"Wendy, what were you thinking?" Her mom visited her after a few days being off from her job. It hasn't been a week and yet the news spread fast like a wild fire. 

It's not a secret though, it's just that she wanted some peace for a while that's why she was being quiet about it from her friends and family. She wanted to gain some freedom. Free from all kinds of stress that her work was giving her all those days. 

"Mom, I just wanted a break. That is all. There's no need for you to worry about me. I'll probably find a job after a month or so." Wendy explained a bit irritated. She's a grown up woman and yet her parents always wanted to be part of every decision she wanted to make. It's not that she doesn't want them to be a part of her life now that she's grown up, but sometimes she felt like her parents do not trust her at all. 

"You're just slacking off. Making excuses everytime. Always running away. When will you ever learn?" 

Those words again. She have heard that several times before and even though it's the nth time, the amount of pain it stung her did not differ. 

They say it's your family that will always and forever understand you, but it never felt like that for Wendy. She feels the opposite towards her parents. They just don't understand her at all, and eveything she did was just all wrong for them. 

Wendy does not know if she have depression or whatever mental illness there is. She never consulted a psychiatrist, but there was a time that everything just felt overwhelming in her head that she almost called for help. It was never easy to talk about whatever she's feeling or thinking to anyone because she's afraid that they would laugh at her or judge her that she's just slacking off just like what her family had been telling her. No one understands.

She doesn't even know if she could have a company from her friends list that would look at her without judgment either. Whenever she tried to subtly talk about her state, her so called friends were just clueless. And considering that they don't know anything means they won't ever understand anyways so what's the point of talking? 

Those were a few reasons why she became so closed off with the world. She became distant and she finds that  everything and everyone just doesn't care at all. It's like the world doesn't give a about one because the world is busy and has its own problem to settle with. And being in a very corporate office environment where this kind of 'I don't give a about you' feeling emanates from wasn't helping her at all. It's giving her more anxieties that she needed to be away from it. 

She doesn't know how or when it happened but she was able to absorb that feeling of not caring about anything in the world either. But that doesn't stop her brain from overthinking at all and that her heart was still fragile at every hurtful words thrown at her. 

"I am not, mom." Wendy answered with a poker face. 

"I don't know what to do with you anymore, Wendy. Do you want to go back to Canada?" 

That made the blonde lose it. "Mom, I told you I'm fine. If it's about money, I have enough to sustain myself. I won't get anything from you, dad or my sister, okay? And no, I won't go back to Canada with you." 

Her mother's flight going back to Canada was today. The Son family lived there. Her mother just visited Korea in order to work on some of their business branch here. She was sure that her mother wouldn't really care to visit her in her apartment, but not when she learned about her quitting her job. What made her curious about though, was how her mother got the news. Maybe through her private investigators always tailing her around? Who knows?

"Wendy, if you don't want to work your . Then just manage a few branches of our business here. That'll be easier for you." 

"Mom, please leave now or you won't be able to catch your flight. And seriously mom, please let me decide for my own life." 

"If I weren't in a hurry, I'll argue more about your future now. But we'll settle this later. Please Wendy, get a grip of your life. If you cannot follow your big sister's steps then do something in helping us in our family business."

And that ended their mother and daughter conversation. As usual, it didn't end well at all. Just like always.

--

Wendy went out of her apartment to go to the nearby cafe. She needed to be somewhere to cool her head. It's not like she hadn't argue with her mother before, but it's still really draining for Wendy to do so. As much as possible she wanted to refrain herself from answering disrespectfully to the elder. Even though bad things were occupying her mind now, the least she wanted was to hurt her family because of her own words. She's more than willing to just accept every judgmental words from her family than her spitting words to strike back. That's nowhere her personality.

As she goes out the apartment, like a de ja vu, Seulgi was about to go inside hers but this time without the spilling grocery bags.

"Oh. Hi, Wendy!" She smiled brightly, as expected. If Wendy did not recall what happened the other night with Seulgi's roommate then this second encounter wouldn't really have discomfort in the air.  Or was is just Wendy feeling that?

"Hey." She smiled back politely unsure of what else to say. Awkward.

"So, uh.. about the other night. I'm really sorry about that. It's just that my roommate is having a bad day and you know what happens to people when they had enough of things, right?" Seulgi was explaining to her and Wendy appreciated it. She could tell that the girl really wanted to be friends with her that she's trying to erase the bad memory from their first meeting. 

"Nah. It's okay. We all have bad days and bad roommates." She joked gaining a laughter from the other. 

"Where are you heading to right now?" 

"Just the nearby cafe. Wanna hang out?" Wendy hesitated but it's out of politeness, she needed to ask.

"Really?! That's great! I could finally see some other sight from this area!" Seulgi excitedly accepted the invitation but it kinda worried Wendy as she looked at her neighbor's door. Good thing, Seulgi caught her eyes and quickly answered. "Irene is not here but she'll be back by evening. Just her typical working shift."

Wendy sighed in relief.

 At the nearby cafe, Wendy ordered for green tea creme and Seulgi went for strawberry creme. They shared a slice of a red velvet cake since both insisted that they were not really hungry. 

"So what do you do for a living, Wendy?" Seulgi started the conversation while she bite some of the cake. 

"Well, I'm an architect but I just quit my office job last week.. so I'm more of a jobless bum now." Wendy said