Staring out his office's window, Jiyong could see bad traffic across the highway. He glances at his wrist watch. It's 6. 05 pm. No wonder the traffic is awful. Must be people rushing from their workplace to home sweet home to be greeted by beloved ones. As for lonely bachelors like him, all he has been looking forward to all day is kissing his pillow good night.

Jiyong lets out a heavy sigh. He gathers some paper work clippings that needed to be done at home. He gets up, only to realize his back has been hurting for not sitting up straight for who knows how long. He stretches his waist, mentally reminding himself to maintain his posture.

"You're going already?" Yeongbin, his co- worker turns his swivel chair around while facing Jiyong.

"Yeah. I'm drained. Can you turn off the air conditioners and lights once you're done later?" Jiyong gestures at the switch near the exit.

"Uh, yeah sure. Just wanted to finish up auditing the Nov 2012/2011 treasury docs, then I'm gone." Yeongbin locks his fingers together when he stretched them upwards. "Sleep well, Jiyong ah."

Jiyong nods. "You too."

Unlike other Seoulites, Jiyong doesn't drive to work. Nor did he take public transportation- though it has been provided more than enough by the government. Instead, he commutes by foot. To his apartment, to his work, to the convenient store. It's a good thing he rented at a facilitated neighborhood. Almost everything is a stone's thrown away. Unless he has a seminar or a conference to attend, Jiyong would car pool with his associates or take a bus. It's cheaper and he needs to be frugal in this cruel city.

Jiyong takes the same route he walks passed every day. He walks along Seoul's skyscrapers until the Gangnam- Hongdae bus stop, takes the bridge and walks straight to the lines and lines of stores. He'd see his apartment soon enough.

The sun begins to finish its cycle of the day, making turns with eager moon for the night. Orange rays beam from afar, decorating all day blue sky. Birds are flying in flocks, coming home to little ones in nests. He enjoys views like this. Relaxing and for the first time during the day, he stops stressing on his job.

Strutting along the stores, he snaps and remembered he had to buy a tray of eggs along with some milk. He enters Nurungie Convenient Store, with his presence announced by the ringing bell on the door. Fetching some household necessities he knew the apartment lacks, Jiyong doesn't forgets to grab a packet of instant noodles for dear Soohyuk the housemate. He hands the cashier the amount told with a few schillings as change.

Without his blazer on, tie hanging loosely around his neck, shaggy haircut and eye bags that drags him down, Jiyong is pretty sure that he looks like a drunken married man. Miserable. Disorganized. His fingers are sore from typing all day. He probably has to go and check for his neck. His sight is getting blurrier by the minute. His facial hair went by days without shaving. Jiyong doesn't care. All he wanted is for his apartment to magically appear upon him so he could jump onto his bed.

Jiyong marches forward. Why does today's route seem so distant? He grunts silently. Jiyong eyes the street between stores building. He could see drug addicts and up to no good young people. Why are they throwing away their lives easily? They treat their life (body) like a trash. Sniffing all the drugs and having snots all day long. It's repulsive. He looks away when he saw a couple making out. Those places are the worst kind of place in Seoul and it never cross his mind to walk into those places.

And then he sees it. A young girl in front of a closed store sitting on the cemented floor with her legs sprawled forward. Wearing a black beanie with red "SSUP" embroider, a short t- shirt half covering her abs with skinny floral jeans, it's not her beauty that caught Jiyong's attention on the first place. It's the board she put beside her that did.

"Tell me your story and I'll give you $5"

Attracted, he approaches.

"Hello."

"Hello. You've got something for me, Mr. ?” The girl spats out what seems like a minty gum.

"I've never seen you before."

"Yep. I'm new here." The girl takes her board and hugs it tightly with her eyes widens with expectations.

"Are you a student? You look terribly young." Jiyong adds. He squats down and sits beside her.

"Hey, it's your story. Why don't you tell me?" She shrugs.

"I feel uncomfortable telling story of my life to a stranger though." He quacks.

