Jung Eunbi had never been so nervous in her entire life. Granted, the situation she was in was very unusual, but the way her hands were shaking, her leg was bouncing, and her best friend looked at her, indicated that maybe it was a bit too much.

            Eunbi still couldn’t believe she had agreed to it. But, she had said yes and Yewon was right beside her when she did, giving Eunbi as much moral support as she could.

            Yewon grabbed her hand as soon as Eunbi put the mobile down. “So…?”

            Eunbi took a deep breath, feeling the blood pumping on her ears. “She’ll pick me up after class on Monday. And then… we’ll talk better about it all.”

            Nodding, Yewon said, “that sounds good. Yeah.”

            Eunbi looked at her friend, “yeah… damn, what is this situation, seriously.”

            “The most unbelievable one, but…” Yewon smiled, “it’ll turn out ok. Though…”

            “Though what?” Eunbi asked, back straightening, waiting for something terrible to drop.

            Yewon chuckled. “Don’t worry, I was just going to say that I kind of want to meet this… Kim Sojung.”

            Something stirred in Eunbi. Yewon was her best friend and she was the person Eunbi hold the dearest in the USA. After all of that ordeal, the way she was with her through that call and her words, it all made Yewon get an even bigger part of her heart. To have her meet Sojung… that would mean a lot, Eunbi realized. She didn’t even know why, and she decided to not overthink it, but Eunbi knew that she would like that.

            “Ok,” Eunbi inhaled and exhaled, trying to calm her heart down, “I just need to talk to eonni.”

            “Hm… I was thinking of something different.”

            “Different?”

            “Yeah,” Yewon smiled, “she’ll pick you up after class, right? I’m free when you have your last class on Monday, so I was thinking of waiting for her with you. It’s not like we’ll have a real conversation, but at least I’ll get a good look at her, before seeing you off.”

            Eunbi frowned, and with the slightest chuckle, she said, “why does it feel like you’re my mother?”

            Yewon laughed and shrugged. She was about to say something, but, for a second, she stopped, and concern washed her face. “Eonni… what about your family? Have you been talking to them?”

            All the progress Eunbi had made in calming herself down was flushed down the toilet. “I…”

            Eunbi hadn’t talked to her family ever since that last call of her mother and now more than ever she was hesitant to do it. Things were starting to look up a little bit and Eunbi wasn’t hungry, she could call them and tell them hello, lie with a healthier face. But the situation she was in… what she had just said yes to, the fact that she even got to meet someone like Kim Sojung, it was all making her unstable, shaky, and she didn’t trust herself to face her family like that. Besides, could she even tell them what was really happening? There was no way her family would be okay with any of that.

            If Eunbi was going to lie about every single thing, it was best to not call.

            “Eonni?”

            “I talked to mom a while ago,” her voice came out tired, “I’ll call them some other day.”

            Yewon tightened her hold on Eunbi’s hand. “Alright.”

            Taking a deep breath, Eunbi leaned back on the chair.

            And suddenly she remembered she had somewhere to go.

            “Oh, crap!”

            She jolted out of the chair and looked at the clock hanging next to the menus on the walls. She was very, very late.

            “What is it?” Yewon alarmedly asked, standing up too.

            “I should be at work!”

            “But, eonni—”

            “Yewon-ah, I have no idea how much Sojung will… pay me, I can’t lose this job being uncertain of this,” Eunbi gathered her stuff and hurriedly pulled Yewon into her arms. “Thank you.”

            Her friend sighed and wrapped her arms around Eunbi’s waist. “Anytime, eonni.”

            Hurrying up, Eunbi managed to get to the bar in time and, as soon as she got there, her boss was in the employees’ locker room, resting against hers, a cigarette in a hand and a phone in the other. Eunbi schooled her expression at the smell of the smoke and tried very hard to not think about why her boss was there.

            “Good evening, Ms. O’Malley.”

            The red-headed woman turned to her with a questioning look.

            Eunbi had forgotten her first name, but she knew O’Malley was related to the owner, one hell of a cook and an extraordinarily strong woman. Eunbi had been interviewed by her months back and she had not gone easy on her—which Eunbi actually appreciated. O’Malley told her, in curt and maybe rude words, that they were a chill bar, mostly for friends to hang out and get drunk and laugh, but sometimes s came in and they made trouble. It took Eunbi a while to get how the woman talked and acted, but she knew O’Malley was actually a good person.

