Park Jiyeon hung her head in defeat as she shuffled down the busy street.  Still dressed in her sweats, Jiyeon was drawing some amused glances but she didn’t care, she was too exhausted to worry about her appearance.  Her feet shuffled lazily against the concrete ground.  There wasn’t a particular destination she was heading. Instead she was letting her feet lead the way.  The hood of her jacket was up, effectively shielding her face from curious eyes.  The last thing Jiyeon needed was someone recognizing her.  Sensing eyes on her, Jiyeon ducked her head and quickly fled into the safety of a nearby coffee shop.  Luckily for Jiyeon the shop wasn’t too busy.  Deciding carefully, she took a seat near the corner where she would be partly hidden in the shadows and away from the windows at the front of the shop.

A waitress lazily took her order and Jiyeon had a feeling she wasn’t going to get her drink very soon.  Glancing around, there were only a few customers in the shop besides herself.  There was an elderly man calmly sipping on a cup of tea, while he stared out at the street.  A younger man who couldn’t be much older than Jiyeon was busying himself with what looked like a notebook, his pencil was scribbling a hundred words a second.  At another table there was a couple happy to be in each other’s presence.  The waitress from before was slowly getting the order going, her pace slower than that of a turtle.  Jiyeon let out a deep breath and leaned heavily against the booth. 

“Jiyeon-ah, great performance.”

“Thank you President.”

“But you shouldn’t be thanking me just yet.  As much as you have improved in the past three years, you’re just not meeting our expectations.”

“What do you mean?”

“As you know there are a lot of talented trainees in this company.  We don’t have enough resources to make everyone here an idol…To be frank, there are others more talented than you that the company should be focusing on.”

Jiyeon’s fingers curled into a fist at the recent memory.

“I have what it takes to be an idol!  I’ll show you.  Give me a month and I will prove to you that I can.”

“…A month.  I’ll give you a month.  And if you cannot prove to me by then you’ll have to consider another career path.”

“Aish.  What am I going to do now?” Jiyeon muttered to herself, her fists shaking from anger, while her eyes began to sting as she held back her tears of frustration.  “I don’t even know where to start or what to do.”

Jiyeon sat quietly, trying to come up with a plan.  Her cup of tea came a little later, like she suspected.  She was surprised that her tea was even hot at the way the waitress took her sweet time serving her.  Everything seemed to be going wrong for her that day. 

It didn’t take her long to finish her drink.  Leaving a bill on the table for her drink, no tip included, she left the coffee shop at the same time the young man did.  Jiyeon was behind the man when he had shut the door on her as he was too occupied with his notebook.  “Ya!  Don’t you have any manners? Closing doors onto girls…aish.” Jiyeon grumbled as she rubbed her sore forehead.

The young man didn’t seem the least bit apologetic.  Instead he shot her an annoyed look.  “You have a loud mouth for a girl.” He snapped.  “Thanks to you I’ve lost my train of thought.”

Jiyeon huffed.  “I can’t believe this guy…what a jerk.” She muttered to herself as she picked herself off of the ground.

"What was that?”

Jiyeon glared defiantly at the man, not one bit intimated by his taller stature.  “I said you are a jerk.” She hissed.  “Are you also deaf?  Let me repeat it then.  You. Are. A. Jerk.”

The man seemed surprised at Jiyeon’s boldness but his expression immediately turned sour.  “Unbelievable.” He stated, shaking his head.  “You know what, I don’t have time for you.”

“Ya!  I should be the one saying that.” 

“Forget it.”

“Fine.” Jiyeon huffed, honestly it was the wrong day to get on her nerves.

“Fine.”

They both took a step in the same direction and froze.  They shot each other a hateful and annoyed glare before continuing to their destination, which happened to be in the same direction.  “Ya! You following me now?”

“Why would I want to follow you?” Jiyeon shot back.

They walked side by side in silence, both stopping at the bus terminal.  “Wonderful.” Jiyeon grumbled sarcastically. 

The atmosphere at the bus stop immediately turned tense as the two began their glare-off.  The bus couldn’t come sooner for the both of them and when it finally did show up they were forced to sit next to one another since there were no other seats left.           

It was the third stop when the man finally departed but not before shooting Jiyeon one last frown.  Jiyeon wasn’t one to not do anything so she stuck out her tongue, causing the man to shake his head before stalking out of the bus.  “Today is definitely not my day.” Jiyeon stated before slouching tiredly in her seat.  “Eh?  What’s this?” Jiyeon exclaimed as she noticed the abandoned notebook next to her.  “This belongs to the jerk.  Ha!  Serves him right.”

Curious she flipped through the notebook.  “Wait, what is this?” She said, her eyes wide with surprise.  “…Haru…haru?”