Minseok stood staring out over the city from the penthouse balcony. It terrified him to no end; something that appeared so normal to him, yet everything in it has become unfamiliar. Everyone was trying to come to terms with the situation; some managing better than others. He happened to be one of the few who were struggling to accept the situation, even Jiwon was slowly finding a place for himself in the group as he forced himself to understand the self defense moves.
He released a defeated sigh just as he heard the sliding glass door shut behind him.
"Are you alright?" He heard a girl ask, recognizing her voice immediately.
"Not really. I just feel so hopeless and useless right now. Have you ever felt that way, Hina?" He responded as he turned to look at her as she leaned against the railing next to him.
She looked to be contemplating for a moment before she turned to look him in the eyes. "Yes, there were a lot of times that I have felt useless and hopeless in situations; especially when I just started working on real patients in the hospital. Sometimes I messed up and more experienced doctors or nurses had to step in to take care of the situation because I wasn't as skilled as them." She paused briefly, "I supposed that your feelings are a little bit different in this particular situation though."
"Yeah, maybe. I just feel like I am not as useful to the group, I'm just another mouth to feed. I haven't really contributed anything in particular to the group. Even Taehyun has made some contributions that hold value, especially when he went outside with Kittichai and got the cargo truck, yet I've barely been able to set foot outside of the apartment since we've arrived. I know the situation has become much worse than the first day we arrived, and that thought alone has me petrified." He explained to her.
"I understand your feelings. Everything has changed, everything we were used to is gone. We are all scared, Kittichai, Hanwoo, Seojun and Yeongsu, all of them are scared and so am I. We just managed to adjust to the situation faster than most people, maybe because our occupations have already prepared us to be able to handle most situations. Being in any emergency service can definitely prepare you for the worst scenarios. So I think that you being scared is normal, not knowing what to do is also normal. I don't think you should beat yourself up over it either." Hina said.
"I don't think Kittichai had an occupation before all of this, I don't really know where he gets the courage. I know we will have to go outside eventually, yet I can barely take a step out of the bedroom without getting nervous. I've been trying to think of things that could help me become confident enough to survive when the time comes, but I haven't thought of anything." He slumped his shoulders as he looked away from Hina, ashamed of his cowardliness.
"Do you know how to do parkour?" She questioned randomly.
Minseok raised a brow at the question, "no, why?"
"Maybe learning how to efficiently run through the city could help you overcome part of your fears. If you learn to run over rooftops and are able to avoid slowing down no matter which obstacles get in your way, then maybe you'll be able to face your fears better. What do you say?" She suggested.
"It's worth a shot. Thank you." He gave her a genuine smile.
"Alright, I'll set up a place for you to practice on the fifteenth floor going down to the fourteenth. Meet me down there in about three hours, okay?" She patted him on the shoulder before she ran back into the penthouse.
"I really hope this works." He whispered to himself as he also went back into the penthouse and returned to his room. He laid on his bed staring at the ceiling contemplating everything. He'd have to work up the courage to travel down to the fifteenth floor by himself; it was a big step for him since he kept thinking of all the worst case scenarios that could happen to him in the short time span it takes to walk down to the fifteenth floor. He released a frustrated groan as he rolled over on his bed.
Minseok spent the next few hours tossing and turning on his bed, overthinking everything. Once three hours passed he got up and walked towards the door.
"Where are you going?" Hanwoo asked as he looked up from what he was doing. He had been cleaning his gun at the kitchen counter and obviously Minseok wouldn't be able to go unnoticed.
"Hina asked me to meet her on the fifteenth floor, she was going to help me learn parkour." He stated honestly.
"Parkour?" Hanwoo tilted his head.
"Yeah, she said it might be useful for me."
"Well good luck, I'm sure with a bit of practice you'll do just fine." The detective tried to encourage him.
"Thanks." He gave a small smile as he opened the door and took a cautious step out into the hallway.
"Do you want me to come with you?" Hanwoo asked from behind him, most likely noticing his hesitation to go by himself.
"No, it's okay. I appreciate you offering to help, but I think this is something I need to do on my own." He wanted to accept Hanwoos' generous offer, but he knew that this was something he needed to overcome on his own. He will never overcome his fears unless he faces them, so that is what he is going to do.
"Then take this walkie talkie, just press this button and talk into it if you need." The detective walked over to him, handed him the two way radio, and gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
Having the walkie talkie was a confidence booster as he slowly made his way through the quiet hallways and down the dark stairways. The stairway was overly creepy to him as his footsteps echoed loudly through the space that expanded straight down to the ground floor. Luckily he could tell the staircase was empty since his footsteps were the only ones echoing in the large enclosed space. Once he reached the fifteenth floor and opened the door he let out a sigh of relief. Hina stood in the middle of the hallway adjusting a box. The whole hallway was covered in carefully placed objects. Some were small and some were large. As he stood there for a moment staring at her, she took notice of him.
