[b]10pm-11pm,
Saturday[/b]

The moon shone down onto the silver hair of the man walking his two dogs, varying heavily in size. The larger shepherd mix, Romeo, carried himself with a dignified pride, whereas the excited smaller Jack Russell, Jinxie, burst with boundless amounts of energy.
After all, Shou only ever managed to take them out twice a day at best. Once in the morning before going to work, and once in the evening. It had gotten a little later than he had anticipated today, but that wasn't of an issue.
The Shiny Park was less full in the evenings, but still people made their way along the paths, talking and chatting. Amorous couples snuck kisses and knowing glances in the darkness, and there were even some other people out with their dogs. Some people played instruments out here this late at night for the solace. There were some acoustic guitars and makeshift drums out, and even some people with harmonicas.
Shou could sympathise. After all, he would play his own violin out here whenever he felt the urge.
Something about the trees that closed in the park always made Shou feel unseen, and safe, simultaneously.

Thankfully, the smaller dog wasn't big enough to tip the man over, so he could manage to hold both leashes in one hand. He brought his freed hand to his lips to pull the cigarette away from in between them and exhale the soothing smoke into the night air in a little cloud. In that magical way that it did, it calmed his nerves, the cigarette. He'd often keep his thoughts in check with one, though if he personally was consulted, he would much rather enjoy a strawberry-grape shisha at the famous Arabic restaurant, [i]Alf Layla[/i] (or "Thousand Nights" in Classical Arabic) which was one of the many cultural restaurants on Shine Junction.
It served the most marvellous Arabic cuisine alongside the smokes, and the waitresses wore the most alluring belly-dancer outfits, whereas the waiters dressed as Arabic warriors did.

As he continued on, watching the people through the clouds of smoke he blew inches from his spectacles, and keen brown eyes, he spotted many a homeless person as well. Or, people that appeared to be homeless, anyway. They...um. [i]Dressed[/i] homelessly enough. Shou couldn't help but feel sorry for them, more often than not. At this hour, a great deal of them had found some nook or cranny of the park to curl up in and fall asleep, but a surprising number were still awake, too. Smoking and drinking to their heart's content.
Shou was just walking by a gentleman just as he finished a pack of Marlboro lights, which made the professor's eyebrow quirk in intrigue. He himself was smoking a thin cigarette from the Marlboro Gold Touch line, after all.
It was fully likely that such a gentleman spent every dime he earnt on cigarettes and drinks, and much rather neglected the lifestyle that most non-homeless people chose.
But something about his dressing style, and just what he was drinking, and smoking, struck Shou as a little odd.

"A little expensive for a homeless man, wouldn't you agree?"
Shou stopped by the man and said soft, and purr-like, both dogs curiously going up to sniff this new, strange individual. His voice could have easily been lost to the night air. It caught up with Shou all too late that he was wearing earphones, and probably missed what Shou had to say anyway. Shrugging his shoulders and fetching his wallet from his back-pocket, he pulled out a $10 note and set it down in front of the man, a way of apologising for his rude stopping-and-staring.

He would only later come to realise that this man was Jake Vanguard, one of the artists his brother so fondly listened to, and got into, the year before.

Stepping away from the man and letting a low whistle leave his lips, the dogs perked up and even the friendlier Jinxie, who was licking one of the man's free hands by now, returned to her master's side, and then in front of him to the leash's strain, excited and fully aware of where her master was headed for the evening. After all, it wasn't uncommon for him to head there to enjoy a game of Roulette, or even Poker or Baccarat, and some drinks too:

Shiny City's Players' Casino.

Casting a glance behind him at the man he had presumed to be homeless, to see if he had taken the cash and noticed Shou a couple of paces away, his face blanched when he noticed the man fumble around in the dirt and pull out a gun.
He froze in his paces, and only just kept Romeo from barking.
...though the man didn't seem to have the intention to shoot him, no, not at all. In fact, he just looked at the gun, pondering something, and...buried it back?

"Oy!" Shou barked when the man had put the gun away, walking back in his paces and standing over the man again, blocking the light that should have lit his body and casting his shadow onto the man sitting against the tree. "What the hell do you think you're doing with that gun around?"
And though he didn't intend it to sound so harsh, something about his voice spoke genuine concern.
"What the hell? Don't end your life out here, if that's what you're thinking, young man."