Saya kelabu

Saya adalah pertanda sebelum hujan turun

CUE 1.

Her childhood friend was standing near the rail at the top of the school building. All of her friends, these primary graders are shouting for her to stop. Think of your parents. Think of your friends. Think of those who will be sad if you're doing this.

Seori thinks that she should put herself first before doing this. Nevertheless that doesn't stop her from screaming in unison.

Nothing changed, though.

It's the same dream over and over, the same dream for a week now: her friend dying and she's always at the wrong time and the wrong place. Wrong everything. Wrong wrong wrong. She reaches into the cabinet and takes a peek at the ID card that she just stole from her company where she got laid off the day before.

Baek So-hyun

Seori hated that name. Correction: she still hates it now. Simply because that's the name she's stuck with when everyone thinks all bad things are rooted in her. The woman forces herself out of her bed, opening the window curtain only to face a set of clouds darker than hers.

A flash and a thunder roused her from a stupor.

Great. No showing time for the band once again. There goes her saving this week. The only hope for salvation is her other job tonight.

--

It's not like she enjoyed being a bartender in the first place.

Her working hours start as soon as she puts on the black vest on the white shirt, donning the armband ATISPAUS on her right arm. It's the name of the bar with classy ambience, if not only situated right next to a karaoke bar.

It's a slow night today. Seori has a slight rejoice mode ready when the bell tingling, the sign of the door swung open. "Welcome."

With brown hair down to her shoulder and slightly disheveled woolen vest, she's a little out of her element. Barely any customer coming here is already drunk.

"We're using vodka as our base today."

Seori keeps her tone to a terse minimum, not giving anything away while keeping her observation at the side. The said woman already had her martini, stirring the ice rocks inside before taking a sip.

The sip seemed to take her somewhere because Seori is sure this woman would gesture for her to come closer. Yes she will do that, for the sake of courtesy. This woman might need something after all.

"Have you ever felt like losing yourself?"

Seori doesn't think that she's capable of answering that, besides, her line of duty didn't exactly mention anything about getting too close to the customer. She hoped the shake of the head sufficed, and continued wiping the glasses.

For the next part, the woman disclosed her day profession and the specific room that she kept for herself in her apartment (Seori is so sure this part is classified) and the nature of her other job: a part timer that accompany people on weekends by request, providing an ear and hopefully some 'comfort' along the way.

There's this certain person from the 6equence App that's different from any other. She doesn't talk much and prefers to give short, simple responses to any questions given. She's becoming a hit now, even some from our bar are using her service. Sounds like an effective stress reliever! is what the other waitress whispered into her ear just this morning. It's a little unfathomable to see that this woman who looked like about to sleep on her counter might be the one.

She has all the time to make sure of it, at least until the bar's closed.

"Why are you taking this job, then?"

They said the truth was best said when it comes with alcohol.

"I want to know why things can come so easy for them." She mumbled, letting out a hiccup. Cute. "I just want to become a silence, to enjoy the feeling of things disappearing around me. What must it be like to have what you want, just by having a stranger next to you?"

"It's like anything your heart wishes for will come true when you have someone next to you, like those sappy Disney movies." The woman makes a gagging sound, and Seori's amused. "What are you wishing for," Her eyes flinched to read the bartender's ID tag at her lapel. "Seori-sshi?"

The woman is most certainly not going to remember any of this.

"What would you do," Seori leaned forward to her, and the woman stayed unflinched. "if you have this big, black glob of bad news wherever you go, and it will weigh on you for the rest of your life?"

If this woman is still not disgusted, this one is the best yet.

Instead, the woman raises her empty glasses and takes a swig, chewing the ice rocks in his mouth.

"If you don't want anyone to know you're doing something bad, you have to be the loudest in accusing someone else of the deed." She nodded, muttering yup yup to herself, patting herself for such an 'avant-garde' solution. "Stick the dirt to someone else and run before that person takes you to the grave together."

Seori thinks that's not how it really went (more details are needed), but it's giving her ideas.

--

Here she is now, waiting under a random statue somewhere in Garosu-gil, waiting for 'Moonstar' to come.

Or who is known as Moon Byulyi. Well, drunk people disclose too much information often. But she will pretend not to know for now.

Not-drunk Byulyi is a major opposite to who she met before; this Byulyi kept her distance, but looked a little lost when Seori asked her to just stand beside her for hours. This is the part that Seori didn't quite understand, to be honest. Doesn't this woman want silence? That's what she's giving right now, in exchange for becoming a pawn to her experiment.

A silly as it was too simple of an experiment, really.

What if she sticks to someone else for a day, just the two of them? In theory, some of her 'curse' can be transferred to this woman, and perhaps she can be relieved of what caused her to lose three jobs in succession, even