            Still, it didn’t make it easier to be under that scrutinizing look.

            “Hey, Bee,” O’Malley took a drag on her cigarette and turned to the other side to blow it. The woman couldn’t really get how to pronounce Eunbi’s name, so she had settled for a simple Bee. Eunbi wasn’t that comfortable with it at first, the name actually sounding to intimate for her, but she grew used to it. “You feeling better?”

            “Yeah… sorry for that,” Eunbi casted her eyes down, focusing on the wooden floor.

            There was a second of silence and then a sigh. “Look, I wanted to talk to you yesterday, but had some problems, so I’ll just do it now.”

            Brows furrowing a bit, Eunbi raised her head to look at O’Malley. A cold chill ran down her spine, and a dreadful thought crossed her mind.

            “You’re a nice girl, Bee,” O’Malley put her phone inside her jeans’ pocket. “But you’re really overworking yourself, girl. And, like, I don’t actually care if you skip a day or two to get whatever you have on your plate done, but my boss does.”

            The chill became a full-blown shiver and O’Malley probably noticed by the way she winced.

            “, no, stop looking at me like that, I’m not firing you,” Eunbi released a relieved sigh, “but this can’t happen again. ‘Cause there’s other desperate students out there and they’re knocking here. Believe me, I like ya, I don’t want to get interviewing again, but this is gonna happen because my boss doesn’t really give a to personal problems.”

            Eunbi didn’t know who this boss was, had never met her, but by the way she overheard O’Malley talk to other employees, the woman was a cold one. Eunbi suspected it was O’Malley’s mother, but she couldn’t be sure. Not that it mattered really.

            O’Malley was silent for a moment, probably giving some time for Eunbi to think and she took the opportunity to calm her racing heart. She wasn’t being fired, not now. But she was on thin ice. Eunbi hated that, she hated it a lot. It’s not like she chose to pass out, not like she wanted to be sick and skip work. Sure, working at the bar was one of the most exhausting things, but Eunbi took pride in being a honest and hard worker, she wouldn’t purposely skip it. However, in the end, that’s how things were. Like O’Malley said, there were other, definitely many, desperate students searching for part-time jobs, and if Eunbi got out, there would be one to replace her. It did make her feel a bit better to know that O’Malley liked her—in her own, kind of weird way—but it wasn’t O’Malley’s choice if something like that happened.

            Sojung-eonni wouldn’t fire me, would her.

            Eunbi’s eyes widened, startled by her own thoughts. What the hell was that?

            She shook her head a bit and forced her eyes to meet O’Malley’s.

            “I… I understand. Thank you,” Eunbi quietly added and watched the woman give her a shrug.

            “Come on, your shift started five minutes ago.”

            The hotel room’s ceiling was not the most interesting thing Sojung had ever seen, but as the insomnia started to hit her, she couldn’t seem to stop looking at it. Sojung almost wished it had something different about it, maybe a small stain, dot, or even a lamp above her head, anything at all to take her out of her mind.

            It was too loud in it.

            Sojung closed her eyes.

            Yerin had left four hours ago, after a second of pure shock at the news of Eunbi actually accepting the offer and a few moments taken to just pat Sojung’s back and say that this was the best-case scenario and now she shouldn’t have to be anxious all night about it. Monday, Sojung would meet Eunbi and they would get everything straight.

            Sojung had smiled at her friend and allowed herself to be comforted by those words until Yerin left and she headed to her computer, trying to distract herself with work. Sojung couldn’t do it. It took her two hours of helpless scrolling through her email box, and answering a few things, before she gave up and went to bed, hoping that she would fall asleep.

            That, Sojung also couldn’t do.

            Every time Sojung closed her eyes, she saw Eunbi’s face. Not only her face, Sojung could also hear her voice. Sojung could hear Eunbi thank her for the food, could hear Eunbi cry at the phone, could hear Eunbi’s shock at her proposal, and Sojung could hear it, very clearly, as if Eunbi was saying it to her ear at that exact moment that she accepted it.

