01

"wakin' up too early, maybe we could sleep in."

No matter how hard she pulled the curtains tight, sunlight always seemed to creep into Kang Kyungwon’s room like an unwanted visitor.

Kyungwon stretched her crooked fingers across the linens of the bed, feeling for her partner’s body. Sensing a cold emptiness, Kyungwon huffed and rolled over onto her other side, getting more comfortable with the world unfolding before her. Her blonde hair got in the way as she settled, so she shook her head as it laid on the pillow.

“Ugh,” Kyungwon muttered, her features scrunching into a look of annoyance, pulling her white duvet up to her chin. “Don’t you think the sun could take a break, for like, one day? And hey, can’t you take a break as well?”

Although she’s never fully ready to tackle the day, her counterpart always was. Kyungwon’s eyes only took a second to find Minkyung, standing over the dresser. She was looking into the mirror as she applied mascara, her hands painting her eyelashes delicately with a small brush. Their eyes met through the mirror, and Kyungwon’s breath hitched for a second. She fell in love with Minkyung every day. This morning was no different.

“I have to go to work,” Minkyung reminded Kyungwon, as she did every morning. Kyungwon observed as a smile slowly crept its way onto Minkyung’s pink, glossed lips as she looked at Kyungwon through the mirror. Kyungwon loved Minkyung’s morning voice. It was a soft yet rich sound, and only occurred between Minkyung waking up and her first cup of coffee for the day. “Also, you can’t just lie around this morning. You have to get to your eye surgery.”

It was a wonder how Kyungwon and Minkyung coexisted; Kyungwon, the sleepy beauty, a slacker trying to get through her second year of college, was in love with Minkyung, the analytical and smart executive. Even though they were the same age, Minkyung was a child prodigy and quickly skipped grades, resulting in her finishing her masters degree three years prior. To Kyungwon, saying she felt like an idiot next to Minkyung was the understatement of the century.

“Can you come over here?” Kyungwon asked as she flapped her arm around, trying to reach her glasses on the nightstand. “You know how hard it is for me to wake up without some incentive.”

“You’re a .”

“Too bad you like es.”

“I have to get to work and you have to get to the doctors.”

“Come on.”

This routine happened every morning. Kyungwon would insist for Minkyung to return back to bed, Minkyung would tell her she has to go to work and what Kyungwon has to do for the day. Kyungwon would keep insisting and Minkyung would eventually give in, giving her girlfriend a departing kiss that left Kyungwon’s lips a little sticky with raspberry-tinted gloss and floating in a cloud of Chanel perfume.

Kyungwon’s haphazard hand finally found her glasses as Minkyung strode over for her morning kiss. Kyungwon, ready for her favorite part of the morning, adjusted her glasses on quickly and looked at her girlfriend in the best quality her glasses could give her. Minkyung leaned down, and --

“You’re going to be late.”

No kiss, no nothing. Kyungwon laid there in shock in the odor of Chanel fragrance until she yelped, “Hey, wait, I feel jipped!”

Minkyung was halfway out the door when she called back in response, “Don’t be late!”

The city was some sort of enigma to Kyungwon; always shifting, changing, evolving. So many life stories emerged and were ongoing in the city. It was an escape to suburban teenagers from their mundane lives. To working adults, it was where they came to labor for hours until they returned for the next day. Sometimes Kyungwon was happy to be in the center of the chaos, with the street food vendors calling out their fares and the cabbies zooming by tourists who were waving for them. She loved the ability to look up at night and see all the lights. Other times she longed to be at home with her parents in the country, tending to the small herb garden they started when she was a child. Sometimes when she looked at the sky, she wished to see stars.

As she waited in the subway station, she couldn’t but help but think of Minkyung and her deprival of the morning kiss. Of course it was small, but was it the beginning of Minkyung getting sick of their routine? Was Kyungwon too lazy for Minkyung? Kyungwon let the thought roll around in her head until she decided that starting tomorrow, after this eye surgery, she’d wake up early and make Minkyung some fruit, fried eggs with some coffee the next morning. She’d prove to Minkyung that she could get up at an unreasonable time and start her morning before Minkyung. Or was this a problem that was more deeply rooted?

