Generally speaking, happiness comes from the sense of satisfaction and balance between pleasant and unpleasant memories.

“Pleasant, and unpleasant…”

Chirping birds gather outside the window as the phone rings among the smoked bacon and freshly toasted bread. It is going to be a hassle to get rid of them, even after considering the droppings that can become difficult to clean after several days. Her faint purple locks ruffled as she had a hard time deciding between continuing her reading or getting to the egg.

“Scrambled it is, then.”

She resists another temptation to put her eyes again to the words in the paper while focusing on an attempt to not waste any of those precious eggs. The phone just keeps ringing tirelessly as she finally braves herself, cracking her knuckles dramatically and picking it up with an answering hum.

There was a muted silence as she listened.

After putting the phone down, she adds scallion and sprinkles a salient amount of salt into the omelet, slurping it straight from the pan, while repeating the words from the paper. She points her index finger upward and lifts it to create a dividing line across her head by tracing the hair line, muttering the words continuously like a mantra.

“The balance between pleasant and unpleasant memories…”

--

“Thank you. Please come again.”

The convenience store is just not a really ideal place to contemplate, yet she always found herself dozing off behind the counter. Her hands felt clammy as she flipped the cash drawer, excluding the line of sweat shaping inside her uniform hat. A reminder to file that in the report for tonight.

“Yongsun-unnie…”

“Hm?”

“Can I have a break outside just for a bit? Real quick.”

Her partner’s face for the day was scrunched into remarkable disgust; it was almost comical.

“I thought you had already stopped smoking!”

“Yeah, I’m not lying I swear…” Moonbyul grin uncomfortably. “But I’m just feeling so antsy today…”

“Then scratch that itch and be done with it.” She hissed and was obviously not interested in continuing this conversation further.

“Oh, that one is already taken care of…” One of her brows waving mischievously. “I can even feel extra muscles around my triceps already. You should try it sometimes!”

A loud groan could be heard across the counter. “Gross!” Yongsun slaps her shoulder multiple times as the skinny girl’s laugh becomes a continuous wail. “Stop being such a crybaby. I didn’t even hit you that hard. If anything, it is my hand that hurts! Am I slapping a human being or bag of bones? Do you even eat properly?”

“It sure packs a punch, unnie…” She keeps rubbing her shoulder before sporting a twinkle in her eyes. “Ah! No wonder men ran away from My Dearest Yongsun-unnie!”

Another slap can be heard echoing in the store with a louder groan.

--

“Are you done with the report?”

“Yes. I don’t know though. This has been the 4th reports we submitted to HQ and the cooler’s still a piece of junk.”

“It’s fine, Byul-ah. What matters most is that we already list it in the report.”

“Then…” Zipping her bomber jacket shut, she did a double recheck on her bag as Yongsun walked with her to the motorbike. “A cleaner in the morning, construction worker at noon, cas