“Eunbi-eonni? What are you doing?”

            Jerking a little, Eunbi raised her gaze from her phone to look at her friend. Yewon was standing on the other side of the canteen table, casual clothes and long hair composing her cute image. The younger girl placed her backpack and laptop on top of the table as she sat down.

            “You look so concentrated,” Yewon smiled, “are you talking to someone?”

            Eunbi wasn’t exactly talking to someone, she had just… been staring at the chat screen for the past fifteen minutes reading and re-reading the messages from earlier. Kim Sojung, obviously, texted her a couple of hours ago and, after Eunbi had a minor heart attack seeing the unread notifications, she answered the woman with hesitant taps.

            Awkwardness may not be the right word, but it sure came close to what she was feeling. It was just a greeting and it should’ve been easy enough to answer it, but somehow… it wasn’t. Eunbi took one long minute thinking about what she should say when she finally decided to just stop overthinking it.

Sojung-eonni:

Good morning, Eunbi-yah.

Did you sleep well?

You:

good afternoon, eonni.

i’m sorry i took so long to answer…

            It was a while before Sojung answered her.

Sojung-eonni:

Don’t worry about it. I figured you’d be busy.

I hope you’ve eaten your breakfast this morning.

You:

i did! thanks for asking… and i did sleep well.

and

and eonni?

Sojung-eonni:

I did as well, thank you.

Oh

I have to go to a meeting right now.

I’m sorry, I wish I could talk more.

You:

it’s okay!

good… good meeting?

Sojung-eonni:

Thank you :)

Have a wonderful day, Eunbi-yah.

You:

you too!

            That had been it; nothing out of the ordinary, nothing exceedingly fantastic. Yet, Eunbi couldn’t peel her eyes off the screen, feeling something curl inside her heart, twisting and scratching. It made her grimace, force it away, only to fail over and over again.

            Eunbi smiled to her friend. “It’s nothing, Yewon-ah. How are you? Did your classes go well?”

            “Yes, actually,” the younger girl sighed, opening her laptop. “I have a lot of work to do, though.”

            She cooed, “poor Yewon. When are you getting a break? December is almost here!”

            “Soon, eonni, soon. I guess I bit off more than I could chew. You know Isabela? That cute Brazilian girl that shares classes with me? So, she is currently working on a really cool project—she’s animating a bunch of animal related songs, like, um, like that one from the Beatles, and I asked her if I could help, you know?”

            Eunbi sympathetically nodded.

            “Yeah. Now I have way too much on my plate and I can’t just… jump off the boat now.”

            “I get it, Yewon-ah. But, seriously, you should think twice before taking part in so many things. I know you love to help, yes, you are adorable and all,” Eunbi snickered at the other rolling her eyes, “but think more about yourself, okay?”

            Yewon snorted and, while typing, she said, “eonni, I don’t think you’re the one who should be giving me that advice.”

            “And… why not?” Eunbi locked her phone’s screen with a frown.

            “Because you’re literally the worst at self-care,” her friend deadpanned and, even before she could protest, Yewon continued, “no, you can’t deny it. You think I don’t see how exhausted you are? Seriously, eonni. How much have you been working lately?”

            Slowly shrinking, Eunbi unlocked her phone. The chat screen greeted her. “Just the usual.”

            “Are you still working at the bar?”

            Eunbi hummed.

            “When do you even study—no, wrong question, when do you even sleep?”

            Sliding her finger up and down, checking the few messages on their chat, Eunbi sighed. “Yewon-ah, you don’t have to worry about me. It’s all good, okay? Things are busy for me right now, but they’ll get better, I promise.”

            “You shouldn’t be promising me anything, eonni,” Yewon sighed. “This… this isn’t about reassuring me, you know that, right? It’s about you being healthy and able to do the thing you love.”

            At her words, Eunbi couldn’t help but smile. “You’re really the most adorable person on Earth.”

            “Stop it,” Yewon pouted, not helping her case in the slightest, “I’m trying to make a point here.”

