“The fatal attack happened in Apujeong-gu, shocking the nation with its unprovoked nature and extreme violence. Both a mother and wife, fifty-four year old Jang Mi Kyung is believed to have been under the influence of a cocktail of drugs that led to hysteria. Scholars are pointing to the isolating social role of women in South Korea that may lead to dependence on drugs and sudden outbursts such as the one that happened last night. The attacker was fatally shot by the police past midnight yesterday, ending this story with two unfortunate deaths.”

Listening to the morning radio as she sat in her dorm room, Myoui Mina muttered under her breath, “It always goes back to being a woman, huh?” 

She sat crosslegged on the floor with her computer on her lap, her back resting on the foot of her bed. She began composing an email to her professor. 

“Dear Professor,” it began,

“I have seen dead possums express more enthusiasm for life than you do. You are proof positive that while a person can spend years getting a diploma, but they still can’t teach a person to be likable.”

She smirked as she sipped some coffee.

“Unrelated to any of this, I will be missing class today because I am sick.

Just kidding. Today is the scheduled release for investor information from Planet Technologies Inc., and I intend to stay in my room and trade stocks. Your class is the worst.” 

Her phone rang, and she picked up her bright pink smartphone with a sharp knife hidden and spring-loaded inside its case. Hold it the wrong way and the knife would pop out and seriously maim whoever was dumb enough to steal her phone. Her phone was crucial, and losing it was not an option.

“What?" Mina said.

“Um, your order from yesterday— I’m really sorry but it didn’t go through. Our internet went out for a little bit and our IT people just told me that your short wasn’t sent to Biotech Industries.”

“You snubbed my order?” Mina yelled. “Tell me, why do I pay for your broker services?”

“I—“ the man on the phone started.

“What is your company’s promise?” she interrupted.  

“100% order completion guaranteed,” the man said reluctantly. 

“Yes” she said sharply. “The stock plummeted twenty-six percent since I shorted it yesterday— or thought I shorted it.”

She paced the room. “That means you owe me over two-thousand dollars for your service. I don’t have time to talk to you anymore. Make up your loss or I’m moving on to someone more competent.” She hung up. 

She pulled out a second computer monitor from the closet and place it next to her laptop. She typed away on her keyboard, bringing up graphs and live trading options on her screen. She accidentally guided her browser to the email she was writing and pressed the "send" button. 

“No!” she cried as her email displayed ‘Sending.’ She frantically tried shutting off her computer, but the damage was done. Her scathing email was sent. Burying her face in her arms, she signed. Her natural voice was higher than on the phone. When she talked over the phone, she lowered her voice a pitch because it sounded, at least to her, more authoritative. 

She might as well drop that class anyways, she thought. The course was beginning finance, but she already knew everything taught during the lectures. She was only a freshman, but she had already begun to make some money from day trading. Today, the company that she was analyzing was releasing news that would either make the stock price skyrocket or free fall, and she was sure to cash in on the opportunity. People are emotional beings, and when people caught even the faintest whiff of what seemed to be a company mess up, they rapidly sold their shares. Mina understood human nature and used it to her advantage. She used her brain while others could not stop the loud demands of their hearts. 

In order to be one of the first to see the news, she pulled her laptop close to her. It would alert her with a loud alarm when the relevant article appeared. She waited patiently, but after the first hour, she began to grow restless. Then the second hour had passed. She bounced a tennis ball on the floor absentmindedly in her room, busying her hands. She then started singing. She could never sing at home with her siblings and parents listening, but in a room of her own, nobody was there to be embarrass her.

“ALMOST PARADISEEE!” she screeched. She couldn’t tell if she was hitting the notes right, but she found that if she yelled louder, it was harder to tell if she was doing it wrong. “ACHIMMM BOHDA DUHHHH MUH JJIN!” She used a pen as a microphone as she jumped on her bed. “NAL HYANGAN NUH OUI-“

A knock on the door made her freeze. She slowly opened the door and peeked outside. It was a boy just a little taller than her, slim but broad shouldered. 

“Y-yes?” she said softly. 

“Hi. I’m your next door neighbor. You’re making a lot of noise. I thought I heard you doing some kind of repetitive tapping percussion warm up in your room from before. I thought it might have been drums,” he said.

“Oh. That was probably me bouncing a ball on the floor” she said, looking up at him.

“But then, I heard this god-awful singing and I realized that this person could not have possibly come from a musical background” he said, crossing his arms and smirking. “I had a headache but I couldn’t sleep because of your noise. But then I heard the singing and was so shaken that I forgot all about the headache. So in a way, I should be thanking you.” 

“Oh,” she said as she glanced toward the ground guiltily. “Sorry.” She let the door shut on him. 

Another knock. She opened the door and saw him with crossed arms and an amused smile. This girl had the demeanor of a scolded puppy, he thought. Her head was always tilted down, glancing downwards, but she looked up at him with her big adorable eyes.  “What’s your name?” he said. We live right next to each other but never seen each other before.” 

“Uhh— Mina” she said. 

“You don't have a surname?" The boy joked. "Okay Mina, I’m Ha Yooeun. Nice to meet you.” He held out his hand to shake. 

As they shook hands, he stepped forward and looked into Mina’s room. He saw that the room was neatly organized in every way other than the two computer screens planted in the center of it. “What are you doing in here?” he asked. 