The girl pulls her leg that was stretched forward, closer to sitting cross legged. "But that's the point, Mr. , can't you see? I'm a stranger. We don't know each other at all and I doubt we would meet again after all." She furrows her brows, trying to convince Jiyong otherwise. "Plus, it's free money." She giggly remarks. Jiyong grins.

"We better not bump at all. Or I might have to kill you." Jiyong teases. The girl rolls her eyes. Jiyong takes a deep breath. "You might want to comfort yourself because this is going to be a hell of a story." The girl hugs her legs and rests her head between her knees. "Try me."



“I'm Jiyong. Kwon Jiyong. Or whatever you want to call me. The Kwon doesn't matter anymore since I live in a broken home ever since I could remember. Papa would come home occasionally only to pick fight with Mum. You know, the same beating around the bush. Anyhow, I guess I was too little back then to understand a full conversation - around 9 or 10. Papa would come around again to drop some money for me and Junghye my baby sister. I was so happy when I got my allowance that I almost didn't care if he had not visited us at all.

Mum worked as a clerk at a government department. She worked hard to support us three. Starting my middle school, we had a temporary financial crisis and we practiced being frugal from then on. You see, we're not that poor or always having a difficult situation. I only needed to pay for my books, when half of the payment was supported by my scholarship. Then she had to pay for the fuel she rides onto work. And food. Mum didn't cook for us. Rarely she did. We would order black bean noddles or seaweed soup through delivery. We were doing okay most of the time.

That was until all hell break loose when Mum was notified by a hospital that Papa was in a coma for a horrible accident. She ran to the hospital, only to be surprised to find another woman crying in front his ward- with four other little ones sobbing together. Mum was baffled. And do you know who she was? His second wife. Mum threw a fit. You had no idea how crazy it was. The other lady kept saying how he can't die now because he was the one who puts food on their table, clothes their children. She was just a housewife, handling chores.

Mum went ballistic when Papa died without a will. How could he expect Mum to support another five people when she makes just enough for three of us? Back then, we barely make ends meet.

Mum is a smart woman though. I don't know how she managed to pull everything together but somehow she did. Aunt Yoonhee later took sewing classes and started her own small business. It's small but it's something.

High school was tough. I can deal with Maths, Geometry but never with Biology, Chemistry nor History. Gosh, History was the worst, I refused to recall the details. I guess my weakness is memorizing facts. It still is.

You cannot talk about high school without mentioning a girl or two, huh? Yeah me too. My first girlfriend, Mijoo. We've known each other since forever but we started dating during last year of middle school to first year of high school. Can't say I was disappointed when she dumped me for a basketball douche. She's just that type. Neither was she my first love. I'm still looking for that.

I graduated from Seoul University majoring in Advance Financial Accounting and after a few months, got an offer to be an auditor at Shinhan Bank. And now here I am, spilling my secret not so secret life to you." Jiyong turns to the girl with a sincere smile. The girl yawns.

"You've got a boring story right there, Mr. " She bluntly confesses while ripping open her purse to hand the promised $5. Jiyong pushes it away.

"Yah, keep that away. I never intend to take your measley $5 anyway. Treasure your money, girl. Why do you give it away so easily to unfamiliar faces? Tsk. Be grateful girl." Jiyong hisses. The girl looks at Jiyong with a puzzle he can't figure out. She then puts away her purse.

Jiyong takes the brown board lying by her side and studies it. Seems like it was cut from a box. "Why do you do this anyway? You know, most people around here would have a story as boring or worse than mine." He looks back at the girl. She shrugs yet again.

"I was looking for stories, you know, exactly like what I wrote on the board there. I thought there'd be someone who survived a war- an oldie, or a traveler’s story. Oh, how I loved them." She places both her hands intertwined to her chest with her head slightly tilted dramatically. Jiyong chuckles. "How old are you?"

"17 in a few months." Jiyong gapes at her answer. "Girl, you should be studying! What are you doing in a strange place, not doing your homework?" It dreads him that this girl is the same age with Junghye.

