Thanks to a certain brilliant writer, Haemi spent the anticipated weekend in her home to dissect the closet incident. She replayed words exchanged between them, and every second of that day in her head to make sure everything was real. The only problem? It was too real. Fast forward to Monday with many loss hours of sleep, the girl was practically a walking corpse at the office. Barely an hour into her shift and Haemi had already started on her second cup of caffeine. Even the new mother looked more energetic than her friend today. Though slightly worried about the restless girl, Mina scooted a chair over to check up on her.

“What happened to you,” she whispered, nudging Haemi’s arm with a pen. Shaking her head in disapproval, Mina watched the pitiful soul beside her struggle to even keep her head up. 

With her face buried in the palms of her hands, she mumbled, “Have you ever been kissed and ignored before?” 

Mina blinked excessively, making sure she heard correctly the first time. The skepticism in her asked Haemi to repeat what she said, but it seemed as if her friend wasn’t even aware of what came out of . “Sorry, I’m just blurting out random things now, aren’t I?” Haemi gave her an apologetic smile. 

A phone call interrupted their conversation just as Mina was able to dive deeper into her friend’s minor slip. With uncertainty written on her face, she answered HUN’s call— in which Haemi quickly caught a glimpse of his caller ID. She quickly steered away from the phone to mind her own business, though her heart still heavily conflicted about his lack of communication since.

“A review? Sure, I’ll be there soon—“ she overheard Mina’s phone conversation with the author. Envy inadvertently struck her even when the place wasn’t hers to begin with. She quietly pulled herself up in order to get the day started. In this way, her head could be free of unwanted thoughts. But that could only hold out for so long. Every time a phone went off, Haemi’s head turned faster than the owner of the call themselves. It was starting to distract her work. By the end of her dreadful work day, she managed to get nearly nothing done. In this very moment, Haemi began to regret every wasted minutes spent on overthinking. Watching her coworkers leave the office one by one, left the editor more discouraged than ever. But she had no time to dwell, since some of her projects were meeting deadline soon. 

“You’re staying behind today?” The man in charge stopped on his way out. She nodded, explaining the current situation to him, minus some contributing factors of course. To her relief, he left without asking much questions, saving her a trip of having to explain further. It may have been the empty office, but the current atmosphere motivated her to work more than ever. A whole hour had gone by since then, and dinner was long overdue. As if someone had heard her silent prayer, an angelic voice hollered through.

“A little bird told me that you’re still here,” her friend sang on her way over. In her hands were two bags of what Haemi could assume was food, from the restaurant’s name plastered on its front. And yes, the little bird was her talkative boss. You can never trust that man with a secret, ever. Feeling slightly emotional by the surprise entrance, Haemi rushed over to shower her friend with gratitude. She pulled Mina’s petite frame into her arms as if she were a teddy bear. 

“You’re suffocating me!” The new mother shook her off playfully. She proceeded to lay down the take-out meal on their desks to share. Since Mina went on a work call earlier, the two did not have a chance to grab lunch together. But this will make up for it. 

“I was about to make my third cup of coffee for dinner,” Haemi frown, her hands working fast to split the steamed dumplings for the two. She took a bite of the warm, steamed dough to fill her cravings. 

“If you don’t hurry and eat, I’ll might just eat your portion..” she warned Mina, who was too busy digging through her bag for a little secret treat. Pulling out two bottles of beer from her bag, she turned to Haemi with a sheepish grin on her face.

“It’s been ten long months since my last drop of alcohol and Luna is with her dad tonight…” she whispered like it was a shameful matter. Haemi bit her bottom lip, a sudden outburst of laughter managed to escape through either way. For Mina to give up this side of her was the biggest character development, knowing how wild she would be at their company parties back then. Haemi met her friend when she was just an intern, and her first impression of Mina was still a memorable one. Thinking about their first meeting always put a smile on her face. The two got so drunk at that gathering, to the point where none of their first impression stories match up anymore. Until this day, neither one of them knew how they ended up at Haemi’s house the next morning. It was fine though, because without that vague night, they couldn’t have started this beautiful friendship.

“I’m stopping after two sips. You know how I am with alcohol,” Haemi informed her friend. 

That statement did not age well. A moderately buzzed Haemi, stole a glance at her friend to see if she could swipe another drink without her knowledge. Mina caught her in the act, securing her grip around the bottle to reframe her friend from stealing it. What was supposed to be a few sips had her finishing a whole bottle of beer in no time. 

“Just give me one more sip, Mina!” she whined, holding up her empty bottle in desperation. Since the morning, she knew the girl had quite a lot on her mind already. She figured that a few drinks could cheer Haemi up, but forgot how easy it was for this one to get drunk. Mina soothed her friend by running a hand up and down her back, all while trying to answer an incoming phone call from her husband.

“I’ll be home soon, honey. Put Luna