The city is exhausting. Behind the glory and beauty of the twinkling lights and the spirit of life, there is a toll of competition and ingenuity that dulls the soul.

Nayeon used to be so bright. She used to be a young and hopeful woman with her dreams in her hand, a mind full of inspiration, and the will to create stories for others to sing. Making a name for herself in the industry proved to be a hefty obstacle to climb and heaving herself up to a notable platform was sapping all of her hope away. The words she scribbled onto paper no longer carried the magic it used to. The echo of passion and emotion was lacking and leaked away from her along with her inspiration. All of the expectations, the tiring hustle, and the lack of humanity weighed on her shoulders like a heavy ton of trucks.

She needs to escape, to run away from the city lights, the honking of cars, and the endless eyes watching her every move. She needs to find her inspiration again and to look for any hope that lingered in her heart. Underneath all of her exhaustion is still her burning dream to share her heart with anyone willing to listen.

Buying a transit ticket to Damyang-gun and renting an Airbnb, Nayeon took to recovery. The first morning there, it is not the sound of running cars, the chatter of pedestrians, or the pounding of construction that wakes her. Instead, it’s the warm cast of light from the risen sun and the whistling song of the birds outside of her window that flutters her eyes open. Even the air itself carries a different feeling. Instead of the stifling smog-filled air in the city, the one in the countryside feels lighter and cleaner. Being in the city, it felt like everything rushed by while Nayeon stood at a still. But, there, in the bed she lie on, life is going at a pace she craves.

She could just breathe and that was something she could not afford in the city. Always on the move, always preoccupied with what to do and how to survive, fretting about her job, and fitting in with society, Nayeon took this breath of fresh air with the greatest appreciation. Rolling out of bed and getting ready for the day, Nayeon slips outside to take a walk and explore. There along the road, is the most green she has ever seen. Vibrant trees that lightly swayed in the air brought along slotted areas where the sun would bleed through. The serenity of it all brought tears to her eyes. The desperation to escape was getting fed with each step she took further into the countryside.

Walking further down the bamboo groves that littered Damyang-gun, a farmers’ market lies on the side of the street. The people of Damyang-gun move and go about life with a sense of peaceful ease. The market carries a low murmur of residents talking to sellers, amongst themselves, and to their company. There is no rush in how they walk, no desperation to leave and move to another destination. Along the banks, farmers present their goods with pride in their eyes. Everything laid out on the tables comes from their own hands, their own soil. Amongst the faces of more matured residents, a particularly young looking face stands out to Nayeon. The woman looks around her age with bright and lively eyes, long brown hair that sits tied in a ponytail at the top of her head, and a joyful smile. Looking along the sea of people and helping those that stopped by her stand, she gazes in pride at the flowers that she grew at her own farm at home. Stopping at the stand and smelling a bundle of white flowers, Nayeon feels the peace of nature settling into her body and into her heart.

“How much is it for this, Miss?”

The woman’s voice is high and light, refreshing to Nayeon’s ears, “One bundle like that is 3,000 won.”

Keeping the bundle of flowers with her and choosing two more, she hands the bills of money to the florist. Accepting the money with a kind smile, Nayeon feels the woman’s genuine appreciation in how her eyes twinkle and how she waves goodbye as Nayeon delves further into the market. Right next to the flower stand is a fruit stand. A young woman as well operates the stand. She looks even younger, although, not that much younger. A mole adorns the lower left part of her face, right under her full lips. Nayeon finds it charming, especially when the woman’s lips lift to greet her with a beautiful smile. The dimples that dip at her cheeks kicks Nayeon’s heart into acceleration. Bowing in greeting, Nayeon surveys the fruits in front of her. The bright red of strawberries catches her eyes. Packaged neatly and labeled with a sticker on top, Nayeon finds the logo endearing. A sun-like face with circle eyes, a line for a nose, and an upturned smile, Nayeon figures the woman herself designed the drawing.

“The season for strawberries has arrived. The batches around this time are always a bit more sweet and vibrant.”

