Eunbi wasn’t sure what she would do with her life.

            She liked art, she did a good job with it, which was the reason why she got a scholarship in one of the best art universities in the United States, but she never really thought what she should do with it.

            The truth was that Eunbi enjoyed creating, she liked drawing and painting and even composing. Creation was something that made her happy. But what was she supposed to do with that—what was she supposed to do with that when she found herself stuck inside a bar, wearing a stupid uniform and cleaning the counter?

            What was Eunbi supposed to do with creation when she couldn’t get money to eat?

            The day hadn’t been the worst one. Eunbi got up, ate a couple of cookies—saving a few for lunch—and walked to the convenience store. It was the closest of her part-time jobs, just a couple of blocks away from her building.

            It was also her favorite job as she got to deal with mostly nice people, and her boss, an old lady who had lived her whole life in the same house, was good to her. Good enough to look at her blood-drained face, make her a natural sandwich and throw into her payment a couple of extra dollars. It was only four dollars and ten cents, but that was a lot to Eunbi, so much that she teared up as soon as the lady handed it to her.

            Eunbi didn’t cry there, but she sure as hell wanted to.

            With her additional four dollars and ten cents, she went to the market around the corner, bought twelve eggs and one quart of milk. Eunbi went home, got the salt and cooked herself an omelet before leaving to her afternoon classes.

            While she ate, tears pricked the corner of her eyes, but she still didn’t cry. Eunbi enjoyed her omelet and hid the eggs in case her roommate appeared—those were her eggs and perhaps in another moment she’d feel ashamed of herself for hiding food like that, but now was not then.

            Hey, desperate times.

            Leaving the apartment and taking the bus, Eunbi wondered if she should save the transportation money, walk to the university and add it to the rent money. She lived really far from it, though, and from the looks of it, she didn’t have the caloric energy for such a long walk. Better to stay with overdue rent than to pass out—I can’t even imagine the hospital bills around here, she had thought, shivering with the prospection of owing more money.

            Going through her classes, she was reminded by a professor that the holidays were coming. They’d be dismissed from December 14^th up until January 2^nd and that was almost a month.

            Eunbi made a mental note to ask the convenience store lady if she could work there full-time during that period and if she couldn’t… well, Eunbi would have to find something else to do. It was her chance to start catching up with her debts, at least the living costs part of it, because who knows when she’ll have the money for tuition.

            The cold was getting intense. Eunbi had nice clothes she’d brought from her home and even if her apartment didn’t have a working heating system, she wouldn’t die because of it. Her mood was seriously damped when it snowed, though, and she almost snorted mid-class with imagining herself getting any sadder than she already was.

            Maybe this year wouldn’t snow, she thought, and her classes went by smoothly.

            Eunbi talked with a couple of students about projects and the dates the final grades would be released, but she didn’t meet Yewon, which wasn’t good.

            The animation student was fine, she had texted Eunbi that morning, but she was busy. Yewon had different classes than her and her schedule was quite full, so it wasn’t exactly surprising to know that the younger wouldn’t be able to hang out with her that day.

            It was okay. Eunbi had work anyway.

            Three nights of her week and one night of the weekends were spent working at a bar near her university. Eunbi didn’t enjoy it that much, but she couldn’t find anything else to work on that schedule, so she didn’t have much of a choice. It wasn’t bad per se. Taking orders, pouring drinks and cleaning the place was alright. Interacting with people that was the catch.

            Eunbi wasn’t anti-social. Sure, she loved spending her nights inside her room with a cup of tea and a bad movie, but she never had trouble talking and making friends. Never in her life she felt repulsed by people, quite the contrary—she saw humans as walking art.

            But there… standing on the other side of the counter, she couldn’t bring herself to particularly like any of the customers, especially the frequent ones.

            Working only at the bar, she didn’t get the chance to serve the couples or friends at the tables, Eunbi only served the ones who were there solely for the drinks and there was nothing wrong with that, of course, but still.

            Eunbi couldn’t put her finger on it, maybe she was being mean, but the occasional commentaries about her nationality and body sure didn’t help her opinion about them.

