Robert Burns, 'A Red, Red Rose' And fare thee weel, my only luve! And fare thee weel awhile! And I will come again, my luve, Though it were ten thousand mile. (Burns, Lines 13-16)

Seulgi knew something was wrong as soon as she walked into her office. She had this feeling all week and today it had finally manifested into something physical, in the form of her girlfriend.

All day she’d been sitting at her desk, dozens of paperwork piling higher and higher. Save the trees, much? She didn't think the senior management at the firm had ever heard of that. The clock ticked on the wall and she swears it was slowing down. Sitting in her office alone makes her flatter than a week-old glass of coke.

Her phone, which she had left on her desk to go and collect her reports from the printing room, had been vibrating non-stop as she entered through the glass door. It was supposed to be her lunch break now, for forty-five minutes of what couldn’t be really be labelled as a break. Most of her work colleagues had left to buy food outside of the firm as the canteen food was often either overcooked or undercooked, but Seulgi was too stressed and anxious to concentrate on anything but proving herself worthy for the job promotion her boss had recently given her.

She frowned and walked over to the desk. There were three missed calls, five new messages and two new voicemails. All from Joohyun. Seulgi sighed, rubbing her forehead. It was a stressful week; she had to undertake the training of several recruits at the firm and had to fire a few people due to their overall inefficiency. It was hard enough watching all of the older people, those who had been there for far longer than she had, stare down at her for being the new Sales Manager as a result of her young age. It was unnerving. While they would never directly say this notion to her face, Seulgi could sense the almost antagonistic looks she was thrown from her meetings, most of whom were old men who only cared about their money.

Now Joohyun was blowing up her phone and possibly worrying herself sick about why Seulgi wasn’t getting back to her. Normally Seulgi would have an answer ready for her on any other day, but today seemed like peak-stress time and she’d not had enough time to properly explain. Seulgi came home late every day, exhausted. She would barely have time to change out of her clothes before collapsing face-down onto her bed. Her relationship with Joohyun suffered as a result. Short, quick-line texts were the result of her promotion and mostly to ask each other how their day went as well as their weary ‘I love yous’. Needless to say, Seulgi could sense that Joohyun was not happy. And neither was she.

A snapshot of them both was her front home screen in the background. Joohyun was kissing her on the cheek while she grinned at the camera. Seulgi chewed on her bottom lip. She guessed that a few minutes won’t hurt her work much. The paperwork could be done later. A sudden thought struck her. What if something had happened to Joohyun? She could not bear it if the love of her life was suddenly under threat. Seulgi quickly unlocked her phone, dialling Joohyun’s number with quick, fumbling fingers.

Joohyun picked up before the first dial had barely finished. ‘Seul…’

Seulgi’s heart thudded, she could hear it through her ears beating so loud. She was worried Joohyun would hear it through the phone. ‘Hyun, are you alright? Has anything happened?’

‘Seulgi?’ came Joohyun’s voice from the phone. But it wasn’t her soft, gentle tenor. She sounded all scratchy and hoarse and sick.

Seulgi smiled, knowing if she was with her, she’d see a pout on Joohyun’s face. A wheezy cough sounded. ‘Joohyun, baby, are you okay?’ Seulgi asked softly, confused and slightly alarmed as to why her girlfriend sounded so different. She hadn’t last night when they had talked.

Joohyun sniffled on the other line, and Seu