Chapter Text
2 a.m
God, I’m exhausted.
I had been procrastinating on my work from home job so I had cursed myself to be up late so I can get these new designs finished before the deadline. I had been in no mood to work ever since ‘The Breakup’, which, while my best friend was ecstatic about it, I was still working through the whole situation myself. I wince internally thinking about how it ended. My mind keeps wandering farther and farther down this rabbit hole of thinking about the breakup until my computer beeps unexpectedly and I snap back into reality and focus on finishing up the designs. I finally finish the last design and email it to my boss, who I hope will understand me finishing it up at whatever ungodly hour of the night it is.
I slam the computer shut and wander down the hall to the bathroom to do my nighttime routine. When I finally get to bed, it is around 3:00 in the morning according to the alarm clock by my bed.
I gladly climb into the bed and let the giant comforter envelope me until I drift off into sleep…
Beep, beep, beep. I crack my eyes open as my alarm goes off to stare at the ceiling. By the way it is beeping, you would think that the world is ending but after lying there adjusting to the world for a few minutes, I get up to turn it off. Shit. It’s 3 p.m. How the h e double FUCK is it 3 p.m?!? My alarm was set for 10 a.m. Did I press snooze a bajillion times or something? I have to meet up with my friend at 4! Shit. Shit. Shit.
I jump out of bed to try and get ready in the half hour that I have. I throw on a pair of leggings and a skirt over it since it’s been getting colder and throw on my favorite cardigan that probably needs to be washed over a white shirt. I do my makeup in record time and do a quick run-through of my hair with a brush. I grab a few things, stuff them into my purse, and run out the door.
The cafe that we are meeting at is a few blocks away from my apartment. Even if it wasn’t, I would still have to walk or take the bus because I had moved to Seoul less than a year ago and never saw the benefit of getting a car. I didn’t regret moving here; my grandpa used to tell me stories of when he lived here, and he even taught me most of the language when I first started learning it; the language was confusing for a while, not to mention the cultural 360 which I feel like I could’ve been better prepared for. But, I’ve grown to speak the language so well that most natives can’t tell that I’m not from here.
I speed up my pace and arrive at the cafe just in time, and my friend, Iseul’s green eyes light up as she jumps out of her seat to give me a giant hug. We met through work before I started working from home so we’ve known eachother ever since I moved here for the job. Her long hair hits my face as she pulls back.
“Finally! I was beginning to think that I had been stood up!” She quips
“I’m SO sorry! I had such a late night to meet some work deadlines,” I apologized
“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”
I sigh in relief, and the conversation starts flowing as it always does when we get together. We talk about pretty much everything from work to shows we’ve been watching. But a kind of awkwardness hangs in the air as we are very obviously avoiding talking about he who shall not be named.
“So, how are you dealing with the whole… ‘Hayden Situation'?” She questions
Oh, welp, I guess he will be named
“Fine, as good as I can be, I guess,” I mutter
“Well, I knew he was bad the first time I met him. You should have left him the first time he laid hands on you.”
“I thought we agreed to drop it,” I snap, immediately feeling guilty about it
I know I should have left him the first time he ever pushed me, but something made me feel compelled to stay. He was amazing for the first couple of weeks; he was everything that I had ever dreamed of, and maybe the premonition of that made me stay because I knew he could be good. Part of me thought it was my fault for what happened…
“Y/n!!”
“Huh, what?”
“You’re doing that thing again.”
She, of course, was referring to my tendency to zone out. It’s a sort of state where I hear what’s happening around me, but my own thoughts are louder, so everything kind of turns into garbled mush. It usually happens right before a panic attack or when something really heavy is on my mind( like “The breakup”)
“oh, sorry” I mutter
Her eyes gleam as she speaks, “It’s alright, I shouldn’t have mentioned it, but I do have a proposition for you.”
“What is it?” I ask nervously, scared that it’s something awful
She explain that the company has a new client: A boy band. And they wanted me to design whatever it is they wanted. They were super high profile and according to her ‘pretty cute’ but apparently tons of people knew who they were and it was a huge opportunity.
“And get this: the leader guy wants to work super closely with whoever is designing so you get to travel around with them for the duration of the job”
“I don’t know..” I mumbled
“Pleasssseeeee??” she begs “If not for you than for me, it sucks seeing you holed up in your apartment wasting your life away”
I, for one, saw no problem with staying in my apartment for the rest of my natural life. It was nice enough and my job already paid well without me taking extra jobs. But the idea of an actually exciting job did something to make my brain spin with excitement. I guess I could take just this one extra job; maybe it’ll actually make me enjoy my job a little more.
“Fiiiinnneee,” I drawl “What time is the first meeting with them?”
“In about 10 minutes”
“What do you-”
is all I can get out before I’m being dragged outside and down the block to my old office building