze when realization hit me. Wait, so... I flashed back to not very long ago, when I was bawling and screaming at the universe when this guy was covering my view of others (or I guess their view of me...) with his back. How ridiculously embarrassing.

WELL I brushed those thoughts away because damn that's awkward. Whatever. Who was this joker to me anyway. Instead I just notice him typing away on his phone too fast to read.

"Are you a reporter?"
He looked up and paused his eyes on mine for a second before resuming his typing.
"Yes."
His phone dinged with a response from whomever he was messaging and his eyebrows scrunched up indicating his nervousness.
"So are you reporting their dating scandal now?"
He glared at me and I just frowned back. "That's a really sad job to have. Violating people's privacy. Their fans go crazy when there's a dating scandal."
He mumbled a fuzzy "I know," but then sighed loudly in relief.