The day starts with a low, adamant buzzing and Sooyeon wakes up with a start. The sunlight peeking through the thin curtains on the window next to her mattress hits her half open eyes. She squints and slowly rubs them while rolling on the other side of her bed. She reaches out her arm and grabs her phone which has been buzzing relentlessly by the night stand.

“Hello?” Sooyeon groans, her eyes still half-closed. “Yeah, it’s me. What? I’m not sure. I think so…” she briskly puts her phone away from her face to check the time. It is half past 11 in the morning and this information instantly jolts her from the bed. “Oh no, I’m so sorry. I overslept,” she says to the receiver, covering her face from embarrassment as if the person she is talking to could see her.

She remembers cramming last night to finish her work, and so she slept late. “No, I’ll be there. I’ll just get dressed and I’ll be there.” The mattress gives out a squeak as she moves to the edge, and gets up, “Wait, what do you mean Hyejung’s not picking up?” she says, “She’s supposed to be at the site now. Fine, let’s meet at the construction site in 30 minutes.” 

Sooyeon hangs up the call and grabs a bathrobe on top of a huge box adjacent to her bed. Placed on the other side of the wall are another two huge boxes, on which she stubs her toe making the books and magazines it contains spew out of it. She clutches her toe and curses from the shooting pain—she’s definitely awake now.

On a slightly limping gait, she steps into her living room which is also the dining area. It’s right next to the bedroom and separated merely by a dresser— no doors or archways. The only door present in her apartment is the one on the bathroom and the entrance. She picks up the remote control and turns on the television hanging on top of her small dining table. It has been her habit to turn it on when she’s at home, even though she’s not watching anything in particular. For some reason, she feels less alone whenever she does. Without so much as a glance at the reporter spewing out current news, she turns to the kitchen counter, turns on the coffeemaker, and finally, steps into the bathroom.

Sooyeon emerges less than ten minutes later and makes a beeline to a box on top of the couch. She rummages its contents, searching for a proper pair of pants. It takes her another 10 minutes to get dressed and have her tumbler filled with coffee. As she snatches her bag and coat off the top of her bed, she’s texting Mihee to say she’s on her way.

She’s about to press the off button on the remote when a familiar face flashes on the screen right before her eyes. “—relatively a significant ballet show. It opens tonight at the National Theater and it stars Kim Jongin, in which he plays the lead, as always,” the female presenter says, she looks practically gushing. “The seats are all sold out for the opening night, and the entire week. But don’t fret because the show is set to do a nationwide tour beginning next week.”

The screen switches to one of Kim Jongin’s recorded appearances. He’s on a red carpet, wearing an all-black ensemble, hair sleek back. Multiple flashes of light from cameras don’t make his eyes squint—he’s got all used to it from his more than ten years of experience. The thought makes her smile a bit as she vaguely remembers how awkward and timid he looked in his first few years on show business. He doesn’t give them a smile either, something she’s noticed for quite some time now. He’d smile on an occasional basis, but it never reaches his eyes. He just stood in the middle of the backdrop, hands on his pockets, and let them have his photo taken.

The image catches her off guard for a fraction of a second, which happens every now and then when she sees him on television programs, newspapers or magazines. For the thousandth time, she wishes it didn’t.

-.-

Shielding her face from the sun light, Sooyeon crosses the street while holding tightly her tumbler on her other hand. While her studio apartment may be small, she accepted the offer from her friend because it’s quite difficult to find proper accommodation within the city and it's only walking distance from her future business.

“Hey, Sooyeon! Thank goodness you’re here,” her middle-aged contractor, Chun, meets her halfway through the entrance of the busy construction.

“Hi, Chun,” she says, holding up her cell phone over her ear, “Have you seen Mihee somewhere? She’s supposed to be here. And Hyejung.” 

“No, I didn’t see them,” Chun sighs, “Listen, the grinder machines and decanters arrived earlier. But Hyejung isn’t picking up and Mihee couldn’t make it so the guys left.”

“What do you mean they couldn’t make it?” Sooyeon asks, hanging up the phone. Panic creeping up on her. “And why did the guys leave? What about the equipment?”

“They couldn’t wait longer, said they’ve got other shipments to make. No one was here to sign the papers.”

