Yongsun loved going by her English name - Solar. That was a cool name. Just like herself. She ran a Youtube channel called Solarsido with a few hundred thousands of subscribers, those who liked videos of her experience. Sometimes Yongsun would call for input from me and the other two house mates. But most of the time, my ideas were ignored.

"Your idea is. . .ok but spending 4 hours working on meditation painting is a bit. . .too popular, don't you think so? I need something energetic and unique."

Yongsun circled my idea with a Sharpie on an A0-sized paper which was already full of text. Had she not want to let me down, she would have strike through my idea of making meditation painting.

"Unique?" - Hyejin crawled on the bed speaking up with her husky voice - "It's difficult, unnie. You have done quite a few unique things."

Hyejin concluded her statement with a yawning. Hyejin was literally my shadow - or I was hers? - as we had been together since secondary school. She was a wedding planner but at the same time, part-timer at a few other jobs, as long as it generated money and filled up her schedule. That's why she usually looked lazy at home - she had used up all her energy at work.

"Recent trend is about doing common stuff, of course with attractive storytelling, I think so."

Byul Yi spoke up next to me with a matter-of-fact tone. She was the second oldest in the house, yet the most mature and calm. Despite being part of a music producing team Byul Yi liked it logical, so she wanted to research and back things up before making a statement. I bet she had just spoken up after going through no less than 10 reports about trends.

"If that's the case" - Hyejin rose up from her place with a yoga pose - "How about living a day as Wheeinie? Her life is the most normal among us, right?"

I shot her a glance askew. She must be mocking at me. But Yongsun, on the other hand, found it interesting. She thumbed up at Hyejin.

"DJing a radio program sounds great Hyejin ah. That's quite different from my channel's vibe."

I pouted. Excuse me, who has just "criticized" that my idea lacks of energy?

"But Wheein ah" - Byul Yi glances at me - "Does Yongsun need approval or something?"

I shook my head.

"They are quite easy. You just need to do your job well as I have already settled the script."

"So" - Yongsun's face brightened - "Tomorrow, right?"

"Up to you. I just need to give them a call. Lucky you that I really want a day-off."

I was dreaming of a chilling Friday, relaxing with a cup of mocha and spending time on my ongoing novel which I would never have the chance to get it published. But the dream had been extinguished. Totally.

"No no no" - Yongsun shook her head and grabbed her phone. She had tons of things to do every week so her schedule was full of notes - "I have class tomorrow at Pyeonghwa."

Alright. I rolled my eyes and let out an exhale while the other three exchanged a laugh at each other.

***

PyeongHwa Center for the Disabled was nothing strange to me. In fact, I worked as a volunteer here from my freshman year until about a year ago - when my job started to keep me busy and I had to quit volunteering. Back then, Yongsun was looking for experience for her newly opened channel so I brought her here for a try. It turned out Yongsun liked this place so much that she kept on teaching piano here even though I left the center after that.

And now I was back to the place I used to be so familiar with. The old piano was still there - Yongsun told me that it was the biggest evidence of resilience - and I could recognize some familiar faces who I had taught before. They were all muted - innate or by diseases but that didn't stop their love for music.

"Oh gosh, Soyoonie ah!"

I almost cried when a 15 year old girl ran to hug me. I hugged her back and looked around, people were all smiling and signaling to me, things like:

"Welcome back!"

"I thought you've gone forever."

"Stay for lunch, ok?"

I could feel a big smile spread on my face. Detaching myself from Soyoon and walking over to sit down at the old piano, I spoke to them with the sign language they were using.

"Let's focus on today's lesson first! We still have time!"

I scooted the chair towards the piano and played a few notes. As if the piano sound triggered a time machine, I immediately felt like being brought back to five years ago when I first came here. My initial plan at Pyeonghwa was to find a healing place after hectic hours at university and part time job. But things didn't go well at first. I struggled at communicating with people here, to the extent that I had thought I made the wrong choice.

