Kim Jisoo sits on a concrete park bench, engrossed in a book. As she shifts her weight and tucks her right leg under her left, she loses balance and falls over on her back.

“Motherfu—“ she winces in pain, an electric numbing spreading from her shoulders downward. “Why does this always happen to me?”

She gingerly picks herself up and her book, looking around to see if anyone has witnessed the mishap. She always made sure she sat on the bench under two large trees, almost walled in by the drooping foliage.

______

Jennie winces at the sight of Jisoo falling on her back. She watches from a safe distance, trying to comprehend how one minute there was quiet reading, the next – a mess on the ground. Jennie weighs out her options if she should check on Jisoo closer, or remain in the quiet and observe for a moment more. She decides on the latter and keeps to herself.

_____

 If there was anything Jisoo had learned in all of the time she spent buried under literature, it was that no one ever came out unscathed. She laughed at her literal predicaments. Checking her elbow from her earlier fall, she saw a forming bruise, negligible, but stinging nonetheless.

She continued her reading at the local café she frequently found solace in. With an Iced Americano in front of her, she figured she’d be alert enough to keep herself from any more accidents.

As if in jest, the Universe accepts her consciousness as a challenge. A car alarm blares outside, and she knocks over her drink in surprise.

She swallows her pride, and the lump in . “For the love of god, why does this keep happening to me. What is in retrograde?”

The lanky barista she’s been acquainted with walks over to her. “It’s okay, it happens. But this is your fifty-fourth time this month.”

“Not helping, Lisa.” Jisoo removes her book from the table as the barista wipes it dry. “I’m going to order another one, if you don’t mind.”

Lisa shakes her head. “It’s on me, don’t worry. I’m going to give you an experimental drink. Try not to knock it over, I need to know if it kills you.”

“By all means.”

_____