"Take a chill pill, Mr. " She pulls out a cigarette and lights up a lighter. "Care to have one?" She offers the cancer stick. Jiyong looks at her with a perplexed expression. ’Trust me, it’s nice. It carries your problems away Or at least for 5 minutes.” She inhales the burned cigarette. Scoffing, he points out. “Where are you from, girl? Running to and fro without your parents’ conscience. Where are they?” She sprawls her legs forward. Not answering the question, she mutters. “Why do you want to know?”

“As an exchange for the $5 I refused.” Jiyong justifies. Exhaling long smokes from , she flicks the cigarette. “My parents are probably busy running the city. Big chance they even acknowledge me being missing.” Her voice bitter. “Are you upset?”Jiyong peeks at her as the girl lowers her head. Taking deep breath, she responds. “No. Not exactly, really. It’s just that I crave more than this life.”

Unsure what she just exclaimed, Jiyong continues. “Of what? What could a 17 year old girl like you want more? You are living most people’s dreams; being teenager. It’s one of the best phase in human’s life. Trust me, when you look back, you’re going to regret wasting your teenage hood like this.” He fumes. What an oblivious girl. She must not appreciate her young age.

“Well then I guess most adults forgot the pressure of completing useless home works or having unnecessary facts shoved into your brain for 8 hours every day.” She argues. Jiyong nods. ”I did.” He shrugs. “Is that what you’re doing now? Rebelling? Skipping school?”

“If you insists.” Jiyong smiles. “What are your dreams, girl?” Her face lits up with brightness at the mention of “dreams”, whisking away gloomy clouds from her small face. “I want to be a food nomad. I want to taste every taste and the most bizarre food from all four corners of the world and have my tongue burn from tasting spicy cuisines. Indulge desserts and pastries and open a chocolate shop."

"I want to be an animal activist or war volunteer, mending broken hearts. I want to be a hero. I want to be a traveler, meeting new people by the hour, experiencing new cultures and see animals I couldn’t here."

"I want to learn variety languages, visit world’s famous heritages, climb mountains, diving sea, go bungee jumping, sky diving, live with Red Indians. That’s what I crave for. Adrenaline rushing in my veins. Feeling infinitely, truly happy. That’s what my heart longs for. That’s my dreams.” She reveals with jolly. Jiyong is amused. He sees his young self in her.  She really is innocent, isn’t she? Jiyong don’t have the heart to say how impossible her desires are. How life is not that easy. He shakes off his thoughts. Let dreams be dreams.

Instead he continues. “Have you informed your folks about this? Your dreams.” She leers at Jiyong. “You’d think they’d care when I dropped school, don’t you?” She snickers. “They had enough of me, being displeased with my current life. So they let me drop school, knowing nothing could stop me. They had an idea on where to spend their money that lies lifelessly in the bank. They could fund me as long as I don’t cause no more problems.” The girl beams. 

“So you will live your dreams soon.” He summarizes.

“Yep. In the meantime, I’d like to enjoy Seoul as much as I could since I won’t be coming here any soon.” She looks genuinely happy to escape her uninspired life. “We could say, we really won’t be seeing each other then.” Jiyong mumbles while he stands on his feet, realizing it has been almost 7.30. Soohyuk must be wondering where he has been. The girl smiles. “I guess we could say that.”

“Good luck, girl.” Jiyong gulps.

“Thank you. You too, Mr. I hope you live a blissful life.”

Jiyong parades away. He is thankful to meet a girl like her. Feisty and ambitious. A complete opposite to his pathetic life. She had it easy. Living in a wealthy family, of course her parents could fund her. It was refreshing to meet a curious teenager like her. He wishes her all the best. 

Distracted by his noisy mind, he hears someone yelling “Wait!” from behind. He turns around, facing the girl who is out of breath. Now that he notices, the girl is quite tall for her age- almost his height. Talk about weird. “I’m still here next week. Wanna do something fun?” Jiyong cackles. “Sure. Why not?” She scribbles down her number on a torn paper. Did it magically presents itself to her, it occurs to him. Now that he remembers, he saw a few ads beside where they sat before.

“Call me.” The girl waves farewell. He scans the note.

“85-xxx-xxx

-dreamer Yuri”

For the nth time of the day, he lets a smile escapes.