“Please, I was starving, I really had no money left,” Irene watched from two aisles away as a girl dressed in a grey hoodie plead with the stall manager. Her voice, those idiosyncratic high octaves. It sounded all too familiar. A nightmare unveiling itself in front of her very eyes. The girl had returned. She knew all to well who it was. Although hesitant, she knew she could not turn a blind eye to the latter’s pleas. Especially not when she was in need. Her heart was too weak to resist.

“I’ll pay,” Irene approached the store manager and handed him a ten dollar note from her wallet. Satisfied after achieving his aim, he threw the girl in the hoodie a scornful look and scampered off with the note.

“Thank...Joo...Irene?” The woman in the grey hoodie blurted out. That cannot possibly be her. Seulgi was never this much of a mess. Her hair was never dishevelled, a lingering tinge of vanilla and honey always surrounded her perimeters. Now, the Seulgi standing right in front of her was a completely different person. Her hair was messy in a bun, her entire being reeked of alcohol.

Time, what a vicious monster.

“Mummy,” little Yeri who rested in her arms wailed. Her cries pulled Irene out of her reverie of the past and it was only then that she realised she had been staring. She rubbed soothing circles on the child’s back and rocked her gently in her arms. Initially, Yeri was cautious of the stranger who stood there. “Hi little one, I’m Seulgi,” Seulgi’s eyes drew into a crescent and her lips curved upwards, revealing an eye smile. Oh, that classic eye smile that pulled at Irene’s heartstrings, even after all these years. She reached out