You’re not a religious person by nature but you’re in the chapel that day seeking a sense of calm. Something’s awry in your life and that’s where you see Minki, on his knees head dipped in prayer – sunlight on platinum hair and wrapped up in the atmosphere of the church. He’s new to town but maybe you know him from school or the café, maybe you don’t. Regardless, you feel like you should talk to him and in the house of God he’s willing to give you the time.

You never expected to see him again, nor he, you. You met by chance one summer when he was visiting home and you found something dear behind his sharp tongue and fire eyes. You thought him to be a beautiful oxymoron, a gothic catholic, a preacher’s son kissing that summer’s neighbor boy. But one day you’re out for a cup of coffee and you don’t easily forget a soul like Choi Minki but you’re not sure how you feel being a dirty summer secret. 

Words move fast around small towns and Minki doesn’t keep it a secret. He openly professes that he dabbles in witch-craft and not in an ironic way. Maybe you want to prove the fallacy in his words, maybe you lost something dear recently, maybe you want to taste something magic to kill monotony. Regardless, you find your way to him and ask him what a corner witch charges. 

Minki is far from finding his place in Strobe, having only been here a few months. Much of his life is still sealed with packing tape, after all; but there’s something to be said for a quiet summer night. After sneaking out, Minki goes exploring. You find him by the river draw the sunset in the moonlight and you seek him out, come what may. 

Minki has a terrible sleep walking habit. It hasn’t happened for a year or two so his parents have stopped looking out for it, but it happens one night and the boy finds himself several streets over from his home, sleepy and disoriented on your door step. You invite him in and try to sort it out, but it’s uncertain whether he’s truly awake or not so it’s best to keep him for the night.

You don’t believe in love at first sight and it’s not quite love that you feel for Minki, but when you catch an artist hard at work on a strange sculpture, all dismembered ceramic limbs and roses, bound together with thorny vines an elaborate tower of humanity and floral accents, you think there is something lovable him. If not in him, in his hands. And artistic sort of love, a love for his macabre work, less so for him.

You’re taking the early morning train out of strobe for one reason or another alone with only one other passenger. Unfortunately, you forgot your music at home so you ask Minki if he’ll share his headphones. Still in a sleepy and kinder state, he obliges. 

You and Minki are something like friends. You met him shortly after he moved to Strobe and while he’s a fairly private person, you’ve seen the sternness of his conservative father first hand. There’s a red mark on his cheek and while he firmly tells you that it’s nothing, you can put two and two together. Proceed with caution.

You made the mistake of making fun of the new gothic boy in the back of your first period. A few weeks later you start noticing strange things, anonymous unsettling notes stuffed in your desk, darting figures out of the corner of your eye as you walk between classes, and finally you open your backpack after putting it down for just a few minutes to find a snake inside. Harmless in nature, but mad as can be. In addition, there’s a little straw-doll with a number of pins in it – you don’t believe in witches, but it’s safe to say Minki’s got you spooked and you’re not going to take it quietly.

It’s just your luck that the weird new kid on campus just happens to collapse in front of you on your way to class one day. When you move to help him up, you notice he’s burning up. He doesn’t want your help but you know you have to take him to the nurse for your conscience to be clear. You just hope you don’t catch some weird foreign plague or get warts from touching him.

You go to Minki’s church. You know him to be the preacher’s son but his faith in the church is clearly in a strange place. Perhaps you’re questioning your own religion or you don’t like to see his flagrant religious fusion, but you ask him how does one be a devout and a defector all at once? Minki’s more than happy to tell you over a cup of coffee.

You get coffee at CAFE4U often, thus you’ve gotten used to seeing Minki lately. He doesn’t talk much but his drinks speak for themselves; still, there’s a mysterious air around the quiet blonde so as he’s getting your usual order ready you decide to try to get him to talk. After all, the shop is dead, he can’t possible have anything better to do, right?