Author's Note: This is part 1 of the update. Look out for Part 2.

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First Day

Sumin stood around the tiny apartment, looking at the pile of boxes and several luggage containing her personal items. Her heart seemed to be racing and somersaulting as her excitement and fears fought each other. She is starting work at the company in Hong Kong in a few days. Within the next few days, she has to settle down and be ready for it. She is truly on her own in a new country; no friends and relatives. Not wanting to succumb to any thoughts of her fear, she immediately started unpacking. By the time she was done with her unpacking and tidied up the apartment to some semblance of a home, it was already close to midnight.

It has been a long day. She woke up early to catch the 10 am flight departing from Incheon, and now she is on a bed, 2,000 km away, her home for the next three years.

Despite her exhaustion, she couldn’t sleep. Tossing and turning, she ended up staring at the unfamiliar ceiling in the bedroom. Sumin was gripped with a deep sense of loneliness. Alone in unfamiliar apartment and bed, in a country that is culturally different and speak a different language and starting her career, it finally dawned on her that maybe, just maybe she is taking on too much all at the same time. Can she survive being alone with no support, especially when her heart is still breaking from losing him. Or would her survival instinct kicked in, allowing herself to let go of him as she makes her way in the new world. She doesn’t know and she is scared of the uncertain future. This is her first time, beside falling in love with Sehun, where she let her emotion to dictate her life.  A sob escaped as she buried her head into her pillow. And before long, the sob escalated into despairing loud cries as she finally surrendered to her new reality.

First Month

“拜拜 “ Sumin waved to her colleague as she took a different train to get her home. It’s been two weeks since she started work and Sumin is slowly adapting to her life in Hong Kong. Since she had spent several weeks of her internship at the company, she was familiar with the work culture so she can dive into work immediately. She enjoyed the work, learning new things and willingly been working late. Also, one of her fellow interns have also joined the company and the two of them are becoming fast friends.

Before she started work, she had walked around the neighbourhood, familiarizing herself. She found a nearby convenience store for those small needs and late night hunger pangs, a bigger supermarket for her groceries and several eateries, all within 20 minutes walking distance from her apartment. She has also signed up for English and Pilate classes over the weekend, settling her new life.

It’s Wednesday night and it’s her weekly dinner date night with Yerim. Before she left, they had agreed that every Wednesday night, they will have dinner together over Skype so that they can catch up on their days as they eat their. To make it like they having dinner together, they've decided that each week they will both have similar type of food. Tonight, dinner theme was sushi.

“What kind of sushi is that?” Yerim peered into her computer.

Sumin picked up her box of sushi and showed it to her.

“I got it from the convenience store nearby,” Sumin explained as she popped one into .

“Seriously. Can’t you get it from a proper sushi place for our dinner date?” Yerim grumbled. She had driven 15 minutes from the apartment to get sushi from their favourite place.

“Sorry! I had planned to get it from a restaurant in town that I heard rave reviews about. But I was running late. Would you have preferred that I’m late for our dinner just because of some fancy sushi? Would you?” Sumin joked.

Yerim rolled her eyes and ignored the question.

“Jenny and Donggoo have yet to find a job. They were whining about it at dinner last weekend, it was so annoying,” she updated Sumin. “Donggoo would probably go and do his graduate study if he can’t find a job within the next couple of months. His family can afford it. Jenny is doing part time work for now. She mentioned she regretted not asking you to review her resume.” Sumin is known among friends for churning out resume that attracts potential hirers.

“She can email it to me. That is if that is what she still wants,” Sumin replied. She looked forward to hearing what her other friends are up to, still keeping herself up todate. But she missed being with them.

“You!! You!!” Yerim said with full. Quickly drinking water, she rebuked, “Aren’t you busy enough? You are already working late every day. Anyway, she did ask, and I said no.”

“It’s ok. It won’t take too much time. I should help a friend. Ask her to email me and then I will have a Skype call with her to discuss about it.”

