Seulgi had been sitting at the bus stop for about fifteen minutes now. She checked her phone once again, then sighed at the low battery notification on the top corner of the screen. Giving up with the rectangle gadget, the girl shoved it into the pocket of her handbag, then stared at the busy road before her eyes.

This little town by the sea was indeed small. There were no big malls or luxurious buildings. Supermarket was thirty minutes by bus or driving, but farmer market was always an easy choice. The school there was only until high school, no college or higher education was provided, and the nearest university was in the City H, sixty kilometers via winding roads by the cliff and sea.

Her little town wasn’t really crowded in usual days but today was Friday, almost twilight at the time. Seulgi could easily see the swarm of people packed the road, glowing in the dying sunlight. Workers of small offices and governor institution, high school students coming home from their supplementary lesson. Workers again. So many workers, Seulgi thought.

She was one of them.

Seulgi worked as a civil servant at the town tax administration office. This year was her second year, and all she felt was a severe boredom. Mundane paperwork and inputting data, all day long staring at the computer screen in contrast with her previous job at the seaweed factory.

Still, this was better.

Friday evening was a little comfort for Seulgi’s tiring week.

Sitting in a cheap bar, three bottles of soju or glasses of beers. Pork belly barbeque and spicy coated chicken. A good company to exchange the talk about her day.

Wendy.

Seulgi’s eyes found a petite figure in ivory blouse and black long pants. Her brownie hair was blown by the dry wind behind her. She took her pace in long strides, Seulgi thought it was cute yet elegant, as if she was hopping her way towards Seulgi.

“Hi! You’re early?”

Seulgi smiled at her greeting. Wendy brushed few strands of hair fell over her porcelain face, then took a seat next to Seulgi.

“I always get off the office around this time. It’s not that I’m early, you’re just late.”

Her friend laughed upon hearing her answer. Wendy’s laughter was another thing that made Seulgi liked the day like this. She laughed as if she sang, the sound of her laughter alone was a melodious song to Seulgi’s ears.

They sat for a moment before Seulgi got up. “Let’s go,” she said.

Wendy reached out her hands to Seulgi who rolled her eyes at Wendy’s action. Sighing but not complaining, Seulgi took the hands and pulled Wendy until she got into standing position.

“Soju and samgyeopsal?” The brunette asked. Seulgi thought for a while, then nodded.

“Okay,” she replied shortly. But there was a faint smile grazed on her lips.

Seven years of friendship, Seulgi counted. They were seventeen when they first met. It was a cold winter day, a dry one. Snow didn’t touch this town for as long as Seulgi could remember. Bustling crowds seconds before class began, the sound of footsteps in the corridor. The homeroom teacher entered the class with books in her arms, a girl tailed behind her.

The teacher introduced the girl as Wendy Shon. In a short time, Wendy had already owned the entire class attention. Her strange pale skin. Her silvery blonde hair. Her sky blue irises. All about Wendy Shon screamed unusualness.

She said she moved to this town from the Big City and stayed with an aunt here. Said the city made her sick.

Now Wendy was sitting across her, tongs in her hand, flipping pork belly on the grill. The air was stuffy, smoke and the scent of liquor, dying haze of the night. People’s noisy chatters wrapped around them. Seulgi drank her soju, studied the girl in front of her. Wendy’s hair was no longer blonde. On the second year of high school, she dyed it to the black, then dark brown, so that she wouldn’t stand out among the townspeople. But her skin was still pale as ever, the color in her eyes was washing out.  

“What?” Wendy’s sudden question broke Seulgi’s wandering mind. She put back her glass onto the table and blinked her eyes. An amusement flashed on Wendy’s face.

“You look at me like you never saw me.”

Seulgi shrugged, a smile spread across her face. She picked up chopsticks, reached for a strip of grilled meat.

“Nothing,” she said. “Your boss still on vacation?”

Wendy frowned at Seulgi’s question. “Why do you ask?”

Seulgi pressed her lips together, then answered, “Your office hasn’t submitted tax report.”

