I will never shed a tear again. I’m all cried out. Nayeong thought as Tiffany finished her story with the setting of the sun.

How could so much misfortune congregate upon one individual on this stupid overpopulated sphere? Over seven billion and the world couldn’t even be bothered to spread the misery out a little! After all, sharing was caring right? Was it even right to think that? To wish misfortunes onto others? Nayeong really didn’t know. What she did know was that someone, somewhere, up there, was being lazy and shirking their duties, dumping a whole ton of the bad and the ugly all in one spot.

To say life hadn’t been fair to Tiffany wouldn’t even begin to cover it. But there was something else to be learned in Tiffany’s rip-your-heart-out-and-feed-it-to-the-hyenas story. There were indeed good people out there in the world. People who didn’t need to come from hardship to understand that sometimes it was ok to be good. The small good things. That’s what counts.

“You’re taking Mr. Lee’s job,” Nayeong stated after she had managed to compose herself. There was no room left for discussion in her tone.

“You say it like I wasn’t already set on it before. Like I came to you for advice like some stupid babo who didn’t know what was best for her. Don’t you go taking credit for me making this decision,” Tiffany retorted cheekily.

Nayeong smiled. There was a hint of teasing in the younger girl’s tone, unlike Tiffany’s usual terse and impervious self. Nayeong liked it. She liked it a lot.

“Since you didn’t grow up here you wouldn’t know. But SM is huge in the entertainment industry here in South Korea. I don’t think you realize how many hoops you’ve skipped over by taking this offer. You’ve met the freaking president of the company. Been given an opportunity many can’t even dare to think or dream about. Maybe your luck is finally chan–”

“Don’t say that! You can call me superstitious and irrational. But for my own peace of mind, don’t say things like that,” Tiffany insisted stubbornly.

Nayeong nodded understandingly. And she really did. Understand. She’s been there. That fear of being happy and that crushing sense of inevitability that came with being pressed and pushed down way too many times.

But Nayeong had gotten past that. There was still the small niggling sense of fear sometimes, but Nayeong liked to think that that was just phantom pain and that the bad was all in her past. It took her a long time, but she had gotten here. Tiffany would be the same, and Nayeong would see to it that she was there beside her every step of the way.

“Enough deep and depressing talk. Let’s go out for dinner. My treat. NOT to celebrate or anything, because we obviously have NOTHING to be happy about, but simply because we’ve sat here from morning till night and all I haven’t had any real food the entire day!” Nayeong teased.

Tiffany merely arched her eyebrows, not rising to the bait. Getting up to grab her sweater, Tiffany stood by the door, waiting for Nayeong to get dressed.

The woman had stayed in her negligible sleepwear the entire day and Tiffany was