Painkillers – Seomin wanted them now. Something for her stomach would do too. As the cars whizzed past Hyeyoung’s car, her head spun while her spaghetti lunch lurched in her stomach. Seomin tried to block out the cars on the highway by looking at the interior of Hyeyoung’s car, but it was no better inside. A plethora of New York related figurines were plastered on her dashboard. The snow in the Statue of Liberty snow globe shook at a ferocious level. The sight of the fast movement left white speckles in Seomin’s vision as she closed her eyes.

Seomin’s relationship with road trips, no matter the distance, were like the male Siamese fighting fishes her mother had tried to raise after she lost her job. Without reading up on the fish, her mother went on a whim and bought two of them. She had plunked them in the same tank and within a day, two became one. The fish had won its fight, and at this moment, carsickness was winning the battle against Seomin.

“Are you okay?” Hyeyoung asked while her eyes were still glued to the road ahead.

“I think I want to puke.”

“No! No matter what, you cannot puke in my car.”

“I figured. Such a nice car and you fill it with your gimmicky accessories,” Seomin sarcastically said, her hand waving towards the dashboard. Hyeyoung glared at her, but Seomin simply pointed to the road and closed her eyes.

While Hyeyoung sped down the highway, Seomin tried to ignore her headache. However, it was for the worse, as her mind began to wander into second thoughts about the audition and her own skills. After graduation, Seomin’s only focus was the audition. She had moved the clutter away from the piano into her room and practiced while her mother was at work. Every evening at 5:30 sharp, Seomin would cover the piano with the white sheet and push the clutter back to its original place. Even after two weeks of practice, Seomin felt shaky. Maybe all the clutter in the room was affecting her mind. She had heard at school that a disorganized environment led to a disorganized mind. Now she wasn’t sure if it was beca