Routine. A word she came to hate. She got through every day in a routine. Woke up. Breakfast. Got to her office. Meetings. Reports. Home. Dinner. Games. Sleep. Occasionally chatted with Yeong Ji or hung out with Jinhyuk and Sunny or went to her parents’ house. But that was pretty much it.

Being a first-class nerd, she exceled at everything she learned or worked on. But her current work wasn’t something she was crazy about. She didn’t hate it, but she wasn’t all that excited about it, either.

Purpose. Was the one thing she did not have. Maybe being able to do everything well could be a curse, too. She put as much effort as the next person, but rarely did she ever encounter a moment that required her extra effort or enthusiasm. Sooner than later she was no longer excited about her own achievement, let alone seeing anyone else getting surprised by it.

And she was getting tired of a life like that.

Go Ha In, 25 years old, was in desperate need to break out of what she called an accursed routine of her everyday life.

And finally, an opportunity came.

“Ms. Ha In, Congratulations. You’re one of the selected employees to be granted scholarship for a Master’s degree at your desired university. With this opportunity, you are under a long-term contract with the company when you resume your position after your 2 years of study. We wish you luck, Ms. Ha In.”

And there she was. Not the slightest surprised at the result. After all, not that many people were crazy about leaving their positions to pursue further education. She almost forgot about ever applying for the company’s scholarship two months ago until she got notified of the result this morning.

Slowly walking by the usual park on her way home, Ha In took a deep breath as she sat on a bench and looked up at the typical Busan night sky. She truly wasn’t sure what she should be feeling right now.

“I should tell Yeong Ji.” Maybe her cousin would do a better job at getting excited than her.

Yeong Ji was her age. They had been close all their lives, although they were physically cities apart from each other. They could hardly meet, but no way would they let distance interfere with their friendship. There were always chats and phone calls every so often. Yeong Ji was one of the very few people Ha In felt most comfortable talking to about her predicaments.

“Maybe you should come to Seoul.” Yeong Ji said one night during one of their phone calls three months ago.

“You know I need an excuse to leave Busan. Nobody needs to know how I feel about my life here.” Because the Ha In minus her doubtful self was the cheerful, talkative and bossy Ha In that everybody knew. She never intended to become this strong, confident character that nobody felt any need to worry about, but things just turned out this way as she grew up. There wasn’t a thing that Ha In couldn’t do. There wasn’t a thing that Ha In hated. True. But slowly, there were less and less things that their good little Ha In liked. Although that little development was better kept to herself. And Yeong Ji. And Sunny.

“Hmm…Oh, that’s right! I’ve recently decided to go for Master’s. How about you get back to school with me? Let’s suffer students’ life once again with me, Ha In-ah. It’s gonna be fun.”

“Master’s, huh? I guess I can try applying for