Her heels were the only thing making noise in the big train station that night; quickly checking her phone and seeing that it was almost 10 pm, the woman hurried through the bright halls until she reached the timetables that showed that the last train to Seoul was about to arrive, only a few minutes away.
Much to her distaste, it was about to arrive in platform 4, and she checked a few times to check that there was no other train coming, but there it was, a small yellow 4 that signalled that the train was arriving in five minutes. Remembering the old tales about said number, she walked warily towards the platform, breathing slowly and trying to keep her mind from the bad thoughts that would scare her numb.
Soft music was playing from the speakers, and there were little to almost no people around her; she sat on one of the many benches around while she waited, and it wasn't long until she heard steps coming towards her. Trying her best to not look at the stranger, she heard a soft male voice speaking to her after a few seconds. "Excuse me," he said, and she turned around, "do you mind if I sit here?" She shook her head and the person sat next to her; she looked around, and seeing all of the other empty benches made her wonder why he hadn't sat in one of them. "It's kind of empty at this time of the night, isn't it?"
"Yeah," she replied, slowly as to not let her voice shake. "I guess it is."
"I'm sorry, I haven't introduced myself yet; I'm really impolite. My name's Kihyun, nice to meet you." She turned around to study him. He seemed to be in his early twenties, had short reddish hair, kind eyes, and his expression was calm, and although she found nothing that could make her feel insecure about having him close, she still thought that the way he acted before was nothing short of unusual. "It's okay if you don't tell me yours, not everyone's used to this kind of approach."
Giggling almost accidentally, she bit her lower lip and looked down until he kept on talking.
"I used to come to this place every day before, it was like a second house to me," he said with a smile while looking at the roof, where several pigeons were resting for the night. "Whenever I fought with my mum I'd come here and sit right in this very bench, just watching the trains come and go; I guess you could say it brought me a strange sense of peace.
"I'm still surprised that I haven't pursued any engineering career or whatever, but I can't really do much for that now, I'm not interested in that field. Actually, there's not much that I'm interested in anymore. Only the sound of the trains and the feeling of being alone bring me that security I felt before."
Kihyun spoke softly but clearly, and she couldn't help but feel sort of sorry for him. "Well, but why do you say that there's nothing you're interested in? I'm sure there must be at least one thing," she said, not really sure if she should be even continuing the conversation.
Letting out a soft laugh, he got up and walked towards the edge of the platform, staring down at the rails. "There is one thing," he whispered loud enough for her to hear, "but I doubt many people share that interest with me."
"What is it?"
"Death."
The confidence with which he said it made a chill run down her spine. It was as if suddenly the air had gotten so cold she could barely handle it, even if they were just in the middle of April, and she could feel some type of dread climbing up the back of her head. "D-death?" she mumbled, repeating the word as if it had some kind of invisible weight to it, one that she couldn't and wouldn't dare to touch.
In the distance, the sound of the train coming closer started to appear, but she was frozen in place. "Yes, death. I'm intrigued to see what comes after all of this, you know? And besides, I don't have that much going for me anymore," he explained, a little bit too rushed for her taste, "I don't have almost anything to leave behind. There's nothing here. Not for me."
"Wait." Getting up, she walked until she was right in front of him, the lights of the train already lighting up the station. "Kihyun-ah, you're not saying that you'd like to..."
"That's exactly what I'm saying." Once again, his confidence made hers waver and every hair on her body stand up. "Nobody's going to miss me, don't worry; I made sure to tell everyone about it so no one takes it as a surprise either." At that exact moment, she looked to the side to see the train coming in the station, and he knew she only had seconds to act, but before she could do anything, he added, "Please, don't try to stop me; many people have tried, and some succeeded, but it only ended worse for them."
That was the final straw; many people had tried to stop him before? How many times had he tried? But she couldn't think of an actual sentence as she saw him with one foot already out of the platform, but even when she tried to hurry and grab his hand she wasn't fast enough to do so.
She fell to her knees while the long metal vehicle made its way until the end of the platform, staring at the point where Kihyun had fallen with her mouth wide open and tears forming in her eyes. The people around her just stared, some looking like they pitied her and others plainly confused, but none of them knew. Once everyone had left and the train was once again filled, it started its engine again; it was as if a bucket of ice cold water had been dropped on her head. When it was gone, she rushed to the edge of the platform, hoping to see any sign of Kihyun, but just when she thought she had seen everything a new surprise came her way.
There was absolutely nothing there.
Just clean, old train tracks, slightly rusty due to all the years they had been there.
"You should've left in that train."
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Well, after months of planning (quite literally) here's my next oneshot, this time featuring Kihyun from Monsta X! I must say it was cool writing about him like this, I'm a big Monbebe and it's always nice to write about one of my favourite groups. I hope you guys liked it and thank you for 48.7k+ reads! ♥