            Eunbi had also said Sojung would have to walk her through it and, of course Sojung was expecting that. The problem was that Sojung, herself, didn’t know how to go through with that. Sojung never had a companion in her life, she had only seen people around her with them. She knew that a contract was involved, but what type of contract? More importantly, how much should her pay Eunbi? If Sojung was going to be honest, she wanted to simply pay off all Eunbi’s school debts and give her extra money to pay rent for a couple of months.

            But Sojung knew she couldn’t do that much. Eunbi would kill her for even suggesting.

            Sojung needed to have it all set for Monday, without delay. Surely, her mind was a mess and she was extremely worried, but the last thing she could do was let Eunbi see it. At that moment, Sojung needed to be the most collected she could. Eunbi was certainly a nervous wreck and Sojung had to be careful. The student only accepted it because she needed the money, Sojung knew that much, and it would be a nightmare if Sojung didn’t have control of things.

            Opening her eyes, Sojung frowned.

            That was what she was good at, wasn’t it? Sojung was good at being calm, seeing the bigger picture, making the proper decisions and, all in all, getting things done. Sojung didn’t know what had gotten to her—this, this jittery and messy state was not her. Eunbi was making her… feel things that were foreign to her and Sojung definitely wasn’t going to think about them, but she was done with it. Sojung would take a deep breath, get a hold of herself and make it work smoothly.

            Eunbi needs me calm and that’s how I’m going to be, Sojung inhaled deeply and took her phone from the bedside table. Unlocking the screen, she blinked a bit and stared at the boring wallpaper, remembered what had crossed her mind just hours before and bit her lower lip.

            Once again, Sojung opened the gallery and the picture they had taken and allowed herself, at the dark of that unfamiliar room, to relax and just… look at it.

            It felt different like that. Sojung wasn’t berating herself as much, she wasn’t uneasy, she wasn’t worried. Looking at the picture like that, with the prospection of not only having someone by her side at the party, but also helping Eunbi, it made her chest puff, her heart feel bigger than it was. And maybe it should be suffocating, but Sojung felt the opposite. She felt free.

            And it was under the influence of that alien feeling, that her fingers swiftly moved and, when Sojung returned to the home screen, there they were. Cold-bitten skin, hesitant but truthful smiles, a snippet of a day that Sojung will never forget.

            Weirdly enough, a yawn escaped her lips.

            Sojung locked the cellphone’s screen and put it on the bedside table feeling different.

            And then, she slept.

            Monday arrived way faster than any of them would have expected, but it was Eunbi the one pulling her hair out as the day went.

            For starters, Sunday was a weird one. She did go to the bookstore and she did work all day and it was fine. Eunbi had covered for a friend there for a couple of times, so it wasn’t completely foreign to her, but there were things to learn and get used to. Her boss was a patient guy, though, she quickly noticed, and the movement was slow, so she had more than enough time to get into her head and overthink everything.

            The day went by fast, too fast, and as she pulled the covers of her bed, Eunbi wondered if she should text Sojung. She probably should, after all, the woman didn’t exactly know at what time Eunbi would be out of classes—actually, would Sojung even be free by the time she was out? Sojung was certainly a busy woman, Eunbi wasn’t sure their schedules would match. So, she should text her.

            A fleeting thought of calling Sojung crossed her mind, but Eunbi brushed it off.

It would be awkward. Texting was better.

            It took Eunbi longer than it should’ve to type out a short message telling Sojung that her classes would end by 5 p.m. and if that was fine with the older. Eunbi closed her eyes and waited for the answer that, oddly, came right after. 5 p.m. was good for Sojung, she would meet Eunbi at the gallery of the other day if the student was okay with that. Eunbi was.

            So it was all settled and yet, Eunbi wanted to talk a bit more. She decided to just say good night, though, and try to ignore how hard her heart was beating.

            Eunbi managed to sleep and she woke up, brushed her teeth, fried the last egg in her fridge and went to work at the convenience store. All of it, while thinking that in just a few hours she would be meeting with Kim Sojung.

            “I’ll be with you,” Yewon reasoned, voice soft, when she saw Eunbi at lunchtime, all pale and shaky.

