Byulyi sighs as she throws herself on the couch, face planted into the pillow. Job hunting balls. She gets crazy nervous before and all mopey after. The questions aren't even unpredictable, it's the same over and over again. Yet she still can't find it in herself to sweeten up her answers with white lies and half truths. Honest is the best policy. My .

"What is your short term plan?"

Byulyi never has the answer to that. How long is considered short term? Byulyi always asks. A week? A month? A year?

"What is your five year plan?"

Even when they state the time span on said term, it doesn't make Byulyi magically find the answer to the question. What is her five year plan? Where does she see herself in five years? Hopefully not in a room answering these questions, she thinks inwardly.

"To be perfectly honest, Sir, I really don't know the answer to that question." is the answer Byulyi gives to interviewers all the time. Interviewers don't like it. They don't like honest people. Where has honesty taken people to? Jail, statistically.

Interviewers love people who plan ahead. Interviewers love ambitious people with dreams.

Byulyi doesn't have dreams, not the ambitious ones that matter for interviews, at least. She knows she likes dancing. Her dream, for the longest time, has been to perform, dance, be on a big sparkly stage. She knows she ed up that dream when she decided to go with what her parents want her to do, ing economic major. Suffering for four years, struggling to graduate was bad enough. Now she has to walk around places trying to get a job. Boring, unexciting, unsparkly economic-ish desk job.

.

dreams. She doesn't even know what she wants to do tomorrow. Well, she knows she will do more job hunting. But she doesn't want that. What does she really want? What is the meaning of life?

"Urgggghhh" She groans loudly out of frustration.

"Unnie?"

She hears a voice from the kitchen. The matter in hand, which is frustration and resentment for interview questions, is so severe that she doesn't notice her roommate is home. Her job hunting takes the whole day and she doesn’t even realize it.

Something smells good. Her roommate is probably cooking something amazing in the kitchen right now. Food. Food will make her better.

"Unnie, is that you?" That sweet voice and the sound of light steps get closer and clearer now. Byulyi mumbles a hmmmm to the pillow, as a substitute for confirmation that she is there. Barely breathing, but still alive. She hopes she sounds hungry enough for Wheein to grace her with some homemade, hopefully non-ramen non-frozen healty food.

Wheein finally finds Byulyi lying face down on the couch and releases a disapproving grunt. Afraid of not getting a real homemade cooked meal, Byulyi sits down as soon as she hears it. "Yo." She greets, her voice clearly shows how her excitement is completely out of her life.

"Did you just get kissed by a horde of dementor, Jesus." Wheein stares at Byulyi, studying her face, as if she's a weird newly discovered underwater species and Wheein is a very curious scientist.

"Yes. A horde of dementors in the form of interview questions." Byulyi replies flatly, her eyes looking at the distance, empty.

Wheein leaves the living room for less than two minutes and goes back with a plate of beef and vegetables stir fry in her left hand and a bowl of rice in her right hand. The smell is incredibly appealing. Byulyi's eyes twinkle with joy and her stomach suddenly growls. Wheein laughs and puts the food along with two pairs of chopsticks on the coffee table.

She jumps down to the carpeted floor and taps her fingers on the coffee table, which also functions as dining table because they are stingy and broke university students. Technically she has graduated and only Wheein is a student, but she has just freshly graduated two months ago and currently unemployed, so she is basically a stingy and broke university student.

A piece of beef enters Byulyi's mouth, followed by perfectly cooked rice. "I love you." Byulyi attempts to spew out gratitude while chewing her food. "My wife, you take care of me well." She likes to kiss Wheein’s and call her wife when she’s being treated like a helpless pet by her roommate.

Little pieces of beef jump out of and Wheein cringes. "You can start thanking me by not trying to make me lose my appetite." She snarks and snatches some of the beef and paprika, then nods to herself as she confirms her cooking is still excellent.