            “I know, Yewon-ah,” Eunbi smiled. She really knew. Yewon was a wonderful friend, she would always ask about Eunbi’s well-being and she’d do anything she could to help Eunbi out. But Yewon gave herself to others too much. The girl would often offer her help and be overwhelmed by the amount of things she had to do. Eunbi couldn’t bring herself to dump her problems on Yewon. No, she couldn’t.

            “It doesn’t look like you do,” Yewon’s brow furrowed.

            “I do,” Eunbi stressed and locked her phone’s screen for one last time before throwing it inside her backpack. “And I love you very much. Thanks for everything, Yewon-ah.”

            Watching Eunbi stand up, Yewon tilted her head. “Where are you going, eonni?”

            “I need to drop by the library and talk to professor Gabriel. I’ll ask him for some opinions on my latest project.”

            Yewon whined, “but I just got here! We never hang out anymore, eonni!”

            “I’m sorry, Yewonnie,” Eunbi winced and grabbed her backpack. “I promise I’ll buy you coffee later, okay?”

            “Fine,” Yewon huffed and looked at her laptop, “say hi to the professor for me.”

            “Sure,” Eunbi wouldn’t. She wasn’t going to the library. “Bye, Yewon-ah!”

            “Bye, eonni,” she waved from the table as Eunbi smiled for a second longer and turned her back to the younger girl.

            Her gut clenched at the lie’s bitter taste. Eunbi hated lying, especially to her closest friend. But the truth was that she had an interview at the bookstore she had already worked for a couple of times and if Yewon knew about it, she’d certainly throw a fit.

            Eunbi knew that Yewon wanted her to stop working so much and not to be getting more part-time jobs. It made her heart swell, the knowledge that someone cared about her so much, but it didn’t change reality. Eunbi would take any opportunities she got. Her schedule was pretty full already, hell, that same night she had to work at the bar again, but she was sure she could squeeze the bookstore somewhere there.

            Eunbi just had to try a little harder.

            She could do it.

            Feeling her stomach rumble, Eunbi reached behind her and blindly touched her backpack until she found the outer pocket with her natural sandwich. Eunbi opened and closed the zipper skillfully, feet never hesitating as she made her way towards the bookstore. Unwrapping her sandwich, she smiled.

            She had bought that one at the convenience store. Her boss had chuckled at her when she saw Eunbi enter the store so early in the morning, making a joke about how much one could like their job to the point of going there even when they didn’t have to.

            The old lady looked pretty surprised when she checked Eunbi’s sandwich and juice box. Pleasantly surprised.

            Eunbi calmly munched on the bread. It was really good. The sandwich didn’t have much ingredients, just the bread, lettuce, some tomato and cheese, but it was pretty nice. Of course, it couldn’t be compared to a hamburger—God, how long had it been since she last ate one—but Eunbi was more than satisfied.

            This was good.

            Arriving at the bookstore, she stuffed the sandwich’s plastic in one of her jeans’ pockets and took a deep breath. She could do this, Eunbi told herself. It wasn’t her first interview and it certainly wasn’t going to be her last.

            Putting a smile on her face, she exhaled.

            Everything was going to be fine.

            She just had to try a little harder.

            If Sojung kept checking her phone after the meeting ended, nobody called her out on it.

            The economist was currently at her office, alternating between answering emails and looking at her phone’s boring wallpaper. Sojung heard Yerin enter the room at some point but paid no attention to the secretary as her fingers typed vague replies and her eyes scanned the brand’s logo on her mobile.

            Yerin usually complained about how she never changed the background to something she liked, always so distant and cold even towards her personal objects. Sojung didn’t get it though. It was just a cell phone, which would be replaced in a year or so. What was the point of decorating it?

            Sojung had hobbies and interests besides work. She liked, for example, to visit museums and listen to music. But Sojung didn’t have time to listen to her songs while working, so what was the point of having them in her phone? With paintings and drawings was the same thing; Sojung could appreciate them out of a tiny screen.

            Sighing for the tenth time, she finally locked her phone and focused on her laptop. She didn’t even know what she was expecting. There was no reason to be distracted like that, especially when there were things that needed to be done.

            “Eonni? Are you even listening to me?”

            Looking up from the email’s page, Sojung found Yerin sitting on the glass table in the middle of the room. She frowned. “God, Yerin, sit on the sofa.”

