Tuesday. Again Tiffany found herself locked in the conductor's toilet, waiting for the train to pass Tokyo 3. Leaning at the cold sink, she observes the pale pearl skin of her face in the mirror, her eyes forming crescent moons as she cast on her professional smile. People used to say she has her mother's smile, the same significant eye-smile that made men fall on love with her in a matter of seconds but she hardly took advantage of it nowadays. On her last days in Japan she wasn't too keen on seducing Japanese men, for her last flirt had been a huge disappointment after all. Thinking about it, all of a sudden her smile seemed to be a little too heavy to carry, so she let loose and dropped it in the sink.

The train stopped. A familiar announcement was calling her back to work as she stepped into the aisle against a wall of muted conversations. The same business men that Tiffany had to greet from day to day had seated themselves at window seats as usual, leaving huge spaces from each other to avoid getting engaged in humane interactions. Dead silence lingered above their heads. Tiffany promenaded down the aisle stopped at every passenger and checked every ticket dutifully. Although she was the only female human being on the train, she couldn't feel any penetrating looks wandering up and down her body this time. She stretched her shoulders unconsciously. Something was different today, different than usual.

After giving a short explanation how to purchase the special sale promotion tickets for Valentine’s Day to a sturdy middle aged man, she entered the last wagon carrying a melody elegantly on her lips. Knowing her time in Japan was running out made work come effortlessly across her hands. Tiffany let her controlling gaze roam above the empty seats but decided to check the whole last wagon as well, seat after seat, like usual. It was still her job after all.  

Wandering down the aisle she suddenly spotted a familiar figure. The row was entirely occupied by the peculiar woman she had met yesterday at the exact same time. This time she had a range of different shaped suitcases with her, which she had placed on the seats next to her. Judging with by a professional look Tiffany could guess these suitcases where too heavy to heave on the luggage rack alone.  Someone must've helped her, she thought and turned around to check if she missed any passengers, but they were entirely alone. Looking up, the woman greeted her with a subtle smile this time and even complemented her on her lavish voice. She was wearing the exact same outfit, but her hair was different.  Her tips were dyed into a new shade of faint pink, as Tiffany observed.

"Ma'am is going all the way from Tokyo to Osaka only to get a new hairdo?" Tiffany asked wearing her smile anew. "So to speak" the woman encountered, each word pronounced painfully cold.

Tiffany shot a quick glance onto her ticket. Same dates like yesterday. "Isn't going to Osaka day by day cheaper going by plane?" Tiffany asked and tried to hit a casual tone to conceal her curiosity with. Shrugging the question off her shoulders the lady simply replied "I don't know". Tiffany was startled. Something about that woman irritated her but she couldn't quite set what it was. Perhaps it was her icy aura, perhaps the fact that she was Korean but obviously insisted on talking in Japanese, perhaps that she was the only woman who boarded the train today, perhaps that she might not be as experienced as her neat outfit might suggested. Whatever it was Tiffany didn't know for sure, this lady wasn't an ordinary business woman. 
She stamped the ticket and handed them back in one go. "Here you go, madam. Have a nice day." Tiffany mumbled and turned to go.

"Wait a second!" The lady suddenly called after her. "Wait, can you help me out by any chance?" she slightly lowered her speech, still using Japanese. Her gut feelings were telling Tiffany to head out of the wagon as quickly as possible but as a matter of professionally afflicted duty she turned to the lady again. "Yes, madam." she offered as a plain reply. "Are you living in Tokyo?" ice seemed to lie on her tongue. "Yes, madam" Tiffany repeated. "How are you getting back to your place after work?" "By train" Tiffany responded putting on an artificial smile to sooth her rambling inside. "I thought so, I thought so.. You see, I need to get this job done in Osaka and then I have to return to Tokyo but, I don't know, supposing we'll meet on that same train here again as passengers, I thought maybe we could share the ticket fee."

Tiffany gave her time to re-think the lady's offer. She was right, Tiffany thought in her professional routine, getting a couple ticket would reduce the fee to about 35% percent. "Okay." Tiffany answered still hesitantly. "I'll be here at 7 PM" "Me too" the lady replied without needing time to think. "What's your name then?" Tiffany asked feeling nervousness dwelling up inside her. "Taeyeon, and your's?" "Tiffany." At the name the woman put an odd expression on her face, as she had to restrain herself from putting out too much.

Probably not expecting the western name, Tiffany figured. However Tiffany felt her anxiety ease up knowing the woman was in fact a Korean citizen. She even knew her name now. With a careless smile she said good-bye to the elegantly dressed lady and left the wagon. Wild scenes of human trafficking and abduction suddenly popped up in Tiffany’s mind although she tried to cast all of as childish thoughts, a soft veil of menace still lingered above her head.