The only sound heard now is the sound of chopsticks knocking with the bowl, which is rather uncharacteristic for their household. Wheein watches Byulyi eat for a while until she's sure it's safe to ask questions. "You said something about interview questions?" Wheein asks nonchalantly, her chopsticks going for more beef and rice as an attempt to appear more casual.

Byulyi sighs and puts one side of her face on the coffee table, her other side facing Wheein. "Where do you see yourself in five years?" She looks at Wheein and the girl’s expression seems puzzled by her question. “What is your five year plan?” She asks again, ignoring how Wheein’s brows are furrowed.

They stare at each other in silence for a good minute until Wheein hums and looks at the ceiling. She seems like she’s thinking of something, contemplating.

“Five years from now I’ll have been graduated from uni for three years. Wow.” Wheein starts talking. More to herself than to Byulyi, she figures. “I’ll probably be doing my 6th musical by then.”

“Two musicals each year? That’s ambitious.” Byulyi interrupts.

“Why not? A girl can dream.” Wheein disregards Byulyi and continues daydreaming. “I’m sitting in a cafe near the theater with my co actors and actresses, we just finished rehearsing. We are tired but excited, thinking of the show that will be revealed soon. I’ll be teasing the actor, or actress, who makes the most mistakes during the rehearsal. Some of them are probably on their phones, texting their lovers they will be home late. We will joke all night long until the responsible one stops us and tells us it’s time to go home because we have a long day of more rehearsal tomorrow.” Wheein hums in satisfaction. She looks pleased. Her eyes beam and her lips form a smile.

The most important part of smiley Wheein, Byulyi thinks, is her dimples. She thinks Wheein’s dimples can cure depression and cause diabetes. She likes it when she is the cause of those dips. Actually, she likes Wheein’s dimples so much she wants to be a tiny little person so she make a home in one of those dimples.

“Will you stop it!” While thinking of Wheein’s dimples, her fingers always unconsciously reach to them and poke each one of them. It’s a bad habit that she’s been developing since the first time she met Wheein and she can’t, and has no reason to stop having that habit. Byulyi giggles and poke her dimples a little bit more until Wheein starts tickling her weak spots and she gives up.
 

While catching her breath, a thought passes through her mind. “What about Sanghyuk? No Sanghyuk in your future?” She pries.

Her smile stays, but her expression turns dark. Oh. Something is not right. Byulyi may have said something wrong.

“We just broke up today, haha.” She laughs meekly.

Byulyi feels awful. She doesn’t know what to do, so she puts her hand on top of Wheein’s hand which is resting on her thigh, then she curses. “That no good son of a . I’ll kill him. You don’t have to worry.”

Unexpectedly, Wheein laughs at that and taps her other hand on top of Byulyi’s. “Unnie, don’t. I broke up with him.”

Byulyi’s jaw drops, unable to process the words that just came out of Wheein's mouth. Sure, she dislikes Wheein having a boyfriend, because she has been having a ‘mild’ crush on her since the day Wheein stepped into their apartment, asking about the ads. But they’ve been a loving, albeit annoying, beautiful youthful couple. It is even more perplexing when the one who broke it was… Wheein?

“You- What happened?”  Byulyi studies her face, searching for an answer. But the darkness in Wheein’s expression is gone, and she appears to look relieved. It’s like a weight has been lifted off of her shoulder, and she is having a fresh start with renewed vigor.

She faces Byulyi, and Byulyi feels like she’s being stripped. Because Wheein is feasting her eyes on her, and while it is a little bit scary and her heart pounds so hard she can hear it, she also feels the butterflies in her stomach.

“I don’t know.” Wheein whispers hesitantly. She turns her face to the television in front of her. Her eyes loses the sparkle for a few seconds.

But then her hands are squeezing Byulyi’s, and suddenly she looks ready. Confident. Sure of herself. “I don’t know.”

Byulyi thinks she finally finds her five year plan.