“Do you not understand me, that is your dress, Suji! Literally-actually, your dress.”

Suji’s eyes traveled towards the store window, unimpressed at the single display. The dress was white, with an emerald green trim wrapped around the scalloped ends and the waist. She shrugged, eyeing her reflection in the window. “It’s alright.”

“You’re lying.” Sungjong looked up from his cell since the first time they arrived, it was a wonder how he even noticed the dress. “That’s your favorite color, white.”

“White isn’t a color.”

“Let’s go in and buy it, you know you want to.” Sungjong affirmed, grabbing her arm and leading her inside.

Sungjong knew her way too well. She didn’t even have to argue and they both knew, Suji really liked that dress. She never really found an occasion to wear them, she couldn’t remember the last time she went to a fancy dinner party or anything. But she revealed the grin she had been hiding, eager. She bounced over to the ATM machine, fishing into her wallet for her card.

Her friend leaned against the shiny metal machine, texting like lightning. “Do you have enough?” he asked casually.

Do I have enough? She thought she did, as she carefully swiped her card between the slot, ready to take out 50,000 won. Once the screen glowed green in access, her face fell at what she saw. Her balance only had 37,000 won!  37,000 in fat, red letters angrily scolding her for being so irresponsible.  Not enough for her rent, surely not enough to eat, and she didn’t even want to think about buying that dress.

Sungjong appeared behind her, tucking away his phone. “Is that… the only credit card you have?” he said meekly.

"Oh my gosh," Suji's palms flew to her face. "I have rent to pay at the end of the week! What am I going to do!"

"Well, you could always ask your parents—" he immediately shut up when she shot a heavy glare. "Or, I could talk to hyung and you can live with us. Just until you're finished with the school semester. Your apartment's creepy anyway."

"You know how I feel about this. I just need to get a couple thousand. It's only Tuesday." She assured, trying to get herself together. But her beating heart and rapid breathing wasn’t helping.

“A couple thousand! I don’t understand how you only realized this now, don’t you check your bills?” Sungjong sighed, chastising her like an elder.

“I must’ve been out of work longer than I thought,” she cradled her forehead, shaking her head. This was not happening. “I was so preoccupied with school.”

“Do you need a job?” Sungjong asked, instinctively reaching for his cell. “I can get you one.”

“Can you really?” she shook his shoulders, pulling him into a hug. “Thank you, thank you thank you!”

Sungjong coughed, a thick blush creeping on his cheeks. “Hey, this is a fancy store. Don’t do this.” While he was advising her no, he still had a smile on his face. “Excuse me,” he managed to raise an arm to one of the workers. “That dress you have on display, I’d like to buy it for my friend.”

Suji immediately pulled away at his request, and looked up at him with wide eyes. “You don’t have to do that.” she said, frowning.

“I already know you have no suitable clothes for a job interview.” he replied with a smirk. “You can pay me back later, or take this as an early congratulations gift for getting the job.”

“Why do I have such a great friend like you? You make me feel so guilty.” A worker came forward and pressed the pretty white dress to Suji’s hands, the fabric cool to the touch. “It even feels expensive. Really, I can’t accept this.”

“Well, you’ll look like a ragamuffin if you don’t.”

“How fancy is this job?”

Apparently, Lee Sungjong’s network of people extended very, very high up. It only made things more nerve wracking for Suji. It was a basic, as simple as humanly possible, internship. But it overwhelmed her that she needed to be so dolled up for this. Two days later, they were in front of a fancy, silver building with a glass and steel arc on the top, resembling a monitor. She flattened out the creases in her dress, fixed the flyaways in her hair, and clutched her folders for the life of her.

“What are you waiting for? Go in.” Sungjong asked impatiently, checking his watch.

She shot an irritated glare. “Quiet, I’m mentally preparing myself.” She breathed in through her nose and out through , she closed her eyes and focused on ‘finding her center’ as some trainers call it. The last time she applied for a job was last Autumn, so she had to make this one count.

“Are you done? If you keep at it you’ll be late.”

“I’m going!” she huffed, waving to her socialite friend, who always had places to go and people to see. “Thanks for the ride, I’ll see you in a bit.”

“Good luck.”

The purr of Sungjong’s fancy car roared to life, and by then she knew that there was no turning back. Her hands were about to push the door open, but then she didn’t want to dirty the clear glass doors with her fingers. She felt like a little kid in the wrong atmosphere.

“Excuse me?” she said to the reception lady, who was typing furiously on not her paperwork, but a video game. “Er, I have a 9 o’clock interview?”

“Thirty-second floor to your right.” the receptionist replied shortly, not bothering to look up.

