The Four Horsemen

Chapter 1 - Playing Cards

Kim Namjoon

'Why?'

'What d'you mean why? I told you why.'

'One more night!'

'Get up. Leave.'

I pinched the bridge of my nose for seemingly the hundredth time as the petite girl, wrapped foolishly like a boiled cabbage in thick duvets, refused to leave. Her lips were smeared with cherry lipstick as if she took the back of her hand and dragged it across her face. A bird's nest seemed to be sitting on top of her head. In fact, if I looked closely, I was sure some flies were circling it.

I didn't even know her name. But that was how it always was. Meet. Smirk. Grab. Kiss. Bed. Sex. Wake up. Leave. It was part of my morning routine.

She continued staring at me, trying to act cute I suppose as her eyelids batted to the beat of a hummingbirds flittering. I rolled my eyes at that, messing up my hair in frustration and marched over to the main entrance of my apartment, managing to pull a sweater over my head in the process.

'For the last time, leave.'

She opened her mouth the shape of an O and before anything could come out-

'Don't call me Oppa. It'll only get your hopes up.'

She pursed her lips and nodded, giving up on the cute act and returning to her beastly state, dragging her purse and belongings behind her as she exited my apartment. One thought came to my mind though.

'Hey those are my duvets!'

She flipped me off without looking back, still naked.

I chuckled, shutting the door and yawning. I stretched my long limbs as far as they could, my fingers tingling the ceiling, and as my eyes scanned the living room they landed on something vibrant, something extraordinary.

A card, with a neon yellow background and streaks of holographic red, laid on the coffee table, wanting to be touched. I approached it and flicked the card around with my fingers and at the back it wrote:

The Lover

I scratched the back of my untamed hair. What on earth was that supposed to mean? I scoffed at the irony of the title. Me, a man unwilling to devote himself to love, was suddenly identified as The Lover? How absurd.

But before chucking away the card, an even smaller and almost illegible font was scribbled underneath:

South Korea

Seoul, Jongno 

102-dong 304-ho

Apt. Block 7

30074

What was I supposed to do? Follow that address? Possibly leading to a secret place of gang slaughter? Not a chance. This was probably that girl's pathetic attempt at luring me someplace so there was no point. So scoffing once more, I finally decided to get rid of the card, where it landed somewhere inserted into the couch, and I went over to my phone.

I spent the next half an hour or so scrolling through my phone, speeding through useless posts and countless magic tricks online. A ding interrupted the endless scrolling and I sighed, exhausted to see the same caller ID for the 67th time this week.

Baby what did I do wrong? Please come back I feel lonely.

Poor kid. I really did sympathise for him. I guess I've misled his feelings before but it wasn't my fault I was the first guy he ever got intimate with. Out of all my previous flings he was probably the one I could never stay mad at. It didn't mean I still had feelings for him though.