            Her friend had pushed her bangs to the side and it gave Sojung full view of how furrowed her eyebrows were. For some reason, she got the feeling that Yerin was not on a good mood anymore.

            “Is…” Sojung hesitated, “is everything alright?”

            Yerin crossed her legs and opened the black folder on her lap. She pushed her pony-tail back before raising her voice. “Yes, it is. I need to talk to you about the procedures to that old case we had back in Manila. The financial representant called me this morning saying that things got off the rails and that he’s willing to pay twice of our usual price to go there and fix it up.”

            “Well, we can’t really drop things here and go,” Sojung carefully said. Yerin wasn’t one to wear her emotions on her sleeves, but it was clear to Sojung that something was off. “It’s about work ethic not payment.”

            “Yeah,” Yerin grunted, “I told him that, but he’s been bothering me the whole freaking day and I seriously can’t handle his voice anymore.”

            Sojung could see what the problem was there. Years working together gave them profound knowledge about each other’s work antics and thought process. Yerin was, most of the time, a calm and collected secretary, always sporting a smile on her face and talking in a polite tone. Not a lot of things got on her nerves, but when they did, she really became the grumpiest person ever.

            Having to handle self-entitled men who didn’t take no for an answer was definitely something that pushed her off the edge.

            “Alright. Why don’t you pass me the call when he rings again? I’ll be sure to make him understand the situation.”

            Yerin eyed her for a second and then sighed. “Yeah, okay. Thanks, eonni.”

            “No problem,” Sojung offered Yerin a soft smile. “Is everything else okay?”

            “It is. The CEO wanted us to confirm that we’re going to that party, but that was pretty much it. She’s handling things way better than what I’d thought.”

            Nodding, Sojung selected a few promotional emails to delete. “She’s good. She just needs to run this company with a stronger hand.”

            “I think so, too… maybe I could tell about your coaching?”

            It had been a while since she last coached someone, but the idea wasn’t bad. “Okay, I like that.”

            “Good!” Yerin’s cheery tone was back and Sojung’s lips twitched up. “Oh, from the looks of it, we are going to stay longer here.”

            “Yeah… which reminds me of something,” Sojung straightened her back and Yerin gave her an interested hum. “I wanted to talk to you about contacting a real estate broker.”

            “Seriously?” Yerin grinned.

            Chuckling, Sojung confirmed, “yes, seriously. Why do you look so excited, though?”

            “Well, because I’m really enjoying this city! And if you’re buying something here, this means we’ll come back. I’ll start searching the real estate companies around here right away.”

            “Thanks, Yerin-ah,” Sojung sighed. The words were starting to swim in front of her eyes. “I had a hunch that you’d like the idea. Will you buy something too?”

            Yerin shrugged and stood up from the table. “Maybe, maybe not. I mean, I really like the city, but you know I’m not really a fan of collecting houses like you are.”

            “I’m… I’m not a house collector?”

            “Your uncertain tone proves that, yes, you are. Just admit it, eonni. It’s nothing bad.”

            At the condescend voice tone, Sojung rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I think it would be better to you, though. Staying in hotels your whole life will start to take a toll on you.”

            “Now, and whose fault is that?” Yerin placed the black folder besides Sojung’s laptop with a scoff. “My boss is the one who doesn’t settle down anywhere.”

            “Are you complaining?”

            “No.”

            “Thought so,” Sojung snickered. “Do we have anything else planned for today?”

            “Nothing urgent, I believe,” Yerin tilted her head to the side. “Why? You’re going to do anything now?”

            “Uh, no,” Sojung tried to disguise her hesitation with a chuckle. “I don’t have anything to do.”

            Squinting her eyes, Yerin placed both hands on Sojung’s table. “Why do I feel like there’s something else here.”

            Sojung pressed her lips together while looking at Yerin. The truth was that, if Sojung had comprehended it right, today was one of Eunbi’s shifts at the bar. The girl looked like she was doing fine through her text messages, but Sojung couldn’t shake off the need to make sure of that. And something told her that the only way she could be sure Eunbi was fine was by seeing the girl herself.