Her voice is soft but commands attention. When Nayeon looks up to the farmer and her eyes find her dark brown ones, it feels as if everything and everyone around her disappears. There in the populated farmers’ market, Nayeon finds herself alone with the strawberry farmer. Her heart likes the comfort she finds there.

Her voice brings Nayeon out of the magical revere she was in, “We also have jam made from the same bunch.” Shaking her head and bringing her focus back to reality, Nayeon decides to grab two packages of strawberries and a jar of strawberry jam. In the haze of attraction, she pays for the food, her eyes consumed with tracing every part of the woman’s face in hopes to etch her in her memory. The farmer graces her with a gentle, yet, bright smile as she parts and Nayeon entertains the thought of returning once more.

When Nayeon returns home, she writes a song that feels more like her heart and less like the false manufacturing her mind forces onto paper. Beside the journal that houses her words and attempts at storytelling, a bowl of cut strawberries is continuously picked at with a silver fork.

The farmer was right. Its flavor was bright and pleasingly sweet, just like how the woman’s smile felt.

~.~

The next morning, Nayeon returns to the farmers’ market. She buys flowers once more from the girl with the joyful smile, debates buying another package of strawberries despite having two packages from the day before.

“Doesn’t Chaeyoungie have the greatest strawberries you’ve ever tasted?”

The florist stands at the area between her stand and the strawberry farmer’s. Her tone is friendly and welcoming. “Chaeyoungie” blushes at the florist’s compliment and shrugs it off, “It’s all in the soil, Sana unnie. We’re just lucky that it rained a lot before strawberry season came.”

“Well, Chaeyoung, another farmer could grow strawberries on the land next to yours, hell, even on your land, and I would still buy yours because it’s not just the soil that makes the strawberries so appealing. I think this woman here could agree with me.” Before turning away to tend to her customers, she sends a wink to Nayeon with a coy and teasing smile.

She couldn’t have been that obvious? But then again, who returns to buy strawberries when one already has two perfect packages sitting in their fridge? When Chaeyoung settles her eyes on her with an eyebrow slightly raised, Nayeon feels her cheeks warming to a pretty pink color. She flusters at the attention. Before scrambling away in embarrassment, Nayeon murmurs an admission of truth, “She’s not wrong. It’s definitely not just the soil.” As she hustles away with her head hung and her cheeks burning, Chaeyoung’s lips lift into a bright and beaming smile as she lingers her eyes on the retreating figure.

Looking beside her and making eye contact with Sana, “I hope you didn’t scare her away, unnie. She was cute and had a pretty smile.”

Sana just giggles and bumps her shoulders against the strawberry farmer’s, “I think it’s going to take more than just me to scare her away from you, Chaeng.”

A moment passes and the woman who rushed away rushes back with her cheeks still rosy, her lips pulled into a timid smile, “I took a package and forgot to pay.” She places a couple of bills in Chaeyoung’s hands that were laid out instinctively to receive payment. Mumbling a million apologies and bowing repeatedly, the woman backtracks quickly, slightly trips over a crack on the ground, and almost runs away from the fruit stand in burning embarrassment.

Chaeyoung feels her heart softening at the arrival of the strange woman in her life.

She hears her grandma’s words echo in the back of her mind, “Be kind; be soft to the world.”

Chaeyoung abandoned softness when the world turned a cold shoulder towards her.

Chaeyoung thinks that Nayeon might be the one to help her rediscover vulnerability.

~.~

When Chaeyoung returns home once the market closes, Sana joins her after she returns the flowers at her stand to her house that was not too far away from Chaeyoung’s. However, at her arrival, two other people accompany her. Mina who often caters to the financial side of Sana’s business and Tzuyu who usually tends to the acres of flowers with her tags along. It is a usual occurrence for Chaeyoung to see the trio together once the market would end. Sometimes Tzuyu or Mina would be the one tending to customers like Sana had been the two days before, but, the two strongly preferred to stay at home and work there. Tzuyu claims that as great as people can be, they could never beat her dog that resided at their home and Mina claims that her voice would tire from the constant talking but Sana and Tzuyu knew that Mina just preferred not to talk at great lengths for long periods of time. It was a team chemistry that flowed along smoothly.

