wander [ hyunlix ]

03

Apparently, much to Felix's luck, this weird stranger did not seem to be interested in murdering him.

It was the dead of night, and Felix found himself walking behind a masked man along the dead, empty streets. His shadow weakly followed him, the old street lamps above illuminating the scene just enough to be noticed.

"My car's over here," the stranger announced as they turned a corner, quite far from the store where they'd met now.

Felix hummed to signal that he understood. His nervousness was skyrocketing, for obvious reasons. While he'd met a couple of homeless people here and there on the street thus far, he'd never done more than trade for a couple of items and then take his leave.

"Here," the man waved for Felix to follow as he approached a vehicle, parked on the side of the small street.
The man took out his key— a physical one, Felix notes. The car was a rather older model, and definitely couldn't have cost that much to buy.

"Sit in the front, I have all the stuff in the backseat," the strange man pulled open the door, pointing at the front passenger seat.
Felix reluctantly took a breath before climbing in the car, watching the man walk around the front and climb into the driver's seat.

As soon as both doors were shut, the man reached up and turned the ceiling light on, finally allowing Felix a good view of the inside of the car.

"Oh...?" he trailed off, looking around to the backseat of the car.

The stranger definitely hadn't been lying, much to Felix's surprise.
A large fleece blanket covered what appeared to be stacks of snack bags, candy bars, bottles of water, and even something that appeared to be a type of instant noodle. Fresh fruits sat on top of the other items, delicately placed there as to ensure they wouldn't bruise.

Felix glanced between the stockpile of food and the masked stranger.
"Did you get all of this from stealing?"

"No," the stranger replied, his tone somewhat sarcastic. "I'm just borrowing all of it."

"Jesus..." was all Felix could mutter, noticing the man pull out the items he'd nicked from the convenience store and toss them in the back with the rest.
"How many stores have you done this to?"

"You ask a lot of questions, huh?" the stranger replied, reaching back to grab a bottle of water and offer it over to Felix.

"Sorry," Felix mumbled as he took the water gratefully.

"What's your deal anyway?" the man asked, leaning back in the driver's seat. "Got kicked out? On vacation?"

Felix shook his head as he took a swig of his water.
"Neither, really. Ran away from home."

"Ooh, interesting," came the reply. The man perked up, looking Felix up and down.
"Should've known. No one would kick out a cute little thing like you."

"Huh?" Felix responded immediately, almost choking on his water in shock.
"I'm... wait, I'm a minor—" he spoke rapidly, yet stopped as the stranger broke out into laughter.

"Sorry! Sorry, that must've seemed creepy," the man laughed, sensing the scandalized way Felix was staring at him.

"To be fair though, if someone does actually lure you to their car with bad intentions, I don't think saying you're a minor will help..." the stranger advised honestly.
"You might wanna find a better tactic."