            So, there she was. Scrubbing the counter with a rag and hoping that the man sitting on the stool wasn’t a . The day hadn’t been the worst; she didn’t see Yewon, but she got four freaking dollars and a free sandwich, so, yeah, the day wasn’t even close to what she’d consider bad.

            Eunbi didn’t want to have it all ruined now.

            “Hey, sweetheart,” pet names weren’t bad, she told herself, they really weren’t. “Can you give me two shots of that whisky?”

            Eunbi didn’t look at his face while she prepared his drink, putting two small glass in front of him and then turning away to keep cleaning. For a second, she feared he’d say anything—sometimes they did, called her rude and things of the sort—but the man kept quiet. Eunbi almost sighed in relief.

            “Oh, my, what do we have here?”

            Abruptly pulled out of her thoughts, she snapped her head up.

            Eunbi found a woman wearing formal clothes and a smirk sitting right in front of her. She had an accent and a playful look in her eyes, but she didn’t give Eunbi creepy vibes. But, then, a lot of people didn’t, and a lot of people were. Creeps, that is.

            Eunbi took a step back.

            “Sorry,” the woman chuckled. “Didn’t mean to startle you. I’m here for the drinks, I swear,” winking at Eunbi, the woman looked at the bottles behind her, “and you look like you have really good stuff. That’s perfect. A friend of mine will be coming here and she’s the pickiest drinker I have ever met. You guys have fancy wines? She likes those.”

            Eunbi carefully nodded, trying for a small smile. Playful, not creepy. Eunbi could deal with that even if she didn’t know what exactly to say. The woman looked like she was in a good mood, though, and Eunbi wouldn’t want to tamper with that.

            “What would you like?” Eunbi asked, voice sounding weak to her own ears, but the woman didn’t seem to think much of it.

            “Just a beer. I’m going to start the night light. If I get drunk on my friend, she’ll fire my .”

            Grabbing a beer inside the freezer underneath the counter, Eunbi tried another smile. “She can do that?”

            “You don’t even know,” the woman scoffed, but there was no bite to it. “I guess that’s the problem with being friends with your boss.”

            Eunbi wanted to ask if her boss was really her friend, but she thought that would be nosy of her. Instead, she settled for a neutral, quiet question, “and… are you from here?”

            The woman smiled. “No, I’m not! I’m here for work. You see, my boss slash friend is this really cool and badass business woman and we go around places to save companies. I like to think of ourselves as company heroes.”

            “Really?” Eunbi felt her lips curling up in a more truthful smile. That woman’s words were engraved with such giddiness and excitement that it was impossible to not be affected by it. “Sounds really cool.”

            “It is! She is at least, I’m definitely on the hot side of the spectrum,” the woman gave her an exaggerated version of her previous wink and this got a chuckle from Eunbi.

            “You two seem to get along well,” Eunbi stated, finally opening the beer and handing it to the woman.

            “Yeah, you could say that. We’ve been friends for, ugh, our whole life and now we work together. To be honest, sometimes I think everything blends in and I don’t know if we are in good terms or not—we just are. If you know what I mean.”

            Eunbi didn’t. “I think so. But that’s, um, nice, right? Must make work better… probably?”

            The woman nodded, smile seemingly glued to her face. “It sure leaves it easier for me to ask for raises.”

            Chuckling again, Eunbi found herself surprised. That was the longest conversation she’d had with someone that wasn’t from college and it wasn’t going terribly bad. Maybe she was wrong when she thought her problems had ended her social skills.

            “Well,” she glanced at a new customer, sitting a couple of stools away from the woman, “enjoy your beer.”

            Red lips smiled brightly at her. “I sure will.”

            To say that Sojung was tired was an understatement. She was simply exhausted. Her day had gone terribly, and she had no one to blame but all the goddamn employees of that stupid company. This was far from being the worst case she worked on, but it surely was the most frustrating. She had called that meeting, had yelled at them and had gotten nothing but a few wide eyes.

            She had no freaking idea how they wanted her to help when they weren’t taking their heads out of their asses.