A loud ringing came from her laptop. Jumping she quickly said, “This is important. Gotta go!” and she leaped to her computer, letting the door close on Yooeun. She pulled up the new article. The headline read: “Investor information delayed due to recent circumstances, will be released soon.” It was a false alarm. 

The shame from her encounter now began to set in. 

She collapsed on her bed and buried her face in her pillow. “Ughhhh,” she let out a muffled groan. It was enough that he called her out, but he mocked her too. She realized that it would’ve been better if he were mean to her; his friendly attitude made it hard to dislike him. It was settled, she could never leave her room again lest she run into the good looking boy next door again.

But it didn’t matter for today, because she would be locked in her room the whole day regardless. In various positions— legs stretched out on the wall, hanging upside down off the side of her bed, the tree yoga pose— she hung around close to her laptop over the course of the day awaiting a notification. She began dosing off laying on the ground, face planted sideways on the carpet and hands pitched toward the computer.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP. THERE IS AN EMERGENCY IN THE BUILDING. YOU MUST EXIT THE BUILDING AT THIS TIME. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

Mina awoke to the shrill sound of her dorm fire alarms piercing her ears. Jolting up, she glanced at her watch and realized that it was seven o’clock at night. She hurriedly put on some slippers and a heavy blanket, and dashed out of the dorm building. As soon as she exited, she was glad she brought a blanket to supplement her ensemble of a short sleeve tee and ripped sweat-shorts. It was chilly with a strong breeze.

She weaved her way past packs of college kids to find a ledge that she could sit on. Crossing her legs and arms and bunching herself up to conserve heat, she wrapped herself tightly in the blanket. Every time the wind blew, she felt the students around her shiver. How could a night be this cold on the heels of such a hot summer? She had read the forecast for this week: the temperatures would drop at night like this for the next couple of days. She saw a group of students who were in her pre-med classes standing in a circle and gossiping to one another.

"Did you hear about the psycho woman who attacked that poor man?" One of them said.

"My dad is the police chief. He says that she wouldn't go down when they shot her, so they used an assault rifle and blew her head to bits. They had to scrape her off the walls." A boy whispered fervently. 

"Is it true that she just tore out chucks of his neck with her teeth?"

"Yeah, she did. There was so much blood that the medical examiners couldn't even tell what happened to the guy at first," the boy said.

Mina turned around when she heard a familiar voice. “Mina! You brought a blanket? Just for me?” It was the boy whom she had met from earlier. He stood in front of her, rubbing his arms in an effort to warm up.

Mina glanced down, too embarrassed to look at Yooeun. Sitting down next to her, he looked at Mina and said, “Can we share the blanket please? I’m gonna freeze to death.” 

Mina reluctantly unfurled her blanket. Yooeun inched close to Mina, curling up on the ledge and wrapping the blanket around them. She was surprised by how toasty his body was as it warmed her up. “This is so much better. It’s so warm under here,” he said as he nuzzled his face into the thick sheet. He looked at Mina and said, “Why is it that I’ve never seen you before? We live in the same dorm building. What’s your major?”

“Pre-med and business,” Mina said. 

“See, I’m a business major too,” Yooeun said. “Wait, are you a freshman?”

Mina nodded. 

“I’m a sophomore. That’s why I haven’t seen you around,” Yooeun said. Mina just nodded her head in affirmation. “Well, it’s nice to meet you,” Yooeun continued. “You were smart bringing a blanket out here,” he said as he looked at the gaggles of students huddled up together and trying to keep warm. “My mom gave me a blanket that looks exactly like this. Says she got it from a small province in Japan. Apparently, its down feathers come from a bird that symbolizes hope.” 

Mina finally looked at Yooeun. “That’s exactly right,” she said. “My mom got it from the Ishikari District.” 

“That’s the one,” he said. "Also, what year is it?"

"Why do you ask?" Mina said quietly. 

"Is it 2009? Why were you singing that Paradise song from like eighty years ago?"

Mina let out a wry laugh. "For some reason, it was stuck in my head," she said.

There was something very pure about her reaction, Yooeun thought. She didn't come off as defensive or sensitive, and she understood his light jabbing humor. He looked at what she was wearing: a light tee and blue sweatshorts with frayed bottoms and punctured fabric. Yooeun said, “We go to a nice school with a sky-high tuition rate.  So tell me, why do your shorts have so many holes in them?” He pointed at her shabby sweats. “Do you wear things like that all the time?” 

Mina considered her response, and decided to reply honestly. “Yeah, all my clothes are like this because I go rock climbing a lot. I don’t like to go shopping because I have no idea how to.”

“If you’re a freshman here, you must not know the area that well. There’s an awesome shopping center not far from campus. I can take you shopping.” He stood up and wrapped the rest of the blanket around Mina. "I'll buy. As a thank you for not letting me die of hypothermia."

“Like, right now?” She said as she looked at him again with her wide eyes. 

“Sure, tomorrow is Saturday anyways and it’s no fun standing outside in the cold.” 

Mina tilted her head a little to the side, considering his offer. “What the heck, let’s go,” she said. She couldn't help but trust him and accept his friendliness. Although she would have been suspicious if it were anyone else, there was a kind, wholesome feeling about him that she couldn't deny. They jogged to Yooeun's car, and the blanket still wrapped around Mina fluttered in the breeze.