It had been seven days since Seung hyun left. Exactly seven days since they had... ed. Dara's life was the same: paper work, client meetings, presentations, a blur of routine that made the week pass by like a blink of an eye. After the agreed execution of Seung hyun's baby daddy role, Dara had settled to ease. It was calming to her to have taken that first step to her ultimate calling, and work seemed more than enough to fill her time.

She hasn't heard from Seung hyun, but that was to be expected. He was busy with rehearsals and shooting. Not hearing from him was natural, it didn't really bother her all that much.

Today, Dara stood in front of her full length mirror, in the buff, while a stick is left stewing in a cup of her pee. She had just come out of the shower and her bath robe lied in a pool at her feet. Her wet hair clumped together like black tangles of rope. She studied herself, as she was on the first day of her life. Her life had been the same, and her body seem to echo her sameness. What was she expecting? Her s were still small, her hips a little narrow, her waist flat and tapered. A nag sprouts in his chest and she grimaces at her figure. So maybe it was a miss after all. She touches her flat belly with sly contours of abdominal muscles. She had always held a high nose of pride for being so thin and having abs. This had always been a strong point of her body's attractiveness. But as her palm lay flat on top of her navel, she sighs in defeat. Her lips twitch to a frown, the nag brew into this sense of  powerlessness in her chest. Within seconds she felt calm and okay then all of a sudden, she feels a lot like crying. She bites down her lip because that is an exagerration. She knew this. But tomorrow would be her thirtieth birthday and Seung hyun's gift must be late in delivery. And this, this was incomprehensibly upsetting. Thirty. She will step into the big 3-oh. 3 oh-no.

Her phone rings in the background, and she picks it up. She grits her teeth at the name on the screen. It was Seung hyun.

She slides a finger across the touch screen and presses the device on her ear.

"Happy birthday, Santokki!" Seung hyun rumbles happily.

It had always been this way. A day-advance birthday greetings since he was five and she was eight. Seung hyun had childishly declared that Dara should receive his well-wishes first before anyone else, which meant she gets his greeting a day before. All advance birthday greetings prior to his were discounted because... Well just because he says not to count them. He was childish like that, she never really minded. She actually thinks it was kind of fun.

But right now she was annoyed and in the brink of tears. It was just that a week has passed and all the normalcy of life and work seem to stack up and has tired her down. The calm of the first step has gone out the window. Her flat stomach, a testament to the first step as a misstep.

She sniffs, "why haven't you called?!" There was a bite of anger, a hit of accusation in her voice.

"Ah. Oh. Sorry, Tokki. I've just been busy. They've been training for the fight scenes and..."

"What do you think, I haven't been busy? Have I been lying on my back waiting for your call or what?"

Seung hyun stills on the other line. Looks skeptically at his phone's screen. Frowns at it. It is Dara. Not a neglected girlfriend. He slowly brings back the phone back to his ear. "Um."

Dara was brushing away angry tears that escapes her control, that she only half understood. Half because she knew she was angry, very angry, and upset, and hungry, and very and a little cold. Half was a drawn out blank. Maybe she was angry because she was crying. A sort of emotional paradox or something.

"Dara... What's wrong?"

"What's right, Seung hyun? What's right? I'm thirty and skinny as a stick and I'm not pregnant!"

Seung hyun's brow knots into a frown. "It's only been seven days, Dara. How can you tell?"

"I got this test that's called First Response and it's supposed to be able to tell on the seventh day! I told you. You never listen to me."

He hears her take a breath that wheezes down. "Stop crying!" He bolts up from his bed. He was readying himself for a quick forty winks before another long day of getting his kicked by his trainer. Now he's kind of regretting his irrepressible need to call her. "Why are you so upset? Ar