It is a particularly slow shift.  At least for Joohyun.  It’s almost 3:00 AM, and her rest day officially starts in three hours.  She cannot even remember the last time she had the weekend off, thanks to her younger teammates whose shifts she had to cover because they just really, really had to get their dose of “Vitamin Sea” for their mental health.  Not that Joohyun minds (okay, maybe a little).  Extra hours means extra cash.  She will have enough savings for multiple therapy sessions by the time her sanity wobbles (which, she hopes, does not happen anytime soon).  If she ever hits her head or trips due to lack of sleep, their HMO should be able to take care of the medical expenses.  If she does not go back home intact and in one piece, her mother will never let her hear the end of it.

“Thank you, thank you, Irene!  Oh, my God! I’m about to meet the love of my life!”

“I’m happy for you Katie!  Have a safe flight, and say hi to Eric for me!”

“I will!”

Young love, Joohyun thinks.

Young and reckless and expensive as heck love.

Joohyun cannot afford/afford to be any of these adjectives; she’s a month away from turning 27 (old and with a rotting uterus by her mother’s standards); she’s got a luggage-full of responsibilities; and a flight from Los Angeles to Slovenia and back is nearly three months’ worth of her base salary— which would be only a month’s worth of her base salary if she accepts the promotion.

The love of her life is neither in Slovenia nor anywhere else.  Taeyeon just really needs a yes or a no by Monday.

Joohyun sighs.  She looks out their floor’s window.

Coming to a decision doesn’t have to be this hard.  It wouldn’t hurt to earn more.  It’s just that she has been working non-stop since she was 16, and even though she has barely scratched the surface of financial freedom, she sometimes feels like wanting to take things slow— or at least staying at the pace she’s at.

She doesn’t want much, anyway— at least for herself.

She just wants her own tiny house up on a hill.

And maybe someone to wake up to.  Or to stay up late at night with.

She can’t remember the last time she felt the slightest bit of attraction

Gone were the days they were being preyed on by loan sharks.  But her sister is in college, and her mother is still adamant on buying back their old house; with a large backyard where her future grandkids can run around, with a balcony overlooking their small town, two-story high, closer to God, closer to the stars…

The city sky has hardly any.  Right now and all the other times she looked up… all the other times she looked out.  All that twinkle are lights from neighboring offices filled with hundreds and thousands of working class who are wide-awake—or at least trying to be— in front of computers, either typing away or talking away, trying to solve the problems of people on the side of the world where the sun is already up.

Seungwan logs out of the system for the last time.  It’s 6:00 A.M.  The sun is finally up, and her life has finally completed orbiting another BPO company.

Time to question the meaning of life and re-evaluate her choices… again.

The restroom is empty, and she has no one to fight for a spot by the lavatory.  Her now ex-colleagues who insist on touching up their makeup right before going home are all gathered in the break room— all thanks to the power of free food courtesy of the CEO’s— whose name she doesn’t care to remember— one of many birthday celebrations.

Seungwan splashes her face with cold water to freshen up.  She doesn’t want to face the world looking so, well, unemployed, on her fourth first day of unemployment.  She rips a single piece of paper towel from the dispenser and dries her face.  She needs to leave the YG building ASAP and catch adequate sleep if she wants to wake up in time for her trip this afternoon.

She doesn’t know how gazing at the stars is gonna help; she just desperately needs to get out of the concrete jungle.  Maybe basking in the glow of the night sky can out all the radiation her eyes have accumulated from staring at computer screens all year round and cure her deteriorating vision… of the future; maybe the smell of grass and soil and trees can clear her sinuses from mucus and help her navigate sticky situations to be brought about by a childhood dream if she lets it into her early adulthood again; maybe the moon can pull her out of the rut and slap her with waves of guts to just go for the thing she really wants.

Or maybe… maybe she just needs to look up.

“Jesus Christ, Rosie! What the f—?”

“Been here a minute,” the young HR specialist puckers her lips in front of the mirror as she puts her lipstick’s cap back on.  “Not my fault you were spacing out.”  She then turns towards Wendy.  “Where did you go?”

“Out of here.”

“Can’t wait, huh?”

“And here I thought we were done with the exit interview,” Seungwan crumples the used paper towel and throws it in the nearest bin.  

“Can’t I talk to you as a friend who wants to wish you the best of luck in all your future endeavors no matter how impractical they are?” 

“Okay, bye.”

Rosé giggles, “Come here, you little ,” pulls her in for a hug, whispers, “If you quit here just to work for another call center, I will ruin you,” then pulls away.  “Come back in a week for your final pay.”

She should have taken up Bogum’s offer.  The usual 10-minute commute home became 30.  There’s still chores that need to be done before she can doze off in peace.

“Leave it to me, unnie.  Get some sleep.  Now.”  Joy, one of her housemates, in PJs, bed-head and still yawning, grabs the laundry basket from her hands and puts it on top of their washing machine.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea?”

“I’ll use your fabric conditioner, don’t worry.”

“No, I mean me, going to this stargazing camp you and Seul were supposed to go.  Can you still get a refund?”

“I can’t.  But I wouldn’t even if I could.  Come on, unnie,” the taller, younger, and definitely stronger one grabs Joohyun by the shoulders, shaking some sense into her frugal .  “You need this.  Nature.  Fresh air.  You, just lying there, basking it all in, while you… try to figure out where Aries is.”

Joohyun doesn’t really know much about stars.  Except that they are bright.  That they are far away.  And that they don’t really make wishes come true.

“Plus,” Joy adds, “there’s also people there.  It’s high time you met someone outside of work.  Since people at work haven’t really worked for you.”

Of course.

“You and Seulgi are outside of work.”

“You know what I mean, unnie.  Someone who’d listen,” Joy continues as she separates the laundry by color.  “Someone who’d help you with the baggage.  Someone you could be intimate with.  Someone who’d help you de-stress.  You know what helps de-stress?”

“Kissing, I know,” Joy has only told her a thousand times, “which I cannot do alone.  And .”

“Well that, you can do alone, it’s just better with—”

“Oookay, I’ll just go pack my stuff for the trip.”

“Oh, Seul already took care of that.”

This.  Maybe this is enough, Joohyun thinks.  And it’s been enough for a while.  Two people who actually care.  Maybe she can go on living without the perks that romance offers and be fine with that forever.

“Thank you,” she smiles.

“It’s nothing, unnie.  Now go, shoo.  Off to bed.”

"Oh, shoot!" It's 11:00 AM and Seungwan overslept. It's 11:00 AM, and the camp coordinator has sent multiple texts.

'Bus is leaving in an hour.'

'Bus is leaving in 30 minutes.'

'In 15 minutes.'

'Anytime now.'

'Ms. Son, are you still coming?'