            The problem was that Yerin was aware of their small chats and coincidental meetings. Telling her friend that she wanted to go to the bar, that specific bar, would definitely cause a life-time worth of snickers and teasing. Sojung just wasn’t sure if it was worth it.

            “There’s nothing else,” she said and surprisingly added, “but I may want to go out tonight.”

            Perhaps, if she just put the idea of going out to Yerin, the woman would choose Eunbi’s bar herself.

            “You may want?” Yerin parroted and Sojung nodded. Her secretary stared at her for two seconds before scoffing. “Why don’t you just say you want to go see Eunbi?”

            “What—that’s,” Sojung grabbed a bunch of papers and started to look through it, “that’s absurd, I wasn’t think about that.”

            “Yeah, sure,” Yerin quirked an eyebrow, “so, whatever bar is fine?”

            “No,” Sojung promptly answered and rolled her eyes at Yerin’s knowing smirk. “Fine, damn it, I want to go see Eunbi. Are you happy now?”

            “Ecstatic,” she sang and motioned for Sojung to get up. “Come on, I’ll even pay.”

            Sojung wanted to say that it wasn’t needed, but she didn’t argue with Yerin. While they were working and through the whole way towards the bar, she was a little giddy, maybe even distracted. Sojung thought that this would be enough reason to spark another teasing from Yerin, but the girl remained weirdly quiet.

            It was around seven when they got to the bar. Sojung walked straight to the counter and sat down on a stool, eyes roaming the place for Eunbi. Yerin sat by her side, a grin seemingly stuck to her face.

            There was no one behind the counter, but the door that led to the kitchen was open. Sojung put her purse over the counter, mindless of the peanut crumbles all over it, staring at the ajar door, waiting for someone—Eunbi—to pop up.

            Someone did appear. A tall woman with red, long hair using the same apron Eunbi had the other time. Sojung couldn’t help frowning at the sight and even the corners of started to point downwards. Maybe she is on her break, she reasoned as the woman approached them with an apathetic expression.

            “Good night, what can I get you?”

            Yerin glanced between Sojung and the woman for a second before putting on a smile. “I want a beer, please, and I think she’ll need more time to think about it.”

            The woman nodded and turned way to fetch Yerin’s beer.

            “Eonni? Are you okay? You look constipated,” Yerin snorted.

            Sojung’s brow furrowed deeper and she looked at her friend. “Eunbi’s not here.”

            “Yeah… I get that. Maybe today isn’t her shift.”

            “No, it is. She told me she worked at the bar Tuesday, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. She should be here.”

            Yerin’s eyes widened as she incredulously chuckled. “Did you memorize her work schedule, eonni? Okay, that’s just creepy.”

            “I didn’t—Yerin, I didn’t memorize it,” Sojung grumbled, “I just paid attention to what she was saying.”

            Her friend looked about to say something else, but the woman was suddenly back. She placed the beer in front of Yerin and looked at Sojung. “Have you decided?”

            Instead of an order, Sojung blurted out a question. “I’m sorry, but is Eunbi Jung here tonight?”

            The woman quirked a red eyebrow. “What Jung? Oh, you mean that tiny girl? She ain’t here today,” the woman scoffed and grabbed a rag to clean the counter, “the girl called from a hospital saying she couldn’t make it today and begged me to not fire her. I mean, I ain’t firing no one because of this, who she think I am?”

            Sojung blinked. “From a hospital?”

            “Yeah, like, she passed out or something. It ain’t surprising, really. Do you know her? That girl is the face of overwork. I think she’s going through a hard time, but damn, now it’s gonna be way worse. You have any idea of how expensive hospital bills are? And I’m pretty sure she doesn’t have a health insurance.”

            “Eonni?” Yerin called her, but she couldn’t stop staring at the woman.

            “Did she say in which hospital she was in?”

            “Uh, not really,” the bartender shrugged. “She’s probably at the John Hopkins though.”

            Sojung ignored Yerin’s second call and took her phone. Her fingers found Eunbi’s contact easy enough to have the mobile pressed against her ear a second later. It took a moment that seemed like an eternity before a quiet, weak voice came from the other line.