Wendy choked on the smoke from the grilling plate. Seulgi offered her a glass of water, which she drank quickly. She wiped with the back of her hand before replied.

“How could I know about the administration. I am in market research, Seulgi.”

“I’m not even close with the boss,” Wendy muttered in annoyance.

“I’m just telling you,” Seulgi said quietly.

“Yes, yes. Thank you. But I think it would be much more effective if you just send our office a notice.” Wendy threw her hands up, defeated.

Seulgi didn’t say anything, and Wendy continued to devour her food. Seulgi kept drinking, her first bottle of soju had finished. For a while, they didn’t talk. It wasn’t a complete silence, but for Seulgi it was a quiet moment, enough for her to think.

She tended to think a lot. Wendy would sometimes become annoyed with her habit. Even when they were together, Seulgi was the quiet one, the one who spent a great time swimming in her own pool of mind. It calmed her, the thought. She loved it when nobody could go through her mind, that her mind was her own to see.

Wendy was the opposite of her. In their earlier days, Seulgi thought Wendy was just like her because she didn’t talk a lot. Maybe it was due to her extreme appearance, or her popularity that Wendy looked shy, especially to strangers.

One day after school ended, Seulgi coincidentally ran into Wendy at the tofu shop. The sky was a color of murky water, cold breeze blew from the raging ocean. That day, rain was hammering into the ground. Wendy didn’t have umbrella with her, and Seulgi, Seulgi who had planted fascination with the new girl since the first time, timidly offered to share her umbrella.

Seulgi walked Wendy until they reach her aunt’s house, which is a cubic brick building in a small alleyway. She invited Seulgi in, which Seulgi declined in excuse of coming home late. The next day though, when Wendy asked her to her house, Seulgi accepted.

They started to hang out often since then.

The sound of aluminium cup colliding with the floor snapped Seulgi’s attention back to the present. She lifted her eyes from her own glass and found Wendy froze in front of her, hand hung in the air.

Cold needles started pricking her spine, Seulgi’s gaze wavering at the sight of her friend who looked like she didn’t understand what just happened. Seulgi got up from her stool and rushed to Wendy’s side.

“Wen? You alright?”

Wendy’s breath was ragged, her body was shaking when Seulgi touched her. She closed her eyes and swallowed hard, bead of sweat fell from her left temple.

“I’m… okay. I’m okay.” Wendy’s voice was raspy, but it sounded rather stable. “Just a little bit dizzy. No worries, Seulgi.” She smiled, trying to assure Seulgi.

Seulgi worried for Wendy. It wasn’t the first time Wendy suddenly went strange like that. Seulgi had seen Wendy almost fainted for so many times. She also often dropped things, fell suddenly. Seulgi mentioned this to Wendy several times, but her friend only brushed it off with an amused smile.

“You look pale,” Seulgi told her. Wendy let out a weak laughter.

“Seulgi, I am always pale.”

“You’re sick, Wen. You need to see doctor,” Seulgi tried to persuade her friend.

“It’s nothing. It’s just my usual headache. Will get better after I took medicine.” Wendy shook her head. But when she caught Seulgi’s suspicious face, she added: “It’s an ordinary headache, I swear.”

 “It looked nothing ordinary to me,” Seulgi snapped. Her lips pressed into a grim line.

“Ssh, people are looking,” Wendy whispered. Seulgi pulled back from Wendy and looked around. True to Wendy’s words, the people in the bbq house stared at them with curious eyes. Seulgi turned to Wendy and let out a tired sigh.

“Let’s go home. I’ll go with you.”

“I’m okay now,” Wendy smiled. Seulgi threw her a sharp glare.

“No. I don’t want you freaking people out if you suddenly collapsed.”

Wendy let out a muffled laugh. “Okay.”

She pulled a bill of ten thousand won and gestured Seulgi to pay for their drink. Seulgi took it and walked to the counter. She could hear Wendy whispered a thank you behind her.

wish me luck with this story.