You and I are so alike.

It scares me how a basketball-sized satellite is the one object I find myself in. Sputnik, it must be freezing where you live. Your home is far away from the humans who made you. I'm sorry a war has caused your lonely existence. In all of these, I relate to you.

Now, I'm off to my taekwondo class where I will ruin myself to be close to my friends.

 The last sip of water burned in . Joohyun twisted the cap of the bottle back to it's place and laughed. "You should totally block him, Sol," she said. Her friend nodded but Joohyun wasn't sure if that was the response to her words. 

 "I asked him to meet me," Sol said with a confident look on her face. She swatted her braid off her shoulder and folded her arms, "I like straightforward guys. You know, all these guys want me but they always start in the same old way."

 Joohyun was taken aback. She forced herself to laugh like the rest of the girls and quickly glanced at her feet. It was a relief to her that her voice was not as audible as the rest of them. Otherwise, she would've embarrassed herself by suggesting Sol to block the guy who randomly knocked her and complimented her s in a not-so-conventional manner. At least, she would have done so. Only that no one had ever been so vocal about liking her s.

 After a monotonous day at school, five hours of trying to be with friends and simultaneously finishing all the tasks assigned and a very awkward conversation with her father, Joohyun felt burnt out. It was probably not wise to sign up for taekwondo classes, given that she hasn't got a day's worth of exercise in her life. In her printed trousers and collared t-shirt, Joohyun stuck out like a sore thumb in the midst of white uniform and colorful belts. The gym was occupied with at least a hundred trainees. Among them, the ones with white belts were more than the rest of the belts. That was the first goal for Joohyun. The white belt. 

Usually, Joohyun's fashion sense never slacked. But this afternoon was excessively difficult as she couldn't figure out which sort of fashion would suit taekwondo. However, despite the failure in choosing the right clothes in order to become one with the walls, Joohyun could pat herself on the back because, at least she was standing here, in this large gym full of people, on her first day of Taekwondo. She wanted to prove to herself that her boundaries didn't lie at her feet. Everyday, she felt like her circle of abilities had quite the tiny radius, enough breathing space, that's all. Looking at herself after coming home from school was a painful task because as she showered under very cold water, her friends were out there in the world with their piano lessons, part-time jobs, ballet, literature, and so on. 

Truth be told, she was doing taekwondo for her friends. She was doing it to prevent loneliness. She was in a desperate search for the person she used to be when she first met them. What exactly did pull them towards her? Why couldn't she work her magic on them now? Why was she always waking up in the evening to the smiling faces of her friends in pretty selfies from the hangout of the day? Perhaps, she thought, if she spent enough time with them, her friends will finally notice her and invite her to their parties. Even if coming back home with legs screaming with pain and a dizzy head due to low blood pressure was on the table, she was ready to give taekwondo her best shot.

She wanted to be with them. She wanted to prove to her mean cousin that she was meant for greater things, like a black belt and A stars and a loyal set of friends. But everything was slipping through the gaps of her fingers these days and she has avoided Isa because currently she had nothing much to brag about in front of her and her mother. Joohyun glanced at her friend, pretending that she has even the slightest clue as to what she was blabbering about to her other taekwondo mates. Sol had no belt. But she had the uniform. It seemed to draw a line between the two of them today.

"LINE UP!"

The instructor yelled at the chattering crowd. The throng of trainees splitted into five lines. The ones with darker belts conquered the first rows. The last rows belonged to the white belts and the newcomers. Joohyun followed Sol closely and remained at the end of the line so that no one noticed her. But she had chosen the most hideous combination out of her closet and every time the trainees changed their direction of sight, she drowned in a drum of boiled embarrassment. They started off slowly, with all exercises already known to Joohyun through PT classes. They jogged in their places for twenty minutes. Joohyun has never jogged before, not even for one minute. She had once been chased by a dog while bringing home food from her aunt's house and that had discouraged her from any further jogging in life. 

But she pulled this one off, just like a newbie. Her speed was sloppy and the gym occasionally spun around her. Joohyun felt terribly nauseous, as if taekwondo was all the blood out of her body. 

"Now, SQUATS!" came the order. 

"Oh," Joohyun thought. "Squats are easy."

However, to her exhausted body, squats were probably the last stage before it all collapsed. The first squat sent her legs into a frenzy and she discovered she couldn't stand back up. Her feet felt as heavy as three bags of rice, heavier than the kid she had to carry around in the zoo because he was the son of a business tycoon her father was trying to impress. Joohyun fell to the ground in a very non-elegant manner. Her head accidentally pressed against the of the person right before her and the girl screamed, as if convinced Joohyun had tried to ually harass her. But Joohyun was long gone, lying on the floor of the gym like a doll taking her much-needed nap from the world of make-believe. 

 "Your friend put her nose in my , Sol!" was the last thing Joohyun heard before giving in to a cozy darkness. 

"Ice cream?"

Sol suggested on their way home when the shops' lights began to grow more and more significant in the dim sunlight. The lamps flickered to life above their heads. The wounding road consisted of a few shops on the sides and a good view of the ocean. The road was one that Joohyun had never taken before. She was too distracted by the pink of the summer sky to realize that the person she had been trying to win over for several months now was finally talking to her. 

"Joohyun," Sol tried again. She clicked her tongue at Joohyun's lack of attention and slowed her pace so that they reached the door of the shop by the time Joohyun turned to her. "Joohyun, you need to eat something sweet to feel better,"she poked her side until the girl looked at her. There was a question mark on Joohyun's face. Her bangs managed to hide her arched brows. "Ice cream?"