Her friend looked as if she was holding back a smile and Eunbi didn’t know why, but that didn’t sit well with her—Eunbi’s anxiety was real! It wasn’t silly!

            Nevertheless, the hours crawled forward and she found herself having minor heart attacks at every professor that entered the class, the knowledge of seeing Sojung soon becoming more and more pressing. And as much as Eunbi wanted, she couldn’t stop time.

            “Let’s go,” Yewon appeared beside her desk, backpack in hands and that same contained smiled from lunch on her face. “I’m curious to see this Kim Sojung.”

            Oh, God, was the only thing on Eunbi’s mind as they made their way towards the gallery. It was a bit before five, so Eunbi started to tell Yewon in more details about the day Sojung had been there, looking at the pieces as Eunbi swept the floor. Yewon asked if Sojung liked art and Eunbi smiled for the first time that day.

            “She does!” Eunbi said, voice a bit livelier. “It’s… it’s funny because when we were talking about that, she said something like, art has always been a huge part of her life, but she wasn’t good at making it…” Eunbi watched as Yewon eyes spotted something behind her, but she didn’t stop talking, imagining it was one of Yewon’s friends, “and… and it was pretty cool. Because she also said it didn’t stop her from appreciating it. I mean, of course it doesn’t! But it sounded cool to me. To know there’s someone who likes art just for what it is, not needing, like us, to make it… I don’t know, it was pretty cool,” a giggle escaped , “don’t you think, Yewon-ah?”

            “Eunbi.”

            Eunbi whirled on her heels to find none other than Kim Sojung standing right before her.

            Sojung was wearing more formal clothes that day, what made sense, since she was probably coming straight from work. But, somehow, she managed to look so much… what was the word? How could Eunbi describe how Sojung looked in that high-waisted black pants, beige shirt—first buttons opened, a simple, silver necklace adorning her neck—and cream overcoat?

            Eunbi forced her eyes up to look at Sojung’s, but she got distracted by the way the woman’s dark hair fell in beautiful waves over her shoulders. Eunbi couldn’t help but think about her own outfit and how her dark jeans and fleece jacket seemed cheap next to Sojung. Eunbi couldn’t help the fast pace her heart acquired.

            “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to overhear your conversation,” Sojung said and Eunbi snapped back to reality, this time paying attention to the woman’s expression. Sojung looked calm and there was the shadow of a smile on her face. It seemed natural, just like the other times, and a bit of the anxiety biting on Eunbi’s mind seeped out.

            “It’s okay!” Yewon chirped and Eunbi felt her cheeks heat up—she couldn’t even answer Sojung, what was wrong with her. “I’m Kim Yewon, by the way.”

            “Oh, I think Eunbi mentioned you,” Sojung bowed back to Yewon. “It’s a pleasure to meet one of Eunbi’s friends. I’m Kim Sojung.”

            Eunbi could feel it, she so could feel Yewon’s heavy eyes on her. “Eonni, you’re right on time,” Eunbi set her mind on ignoring it, though.

            Sojung nodded once, the corner of her lips slightly lifting up. “You too.”

            And silence.

            Yewon awkwardly coughed. “So… Kim Sojung-ssi! I hope we can talk more later,” Eunbi eyed her friend, “but I have to go now. Mom is coming over and I need to clean up my dorm or else I’m losing my head.”

            “Auntie is coming over?” Eunbi blinked. “Say hi to her for me?”

            “Of course, I will!” Yewon pulled Eunbi into a quick hug. “Now, have… have fun the two of you!”

            Yewon waved them goodbye and scurried off, leaving Eunbi paralyzed. What had been that?! Really, Yewon was supposed to say something normal! And that wasn’t normal, was it? Oh, no, Eunbi doesn’t even know anymore.

She forced out a chuckle. “That… that Yewon, right? She’s very funny.”

            Sojung stepped forward, entering Eunbi’s sight. She wasn’t wearing extremely high heels, Eunbi quickly noticed, but she still looked so tall compared to Eunbi and she just wanted to burry herself into the ground for being so damn awkward. “Uh…” what should she say? Should she… just get down to business? Oh my God, no, no, bad analogy, Eunbi looked to the ground, trying to focus on the stray grass growing through the bricks.

