Travel Notes: Looking for a Bathhouse in a Foreign Labyrinth Had to Be Some Kind of Mistake

I wondered if you had ever entertained such a thought,

To completely leave behind the life you were familiar with, travel alone to a foreign city you had longed to visit, and freely stroll through streets full of exotic charm,

Enjoying the bustling crowds and buildings lining both sides of the road, enjoying the things you had never seen in those carefully designed storefronts with ornate lettering, enjoying the fact that no one in this city knew you,

Unbound and undisturbed by anything or anyone, with time that belonged to you alone.

It sounded wonderful, didn't it?

And it really was wonderful,

But only if you weren't sneaking into the country like you were on some wilderness survival show, with nothing but the clothes on your back, a phone, a wallet, and identification,

While also being hunted and searched for by unknown enemies, unable to show your face on surveillance cameras or contact the outside world for help,

With the worst part being that you didn't understand English.

This was Fang Ran's friendly reminder, coming from someone who perfectly met every one of those conditions and, not counting the first night when he had been dumped here, had already been wandering London for five days.

Oxford Street in the morning was bright and sunny, and he still wore his hood up.

Hidden among the nine million people of this international metropolis, Fang Ran was currently doing exactly as described at the beginning—strolling down this famous London shopping street,

Watching the lively scene full of foreigners, as though he could hear the chimes that embodied British style ringing beside his ears,

Experiencing the feeling of wandering alone through a city, going wherever he wanted to go—scratch that—

The novel feeling.

Thanks to his luck, which seemed to have mysteriously turned good