"Ice...cream?" 

Joohyun bit the inside of her cheek. She wanted to say no for the sake of her health. A glance at her watch told her that it was way past six. The time for ice cream alloted by her mother was 1 pm to 4 pm. Even though Joohyun wasn't sure about the scientific credibility of her mother's rules, she abided by them like the good child she was. But before her stood the golden opportunity to be back in the gang. Was she to swat it away?

Her contemplation resulted in them entering the shop. While Sol searched for her favorite bucket of ice cream, Joohyun found a strange fascination kicking in as she watched the sun go to sleep, snuggling under the blanket of the sea after a long day at work. Somehow the shelves were placed in such a manner that the glass walls could perfectly capture the view of a setting sun. Her shoulders relaxed at the thought of being in her little room, putting her hair up in a bun on top of her head and studying. 

 "Joohyun, which one?" Sol called out to her, "What are you even looking at?"

 There was irritation in her voice. Joohyun couldn't even risk that. She turned around and found her friend hugging a bucket of ice cream to her chest. "I can eat a little from that, right?" She asked. Her instincts told her that a lot of ice cream in her already weak system would be a bad idea. She was just returning from the smelly changing room of the taekwondo class where they had let her rest and she didn't want to be there ever again. 

 Sol nodded wholeheartedly, making Joohyun beam. She browsed through the store while Sol sat down to eat her ice cream in the corner where the oven was. Joohyun knew she wasn't a great shopper, making bad choices, obsessing over price tags, not being able to bargain. She made yet another bad decision by grabbing the pack of Chocos dazzling before her eyes on the shelf. She remembered an empty tin of cornflakes and her brother whining about it. She passed by the aisle of toothbrushes, forgetting that she urgently needed a new one. Her current toothbrush was running out of bristles. 

 "Are you paying for the ice cream too?" The person at the register inquired. 

Joohyun stared at him for a moment. And the she looked over her shoulder at Sol who was scraping the corners of the container. "She didn't pay for the ice cream?"

"Nope."

She swallowed a ball down , the ball of hesitancy. "Are you sure? Can you please check again..." She was afraid of being deceived. But she was more scared of her money disappearing from her wallet just like that. The guy blinked at her before maneuvering his gaze to the register, as if unsure how to prove it to her.

"Will CCTV footage work?" He asked.

Joohyun shook her head, "It's alright. What's the total?"

"That will be 13,000 won," he answered. "Card or cash?"

Joohyun's face became beet-red. She began to make faces at her wallet, holding it open with two hands as if the thing was going to disintegrate any moment now. "I don't have all that money. It's the end of the month. I go to school by this road. Can I give it to you tomorrow?"

The expression on his face didn't change. He remained indifferent as he said, "We don't do that here. I'm sorry."

"Please?" Joohyun tried to make a cute face this time. "Trust me on this. I live a very honest life. I can guarantee you that I will return the money." But saying any further sounded futile because the person before her was unfazed at her folded hands and pouty lips. On the contrary, it seemed to entertain him a little. "I've never kept debts in my life. I can leave with you my address," she said. 

He shook his head from side to side.

An incredulous look conquered Joohyun's face. "Are you...really doing this to me?"

"I'm sorry. You're going to have to keep the Chocos back, I guess. Because your friend is about to swallow the container over there. "

Joohyun dropped her helpless girl image and decided to go a whole Aunt Maddie mode on him. "You just lost a loyal customer today," she said, pretending as if this wasn't her first time here. She huffed, moving her hair out of her face. "This is not going to be very fruitful. I'm going to tell all my friends about this and they'll stop coming here too."

His face said that he would rather not have her broke friends over here as well. That wasn't a threat to him at all. 

"You can call your parents and ask them to bring the money...?"

"What? Are you crazy? I'm not going to show them that I'm buying freaking ice cream with the money I'm supposed to spend on stationery!" Joohyun couldn't control the panic flooding inside her. Her eyes widened as she felt the desperate need to run away, full speed, so that this guy would never be able to catch her. But Joohyun liked to play all her cards at hand. "What you need is a good fist in your face. That's what a brat like you needs. Do you know that I do taekwondo? My friend over there is going to get her black belt soon and if we see your face around, you're done," she drove her thumb horizontally, as if slitting her own throat. But the guy didn't even bat his eyelashes.

Joohyun knew then that she had ran out of all options. 

She quietly nodded and with a lowered head she withdrew the packet of Chocos from the register. Dragging her feet, she returned it to the spot it was previously occupying. "How much...is that ice cream?"

"Um..." The guy pressed his lips together, as if weighing his words in his head. He was familiar. His eyebrows were terribly similar to those of that one guy who was staring at her with utter disappointment when her vision blurred in the taekwondo class. But it couldn't be him, right?

"My neck hurts," she blurted out.

"What?"

She sighed, already depressed from the fact that she wasn't even eating the ice cream she was paying for. "You're too tall. I can't keep looking at you forever. Please tell me the price."

For a slight second, he smiled. "Nine thousand won."

Joohyun realized she didn't even have to count the money. Nine thousand won was all she had at the end of the month. She emptied her wallet on the cash register. The cashier handed her a receipt. One which she was going to scrunch into a ball and throw it at whoever she first encountered at home. On a second thought, she decided to ditch it by the road in case her mother uncurled it and found out that her daughter ate nine thousand won worth of ice cream at seven o' clock. 

Joohyun felt