Walking the streets of Dangjin, holding her umbrella, made for quite a bit of reminiscing as Yoo Mi quickly found out. She took in everything around her, the familiar shops she'd visited with past friends, to the restraunts she remembered delivering quantities of miscellaneous supplies to. 

It was not until she arrived several blocks from her motel that she stopped at a small restraunt, one that she'd visited frequently during high school. Entering, she easily recognized four previous classmates, all who looked up and stared at her for a while, one of them working the register.

"Jang Yoo Mi? Is that really you?" the young woman at the register, a classmate from her homeroom said, bewildered, "I haven't seen you in since graduation! Where've you been?!"

Yoo Mi felt her eyebrows rising to her hairline. She'd forgotten how chatty the population of Dangjin could be, so accustomed to the indifference many of the people across the country often showed to people from outside their city.

Then again, Yoo Mi had once been a resident of the Dangjin, so to some extent it only made sense they'd still treat her the same.

Shrugging, she looked up at the menu, answering as she did so, "Large Green tea Frappe."

Her former classmate nodded, quickly charging her before leaning across the counter, "Where have you been all these years? No one's heard from you since you left."

Yoo Mi stared at the girl, a little astonished that she would press for details about her life when Yoo Mi had rarely spoken to her back in high school. She'd had a group of friends, some who had left to Seoul to attend university there and two who had stayed behind. Both had married and she knew one at least had a child. But this girl rarely ever spoke to her, and had done nothing more then treat Yoo Mi like she'd never existed.

The girl's smiled faded into confusion, "Something wrong?"

"Uhm... Yeah. Can I have my drink?" Yoo Mi responded, perhaps a little more sharply than she normally would have.

The girl looked a little taken aback by this but nodded sheepishly, turning away from Yoo Mi as she prepared her order.

Yoo Mi sighed, shaking her head as she stepped to the side and waited for her drink. She was certain that within the next few hours, a chunk of her old classmates would know she was back in town. 

Because the girl had a point. Yoo Mi hadn't kept in touch with anyone after she'd left. What few friends she had, had somehow understood that she needed to be away from Dangjin, choosing to ask her every once in a while how she was. Yoo Mi, for her part, had sometimes responded, keeping her friend's at arm's length.

Distancing herself from people who cared about was just another thing she seemed to be good at.

Once she got her drink, Yoo Mi went and sat at a table by the window, fiddling with her phone and taking the occassional sip from her drink. Watching people come in and out of the restaurant, sometimes ordering food, sometimes drinks, and some going in to work. Some of the people she knows, and some must have moved into town.

Either way, she quickly begins to see more than enough people from her past.

A few stop and smile at her, some even wave and say a small, polite greeting to her. It's when she sees one of her friends, now with a little boy of her own, walk in. 

The young woman quickly orders, making sure her little boy gets an ice cream before retrieving the food. When she turns to leave, she sees Yoo Mi at her table, stopping for a moment, shocked.

It's in that moment that Yoo Mi realized how different she must look. Now a little thinner, a little curvier, her body absent of the baby pudge that once settled on her cheek and tummy were now gone. She had visible tattoos on the insides of her elbows, on her thighs (which were covered anyways). She wore clothes that were more fashionable and akin to Seoul life, then the comfortable clothes of small city-life that frequented the closets of Dangjin's population.

Whereas, her friend, who had once been one of the prettiest girls in their grade, and possibly one of the thinnest, was now worn down by marriage life and motherhood. Her once always styled long hair, was now cut into a more fashionable, social standing acceptable bob, brushing her shoulders. A lightweight, cross necklace now adorned a once bare neck, and the only rings were the ones that defined her marriage. Pudge had settled onto her cheeks, giving her face a slightly fuller look, and from what Yoo Mi could see, it even looked like her friend was expecting another child.

It is in that moment that Yoo Mi realized how much she had missed out on. For all she can do is simply smile and nod, giving a tiny wave to her friend's little boy before the young woman nods back, giving a brief smile before walking out.

And it's all Yoo Mi can do not to miss her old life.