"Ah, just on time. I made you an obstacle course. Once you can make it through this hallway, down the stairs, and onto the fourteenth floor without struggling you'll be ready." She gave him an innocent smile as she approached him.
"Alright, it can't be that hard. Can it?" He said his thoughts out loud.
"Who knows, maybe you're a natural at it." She chuckled and took the walkie talkie that he still held in his hand.
"That'd be nice." He stated as he readied himself to run.
"I have a stopwatch here, and the goal is to pass your previous time. When I give you the go, you'll start." She explained.
"Alright."
"Ready, set, go!" She said loudly.
Minseok ran as fast as he could as he approached the first obstacle. He jumped the obstacle with ease, but immediately crashed into the second one. He harshly tumbled to the floor and just laid there for a moment; staring at the ceiling in astonishment.
"Are you okay?" Hina asked as she appeared above him, looking down at him with a large smile on her face.
"Did I at least look cool?" He joked.
"Oh yeah, you looked totally awesome as you tripped over that box." She laughed, covering her mouth with her hand.
"Yeah... I bet I did." He covered his eyes with the back of his hand.
"Come on." She held her hand out to him to help him up. He took her hand and she pulled him to his feet. Dusting him off she laughed again. "You'll get there eventually, you also did better than I did on my first try if that makes you feel any better."
"Can you do parkour?" He asked.
"No, I tried a few times before you got here. That's why you saw me adjusting that box when you first arrived, I had knocked it over." She explained as she sat on a table that was in the hallway as part of her obstacle course.
"Oh I see." He chuckled to himself as he imagined Hina failing to jump over the box.
"What are you laughing at?" She asked as he sat next to her.
"Oh nothing... Just pictured you tripping over the box, seems kind of funny and probably dramatic too." He joked, earning him a smack on the shoulder.
"Ya, don't try to picture it! It was totally embarrassing even without an audience." She said as she covered her face.
"I think it would've been pretty cute to see honestly." Minseok stated.
"Yeah right." She chuckled quietly as a comfortable silence fell over them.
Minseok stared at her from the corners of his eyes, she was looking down at her hands as she played with a string at the end of her sleeve. After a couple minutes passed by she looked at him, meeting his eyes. He didn't avoid her gaze as she examined his expression. She placed her hand on the table next to where his hand was resting, their fingertips lightly brushing against each other. This caused him to blush as he could feel the sensation of butterflies forming in his stomach, after all, he had a crush on her ever since the first time he had talked to her.
He couldn't help but think of how they first met. It was two years ago when he went on his first tour to Japan. He had previously met her at his concert in Tokyo, where she was assisting with the medical team that was there in case of a medical emergency. A few days after the concert he had gotten separated from his team and had gotten lost. He ended up running into her on her way home from the hospital that she was interning at. They ended up spending some time together as she showed him back to his hotel, making a few stops on the way. They had exchanged contact information and he had found out that she would be transferring to a hospital in Korea once she was done with her internship. He had also found out that even though she was born in Japan, she was raised in Korea and had only previously moved back to Japan because her grandmother had fallen ill and needed someone to help take care of her. So her family moved back to Japan so they could take care of her sick grandmother and that was why she ended up going to college in Tokyo.
Minseok thought Hina was breathtaking in every single way. She was smart, beautiful, caring and kind. She became a nurse so she could help people, often participating in charity work to help people who couldn't afford healthcare. Even after becoming a qualified doctor she proceeded to study other fields of medicine so that she could help in any kind of health related situation.
She was everything he liked about a person, which made him absolutely head over heels for her. So it took him by surprise when she slowly slid her hand onto his, he flinched backwards causing her to quickly withdraw her hand.
"Sorry that was a bit presumptuous of me." She stated as she rubbed her knees in an awkward manner.
"No, no y-you're fine." He stuttered.
Another silence fell over them, this silence was suffocating rather than the comfortable silence that it originally was.
"I should return to my research. You should keep practicing though, I'm sure you'll improve quickly." She stood up to leave.
Minseok quickly grabbed her hand, stopping her. She stopped, but didn't turn to look at him.
"Hina, just now I-" He started.
"You don't have to explain, you didn't do anything wrong." She cut him off as she gently pulled her hand free. "I misunderstood, that's my fault. I'll be heading back to the penthouse first, I'll see you later."
Minseok watched her exit the fifteenth floor, he couldn't comprehend what just happened. One second there were butterflies and the next there was a big misunderstanding. "She could've just let me finish explaining, then there wouldn't have been anything to misunderstand." He said as he ran his fingers through his hair out of frustration.
He sat there for a few more minutes before he went back to running through the obstacle course. Many of his attempts didn't make it more than three obstacles into the course before he tripped on something. This was going to be a hard skill to learn, but he was determined to change so that he would become someone useful to the group.
"I've got this, I will change for the better. I will become a more reliable person so that I can protect the people I care about."