Yerim leaned back and observed her friend. “Don’t do it.”

Sumin raised her eyes to meet Yerim’s.

“You know she’s been curious about you. She may take the opportunity to pry.” Although they are good friends, no one can deny that Jenny loves to pry or poke in places where she doesnt belong.

“It’s ok. I can handle it,” Sumin reassured. “We dated and now we broke up,” she commented nonchalantly.

“Even if we are in the different places under the same sky, please don’t forget me,” Yerim sang which caused Sumin to giggle.

Grinning, Yerim was happy to see the smile on Sumin’s face. She had been very worried about the move but Sumin seems to be handling it pretty well. From what she can see. And the fact she could laugh at a reference to Sehun, maybe, just maybe, Hong Kong is giving her the space to move on.

“How has it been?” she asked.

Sumin chewed her food while she contemplated it. “It’s been ok. The work hours here are really long and there’s just so much to learn. Since I started, we’ve worked till 9 and occasionally 10 on most days. I’ve only seen daylight after work on a couple of occasions. I almost missed my English class last Saturday because we had to come into the office to clear out some work. But.. it is the beginning of the year which is a very busy time, with the month end and year end closing for the reporting and consolidation team. And it seems, the analyst team are busy too because we have to work on the hard-close numbers first and adjust when the full data are ready. So hopefully it gets better.”

“Goodness!! They really are making all of you work from day one!,”

She nodded. “No more pampering. Its OJT from the get go. But I liked it. Its hard cause the seniors had no time to explain anything, but we are learning a lot, mostly by making mistakes and getting scoldings” she chuckled.

Yerim shook her head “Only you would be happy to be slogging and getting scolded.”

Second Month

Sumin looked around the restaurant until she saw a raised hand and a voice calling out to her. Quickly, she joined the table. She had to meet her senior for a review before lunch, and the other ex-intern, Suet Ying had offered to save her a seat at the restaurant. “Thank you, Suet Ying.”

Suet Ying brushed it off. “I ordered spicy noodle for you. I hope that it’s ok.”

Without waiting for another reply, she turned around and introduced Sumin to the other colleagues from Finance department at their table. There is Anna, who is also new to the company although she wasn’t part of the internship group. Then there was Freddy, who has worked for a couple of years, responsible for doing reporting, Jin Goo, a one-year veteran at payments department and his mentee, Yujin another newbie. Sumin smiled shyly at the newly introduced colleagues. Although its been two months, Sumin had been too busy to mingle. She was focussed on her work and was lucky that Suet Ying, someone she knew during her internship is a social butterfly that enable her to slowly get to know other people within the company.

“So Sumin, do you have a boyfriend?” Freddy asked. Sumin almost choked on her noodle at the unexpected question. She had been eating her noodle as she listen to the conversation at the table and the conversation was on the various eateries, hence this personal question was unexpected. After drinking some water, she raised her head to look at Freddy and noticed that everyone else at the table was staring expectantly at her.

Suet Ying cleared . “We had lunch together the other day, when you had to the audit meeting. So we’ve shared that information. Freddy has a girlfriend. Since uni, 4th year anniversary in.. what was it.. 3 weeks?” she glanced at Freddy who nodded. Anna is a .., even at dating. She was the school nerd that didn’t notice boys until she started work. Now she’s obsessed with them.” A cry of indignation was heard from Anna. "Jin Goo doesn’t have a girlfriend, though he has a crush on someone in the office. He’s not telling who it is. And Yujin is seeing someone, but they are not official.”

Sumin silently absorbed the news. She felt uncomfortable knowing pesonal details of people she just met. 

“And me, I’m a serial dater. Its because I haven’t found one I would want to spend the rest of my life with. So, now its your turn.”

Biting her lips nervously, she gave a hesitant smile. She felt like telling Surt Ying that even if she found someone she wants to live with the rest of her life, it didn't mean that she can. Or worse is, be like her who walked away away from the love of her life.