“No, that’s not possible. Hyejung said she’ll be here this morning because the shipment will arrive! She said she’d handle it.”

“As I said, she’s not here. Neither Mihee,” Chun says resignedly. “Oh, and Sooyeon,” he clears his throat, “I know this is not the right time to bring this up, but some of my men have been asking about their paycheck.”

“Oh, Chun, I’m so sorry. I meant to speak with you about that,” she feels embarrassed all of a sudden. Chun waves his hands okay. “I went to the bank yesterday to ask for a line of credit but they told me to talk to my personal accountant. I’ll try again later. Do we need to shut down?” she’s scared to ask.

“No, I can keep this up for a few days, I guess,” he says, gesturing to his men working around them, “Honestly, it’s okay for me, Sooyeon. I’m just worried about these boys. They tend to not show up when they’re not getting paid. But I can come up with something to keep this ball rolling.”

“Thank you,” Sooyeon breathes, relieved. “I’ll work on it.”

“Don’t worry,” he says this genuinely, “We’re on homestretch, it tends to happen. Just call your buddies and have them help you around.” He points to someone behind her shoulder. “You can’t do all this.”

Sooyeon turns around and sees three men towing two or three boxes inside the room—more shipments. Chun utters he’ll go back to work as one of the men approaches her, a clipboard on his hand.

“Miss Im, can you sign these releasing papers, please?”

-.-

More grinding and hammering racketing the place has Sooyeon’s head nearly throbbing. She’s been at the construction site for two hours receiving and answering calls and emails from their suppliers. Her half-consumed coffee has turned cold, but still no sign of either of her friends. She’s been trying to call but neither of them is picking up. Finally, after arguing with the decanters and grinders suppliers to have their equipment returned immediately, she decided to go to Mihee’s workplace.

When the consulting agency in which they were previously employed shut down, Sooyeon together with Mihee and Hyejung decided to start their own business together. A literary coffee shop—coffees with books. Two things the three of them enjoy when they are dealing with taxing clients, something the three of them are genuinely passionate about. They are adamant about starting and sustaining a business that they will truly care for, be happy with and will make money off at the same time. The three of them need it, Mihee’s the breadwinner of her family, while Hyejung recently got married and had children. And Sooyeon needs it, well, to survive.

“Sooyeon?” Mihee looks restrainedly peevish as she makes her way towards her.

Sooyeon is standing right outside the conference room in which Mihee is in for some meeting she doesn’t really care about. The white-collared staff around the floor are looking at them as Mihee pushes her on an adjacent empty room, “What do you think you’re doing?” Mihee whispers as she peeks outside the door. “You know you can’t be here,”

“What do you think I’m doing?” Sooyeon’s trying to not lose her grip. Mihee gestured for her to lower her voice, “You were supposed to meet me back at the construction site three and a half hours ago. What the hell happened?”

“I couldn’t make it. We have an urgent meeting that is still ongoing by the way,” Mihee explained, “You know I’m just new here and I can’t just sneak off.”

“But Mihee, I can’t handle all of this by myself,” Sooyeon implores, “I’ve been accepting supplies which I’m not entirely sure if they’re satisfactory because I’m not supposed to be the one handling them,”

“Oh, I’m sure they’re OK,” Mihee assures her, but she’s obviously preoccupied. She keeps peering out the door.

“Well, that’s just what I needed to hear,” Sooyeon says sardonically. “Thanks a lot for your help. I’ll just get out of your way, then. ” she pushes past her friend and makes her way back to the elevator.

She hears the clacking of heels behind her, as she presses the elevator’s button.

 “Soo Yeon, I’m sorry,” Mihee says when she reaches her.

“I don’t need your apology, Mihee.” Sooyeon’s trying hard not to lose her grip, but she feels so infuriated and upset, “I need you to come with me and sort these things out together, like what we originally planned!”

“I know, but—,”

“Mihee,” a short-haired woman with a cold look in her eyes comes over them, eyes on her friend. “Mr. Jang’s looking for you—”

“Yes, I’ll be right there,” Mihee cuts her off, she’s beginning to look upset too.

