"To refuse life is to believe it. You can't leave life, it's survival, there's no other way of living it."
-Marguerite Duras

 

Halmoeni
Have you eaten dinner?

 

 

Simultaneously yawn while swiping right and that message successfully wakes Wheein up at 1 a.m. in the toilet of this speakeasy bar. Thankfully, the man was too drunk to continue, and she managed to thwart off any advances to get her somewhere else. Talk about an overtime. Wheein's mind was fully transported to her bed at home until she got the message.

 

 

Wheenie
Halmoeni, You havent slept yet?
I thought you couldn't text!

Halmoeni
Eh, my friend taught me to message just this morning.
But Im still going to call you, so dont plug that tel4phin3 set just yeT

Wheeinie
… you know i can just call you right now or whenever, right?

Halmonie
I messaged you because you arent at home;
nobody answered the call!
Where were you, girl?

 

 

Wheein can't help but chuckle at the message. Certainly an unhinged moodbooster that she won't refuse.

 

 

Wheenie
I will go home soon, grandma.
You need to go to sleep.

 

 

Wheein swiped the phone off before returning to the man, thinking up any excuses to go home early and call it a (morning) night.

 

 

 

And if the wind is right you can sail away and find tranquility…

 

 

 

The record spins ceaselessly in this elusive space of the hour. Wheein reached for her bag and turned to the exit after saying goodbye.

 

—

 

The asphalt is still wet from the previous drizzle, and our girl swung her handbag back and forth without much intent, her heels clipping all the way. Under a streetlight to the right, the flushed cheeks are hard to miss.

 

The kind of drunk that is more than sufficient to bring herself home.

 

“Jung… Wheein.”

 

The woman is about to sit on a bench nearby before resuming her walk.

 

“28 years old and an aspiring Fine Art student at Hankuk University. Moonlighting everywhere for extra cash, everything is acceptable."Along with a litter of stars in the sky, she sweeps the golden locks behind her ear and gazes at them a little longer. When the details become blurry, constellations are her guide to the sky.

 

She left with a hum, pulling the blackened parts of her hair.

 

—-

 

3 a.m.

 

Extreme fatigue made her eyelids so heavy, and graspi