Yet, every cloud has a silver lining. when I was about to give up, I got exposed to sign language. And this language, however difficult it might seem, turned out to be so attractive to me. Perhaps I like the silence in this means of communication - Hah! The challenging days of learning to understand and getting myself understood gradually passed by and I was finally capable of communicating with sign language to teach them music until the day I left.

And right at the moment, the person that brought me to sign language was standing at the threshold, smiling brightly.

"Look" - I read the sign from him - "Whee-pup is back!"

Hyojin was only one year older than me but he had been working here since high school - a few years earlier than I did. We were quite close after nearly 5 years working together on multiple activities for the center, from piano to painting and even dancing. As Hyojin was still here, I felt more welcomed coming back, despite being nagged at once we meet.

"Hey, why do you keep getting thinner everytime I see you?"

Years working here had taught me to get used to Hyojin's nagging. I would be worried if he did not spend a day without nagging about someone or something.

"Geez, and you are getting chubbier!"

I comfortably adjusted my seat on the ergonomic chair in Hyojin's own office, drinking the coffee and snack he bought from the canteen. Hyojin was no longer a volunteer here. Instead, he was now the operations manager at Pyeonghwa.

Opening a pack of chips and throwing a few pieces to his mouth, Hyojin shrugged.

"If I say that gaining weight is gaining more energy for work, you'll take it as making an excuse. But why are you here today? You didn't even tell me."

"Yongsun unnie is busy. I just help her out on my annual leave."

"So. . ." - Hyojin raised his eyebrows sarcastically - "Had Yongsun noona not been busy, you would never have thought of paying me a visit, right?"

Ouch, that stung! I smiled crookedly at him. If it hadn't been for Hyejin's unconventional idea, I would never thought of coming back here. Busy work, that's the only reason. Also due to a hectic life, I and Hyojin had gradually grown apart, no longer as close-knitted like when we were in the same volunteer team. And even though he was still an important part in my connection, we had only been in intermitten connection lately.

I was hesitating, trying to find out an answer that wouldn't hurt but then, Hyojin cracked the awkward atmosphere with a laugh.

"Come on Whee-pup" - Hyojin interrupted me and leaned over to throw the empty pack of chips to the garbage bin in the corner of the office. - "Don't overthink. I did not ask you to explain. But yeah, I'm happy because you're getting brighter days after days. At least from my observation."

I grinned. Hey, had I mentioned that we became close because we both had mental problem back then and went to the center for the disabled to widen our network as well as to be more active, more sociable as a cure? After all those time, Hyojin had made much more progress than I did. Not only had he became a manager at the center, but he also learned to become a coach to assist people. I was, meanwhile, at a slower pace. I only opened my heart for a limited number of people and chose to do something that only required my individual effort to refrain from bothering others.

Suddenly, Hyojin exclaimed as if he recalled something.

"And by the way, I did listen to your radio."

My eyes widened.

"How come? It's internal radio."

"Ah" - Hyojin scratched his red hair - "The Earth is round. There was your colleague in my coaching class. I asked him if he knew Whee-pup. . ."

"How come that person knew if you mentioned Pup?"

I pouted. But Hyojin just smiled and corrected himself.

"Ah no, I asked if he knew" - Hyojin intentionally stressed on each word - "MC Jung Wheein. He said that you were very well known in the company. So" - Hyojin shrugged with pride - "As Jung Wheein's close brother, I asked him to share me a sample session of your program."

"And what do you think of it?"

I raised my chin. It just made Hyojin laugh harder as it had been a while I did not ask him anything. I was originally not a decisive person; hence, I tended to ask my close friends for advice and Hyojin was among my top priority for go-to people.

"Surprised of course." - Hyojin, again, scratched his head. Had I ever mentioned that Hyojin looked best with red hair? - "Because you produce everything. At first I did not believe but your colleague assured me. That is. . . how to say . . . quite impressive."