“I was in a relationship for over 2 years. But we broke up because of certain circumstances. It’s been almost a year,” she whispered. Even today, it still hurts to acknowledge the end of the relationship.

“Yay!” Anna beamed. “We can go blind dating together.”

Immediately Sumin shook her head. “I’m not interested in being in a relationship. I just want to focus on work.”

“All work and no play makes Sumin a dull girl!” Freddy pointed out. “Com’on, you are a pretty girl, I bet there are many guys in the office already has their eyes on you.”

Blushing lightly, Sumin shook her head. Although she had ignored the interested looks from other guys, and there was even a guy who had asked her for her number three weeks after she started working, she has zero interest. “I’m serious, I just got out of a relationship, I don’t want to be in another.”

“It’s been a year.. you said. I moved on within a month, girl,” Suet Ying remarked.

Anna scoffed. “That’s because your relationship never last more than 3 months.”

“You know nothing Anna,” Suet Ying told Anna off.  “It’s not 3 months.. none ever past the 2 months itch..” and she started laughing. The rest of the table joined in. 

The next night, during dinner with Yerim, Sumin was subdued. It is quite usual for her to let Yerim talk herself out but she would still gave her comments here and there, and share some of the happenings in her life.

“Is everything ok?”

Sumin nodded. “Just tired. It’s been busy.”

“When is it ever not busy at work for you? Is it the company or is it you?”

Biting her lips, Sumin knew it is mostly herself. She could have better work life balance, most of the people in the office does, but she chose to volunteer herself to pick up more work. Part of it because she wanted to learn more, but it was mainly to make sure her time is occupied. If she worked till late, she only had time to wash up, have a quick meal before she knocked out the moment her head touched her pillows. She then has limited time to feel her loneliness. And deal with thoughts of someone.

But her mood has been pretty low since the conversation at lunch the day before. She didn’t realise they’ve broken up for almost a year. It just felt like yesterday they were still together. And yet, she was not able to get him off her mind. He still leaves voice messages, telling her of his days and occasional talk of wanting to see her. But she only listened to the messages over the weekend, when she is alone in her apartment, with time to kill while she nursed her loneliness. Even then, she stop herself from indulging in thoughts of wanting him back.

“Sumin, I can see something is wrong. Talk to me,” Yerim asked.

But Sumin just smiled and changed the topic. Yerim was frustrated and worried for her best friend.

The following weekend, Sumin smiled to see a new message on her old phone. She wondered what he had been up to.But the smile faltered and tears started trickling down her face when she heard Sehun’s angry voice. He found out about her posting and he took it personally.

Fourth Month

Sumin is in her tiny kitchen, cooking dinner. Just as she plated her food, her laptop dinged. Quickly she placed the food on the table and accepted the Skype call.

“Hellooooo!” she beamed at a pouty Yerim who was looking a tad grumpy from having to wait.

“I’m sorry. I just finish cooking,” Sumin explained as she picked up a steaming plate of bulgogi.

“Do you know that.. that thing you just boastfully paraded in front of me is not going to help one bit!” Yerim harrumphed.

Sumin chuckled. She picked up a slice of beef and exaggeratedly placed it in a mouth and her lips deliciously.

“YA!!!”

She almost choked at Yerim’s yell.

“How could you be such a meanie. Come back! Hong Kong is such a bad influence,” Yerim shouted.

Laughingly, she gushed, “Saranghae!”

“Haizz..” Yerim sighed. “Bogoshipduh.. a lot.”

“I miss you too.” Sumin replied soothingly. “What are you having tonight?”

Adjusting the laptop so Sumin could see her food, Yerim told her she ordered dolsot bibimbap.

“Sumin-ah, I miss your cooking. I have such a lousy roommate now. Can’t clean well and can’t cook,” Yerim whined.

“You know, you can learn,” she offere