As the four arrive to Chaeyoung’s home, Momo and Jeongyeon’s voices are audible once the farmer pulls the door open.

“Momo that is your fifth slice of bread. Don’t you think that’s a little too much?”

Tzuyu interjects before greeting the company at her friend’s house, “There is no such thing as too much bread, Jeongyeon unnie.”

Momo brightens at Tzuyu’s presence and teases Jeongyeon before snuggling into her arms, “If Tzuyu says there’s no such thing, then, there’s no such thing.”

Momo’s smug smile warrants another scolding from Jeongyeon, “You know, just because your girlfriend is super fit and and healthy, that doesn’t mean everything she says is right.”

“Maybe so, but, she’s my girlfriend so she’s always right.”

Jeongyeon knows she will not win this fight and surrenders with her arms held up in resignation.

She fake gags when the two kiss and moves on towards Chaeyoung who is focused on getting her strawberries back into the commercial fridge that stands beside their modest one that holds the house’s food.

“So, I overheard Sana telling Jihyo and Dahyun about Cute Strawberry Girl coming back to your carts today.”

“And?”

“And how was it?”

Chaeyoung turns around with a raised eyebrow and shakes her head at how Jeongyeon looks at her with all of the interest in the world.

“Nice.”

Jeongyeon stays quiet in hopes of further elaboration only to be met with silence.

“Just nice? That’s it?”

“No. But, does it necessarily concern you?”

Jeongyeon lightly bumps at the farmer’s with her knee, “Yah, Chaeyoung. I am starved of entertainment and I am dying from boredom. Would you please indulge in my selfish desires and tell me more?”

The younger girl laughs at the exaggerated pleading Jeongyeon performs as she drops below Chaeyoung’s face with a pout and big eyes. Chaeyoung ruffles Jeongyeon’s hair before she sighs and gives in, “She was so much cuter than I could have ever expected. She came back and bought another package even though she already bought two yesterday. She was all blushy and stuttering and nervous. And, I don’t know, Jeongyeon unnie, she feels so refreshing.”

Noticing the tonal shift from joking to serious, Jeongyeon lays a hand on Chaeyoung’s shoulder, the broad expanse of it with her thumb, “Don’t be afraid to let yourself feel, Chaeng. Even if she’s here today and gone tomorrow, it’s better to have felt than not at all.”

Jeongyeon had been there when Chaeyoung fell from the top of the world to the floor of it. She had been there to support her as she rose from her knees and dusted the disappointment layered on her shirt off, to be the friend that she needed when Chaeyoung’s grandma fell ill while she was away in the city pursuing her dreams.

Before being a farmer, Chaeyoung was a fairly notable composer in the music industry. Her sound had infiltrated the music scene and her work could be found in several artists that had succeeded. Reasonably happy in the city and moving along well with the hustle of the industry, the girl found no reason to return to her home in the countryside. When Chaeyoung heard about her grandma falling ill, she abandoned everything she had in the city to accompany her. Her grandma had been the one to encourage Chaeyoung on her journey towards her dream. She had assisted in paying for all of her piano lessons, bought a guitar that Chaeyoung still presently uses, motivated her to study music theory, no matter how excruciating it was to memorize and learn the scales of notes.

Chaeyoung knew to keep a humble heart; her grandma had taught her that too. Chaeyoung knew loyalty and she would not allow for her grandma to be alone in days that dragged on, in days where her body would not cooperate, and her mind would falter in hope. While her grandma fought the illness, Chaeyoung promised to be beside her. Nonetheless, illness is sometimes a matter that cannot be fought. When she passed, Chaeyoung moved back to the city but could no longer find the magic that she used to seek as she watched people walk along the street. She no longer found the twinkling lights beautiful, the blinking of street lights calming, and ached for home.

During a particular night where Chaeyoung cut a bowl of strawberries for her to eat and found them too sour, and after pouring sugar into the bowl and mixing, faint memories of her grandma filtered in. And for once, after a fairly long time, Chaeyoung found peace and a semblance of happiness. Maybe home was back in the countryside where her grandma resided; maybe her heart longed to be there instead of the city.