My grin got bigger. But Hyojin did not let my pride last for long as he concluded:

"But perhaps I found it impressive because I have not heard from you for a while, right?"

I stood up and leaned over to his place, grabbed his shoulders and shook as hard as I could.

"Shut up Kim Hyojin! I knew you've been joking around!"

Both of us bursted out laughing. No matter how long we hadn't seen each other, we were goofing around as if we were still in those youthful days five years ago!

***

Monday came to me with excitement still lingering after the reunion with Hyojin. I hummed to a song I came across at the company cafe and happily entered the meeting room, where I would spend the next one hour brainstorming for this week's show with Seulgi.

Seulgi was my partner for the radio program. Unlike what an unknown colleague told Hyojin, I was not 100% responsible for the show. Although I was in charge of script writing, MCing and producing task, I still needed her support in orientating the program to meet the staff demand. Who knew when the staff wanted a nostalgic disco session or the company wanted to incorporate certain message to the script if Seulgi did not collect and transfer to me?

Seulgi was also one of my close connections. She was one year older than me and looked mature but she turned out to be an interesting combo of opposite polars. She was the definition of girl crush style with sweet characteristics, she was excellent in connecting departments and at the same time, handled reporting and data analysis task without any difficulty. Perhaps due to those polars, she could get close to many people, including a reserved person like me.

It didn't take long for Seulgi to appear with a coffee on one hand and the laptop on the other. She asked me even before settling on the chair.

"Ya Jung Wheein, where has you been hiding since Thursday?"

Hiding? I remembered asking her for feedback about Yongsun as I was getting home from the center for the disabled. I replied Seulgi with another question.

"Did you not receive my message?"

"Oh did you text me?" - She sat down and pulled out her phone, swiping - "Oops, sorry. I missed your message."

I rolled my eyes. Whatever.

"But did Yong. . . ah Solar unnie do the job well?"

Seulgi nodded.

"She was quite good and somehow matched the upbeat vibe of the session."

I tried to hide my sighing of relief. Although Yongsun had reassured me that there was no broadcasting malfunction, I still needed Seulgi's confirmation to be completely relieved.

"Cool!" - I grinned and clicked my pen open, ready to jot down a few notes. - "Is there anything to take into consideration this week?"

I had never thought it was when things started to go astray.

Seulgi put her coffee down. But instead of talking about new requests or any message from the management for the program, she just leaned back and sighed - something I had never seen in her.

"What's wrong unnie?" - I asked, feeling my anxiety level about to increase.

Seulgi sighed again. At that moment, I realized that she no longer had her hair tied up and she wore all black. If it was the normal Seulgi, she would never wear black on Monday as she hated it when people took the negative Monday Blue for granted.

"I . . ." - Seulgi started to drum her fingers on the table. Now whatever she did all affected my anxiety level - ". . .am thinking of resigning. From next month."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

I reacted right away and Seulgi pressed her finger on her lips, shushing me. We were in the meeting room but people could see what is going on through the glass walls that separated the room with the outside area.

"Shhh. I haven't told anyone but you."

"But. . ." - I frowned. - "Why so? I thought you were enjoying the job here?"

Seulgi just shrugged without reply. She might has her own reason, a reason that however hard I tried to exercise my brain, I could not figure out. Therefore, I just sighed and turned my focus to the request mailbox. I might ask her for more details later, when the right time came.

Right then, the meeting room door opened, drawing the attention from both of us. A brown messy hair appeared and was followed by an unfamiliar face. That person must be mistaking the meeting room. Why the hell nobody notices the tablet hung outside, saying that this meeting room has been occupied?

I spoke up, sounding a little annoyed.

" Sorry. . . the room has been booked until. . ."

"Wait Wheein ah" - Seulgi hurriedly interrupted me - "He's not entering the wrong room."

And to my confusion, she turned to the strange guy standing at the door and pointed to the chair next to me.

"Take a seat, Taehyung ah."