            “Eunbi-yah.”

            It was the softness in Sojung’s voice that made her look up, but it was how warm the woman’s eyes looked that gave Eunbi the courage to stare into her eyes.

            Sojung didn’t look awkward.

            “Should we go eat somewhere? We can talk about everything we need over food.”

            Eunbi nodded, “okay.”

            She allowed Sojung to lead the way and muttered out a ‘thank you’ when Sojung opened the car for her. Eunbi fastened the seatbelt and waited for Sojung to enter and start the car to ask where they were going. Sojung apparently had everything planned out already. She told Eunbi that she found a quite decent diner near the Harbor and they sold hamburgers there, probably not fancy ones like the ones they ate on the weekend, but the reviews were good.

Sojung tapped the address into her car’s GPS. “Is that okay with you?”

            Eunbi nodded. It was a relief, actually. Eunbi had no idea what she would’ve done if Sojung wanted her to pick out a place—she would’ve probably just suggested the café again and that would’ve been lame, right?

            Eunbi took several deep breaths during the ride to the diner, trying her best to reason with herself and say that it was all good. It wasn’t like Sojung would do something bad, Eunbi trusted her.

            And it wasn’t like Eunbi hadn’t had that same thought before and it wasn’t like she hadn’t overthought it, but still, it felt weird how much she trusted Sojung. It felt odd because it was a sincere trust.

Eunbi tried, in the moments she was left alone with her thoughts, to understand why the hell she felt like that around Kim Sojung and, reaching unwanted thoughts, she decided to ignore it. So, that’s what she was going to do. Ignore that odd feeling, ignore the giddiness, the anxiety and how safe she felt inside that car with Sojung driving.

            Soon enough, the car was parking and Eunbi took a look out of the window. It was a simple, yet pretty place. Eunbi tilted her head to the side, thinking that the place wasn’t going to fit Sojung’s clothes that much, though it fitted hers. Is she trying to make me comfortable? Eunbi opened the car door this time but wasn’t quick enough to do it with the diner’s. Why does she keep opening doors for me, oh my God.

            Sojung, blissfully unaware of what was going inside Eunbi’s head, had such a relaxed posture as she waltzed into the diner, checking to see if Eunbi was following her, and right away choosing a booth for the two of them.

            Eunbi sat down and looked outside the big window. She could see Sojung’s car from there. The winter sun was almost completely gone, and the streetlights stood out now. It was pretty, even if the sky was becoming grey with the cold mist. Eunbi liked summer better for sure, but at that moment, she thought it was pretty.

            “Eunbi-yah?”

            Eunbi straightened her postured and looked at Sojung who held a menu in hands. Eunbi pushed the embarrassment down and got the menu. She needed to stop getting so lost in her thoughts.

            “What are you going to order?”

            “I… this set, please,” Eunbi pointed to a simple cheeseburger set and she noticed how small her voice was, coming out just above a whisper and wished she wasn’t like that.

            Sojung didn’t seem to mind though. “And to drink?”

            “If… if they have Pepsi.”

            Sojung’s lips curled up. “I’m starting to see the pattern here.”

            Eunbi blinked once. “What… what do you mean?”

            “A hamburger and a Pepsi,” Sojung rested back on her seat and her smile didn’t falter. “That’s your go-to choice, am I right?”

            “I think so, yeah,” Eunbi scratched the back of her neck. “I really like it.”

            “Mhm.”

            And for the second time of that hour, there was pure silence.

            Eunbi shifted on her seat as Sojung told the nice-looking waitress their orders and tried to quell the damn anxiety. It was coming in waves and it seemed to be getting worse. Filling her mind were questions like what should she say, act like, should she bring the subject up, would Sojung do that herself, was Sojung really serious, was Eunbi weird for accepting something like that, what would Eunbi do exactly, could she back out?

            “Eunbi-yah,” Sojung called her and Eunbi hadn’t even noticed she was looking away from the woman, “take a deep breath.”

            “What,” Eunbi wheezed out and her eyes widened, taking into Sojung’s relaxed expression.

Sojung could see it. Sojung could see how anxious she was.

