Summer Child

Harsh Winter. Part 1.

Yoon Seri blinked to the white smooth ceiling and felt disoriented. It was not her usual cream-colored bedroom in Paris and she sighed when realized just exactly where she was. She picked up her cell phone and looked at the time there; thinking for the many times after she arrived on how she should just get over it and bought a clock for the bare nightstand. It was almost 7 am, but the sky was still dark grey outside, and she cursed the thin curtain of her 'bedroom'.

This was what you get from staying at a weekly-rented apartment. Even if it was almost a month since you live in it, there were still very little you could do to make it felt more like home. Unless you wanted to spend ridiculous amount of money for very little reason. She scrubbed her eyes, before cursing another thing; like how she really shouldn't aggravate the skin around eyes area, unless she wanted to get lines early in her 30s, and how freaking cold Seoul was in January.

Like seriously, it was absolutely freaking cold. Even Paris was not this bad at its peak of winter. She knew, realistically, she was only talking about a few degrees C's difference in temperature, so it shouldn't be that bad. But still, her room felt like ice despite the warmer had been set at its highest temperature, and the rented space didn't have the floor-warming system like the sophisticated one she had in her apartment in Paris.

At that time, she was seriously considering her brother's offer to use his unused condo during her temporary stay at Seoul. Unused. Condo. That should be indication enough on how loaded her father's family was, to have an unused condo in the wild metropolis such as Seoul, whose bathroom easily covered the entirety of this rented semi one-bedroom space.

That gave her mother's strong principle not to give in to her father's wealth all the more respect from her.

Nevertheless, she had to brave the cold because she had to get up and head to the hospital before 8.30. Today was her father's first physical therapy, which was a monumental in itself since he finally could start his long journey to use his body like he did before the stroke. Her father had been very cranky this past week. Because, even though he had quite recovered from the stroke, but the effect was still widespread in his body.

She sighed, then swung her feet to get up from the bed. She quickly put on the house slipper and sauntered to the living room-slash-kitchen-dining room. She was used to small apartment in Paris, her apartment, the two-bedroom apartment that she moved in when she started Graduate study, was not big by any means. But it was enough for her and her dog, Tomato and she wanted nothing more. This small hide-hole the weekly apartment site advertised as ' charming, one-person abode in the heart of Seoul' was certainly left a lot to desire.

She started the electric kettle and pulled out the instant coffee she stocked up specifically for morning use. Then she opened the refrigerator and sighed seeing that she barely had anything for breakfast other than an apple that had started to wrinkle. She might need to go to grocery store after her father therapy today.

She gulped the coffee and apple while checking her work email. While she was technically on an unpaid leave, but she still checked in every once in a while; especially now that her team was tackling a big collection launch. She also used her time in Seoul to immerse herself in the South Korean fashion scene as best as she could. If only her sister-in-law, Do Hye Ji was in town, she would be the perfect companion to explore the city.

However, her oldest brother and wife were currently in New York, attending their hard-to-secure appointment with a world renown fertility doctor. She knew her brother and wife had been trying to conceive for the longest time. They were 8 years older than her, and now Hye Ji-unnie almost reached her 40, they were starting to get desperate.