He was going to throw his half-burnt cigarette into the ashtray, but he couldn’t. The tower of cigarettes that had some sticking out and looked like a Christmas tree was about to fall apart. He finally remembered that it had been a long time since he emptied his ashtray.

“Is it about time I leave?”

Dongwook stood up with the ashtray in hand. He emptied the ashtray into the trash can before opening the window in the living room wide open. The sunlight blinded him. He basked in the sun in the veranda for a while. He remembered some doctor on TV saying how people needed to photosynthesize as well.

He sprayed some deodorant around the house before going to the bathroom. He stood in front of the mirror and looked at his face. He had a stubble due to not shaving for quite a while. He foamed it up with some soap before picking up his razor. It pricked him a bit, perhaps due to the blade being old. He washed his face and hair before leaving the bathroom. He dried out his hair and shaped it with some wax and spray.

“I still look pretty decent.”

He took out some clothes from the closet. He wore a light blue shirt and a pair of denim pants. He picked up his bag, which contained his camera and his notepad. With that, he was ready to go to war.

He drove out of his apartment’s parking lot to the streets.

“First it’s ‘Number 8’, huh.”

He drove to a building in the outskirts of Seoul....