Chapter 1: In which Hayoung begins to wonder whether her life is actually as sad as people think it is.

It starts like this: Hayoung wakes up on a Friday at 5:55 am - five minutes before her alarm goes off - as she always does, spends those extra moments rubbing her eyes, staring at the ceiling and sighing very loudly, before she gets up and goes to the bathroom.
 

She brushes her teeth, all while gazing into her reflection in the mirror and not liking what she sees, but then realises that if her eyes bore into herself long enough, her face will no longer look like her face. Instead she turns away and looks elsewhere: at the plastic green plant on a shelf next to her towels, at the mold growing at a snaillike pace by the tiny window near the ceiling, at the bright, jarring light that provides a constant, but uncomfortable humming white noise that helps drown her most intrusive thoughts about the global political situation. After that, Hayoung takes a quick shower, changes into her work clothes - usually black pants, a plain long-sleeved top and her dark blue sweater that brings out none of her features - and heads to the kitchen. 
 

She eats her breakfast, usually cereal - but on some particularly special occasions, an omlette - pours her coffee in a to-go cup, grabs all her belongings and leaves the house.
 

She takes the bus and always sits at the second-last window seat so that she can blankly see the city pass by while have a ballad song stuck in her head. When there's someone already sitting in her seat, Hayoung awkwardly hovers nearby and estimates the stop at which the stranger might get off, hopefully before her, so that she can then scramble in their place instead. She gets off at the city center and walks exactly 360 meters to her office.
 

Her office is what other offices dream to be. It's a large, grey, corporate building with no unique qualities except that it looks expensive and offices in general aspire to look expensive. She nods at the receptionist who occasionally nods back and, after a midly harrowing elevator ride with other employees she has never met, enters her cubicle on the 5th floor. 
 

Hayoung works at Admin, has been for the past 6 months after she graduated college with a business degree. She's not especially good at her job, just as she wasn't especially good in college, but doing just above average work keeps her from getting fired. Besides, Hayoung has no intention of being Employee of the Month, a title currently held by Kim Minseok from IT, so she sees no point in going out of her way to impress anyone. 
 

This is fine.
 

She is fine. 
 

At lunch time, Hayoung goes two floors below to meet the only two colleagues she managed to aquaint herself with - Jongdae and Irene who's not really Irene but everyone calls her that anyway - to eat lunch. Sometimes Hayoung brings a sandwich from home, other times she eats from the cafeteria. They talk about... things. And stuff. Normal things and normal stuff. Like the weather, an office party in the evening that none of them will attend and the fresh