Life was just a chrome of black and white as Momo manned the store. She had finished her daily to-do list and now she just waited as customers filed in from the cold outside. They would exchange meaningless greetings as they walked up to the counter to pay for their purchases then exit the store and leave her to settle back into the monotonous routine. She tried not to think about the time, glancing at the clock face and realising that there was still a few more hours before her shift ended. But even then, after she had gotten off work, there’d be nothing to look forward to. Sana’s flight had departed in the wee hours of the morning and she’d been unable to see her off on account of her need to sleep.

Ding dong. The newly installed bell rang brightly as a customer entered and Momo hid a smile as she recalled the efforts of her manager on insisting that they have some way of notifying the workers that a person had entered the store. She straightened up from her position when she had been lost in her thoughts and hoped that the manager would have no need to check the cameras for the day. He was a pedantic person and although that was a required quality for his occupation, he would infrequently monitor the store cameras to make sure nothing was amiss. Momo didn’t want to be seen as slacking off and she stood to attention as the customer browsed the aisles.

A short while later a customer, a teenage girl, walked towards the counter with her arms laden down with snacks. She deposited her load on the bench top and Momo hid her shock as she turned from the cash register. She had been readying the screen and hadn’t been looking at the customer standing in front of her. It was Myoui Mina from school and she wondered why the other girl was here, feigning nonchalance as she scanned the items. She fiercely hoped that the makeup she put on whenever she worked was enough to hide the fact that she was who she was.

Mina didn’t seem to recognise her, only glancing routinely at her face once when she paid with a credit card. Momo placed the items in a plastic bag for easy handling and secretly had a closer look at Mina. She was wearing a thick woollen sweater and a scarf wrapped around her neck to protect her from the cold. Her nose with tinged with pink and Momo was once again glad to be standing in the warmth of the store where there was a heating system. Mina grabbed the bag with a thank you and as she walked away, Momo was able to catch a glimpse of schoolbag on her back.

When the bell rang again to signify the customer leaving, Momo raised her hands to her face and rubbed her cheeks in relief. Mina didn’t seem to have recognised her and she leaned past the counter to see if she was still there. Mina was standing outside the doors of the store with a hand in her pocket then suddenly turned around to look straight at Momo, forcing her to duck behind a lollipop stand. Momo widened her eyes in surprise and bit her lip as she worried whether Mina had seen her watching. “Why would she look back?” she wondered then as a few seconds passed, peeked around the lollipop stand to see if Mina was still standing there.

She wasn’t and she was now replaced by the familiar form of Junsu who had come to take his shift. Momo looked up to the clock which now read 5:54 p.m. and realised that the hours had whiled away as she was lost in her thoughts before Mina had entered the store. She grinned embarrassedly at her lapse of mind and smiled at her co-worker. “Hey Junsu,” she greeted. Junsu returned the greeting with a wave of his hand as he walked closer.

‘How’s it going? Was it busy today?’

‘Not really. Just the usual. Anyway, I wanted to ask, do you know if the boss is coming in tomorrow? I wanted to talk to him about something.’

Junsu shook his head. “You know he doesn’t come in on weekends. But he’ll be here Monday morning if you want to swap shifts. Otherwise you’ll have to wait till closing time,” he said. Momo pursed her lips in thought then shrugged her shoulders.

‘It’s fine. I’ll just wait. By the by, I’ve pretty much finished all the things on the to-do lists so there shouldn’t be much to do. Have fun.’

Junsu nodded agreement and Momo packed her backpack with her bottle of water and purchased some groceries before walking out to the parking lot. Sure enough, Heechul was already waiting for her as she exited the store and he drummed his fingers impatiently over the steering wheel as she got into his car. She greeted him and he reversed, smoothly merging into the traffic. “So, how was work today?” Heechul asked with his eyes on the road in front of him.

‘Same old. What about you?’

It was a normal exchange and Momo expected him to say something vague but instead he dove into an explanation of the finer points of business management. She tuned him out, thinking about her encounter with Mina. It had surprised her that someone from the same school, let alone someone she knew, would be travelling so far from the richer areas of Seoul. She turned as she realised that Heechul had stopped talking and was looking at her expectantly. “I think it’s great,” she said, hoping that it was the right answer. Heechul seemed satisfied with her reply as he continued to talk about handling of a new construction project. She felt guilt twist at her and shook her head, deciding that thinking about Myoui Mina was a waste of brain space.

‘You’re not even listening to me are you?’

‘Hmm? I am. Continue with what you were saying. It was very interesting.’

Heechul exhaled sharply with a humph and lifted his chin imperiously. “I don’t feel like talking anymore,” he said, his feathers ruffled. Momo hid a smile at the immature action but was glad to have a bit of silence for the rest of the drive.

~

Mina tapped a pen on her desk as she mulled over the day’s events. She had all but abandoned the worksheet in front of her as she leaned back in her chair and stared up at the ceiling. It wasn’t the first time she’d entered the convenience store and seen Hirai Momo serve her but she was certain this time that Momo had recognised her. When she had been standing in the parking lot to check her change, she had turned around and caught Momo looking at her. She had ducked behind a tray but she had definitely been staring at Mina. She wondered what it meant. She in air and puffed up her cheeks, blowing it back out in a huff.

The worksheet wasn’t any closer to being completed and knowing she would have trouble with some of the problems added an extra deterrent. Her thoughts turned to her class at the cram school and felt a flash of embarrassment at attending the school for remedial studies and not the normal extended study. Her teacher was nice enough; an old man with a bald spot who frequently spoke about the difference between the current education system and the one that was in place when he attended school sometime back in the 1960s. She was just glad that there was no one in her class that might recognise her from a glance, having sat at the back and kept her scarf tightly wrapped around her neck.

It was tough navigating the buses and trams on the way to the building where the cram school was held. She’d attended one in the past when she’d been learning ballet and piano but it was a different experience travelling as one with the public. There were many advantages of being able to travel without having to worry about traffic for the most part and she welcomed the 20 minute bus ride where she didn’t have to worry about the amount of people in her house or school. However, the downside was in its name. It was open to the public and whilst Korea was known for general respect and well-mannered people, it was galling to have people making noise that could be heard even through her earphones. She usually rode in silence but on the occasion that people were talking or someone’s music was playing particularly loud, she listened to some songs that helped to drown out the world.  

Although noise was a big downside to using public transport, the biggest drawback was that there was no such restraint in how people smelled. Seoul was still heavily in development in many areas and quite often, she’d be riding a tram with construction workers who smelled of gasoline and whatever other foul liquids and substances they handled or by the look of some of their clothes; tread through. Then there were the old grannies who took oh so long to climb on the bus and sat wherever they felt like with their shopping trolleys laden with produce from the daily markets. It was an honest affront to her sensibilities to suffer such horrid travelling conditions.

Mina sighed, trying to push out the concerns from her mind. There was no point worrying about something that she couldn’t change regardless of how much she wished it. And besides, it was her own stupid fault that she was in such a situation. She sat properly and leaned over the workshee