“She looks so busy.” Haley muttered in a worried tone as she looked at Ha In, a few feet away, talking to one of her classmates who said that he needed her help for something. “Say, Yeong Ji” The foreign girl put her arms on the table and rested her chin on them as she addressed her other friend who was busy typing away her own part of their project. “D’you think she’s gonna be alright like that?”

“Let her be. She likes it busy.” Yeong Ji replied, without looking up from her computer.

“Hmm…does she really?”

“Are you worried?”

“Can’t help it. Look at her getting her hands full. There’s student council. Then school works. Assisting professors. Helping out classmates. And here she has to worry about us, too.”

Yeong Ji stopped typing for a second and looked up at her friend.

“I don’t know a better way to tell you, but you see, Ha In can’t stay free for too long. She just has to find something to do. Some people to be around. Else, she’ll go insane.”

“Does she at least enjoy what she’s doing, though?”

“Honestly... I’m not sure.” Yeong Ji’s words came out sounding sad. “She does everything so well. She’s always smiling. I’d like to think she’s happy doing them, but lately she’s getting better and better at putting up a front. I’m having a harder time reading her, too.”

Not to mention that they were better at long distance relationship. Every heartfelt conversation used to be done through phone calls and messages. Now that they were so close, there were less reasons to use those.

“Urg, it’s frustrating when I can only sit and watch.” Haley groaned in frustration. She knew that Ha In was really indiscriminate in the things she got herself busy with. She wished she could at least help her friend become more selective, but she couldn’t even tell what Ha In actually enjoyed doing.

“Isn’t that good enough, though? At one point, we all felt the same. But then we had to come to terms that we lived in a completely different world from her. As time passes, you’ll learn that all she ever needs is for us to be by her side and watch her take on challenges.” Yeong Ji may be trying to console her new friend, but if you looked closely, it felt like she was consoling herself.

“I’m just afraid she’ll end up hurting herself in the process, getting involved with so many random stuffs.”

“Welcome to our world, Haley.” Yeong Ji gave Haley a small smile as she returned her attention to the work at hand. “The things that idiot got us worried about have begun to be more and more indescribable.”

“Hey, guys.” Ha In hurried towards her friends when she was done talking to one of her classmates.  “I’m sorry I took so long. How about we get started?”

“One second. And. Done!” Yeong Ji clicked save and threw her arms in the air in relief. She was finally able to take a breath from all of this work. “Haaaaaaa! I’m finally done with my part. I’m sending it to you, Haley.” And she buried her face in the screen again.

“Great. Ha In, where’s yours?” Haley smiled and looked at Ha In expectantly.

“Eh? Uh…”

“Huh? Not done?”

“Try again.” Yeong Ji chipped in, still busy attaching the file to the email.

“No way. You haven’t started? I knew it! With so many things going on, of course you won’t have time for the project. Aren’t you biting more than you can chew?”

“It’s not that, Haley. I have plenty of time for it actually.” Too much time. “Don’t worry. It’ll be done tomorrow morning. I promise.”

“But the deadline is tomorrow afternoon. You sure you can pull it off?” Haley asked, not wanting to believe that even Go Ha In had to pull all-nighters sometime.

Ha In nodded with a smile. Haley narrowed her eyes before turning to look at Yeong Ji who assured her with a nod of her own.

“Fine.” She could only put her trust in her friends now.

“Alright. Now where were we?” Ha In gave a huge happy grin as she turned their attention to their little study session.

2 hours went by smoothly. They were able to cover most parts of the previous lectures they had in class. Haley was the type to ask questions without hesitation. And Ha In was always glad to answer with detailed explanations.

Yeong Ji, on the other hand, was doing her best not to tie a bigger knot between her brows.

True, Ha In’s explanation helped clear out the doubts by a lot. But she was having a hard time wrapping her mind around all the information that keeps flowing in, what with all the noises surrounding her.

Too loud. They’re all too loud. I wish they’d stop talking for just a minute. Yeong Ji started to feel more and more suffocated. Everyone sound got mixed up she could hardly distinguish what was what.

“Yeong Ji? Yeong Ji, are you alright? You get this point, too, right?” Haley asked when she noticed that Yeong Ji had become rather quiet.

What are they on now? She found it even harder to break out of this suffocation when all eyes were on her.

“I’m – I’m sorry, guys. I’m a little tired today. I’ll just take off now. Sorry.” To her friends’ surprise, Yeong Ji stood up and started gathering her stuffs. “Let’s…later.” Not wanting to disappoint them, she attempted to reschedule their sessions but held herself back realizing that no, she did not want to make any promises and walked off in a hurry.

“Hmm? What’s with her?”

“Urg, I did it again.” Ha In frowned and muttered to herself.

“Eh? Did what?” Haley asked, dumbfounded, but Ha In just sighed.

………………………………

“We did it! Presentation done. Submission done. We’re free!!!” The next day Haley was happily jumping all over her friends in celebrating the successful completion of their project. “You’re amazing, Ha In. Can’t believe you wrote it so elaborately in just one night.”

Ha In smiled sheepishly at her friend’s words.

“Hey, did you guys catch the last two episodes last night?” Yeong Ji suddenly remembered their favorite American series that aired its 5th season finale the previous night. “It was heart breaking, wasn’t it?”

“What, The Invisibles?” Ha In asked, and Yeong Ji nodded.

“Yeah, it was. Too bad Ha In missed it. All-nighters and all.” Haley said, feeling bad for her friend.

“Hah, don’t count on that.” Yeong Ji snorted, which caused Haley to raise an eyebrow in confusion.

“Huh? Am I wrong? Didn’t you start writing last night?”

“Umm…”

“Wait. Now I’m even more curious. What time did you start, really?”

“Eight.”

“Ah…you must have taken a beak–”

“a.m.”

“Say what?” Haley couldn’t open her eyes any wider if she wanted to. There was all kind of amazement written all over her face. “You put all these amazing ideas in writing in just two hours?” Ha In slowly nodded, making Haley’s jaw dropped. This was the moment she witnessed the extent of Ha In intelligence. After a short moment, she started to pout. “If it’s so easy for you why didn’t you get it done long ago? Got me all worried.”

Yeong Ji smiled and patted Haley on the shoulder.

“She can’t help it. If she spends any more time on it, you won’t get just three pages, then it’s you who’ll have trouble deciding what to take out.”

Now Haley was back to being amazed.

“Really? Is there anything that you don’t do well? You’re a genius through and through, Go Ha In.”

No, I’m not, was what Ha In wanted to say, but felt that it was useless saying it. Nobody would agree.

“And you’re working for a creative branding agency?” Once again, Ha In could only nod. Haley, who failed to notice her friend’s unusual silence, kept on rambling “Aren’t you supposed to be at NASA or something? Why are you wasting away here, honestly?”

Only now that Haley noticed Ha In visibly stiffened at her words. What Haley thought to be compliments for her friend’s intelligence actually served as knives that cut through ever existing wounds in Ha In’s heart.

BEEP!

“My ride’s here. I’ll see you guys later.” Saved by the sound of Dong Wook’s car honk, Ha In ran off in a hu