            Thinking about it now, maybe “frustrating” didn’t even start to cut it. They were lucky she wasn’t one to give up and that they were paying her quite well, or else she’d be boarding on a plane that same night. It had been only noon and she was already feeling like going home for a drink.

            Sojung needed to relax and when she voiced that to Yerin, she should’ve expected the younger’s mischievous smile and immediate response. Sojung should’ve expected that she’d be dragged to a bar as soon as they got out of the company, she should have.

            But Sojung didn’t and she was caught by surprise, which is partially the reason why she even agreed to it.

            This is stupid, Sojung scowled inside the car, hands gripping the wheel way too strongly, she couldn’t even wait me to go together. I seriously should fire her .

            Thinking that she’d do so if the bar didn’t have good drinks, she parked the car and regretted not bringing a jacket. The air was cold at night, and although it wasn’t that bad, Sojung didn’t want to get sick. It wouldn’t help her constant stress headache at all.

            This is all my fault. If I didn’t let Jung Yerin get the best of me, I’d be at the hotel right now doing… doing work, sure, but still. Seriously, this is the last time Yerin does that. I am not giving in to her stupid suggestions anymore, she grumpily thought as she approached the bar.

            Sojung stopped before the entrance and frowned, this looks… simple.

            Simple wasn’t synonyms with bad, though, so she walked into the establishment.

            The first thing Sojung noticed was the dim lightning, then, the usual smell of alcohol and greasy food. She had forgotten Yerin liked bars like this, the younger girl always had a thing for fried stuff and cheap beer.

            Sojung wasn’t that comfortable with it, her heels and black dress looking way out of place among the crowd of jeans and t-shirts, but she couldn’t leave—not when Yerin had already seen her and was currently happily waving from the bar.

            Trying not to show how much she didn’t want to be there, Sojung walked towards her friend, sitting on a stool, mindful of her outfit. Yerin looked radiant as always, uncaring that her own formal clothes definitely didn’t suit the atmosphere.

            “Eonni, you made it!”

            Sojung rolled her eyes. “You make it sound like I had a choice coming here.”

            “Come on, don’t be such a bummer,” Yerin snickered, elbowing her. The younger girl had an empty beer in hand and a bowl of peanuts in front of her. “You were the one that said you needed to relax. I’m just being a good friend here.”

            “Yes,” Sojung reached for the peanuts, “but you know very well that my definition of relaxing is alarmingly different than yours, Yerin.”

            “Doesn’t mean it isn’t valid, eonni. Come on, let yourself have some fun,” the younger girl snorted. “Hey, order peanuts for yourself, these are mine,” she hooked a finger on the bowl and took it out of Sojung’s reach.

            “I can’t believe it,” Sojung gaped, “are you denying me peanuts? Yerin, I freaking pay you, you have money to share peanuts with the whole damn country.”

            Yerin shrugged and made a show of chewing on a handful of peanuts.

            “Um… are you guys Korean?”

            A sweet, hesitant voice harshly pulled Sojung out of her bashfulness.

            Whipping her head to the voice’s direction, Sojung was met with big, doe eyes looking at her with caution and a glimmer of something else. The girl in front of her was short, had her hair cut on her chin and sported a pale skin—almost too pale.

            Sojung felt her own eyebrows rise, listening to the Seoul’s accent on the girl’s soft voice.

            “Oh my God! Are you Korean?” Yerin gasped with a smile. Her friend laughed, “yeah, we are! Oh, how did you figure it out—ah, we were using Korean, I get it. It’s weird sometimes, we change languages without noticing, sorry. Where are you from, then?”

            The girl looked confused. It was cute.

            “Seoul…”

            “Oh, Sojung-eonni here is from Seoul, too! I’m from Incheon!” Yerin smiled, seemingly unaware of the girl’s increasing discomfort at her exaggerated reaction. Sojung rolled her eyes.

            “Please, Yerin, calm down. You’re making the girl feel overwhelmed,” Sojung looked at the small girl promptly shake her head in negation, readying herself to deny it, and offered a reassuring smile. “It’s okay, you aren’t offending us. Yerin is quite… something. What’s your name?”