            God, that made it worse.

            A deep breath, Eunbi’s mind repeated, eonni said to take a deep breath.

            Inhaling deeply, Eunbi watched with unwavering attention as that satisfied expression that she had herself etched on her brain took over Sojung’s face and, wow.

            Sojung was beautiful.

            That was probably the word she had been searching for.

            “Good,” Sojung said and her voice was firm and satisfied. “Before we start, I want to tell you that you don’t have to do anything. I’m going to explain it, show you the contract and answer whatever questions you have, but this does not mean I’m expecting you to accept it or that I want you to feel obligated to do it, ok?”

            Contract?

            Eunbi slowly nodded, taking another deep breath and focused on Sojung.

            The woman reached for her purse and took a thin, black folder out. She put it on the diner’s greasy table and opened it to show Eunbi what seemed to be the contract she mentioned. Eunbi decided to take yet another deep breath. You know, just for good measure.

            “Here, I…” Sojung hesitated a bit, for the first time that night, and Eunbi didn’t know what that meant. But then Sojung’s shoulders straightened up and she looked confident as always. “Since it’s a work situation, it’s always good to have a contract. It’s both for your and my safety. Like this, it’s all clear between us and we can have something tangible to turn to if we ever need it.” Sojung’s voice was leveled and Eunbi wondered, as an afterthought, if Sojung talked like that with the people she worked with. “I couldn’t find a good contract, so I did one myself. I’ll give this copy to you so that you can read it later, but basically, it sets down what are each of our responsibilities, payment form and what would happen if the contract is breached.”

            Eunbi didn’t know what kind of face she was making, but it must’ve been a funny one as Sojung took one look at her and lightly chuckled.

            “Sounds like a lot, but it isn’t. See, just five pages long.”

            Eunbi swallowed and tried for a nod. “And… and what are our responsibilities?”

            Sojung flipped the contract’s pages and turned the folder to Eunbi. “There are a couple of items for each of us. I didn’t talk to you beforehand, so I took the liberty to write them out of my head. All of this can be changed, alright?” Sojung continued after Eunbi nodded. “It’s… very simple actually. It establishes boundaries for this one event. It’ll be from 6 p.m. to 2.a.m., so the contract says I can’t keep you for longer than that. When it comes to your responsibilities…” Eunbi held her breath as Sojung read the clause. “You’re supposed to be my companion in the sense that you’ll stand by my side during those tortuous hours, probably listening to a lot of uninteresting business talk, and just keeping me sane.”

            Eunbi watched Sojung look at her with the most serious face and she just… “what?”

            At that, Sojung’s face broke into a smile and Eunbi couldn’t help thinking that, wow, did Sojung say that?

            “I’m more than capable of doing my job, Eunbi,” Sojung closed the file and pushed it towards Eunbi, who really didn’t know why there were butterflies in her stomach at that action. “But I sincerely don’t enjoy going to these little networking sessions. I told you Yerin usually makes me company during it and the reason why I wanted a companion was because she’d be away and that is the whole truth.” Sojung rested against the booth’s seat, “this will definitely be boring to you, but…”

            Sojung seemed to catch herself at that and Eunbi leaned forward, wanting nothing but to ask her what it was, when the waitress came in and put the plates in front of them. Sojung thanked her with a quick nod and put some sugar in her coffee.

            “But I think we can help each other,” Sojung finally said and her next words almost gave Eunbi a heart attack. “So, your payment. I have to confess that I wasn’t sure what should be the initial amount, but I decided to start low and then discuss with you adjustments.”

            Start low? Alright, that’s good, Eunbi nodded and reached for her burger, because, yeah, she was hungry.

            “It’s going to be 8 hours of dinner, and that is a lot, but I promise you I don’t plan on staying for so long. Usually, I stay for 6 hours and leave. However, I’m going to need you before that,” no, Eunbi didn’t think at all about how Sojung phrased that, “there is a dress code for parties like this and I gather that we’ll have to buy you some clothes for that.”

            Wait, what, Eunbi stopped chewing.

