This summer was going to be hot.

Although we still had early June and spring wasn’t over yet, you could already feel the heat of upcoming summer in the air. When the clock struck twelve and the sun reached its peak, the smell of the melting asphalt of every busy street in Seoul filled the air, mixing in with the suffocating odor of the fumes left by millions of cars racing through the city. Just a few minutes spent outside was enough to start sweating. Using public transportation was more like being in a sauna with bunch of people you didn’t know but were doomed to spent hours with.

Yeah, I hated this time of the year.

There wasn’t anything worse than having your skin clammy with sweat, your clothes sticking to your body, lungs burning due to the hot summer air. During those hot days, I couldn’t even find consolation in my air conditioning – especially when it wasn’t working. I threw the remote control to the floor with an angry huff, hoping to find comfort in my bed and the small fan next to it. Nothing these days was working properly, and I was reaching my limit; honestly, I was surprised I hadn’t started screaming and throwing things at people yet. But slowly, I was losing my composure. My life was getting out of hand, and for the first time I couldn’t do much about it. Or more like I didn’t know what to do about it.

I fidgeted in my bed, lying on my right side now with my head resting on my arm instead of one of the few soft, white pillows surrounding me. I took a quick glance at my room wrapped in darkness – it was already one o’clock and I still couldn’t fall asleep – hoping to see something other than just the black outlines of my furniture. But the only things distinguishing themselves from the gloom were my white bed covers, so I closed my eyes with a resigned sigh, trying to fall asleep for the umpteenth time that night. I had to work tomorrow and considering how busy our café was during lunch time, when people working in neighboring companies were having their breaks, I needed to be well-rested. Otherwise, the horror from today would