            “Jung Eunbi,” she quietly answered and looked between the two women. “And yours…?”

            “Oh, we have the same surname! I’m Jung Yerin and this is Kim Sojung,” Yerin said, fishing a couple more peanuts from her bowl. “I told you already, but we are company heroes.”

            Company what? Sojung frowned but didn’t get a chance to comment on that when the girl, Jung Eunbi, let out a short chuckle.

            Somehow, Sojung didn’t have the heart to correct her friend.

            “I… I have a friend in college from Incheon too,” Eunbi said and Yerin’s face lightened up.

            “That’s great! So, you are in college?”

            Eunbi nodded but didn’t elaborate on that as a customer sat down a couple of stools away from them. Eunbi looked apologetic before leaving to serve the man. Sojung swallowed dryly and almost regretted taking her eyes off Eunbi when she saw the look Yerin was giving her.

            She all but grunted. “Jung Yerin, whatever you are thinking—don’t do it.”

            “I wasn’t going to do anything!” Yerin mockingly gasped. “I was just going to comment on what we both think here.”

            “Really? And what it is that,” Sojung tiredly asked, as if she didn’t know the answer already.

            “That Jung Eunbi-ssi is one hell of a cute girl,” her friend squealed and stuffed with the remaining peanuts. “If I knew that going out with you would make me see such a pretty girl, I’d have done that ages ago.”

            Sojung scoffed. “As if you don’t meet women on a daily basis already,” she took her purse out of her shoulder and placed it on the counter, “you don’t need me as a side kick, Yerin.”

            “That’s true,” Yerin agreed, “if anything, you drive all the girls away with that scowl—oh, no, sorry, that’s your face.”

            Giving Yerin the most intense “how-old-are-you-seriously” look, Sojung watched her friend laugh. She really didn’t have the energy to deal with that. Instead of retorting and taking part into another childish bickering, Sojung waited for Eunbi to be free and walk towards them again.

            “Eunbi-ssi, I’d like to have a bowl of peanuts, please,” Sojung politely asked and Eunbi nodded with a smile.

            The girl didn’t look like she was faking it, but there was an underlying fatigue that made her moves look lethargic, weak. Sojung couldn’t help but frown at how Eunbi almost dropped the washed bowl on the ground. She could see the desperation flicker on the girl’s eyes.

            An elbow poked at ribs.

            “What, Yerin?” Sojung barked and met Yerin’s suggestive eyes. “No, I’m not checking her out. She just… looks a little pale.”

            “Yeah, sure…” Yerin’s smile faltered a little as she gave Eunbi a look of her own. “She does look pale. Actually, doesn’t the way she moves reminds you of when Yuna got into that crazy diet to lose a few kilos before her concert?”

            It did. Jung Eunbi looked a step away from hypoglycemia.

            “Here. Would you like a refill, Yerin-ssi?” Eunbi placed the bowl in front of Sojung. “And you won’t have anything to drink, Sojung-ssi?”

            “Oh, please, let’s drop that! Just call us ‘eonni’, what do you think?” Yerin smiled and it wasn’t any less bright than the others she had been directing to Eunbi, but this one looked softer, as if she had come to the same conclusion Sojung had.

            “I’m—okay… if that’s okay with you two…” Eunbi looked uncertain between the two of them.

            “Of course, it is! And I’d love a refill; another beer too.”

            “Alright,” Eunbi nodded and turned to look at Sojung.

            “I’m not going to drink anything. I drove here,” Sojung said, ignoring the confused look Yerin directed at her. Sojung didn’t get drunk easily and driving had never become a problem before, so there wasn’t any clear reason to why she’d refuse a glass of wine, for example. “Thanks, Eunbi.”

            “No problem,” Eunbi got Yerin’s beer and peanuts before leaving to take the money and empty glasses from an old woman.

            “I didn’t bring you to a bar so that you wouldn’t drink, eonni,” Yerin quirked an eyebrow. “What’s up now?”

            “Nothing,” she shrugged and ate a couple of peanuts. “I guess I just don’t feel like drinking.”