Suji gave a look of offense to her, if she couldn’t get this internship, maybe she could convince them to get her receptionist job. Her heels clicked tersely against the linoleum, and she quickly hopped into the next open elevator. It was empty, and she leaned against the glass wall. Her chignon felt tight and suffocating, or maybe it was just her mind overwhelmed, as she played with the bobby pins in her hair.

"Miss? You haven't picked a floor."

A young man stepped in, giving her a polite nod.

She suddenly felt self-conscious, her hands slowly leaving her hair. "Oh, I'm sorry. You look familiar." Her fists clenched behind her back when she realized how blunt that sounded.

"Yeah," he chuckled, ironically clicking the 37th floor.  "Maybe a couple days ago? We go to the same school together."

"Really? What do you study?" She asked, intrigued that a student would have business in a large-scaled company building. Then again he could ask her the same thing.

"Psych."

"Cool," she smiled. "I take journalism."

The young man grinned, only it was a gesture of satisfaction of something Suji could not distinguish. "That's great. Well, see ya around."

The 37th floor dinged open and they both bowed, with the young man hot on his trail to wherever he needed to go. Suji noted that he wasn't even dressed professionally, wearing black jeans and a grey hoodie.

She shook her head, looking for the evaluation room. She was greeted, silently without indication or attention,  in a large white room with black lined windows and minimalistic furniture. There was a few managers in the room and a line of chairs filled with at least three applicants, her competition.

"Hello my name is Bae Suji." She bowed, tacking on a smile.

"Have a seat."

She had thought her interview went rather smoothly, answering all her questions without apprehension and giving lots of eye contact. It was only an internship, she had initially thought. In congruence to all the fresh college graduates however, she was deeply outskilled. While she could type and take down as many words as they, she couldn’t distinguish a price ceiling and appropriate monetary policy actions because she had not learned economics. Her math skills were sub-par, in case she needed to help with financial recording, she could never go as far as finding the answer to x. The other people applying however, seemed to suffocate her in a way that this world wasn’t for her, that big business and Bae Suji were forbidden to reside in the same phrase.

She was the last one to enter and the last one to leave. Her feet were sore and her mind was still reeling, calculating what she did wrong during her interview, and what she did that was absolutely wrong.

“You were recommended by an inside party.” A woman stopped her before she could think to go.

“Is that bad?” Suji asked, her nails digging into her papers.

“No.” the woman replied loftily. “That isn’t why we’re not hiring you.”

She felt her heart plummet into her stomach. That was her last chance. “Because I’m not qualified enough?”

“No, because someone else has already hired you.”

The older woman crossed her arms, and Suji could’ve sworn she rolled her eyes. “Who hired me?”

“Just go in the room over there.”

Her eyes flared in anger, and she stood up to meet the passive woman’s gaze. Any desperate woman for a job would’ve taken that crap and nodded submissively.  

However, she wasn’t that desperate.

Suji ripped two bobby pins out of her hair, and bent her folder. A woman she was trying so hard to impress moments ago, surely had some nerve. Now that her interview was over, and she definitely wasn’t working for an elitist like her, she was free enough to shoot right back. “Good. I’m glad I don’t have to work for someone like you.” Suji spat, throwing her pins into the trash. She stomped to the door she was rudely directed to, and before she opened it, turned back around and gave a curtsey to the woman. “It was an absolute pleasure to be interviewed by you.” she smiled, sarcasm laced in her tongue.

The next room was white again, smaller than the last one, which was even more suffocating. But this room was completely empty, with no indication of human life (or windows.) Was she being examined by someone worse than the last lady, perhaps?

It seemed like this whole company was oddly connected by doors, when the adjacent knob turned ajar.

“Hello.” A young man entered, giving her a chary smile.

opened like an apprehensive kitten at the personal confrontation. “Hey.” she replied casually.

“I’m sorry that you were pulled out like this, but I felt like this job would be more suitable to your skills.”

Suji pulled down her skirts at that remark, eyeing him apprehensively. “We’ve met before, haven’t we?”

“Small world.” he nodded. Suji noticed how classically dressed he was, in a slim-fitting dress shirt with the first two buttons undone, and his off-black trousers. He didn’t look that old, in fact not that much older than her.“Your sister, Min right?”

She blushed, the memories flooding into her brain like a broken dam. “Sorry about that, I was just babysitting her  for a friend.”

“Well, this was the only room that I could use without getting caught.” he made a face at the white walls. Suji didn’t want to know anything about him ‘getting caught.’  “Let’s get out of here, maybe we can talk downstairs or something, or maybe at school.” At least he seemed human, because he seemed to hate the white room just as much as she.

“School?” she questioned. “You go to my school?”

His eyes widened at her stupor, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. He laughed awkwardly, trying to fill the white space that seemed to overwhelm their even more awkward setting. “Yeah, I do. My name is Kim Myungsoo, and I need your help.”