Packing a bag and buying a ticket to Damyang-gun, Chaeyoung retired to the place that used to be home for her. There, she reconnected with Jeongyeon who had been her childhood friend. The same night when she returned, she cried into the older girl’s arms and allowed for herself to be vulnerable in front of her friend. The next day, Chaeyoung wakes up to find breakfast on the table with a bowl of strawberries beside the rice and water. There, Jeongyeon was washing dishes and Chaeyoung felt that this was home, not her apartment in the city. Before parting, Jeongyeon runs a hand through Chaeyoung’s hair and leaves her number on the table, “If you need anything, even if it’s just needing someone to sit with you, text me and I’ll be right there.”

Chaeyoung impulsively calls a moving truck and arranges for permanent relocation back to the countryside. Since then, Chaeyoung joined Jeongyeon in tending to the farm that her grandma once tended to. There, she meets Jihyo who Chaeyoung faintly remembers as Jeongyeon’s friend, now girlfriend, that would sometimes join them on their escapades. As time went on, Chaeyoung befriended Dahyun who had assisted her grandma while Chaeyoung was away and in the city. Dahyun had been a cornerstone in Chaeyoung’s healing. The older girl would tell her stories about her grandma, relay her wisdom, and her wistful knowledge. Through her, Chaeyoung found the spirit of her grandma.

But, Dahyun on her own is a pill of happiness.

Chaeyoung fondly recalls a memory where she had proved herself to be a significant figure in her life. It was when Chaeyoung first moved and was settling into her new life. She had strawberries simmering in a pan to make jam for the upcoming farmers’ market and Dahyun had occupied her to take a break in the shade after picking her quota of packages for the weekend.

“So, you leave the city where you make jams for people to dance to for the countryside where you still make jams. Jars of them. For people to consume.”

Chaeyoung laughs a boisterous laugh. She can’t remember the last time she erupted in laughter like that. Wiping the tears away that leaked from her eyes, Dahyun’s chittering laughter and bright smile brought happiness to her heart.

This was home. With Jeongyeon, Jihyo, and Dahyun. When Chaeyoung meets Sana and her ragtag group of friends, they become another home for her to find comfort in.

Home, Chaeyoung finds, is anywhere her friends are.

They remind her of what being soft feels like. Chaeyoung still struggles with opening up to the world and being soft too.

She’s working on it.

Being kind is easy. Being unconditionally kind to the world and to herself is another battle.

~.~

Nayeon decides to extend her stay for another two weeks.

The thought of returning to the city seemed so displeasing. She couldn’t help but want to retreat from the place that she viewed as damaging, putrid, and ugly. Being away from the pressure of expectations, Nayeon felt the peace she had been aching so earnestly for. Being able to wake up past twelve, having the leisure to just stroll about with no place in mind to end up in, the chirping of birds in the daytime and grasshoppers at night, and the genuine conversations residents would engage in with her made her feel as if life was meant for more than just surviving.

It is an odd Tuesday afternoon when Nayeon decides to explore the groves of bamboo trees so infamously known in Damyang-gun. There, she takes pictures of the towering plants that provide shade from the sun, inhales the fresh air, and allows for her mind to ease into the serenity of the groves. That is, until a high shrieking voice brings her out of her peace. The voice is familiar and as she looks to her left, the florist is sat on a blanket with another girl. At the sound of movement, Sana lands her eyes on Nayeon who looks a bit like a deer in headlights.

“Oh! Strawberry Girl! Hello!”

Nayeon blushes at the nickname and lifts a shy hand in greeting, “Hi, Sana? Right?”

Before Sana can confirm, the girl beside the florist whips her head around and the sight of her makes Nayeon laugh in a way she has not laughed in for awhile. The girl was cute, by all means, with wide and bright eyes, a pleasing facial structure and composition, but what got to her was the sight of baby carrots precariously stuffed in her nostrils. Nayeon wasn’t sure she would be quick to snack on carrots so soon but she appreciated the h