Minjeong exited her apartment and started walking in the direction of the bus stop so that she could get to work. The cool breeze that hit her face as she approached the bus stop slowed her steps. It had sparked a strong unpleasant feeling in her, making her want to avoid work for that particular day—or was it just her laziness? The next thing she knew, she was heading in the opposite direction from the bus stop, towards the beach that was directly in front of her apartment complex.

As she reached the beach, she thought that no one was there until she noticed a person, which she had assumed to be a young woman based on the length of her hair and the proportions of her body, sitting alone on the sand. The mere sight of the girl's back was all that was needed to draw Minjeong towards the girl.

Perhaps the girl could feel her approaching and turned to face her, making her stop in her tracks. As their eyes met, Minjeong could feel a pang in her chest when she saw the emptiness in her eyes. Although the girl was smiling at her, she noticed that the smile didn't reach her eyes—it was one of sadness and melancholy. It was understandable given their current circumstances; everyone became exhausted, lost, and lonely. Yet she sensed that there was more to it than that.

The girl stood up from her seat and started walking in her direction. Minjeong had also unconsciously drawn herself closer to the girl to bridge the gap between them.

“Hi.”

As soon as the girl spoke, Minjeong’s chest tightened, and she drew in a quick breath. "H- hi."

“What is your name?” the girl asked.

“Minjeong.” She caught a glimpse of contentment in the latter's eyes for a second. “What is yours?”

“Karina.”

The next thing she knew, she was wiping away a stream of tears that had fallen from her eyes. Still confused by her own reaction, she took a deep breath and tried to think of something she could say to cover up her earlier reaction. “Nice to meet you.”

Karina heaved a heavy sigh. “Let’s sit there.” The girl pointed to the mat on the sand and started walking towards it.

She wasn't the type to immediately comply with the requests of strangers, but for some reason, she found herself trailing behind the girl. She passed it off as her instinctive response to the lingering sense of sadness in her heart, and perhaps she was curious about the latter as well.

Karina patted the space next to her, directing her to sit there, and again, she complied.

"Are you not going to work today?" she blurted out to break the awkward silence.

Karina shook her head.

“Is that possible?” she asked, genuinely confused. She thought that their sole reason for existing was to go to work and make money for survival.

She heard a light-hearted chuckle coming from the other girl. "It’s boring to keep on doing the same thing. So, I took a break from work for a bit."

"Wow!" she exclaimed, making the latter chuckle once again. That fact impressed her, and she wondered if there were many more people like the girl out there. But she knew she couldn't discover the answer since she had to interact with a lot of people. That might take several days or weeks, plus she would forget about that information after she woke up tomorrow, anyway. "How do you do that?"

The girl remained silent until she spoke again, changing the subject "What about you? Why are you not at work?"

"I don’t feel like doing so today," she answered nonchalantly, not even realising that the other girl hadn’t responded to her earlier question.

Karina smiled and nodded.

“Where do you live?” she asked.

The girl pointed at the apartment building behind them.

She gasped. “I live there too!”

Karina smiled again.

The cool breeze from the sea made her shudder. "What were you doing here alone?" she