It probably didn’t reflect too well on Minkyung, as a executive of her father’s company, to have a girlfriend that seemed so unaccomplished and unmotivated in comparison to her. After all, Kyungwon wasn’t employed and wasn’t the genius Minkyung was. Even though Kyungwon was at a relatively good school in the city, it was nothing compared to the impressive and presumptuous schools Minkyung was sent to. Plus Kyungwon being a little bit of a slacker and Minkyung having skipped so many grades on her remarkable academic prowess alone was outstanding. Not to mention that Minkyung was beautiful and groomed herself carefully to show it. Kyungwon always felt humiliated whenever Minkyung took her to those big, fancy events that her company was somehow tied to and how men would ask her who her date was and she would point to Kyungwon. They’d ask again -- how cute, you brought your best friend, do you have a boyfriend? Minkyung would point again to Kyungwon, who would bashfully wave as a slow feeling of being out of place would seep from her brain and leak all the way down to her heart and into her bones. Don’t listen to them, Minkyung would tell Kyungwon between kisses later those nights, you’re worth so much more than those boys think of you. Of us. Kyungwon would listen, would let Minkyung drain the feeling of her being unsuitable, letting Minkyung do everything. Letting Minkyung pay the bills. Letting Minkyung work. Letting Minkyung do everything right in the relationship. Maybe Kyungwon was being a selfish partner and wasn’t letting Minkyung do what she wanted to do.

Kyungwon became so lost in her thought she barely realized that she was on the subway, halfway to her destination. As a creature of habit, going on autopilot and boarding subways was a common mistake for Kyungwon, but she was thankful that today she correctly boarded the train. As she neared her stop, she checked for any emails from her professors, trying to look interested on her phone like everyone around her. Sighing as she realized that her inbox was empty and her stop was near, Kyungwon let herself sway slightly with the subway as it creaked to a stop, waiting patiently for the doors to open.

Getting above ground again was a nice moment for Kyungwon, considering she never traveled in the early morning. The sun opened up in the final stairs of the subway exit, so it really did feel like the world was shining down on her. She took the most direct route to the doctors office, trying to avoid looking at Minkyung’s building which was to the left a few blocks down. She was probably overthinking everything, but she felt that her thoughts were valid.

The elevator up to the doctor’s waiting room was modernized, but still had the sterile, cold feel of an office building. Kyungwon hesitantly jammed the fourth floor button as the elevator started a slow ascent. Kyungwon took off her glasses and cleaned them slightly with her t-shirt, trying not to smudge them more. Even though the world was more fuzzy and dull without her glasses, she realized that a short procedure would change how she saw the world and how she saw Minkyung. She wouldn’t have to adorn glasses or contacts to make her vision perfect. She wondered what life would be like without reaching over for her glasses or getting a new pair once in awhile. She supposed that maybe it might make her life a little better and less hassle free. She put her round frames back on her face, fitting snugly in the small indents they had made over the years.

Wandering into the ophthalmologist’s waiting room (Kyungwon didn’t even know how to pronounce such a word—she’d ask Minkyung once she got home), she found herself navigating to the desk where an elderly woman handed out official paperwork after she described she was there for a PRK surgery. As Kyungwon handed the lengthy paperwork back to the old woman who croaked a thank you, an assistant of the eye surgeon approached the waiting area. She turned to see the patients in the room—there were a lot of them, so Kyungwon was thankful her procedure was supposed to be short.

“Kang Kyungwon?” The assistant asked, dressed in green scrubs. After she confirmed that it was her identity, the assistant led her down a dimly lit hallway with bright rooms on either side, some filled with patients and others not. After being led into a room at the end of the hallway and having taken a seat, the butterflies of getting a procedure done settled into Kyungwon’s stomach. The assistant briefly asked some questions and she replied to the best of her ability, though she wasn’t really sure what a cornea topography map meant when the assistant muttered they would most likely need an up to date one. The assistant looked tired, but managed to shoot Kyungwon a friendly smile.

“Doctor Jung will be with you in just a moment.”