            “Eonni…?”

            “Eunbi-yah, where are you?”

            The girl seemed to hesitate for a second and Sojung’s heart bled waiting for a lie. “I’m… I’m on the street right now.”

            “And where were you?”

            There was some muttering and another pause. Yerin’s furrowed brow greeted her when Sojung turned to look at the woman and something like dissatisfaction was all over her friend’s face.

            “Is everything okay, eonni?” Eunbi’s voice quivered and Sojung took a very deep breath.

            “I came to O’Malley’s with Yerin for a drink and when I get here your colleague tells me you skipped work because you were at the hospital. So, I think I should be the one asking you that, Eunbi.”

            Yerin slapped her arm and Sojung glared at her. “Lose the angry tone,” Yerin mouthed and moved to get the phone from Sojung’s hand, but she was faster, standing up before Yerin got close enough.

            “I… I’m sorry, eonni. It just, um,” she weakly chuckled, “it seems like I overworked a little.”

            Sojung let the hand holding Yerin’s arm far away from her own fall. “You… you don’t have anything to apologize for, Eunbi,” Sojung slumped on the stool, “where are you? More importantly, how are you?”

            “I’m on the street right outside the hospital. I’m okay, eonni, seriously. They had me on glycose and I rested a little and everything’s fine, but, um…”

            “But…” Sojung prompted, eyes going from Yerin’s increasingly worried expression and the bartender who looked very weirded out by the language switch between English and Korean. “What’s wrong, Eunbi?”

            The younger girl inhaled a shaky breath. “They called an ambulance for me, eonni. And… and the bills are—just, they got my info and said to me to not worry about the money now, but I, I remember when Yewon got sick and h-how expensive it was and ambulances weren’t even involved and I just, I just can’t even go home right now, I just—I just don’t know what to do.”

            Suddenly, sobs took over the line and a cold feeling ran down Sojung’s spine. “Eunbi-yah,” with a much softer voice, she called the girl a couple more times. When it sounded as she had Eunbi’s attention, Sojung continued, “I’ll ask you for a favor, ok?”

            “What,” Eunbi stammered and sniffled, “what is it, eonni?”

            “I need you to go inside and wait for me at the reception. Can you do that?”

            “What?! No, no, no, eonni. You don’t have to come here—”

            “No, I don’t,” Sojung grabbed her purse. “This doesn’t mean that I won’t. Now, please, it’s cold. Wait for me inside, would you?”

            “I…” maybe it was the exhaustion or maybe Eunbi realized that she wouldn’t be able to change Sojung’s mind, but what came next was a very resigned, “okay.”

            “Thank you, Eunbi, now where are you exactly?”

            After Eunbi gave her the coordinates and ended the call, Sojung heaved a long sigh. She looked at Yerin that seemed confused and yet aware of the situation with tired eyes. “Eunbi’s at the Hopkins.”

            Her friend stared at her for a second. “You want me to come with you?”

            Widening her eyes, Sojung thought for a second. She hadn’t expected Yerin to suggest something like that. The last time anything similar had happened, a couple of years back, with their friend Choi Yuna, the girl hadn’t even asked anything. Yerin acted on her own accord when it came to hospitals and emergencies. Sojung wasn’t sure why Yerin asked that, but she nodded.

            Maybe back up would be needed.

            “Okay,” Yerin sighed and smiled to the bartender. “Sorry, pretty, we’ll come another day.”

            A shrug was everything that she got as an answer.

            “Let’s go,” Sojung waited for Yerin to be ready beside her and started walking towards the entrance.

            “Can you explain the situation to me,” Yerin grumbled from beside her, “you’re acting a bit like a lunatic.”

            Wincing, Sojung said, “yeah, let me just—let’s talk in the car, ok?”

            Yerin sighed. “Is she okay at least?”

             Now, that was something she’d only be sure of when she had Eunbi in front of her. “I think so.”

            “Alright… let’s go save your pretty girl.”

            Sojung wanted to say something about it, but the worried tone in Yerin’s voice prevented her from doing so. The car came into their sight and Sojung dryly swallowed.

            She needed to get to that hospital.