Chapter 45

EP.45 The Story of the First Meeting with the Directionally Challenged Saint and the Creepy Man

I am an autistic person.

Not just in my heart, but also in my body.

I don't go outside unless it's absolutely necessary.

Just like my skin, which has turned pale from lack of sunlight, my ability to navigate has also been diluted over the course of my life.

My world has always been one-dimensional.

To put it nicely, I'm very organized.

I can manage to move according to my plans.

However, when an exceptional situation arises that deviates from my pre-planned scenarios,

my one-dimensional world always results in errors.

So, I might end up not going outside even more.

I might have been talking to myself, but

that was what I wanted to say.

I am directionally challenged.

And I'm lost right now.

So I don't know what to do.

“...”

Where am I?

Confused by the unfamiliar scenery, I tried to calm myself and looked at the time on my phone.

19:08.

The agreed meeting time was exactly 6:00 PM, so I was already very late.

I couldn't explain why I was late due to such and such reasons.

I didn't have anyone's contact information.

I should have gotten at least one team member's number.

The worst part was that this tardiness wouldn't end after just an hour.

I'm still wandering around.

No, the worst part was something else.

“Excuse me, can I have your number?”

“Do you have time?”

“You're my type...”

The meeting place was in the center of a bustling area.

It was also a weekend.

Every moment I wandered the streets, well-dressed men kept hitting on me.

For me, a man and a serious loner, it was a scene that continuously evoked a strong sense of aversion.

It was exhausting to keep refusing and to see the disappointed faces of those I turned down.

Sigh.

Whenever our eyes met, I sighed inwardly, feeling like I was being stared at by a crowd.

I'm not a shepherd,

but I didn't expect to be followed by so many people.

Why did I get lost?

There was a reason.

I had memorized the route to the agreed location several times.

Get off at Exit 3 of the nearby station, walk a few meters, turn into an alley, and the meat shop would be right in front.

It wasn't a complicated route.

The problem started on the subway.

From the moment I left home and arrived at the station near my house, I was embarrassed by the countless gazes.

However, I was somewhat used to the concentrated attention I had experienced when I went out to buy clothes.

I resigned myself to it, thinking, "It's just like that, I guess."

Then, I suddenly noticed a gaze that was clearly inorganic and devoid of warmth.

It was a camera.

The camera on someone's phone was pointed directly at me.

I looked at the person holding the phone.

Their awkward movements and the way their pupils dilated when they met my eyes clearly indicated someone caught in the act of doing something wrong.

They were probably trying to take a picture.

If I said I couldn't understand why, it would be a lie.

I always took screenshots of my character's pretty moments.

A photo is a medium to capture a moment in time, something I heard from someone.

The psychology of wanting to preserve a moment that will surely disappear over time.

Was my appearance at that moment a moment he wanted to preserve?

But understanding the feeling didn't mean I would tolerate the action.

If he was going to do that, he should have asked for my permission.

So, just as I was about to approach the man and tell him to stop taking pictures,

the police suddenly arrived.

“Huh?”

The door connecting the subway cars opened, and a male and female police officer suddenly witnessed the scene.

For a moment, my mind went blank, and I remembered that a sock vendor had passed through this car earlier.

The police must have come to catch the vendor after receiving a report... and they appeared at this moment.

My rapidly spinning brain interpreted the situation that way.

The man quickly hid his phone, but the police seemed to have already grasped the situation.

Instead of chasing the vendor to the next car, they looked at me and the man and asked the man,

“What are you doing?”

“Huh? What? No, well, I...”

“Sir, do you know that this is a crime?”

“No, well, it's just that...”

The looks the man received were far from kind.

Especially the female officer was looking at him as if he were a bug.

The male officer continued, almost as if he had memorized it,

“We need to hear your explanation, but the crime of illegal photography can be reported by three people...”

The police officer was saying something, but I couldn't really understand it.

The man also seemed to have trouble understanding, but

when the officer mentioned fines, registration of personal information, and public disclosure, the man's face turned pale.

This could lead to employment restrictions for sex offenders, making it difficult to get many types of jobs... and so on.

In short, it meant a red line on his life.

The man's face turned not just pale but blue.

He kept trying to explain himself, but it just came out as stammering.

I didn't fully understand what the police were saying,

but I realized that this incident could ruin the man's life.

I finally took a good look at the man.

High prescription glasses, a navy suit that didn't quite fit him.

He looked like an ordinary gentleman.

He didn't seem like someone who would take pictures of others without permission.

But you can't really know what's inside a person.

...

...

Once, Solomon told me,

“You're too passive.”

When I asked what he meant, he never answered.

Too passive.

Now, I think I understand what he was talking about.

But to have a bright future ruined just because of one photo,

it's too pitiful.

It's also a bit shameful to stand by and do nothing when a single action could solve the problem.

Unable to bear it, I spoke up.

“Excuse me.”

“Did you get a big shock?”

The female officer thought I was shocked and tried to comfort me.

But I wasn't speaking to receive comfort.

After a brief pause, I pointed at the man and said,

“I don't know what misunderstanding there is, but I asked him to take the picture.”

I said it.

I just blurted it out.

“...”

“...”

“...”

Silence filled the air.

Anyone would think a bomb had just dropped.

Naturally, the police didn't believe me.

Even the man who was trying to take the picture didn't believe me.

The male officer told me there was no need to do that.

Out of frustration, I approached the man.

The man tensed up and even held his breath as I got closer.

I almost snatched the phone he had hastily put in his pocket,

opened the camera app without a word,

and pressed my body closer to his,

as if taking a selfie with a close friend...

Click.

It wasn't uncomfortable, but it was a bit inconvenient.

After I did that, the police stepped back without saying anything more.

Feeling embarrassed, I scratched my cheek and noticed that the gazes of the people who had been watching me had changed to a kind that said they couldn't understand me.

I felt a bit awkward,

and I even missed my stop,

so I hurriedly got off at the next station.

As I left, the man who had tried to take the picture said through the closing doors,

“I'll live a proper life...”

Well,

if he could live a proper life with just this much mercy, he probably wouldn't have done it in the first place.

Despite my inward scoff, I just smiled at him.

You never know.

“...”

So,

that's what happened.

It was fine up to that point.

It was fine that I pretended to be nice, even though it wasn't part of the plan.

But the problem was what happened after that.

What station is this?

When I saw the sign at the station, I realized I had missed my stop by one station.

If I had taken the train back, it would have been fine, but I made a foolish mistake.

Isn't one station a short enough distance to walk?

...

...

Because of that wrong choice,

I've been wandering the streets for over an hour.

Now, I should probably go back to the subway,

take the train to the original station,

and follow the route I had memorized.

The problem was that I had forgotten how to get back to the subway.

The map app was useless.

Damn phone. The directions from my almost broken old phone kept leading me to strange places.

“Sigh...”

The suppressed sigh finally escaped my lips.

This can't go on.

I need to ask someone for directions.

Just as I was thinking that,

I saw a familiar scene that I had only seen on my computer a few times.

Oh.

If I keep going straight...

turn at the alley,

and then go straight, the shop I'm looking for...

I found it.

The smell of meat wafted to my nose, making my empty stomach ache.

I opened the shop door without hesitation.

The noisy shop suddenly fell silent as if cold water had been poured over it.

But I didn't have time to care.

The gathering might have completely dispersed by now, an hour past the scheduled time.

I can't let that happen.

In the focused attention of the crowd, I desperately searched for them.

If there were no other latecomers like me, the gathering would consist of four men and one woman.

After a while of looking around the large shop, I finally