"Jinwoo yah, aigoo...you look so smart and handsome like this. I'm so proud of you. The neighbours need to see this. We need to call your Aunt Joomi too so that she will see how handsome my grandson is and stop calling you useless. Aigoo aigoo, my handsome grandson."

He sighed. His grandmother's endless praises for him this morning seeing him all set to finally grow up and follow the right path of adulthood after being stubborn for so long rang in his ears again, now that he's free from all chaos, confusion, cluelessness and yellings from his superior at workplace. His new workplace. It was his first day. It was hell if he was to be truthful. Everyone was busy attending to their respective clients and cases all the time. Everyone was stressed out. Everyone was busy trying to survive the day. He was thrown right in the middle of a case because the previous insurance agent in charge of it already fled from the company. For what reason, nobody told him, but he could take a guess from the atmosphere in the office alone.

He shifted his gaze towards the folder in his hand, containing details about the claim request for some car accident case he's now tasked to investigate and settle. He knew if he wanted to survive for another year at the least, or even for another day, the right thing to do would be to open the folder and read up on the case to help him ease into his position since he decided to succumbed to pressures from other people and his own conscience to take up this job. Aunt Joomi's husband got him the job in fact, although nobody knew about it, not even his grandmother who loved him dearly and always defended him from everyone who ridiculed him for the stubborn path he followed before this, and not even Aunt Joomi who's the most vocal in talking him down and shredding his self worth to pieces each time. It hurt his pride even to accept the job after fighting defiantly to defend his dream for so long, but seeing the excitement of his grandmother, and the quiet smile and simple words of encouragement from his grandfather made it all felt worthy. Or so he kept convincing himself.

'Of course it's worthy. They've always been on my side even though they're knew the others were right. And I was the wrong one. This is the least I could do to make them proud just for once.'

He set down the folder on his side, at the bus stop bench he was seated at, and took the strap of his bag off his shoulder to place it alongside the folder, followed by his necktie that had kept him feeling choked for the whole day, but no more than his experience at his new workplace. He stared at the cafe across the road. He could only see the name display board of the cafe from where he's seated, with his shoulders hunched. But he could imagine the chaos inside the cafe