“Listen,” the woman’s eyes find Sooyeon’s glare, but she looks positively uncaring. “You’ve been keeping our assistant way too long. She’s missed a lot of significant details already. You look tense,” she adds after giving her a scrutinizing look.

“You don’t say,” Sooyeons remarks wryly.

The woman swiftly pulls out something from her clipboard against her chest. “Here, take a hike or something,” she shoved what looks like a piece of paper on Sooyeon’s palm, no hint of thoughtfulness at all.

“What the hell is this?” Sooyeon asks crossly, barely looking at the piece of paper. It looks like a movie ticket.

“Something to keep your mind off Mihee for a couple of hours,” the woman spats, her eyes still stony. “Get off this building and stop bothering us,” she takes Mihee’s arm and starts to turn away.

“You’ve read my mind!” Sooyeon retorts, crushing the ticket in her palm. She steps inside the elevator.

“Soo Yeon, wait!” it’s Mihee, holding back the elevator doors, “I’m sorry that I can’t go now, but you know I can’t afford to lose this job, especially at this time. You know that better than anyone.”

Sooyeon looks at her friend for a moment. “Yeah, I got it,” she says indifferently, for now, she decides to ignore that fact.

A group of people starts to flock inside the elevator, causing Mihee to get pushed out of the way. Sooyeon avoided her eyes until the elevator doors closed.

-.-

One cab ride later, Sooyeon arrives at Hyejun’s place which is a mess. It’s like her apartment but only with three times more clutter. Hyejung looks out of herself either.

“The triplets were all up late last night,” Hyejung says resignedly when Sooyeon asks why she didn’t make it at the site this morning. “I couldn’t get them to sleep until this morning. I fell asleep with them and the next thing I know it’s 3 o'clock in the afternoon already.”

“Where’s your husband?” Sooyeon inquires as she finds a decent space to sit on next to a pile of baby clothes by the couch.

“He’s out of town for business,” she replies with that weary voice, “I didn’t even manage to properly answer his call last night. I just—,” Hyejung heaves a breath, “I’m sorry for bailing on you and Mihee. But I have triplets at the moment. I don’t know how to do this. I didn’t know I was going to have a baby—let alone triplets—when we started planning the café. I don’t know how to do this yet. I’m not—I can’t—”

“Breathe out,” Sooyeon tells her.

Hyejung stares at her and lets out a deep breath. “I can’t go out today, Soo Yeon,” she says apologetically, “I’m sorry,”

Sooyeon watches Hyejung pick up some clothes and toys off the floor, and then settle it on top of a table with clutter also. She looks defeated. “It’s okay,” she says finally with resignation. She gets up from her seat, getting ready to leave. “At least try to get some reinforcements. To help you and stuff.”

“I think I will,” Hyejung agrees, “I’m telling you, babies aren’t easy. Really think about it before you get some for you—Oh my god!” she says in pure disbelief, “I’m so sorry! I don’t know why I said that! I forgot!” She walks toward Sooyeon and hugs her tight. “I don’t know what’s gotten into me. I’m so out of it today. Still lacking sleep!” she points at herself after peeling her arms from Sooyeon.

“It’s alright. Not a big deal,” Sooyeon forces out a chuckle and suppresses down the jolt of her friend’s careless words, “You do need some more rest. The triplets might wake up soon.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Hyejung squeezes Sooyeon’s hand, “But again, I’m sorry about the situation,”

Sooyeon gives a lingering look at her friend. She wonders what situation she’s apologizing for: the current predicament of their café construction or the comment she just made. Sooyeon supposes she meant both circumstances.

-.-

Not for the first time, the ground she’s standing on feels like hay, and she’s falling. Arms flailing, with no one and nothing to hold onto. Pushing down this dreadful sensation, Sooyeon visits the bank to deal with the paycheck of their contractor. She thinks a line of credit would fix the situation. However, the bank isn’t able to accept it, making her feel evermore beaten down.

The next few hours fly by, Sooyeon wakes up when someone starts shaking her. It’s Chun and he looks ready to go home. She looks around the site and realizes it’s already night time and most of the workers have left already. The contractor must have noted the slightly confused look on her face because he says they already locked up the back door and other entrances. Getting up on her feet, Sooyeon thanks hi