            “I think two to three hours of shopping is enough, maybe we’ll get lucky and find everything in an hour, but it’s better to think like this. Of course, the shopping won’t be on the same day as the party, so, those three hours will have to be on Wednesday—I think that you don’t work on the bar this day, right?” Sojung took a sip of her coffee, giving some time to Eunbi, but she didn’t answer. Sojung didn’t seem to mind it that much. “Besides that, I would like for you to be ready at 5 at the latest, so that when I come to pick you up, we’ll have plenty of time to get to the hotel. I… I understand that you’ll have to miss work on the bar at Friday,” Sojung took another sip of coffee and, damn, Eunbi seemed to have lost all of her voice. “So, I’m adding those hours to the payment as well, to compensate the trouble I’m giving you.”

            Just wait a second, Eunbi seemed to have lost all control of her hands as well, as they slowly dropped to the table, where… where is this going?

            “So,” Sojung inhaled and smiled, “I’m marking it as a total of 20 hours of work.”

            Twenty hours?

            “The hourly payment will be of 500 dollars, and this does not count the costs of clothing and food, which will be obviously paid by me.”

            What.

            “What?”

            Sojung tilted her head to the side. “What is it, Eunbi?”

            Eunbi was feeling floaty. “You… 500 dollars an hour?”

            “Yes.”

            “For twenty hours?”

            “Yes.”

            If Eunbi hadn’t had a heart attack before, she was sure she was having one right now. Look, she could even feel her left arm going numb. “You mean… ten… ten…” oh, God, she couldn’t even say it.

            “Ten thousand dollars total,” Sojung slowly said and Eunbi recognized that tone from the time Sojung was trying to apologize to her. “It’s an initial amount—I thought starting with a basic value would be better, just to establish an equal ground between us. We can discuss about it, of course, the base payment for this kind of job is, indeed, higher than that.”

            A feverish chuckle escaped Eunbi’s lips and, with her eyes wide, Eunbi dared to ask. “Are you—are you serious?”

            Sojung took one long sip of her coffee and Eunbi couldn’t understand how the woman could say such a thing with a straight face. There was no in way in hell Sojung was serious. Eunbi made 7 dollars an hour at her highest paying job. That was a base payment. Five… five freaking hundred dollars an hour was not.

            But Sojung was clearly serious, wasn’t she?

            “Eunbi-yah,” her voice was calm, “your burger is going cold.”

            Eunbi looked at her plate and just raised the simple cheeseburger to .

            She took a deep breath.

            Eunbi had to think. Five hundred dollars. Sojung would pay a net amount of 500 dollars to her. How many nights did Eunbi have to work at the bar for that same amount? Eunbi at math, but she knew that was a lot more than a month. A… a lot more than two months too. And, there were the costs Sojung would cover outside of that amount. How much clothes for a party like that costed? Eunbi just knew they were going to be expensive, a ridiculous type of expensive.

            Swallowing what she had in , Eunbi realized that what Sojung was willing to pay for her to just keep her company for a boring business dinner was way more than she would earn in maybe a year.

Eunbi looked at her.

            Who was Kim Sojung?

            “Eonni,” Eunbi’s voice was a bit shaky, “that’s too much.”

            Yes, it wasn’t even a lot, it was plainly too much. Eunbi couldn’t accept it.

            “No, it isn’t,” Sojung’s voice however, it was firm and it sounded strong and decided and Eunbi just knew that there was no convincing Sojung out of paying that absurd amount. “Eunbi, this is a base payment for this kind of job and I know it might seem like an exceedingly high amount, but it is standard. I’m not even spoiling you like I want to so just accept it, alright?”

            There was finality in Sojung’s sentence, even if her words were soft. And, regardless of that…

            Spoil?

            Sojung smiled. “I promise that it’s fine. Besides, I think it’s enough for you to quit at least one of the jobs, right? This way you’ll have more time to focus on your studies. I’ll just bother you a bit this week.”

            Eunbi truly didn’t know what to say. How was someone supposed to act in this kind of situation?

            “Is it… really fine?” She asked and her voice was so small that Eunbi could barely hear herself.

            “It is,” Sojung’s smile didn’t falter.

            And Eunbi found herself trusting that woman once again.

            Releasing a jittery breath, Eunbi nodded.

            “Okay, eonni.”