With a turn of a key, she opened the door with her free hand and dragged a big black luggage with the other by its handle.

Whistling like seeing a fine lady, she thought the place didn’t seem to as much as she expected it to be. She left her luggage by the door after making sure to lock it and went immediately to a room with a bed. She went to the side of the bed and dropped her whole body, resembling a flattened starfish as soon as it hit the soft mattress.

“Ahhhhh bed”

After a few minutes of lying down with her face tilted sideways, facing the digital clock blipping 10:51 which was situated on the nightstand, she heaved a big sigh.

“God. I need a drink… Badly.”

~

The night was just getting started and the moon was the proof as it dangled majestically with the stars in the night sky. It’s now September; a full moon and a breezy night. Breezy enough for her to change into a navy-blue rayon long-sleeved buttoned shirt, tight black jeans, and suede blue shoes to complement her top.

Tracing her way back to the club she saw when the cab she was in passed by, she walked along the quiet streets near her new flat. She hated times like this when the silence she’s comfortable in turns into something that forces her mind to pathetically retrace unrepressed bitter moments in her life. She just got back to the place she knew her roots were established. She just got back to her home country. She just got back to the home she wouldn’t want to remember.

~

Kwon Yuri was a professional swimmer. At the age of 6, she proved herself to be a prodigy in swimming. Together with Park Tae-Hwan, she competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics held in Beijing, China. Tae was her childhood friend and her first lover. Ever since Yuri wanted to become a professional swimmer despite of being only at a young age, she and Tae-Hwan have grounded a beautiful relationship. They encouraged each other to strive hard and pursue their dreams together. It was when they were 18 years old when Tae-Hwan finally asked Yuri to be his girlfriend. She said yes, and they both couldn’t be any happier. They stayed professional, not treating each other as lovers when they were undergoing their swimming training. Also, they knew they were too young and busy to experience what normal lovers do such as dating, texting 24/7, and kissing. Surprisingly, the two most couple type of thing they’ve ever experienced were holding hands and having family dinners.

Unfortunately, at the age of 19, Yuri couldn’t fulfill her own dream. Bitterly, only Tae-Hwan was able to bring home medals; one gold and one silver. Regardless of her immense disappointment towards herself, she was happy for her boyfriend, though it may not seem so obvious.

When they went back to their country, Tae-Hwan had a lot of interviews and photoshoots lined up in his schedule. Her boyfriend was predictably getting more and more famous. It was also thanks to his perfect body and a not-so-unpleasant face. Yuri knows her boyfriend doesn’t have that celebrity kind of look, but he wasn’t really bad at all. He was good enough to