Irene just wanted to shut her eyes tight, blocking her vision from the much-despised document piled on her coffee table. She had been laying on the couch for a little more than 3 hours, staring at nothing, as her heart mourned on another failure.

Failures, she was supposed to be okay with it, she should already have had herself used to it. But even being alive for 26 years couldn’t prepare her for another one. The numerous rejections from potential investors, given with a trained smile of regret, hadn’t helped her to identify what is wrong with her business idea. The idea that was materialized in the bundle of documents stacked in front of her face, the thickness now came off as intimidating, as if it was mocking her.

She still didn’t understand what was wrong with her proposal. The proposal she had been working with Sooyoung, her younger best friend, for almost two years. By now, she could even memorize the whole proposal word by word. Every single sentence was crafted with caution, with depth. Was it her idea? Did it simply ? Well, a startup that tries to unite people seeking to adopt strayed animals can’t be that bad of an idea, right? It has both social and economic values, how could it ?

As if cutting her train of thoughts, her phone vibrated on the coffee table, right beside her proposal. Gathering all her will, Irene pushed herself up and comb her messy hair, before reaching out her arms to answer the call. As expected, of course she would call.

“Hi unnie.”

“Yes, Sooyoung?” Her voice came out a little bit hoarser than she expected, which didn’t go unnoticed by Sooyoung.

“You alright, unnie?”

“Yes, yes, don’t worry. I was sleeping,” Irene lied, then reached out for her water bottle inside her handbag, “what’s up?”

Irene could hear Sooyoung’s heavy sigh, contrast to her usual snarky demeanor. The wonders failure could do to you. “Just want to check on you, that’s all.”

Upon hearing Sooyoung’s concern, Irene felt even more guilty. She realized that she had been quiet since the both of them exited the meeting room. Sooyoung did all the comforting, promising Irene that she’d take the older woman on an ice cream treat. Now, she felt even more miserable, she must have been a burden towards her younger friend.

“I’m okay, Sooyoung. Thank you for calling, really,” Irene heaved a sigh, “we’ll find a way, one day. But today’s not our day.”

Sooyoung hummed. “So, what are your plans?”

“My plans?”

“Yep, since you…,” Irene could feel Sooyoung’s hesitation, even through her phone speaker, “you resigned from your old job 3 months ago, and it’d be quite some time before we find another investor. What are your plans until then?”

Sooyoung’s reminder unintentionally slapped her hard in her face. Right, she was practically jobless. She decided to call it a quit from her former job as a business consultant a while ago, thinking that it was time to put more focus on her startup. Turned out it was a bad idea, realizing that she didn’t earn a dime anymore and her saving was about to run out. Well, she didn’t have any plan.

“I don’–“

Wait. Wait a minute.

“Unnie?”

Ignoring Sooyoung’s call, Irene fished out a paper she never thought she would’ve pulled out again from her handbag. The name and the number, written messily with her glittery purple pen, shone brightly amidst the crumpled paper.

“Unnie? What were you saying again?”

As if in a daze, Irene said absentmindedly, “wait, wait, I’ll cal