            Disregarding Yerin’s suspicious eyes, she wondered if she had brought cash. She wouldn’t be able to give tips paying with her card.

            “Sure,” Yerin took a swing of her bottle. “You’re driving me to the hotel, then.”

            “Was that even up for questioning?” Sojung glanced at her friend smirking against her beer.

            “I guess not.”

            “Definitely not… oh, did you receive any answers from Erica Kupric? She said she’d email you about the proposal.”

            Yerin loudly grunted and threw her head back. “No. Work. Please! We are in a bar.”

            “So?”

            Yerin complained for some minutes, but soon enough they engaged in a conversation about solutions and cutting costs. Sojung figured they stayed like that for about an hour before deciding that it was time to leave. They had to be in the company early in the morning, setting an example for those who arrived at ten am and thought that was enough.

            “Go to the car, I’ll pay today,” Sojung said, cleaning her fingers with a napkin.

            She didn’t understand Yerin’s snort but was grateful that her friend didn’t protest against it.

            Gesturing to Eunbi, Sojung got her wallet. “Thanks for today, Eunbi.”

            “No, um, no need to thank me,” the girl stuttered, looking awfully embarrassed. “It’s just my job.”

            “Still, I appreciated the talk,” Sojung placed a couple of bills on the counter. “Have a nice night.”

            “You—you too, Sojung-ssi,” Eunbi nodded and Sojung stood up.

            “Call me ‘eonni’, too. Yerin is a little too much, but she wasn’t lying when she said that it was okay.”

            “Oh, alright,” Eunbi weakly smiled, “eonni.”

            Sojung couldn’t not return it.

            She her heels, purse on her shoulder, and walked out of the bar, wanting nothing but to have stayed for a while longer and watched Eunbi’s face when she saw the hundred-dollar bill under the twenty bill one.

            Sojung would have to settle on using her imagination.

            Yerin was leaning on her rented car with a side smile by the time she got to the vehicle. “So, did you get her number?”

            “Of course not,” Sojung was glad she didn’t blush easily as she unlocked the car. “I just paid and left.”

            “Oh, so cold.”

            “Shut up and enter the car before I take off without you,” Sojung scowled, ignoring Yerin’s bark of laughter.

            “Are you embarrassed? I could go back and ask her number for you. That’s what friends are for.”

            Sojung didn’t answer that, once again refusing to take part on such a childish talk.

            She didn’t need Yerin to get a girl’s number for her.

            Sojung was doing well enough on her own.

            Eunbi cried when she got home.

            She waited until she finished her shift, hung her apron, got to the bus station and entered the trashy building before she did it, though. Eunbi was quite proud of herself. At the moment her eyes fell on that bill, the knot on was so tight that she thought she’d pass out.

            To have arrived home with her cheeks dry was a true victory.

            Obviously, when Eunbi did open the front door, her knees immediately gave out and she curled on the cold floor tiles, a hundred-dollar bill neatly folded on her hand.

            For how long would she have to work to get a hundred dollars? How many hours were that? A goddamn lot and even though she was consciously aware of how pathetic she looked crying on the dirty tiles, she just couldn’t stop.

            Kim Sojung was the cause of all this and Eunbi didn’t know if she wanted to go back and yell at her—because who in their right mind gives that much of a tip—or hug her.

            She looks huggable, Eunbi’s mind feverishly chirped, I’d like to hug her.

            Would Sojung be okay with hugs? Maybe not. Well, it didn’t matter in the end, because she was pretty sure that the woman wouldn’t go there anymore—there was no reason to, after all.

            In one day, she had received extra one hundred and four dollars and ten cents.

            Eunbi was pretty sure she had run out of luck for her whole life, but well, she wasn’t going to complain. She could pay the unpaid rents until the date, and this was everything she cared about.

            Eunbi got up from the floor at some point and walked herself to the bed. She couldn’t sleep, not yet. With finals coming, she had a lot of school work to do and slacking off wasn’t something she could afford. But Eunbi felt completely drained, unable to even think straight, and her body moved on its own.

            Lying down, Eunbi hugged the dollar close to her chest and smiled.       

            What a good day.