good morning|pjy ✔️

XVIII. at least you still look good

Junghee sighed as she felt herself slip from the dream she couldn't quite remember into wakefulness. Thus far she'd had a restless night filled mainly with turning over in bed and trying to guess how much time had passed before she looked at the clock again. Finally, Junghee allowed herself to look at the time — 5:04 am. Deciding it was a somewhat acceptable time to start her day, she threw her feet over the side of her bed and stood on weak legs. The past few weeks had been relatively horrible, and even just waking up took much more effort than it should have.

Junghee winced at the pressure growing behind her eyes. The fan in the corner of her room seemed to buzz a little louder as her vision grew black around the edges. Dang it, not this again. She rushed to the bathroom and hurriedly sat down on the toilet seat to keep from passing out and hitting her head. Once Junghee's mind cleared she slowly began getting ready for her day, beginning with a shower. Junghee sharply looked away from the mirror when she caught a glimpse of the patch over her eye; a daily reminder of what an idiot she was.

An hour later Junghee was sitting on a bar stool in the kitchen eating a simple breakfast of an apple and some pretzels. Junghee never really had the energy in the morning to make something interesting to eat. Her phone buzzed in the pocket of her jeans and she lazily pulled it out the look at what the text said.

My Man <3: good morning! Idk if you're up yet, but I hope you slept well. I'm busy until 4 today, but I would love to see you tonight if possible

Baby Girl: I work until 5 but I can leave a little early and meet you at Starbucks?

My Man <3: You and your coffee lol ok that works

My Man <3: I love you ;)

Baby Girl: see you at Starbucks dork

Junghee sighed at the last text he'd sent. Somehow her boyfriend was already saying the L word, but she was nowhere near ready for that. In fact, Junghee wasn't even sure if she liked him that way. She and her boyfriend had been good friends for years and when he asked her on a date she said yes on impulse only to regret it approximately -5 seconds later, but she couldn't well take it back if she didn't want to hurt him.

The greige granite countertop felt cold beneath her cheek as she rested her head on it, staring at the stainless steel fridge a few feet from the island. The only noise in her lonely apartment was the faint drone of the fan in her room and a dog barking in the apartment directly above her. Deciding the bar stool was too uncomfortable, Junghee threw her apple core at the trash can by the fridge and went to sit lay on the white leather couch to find something on the TV at all worth watching. When she didn't come across anything that interested her she turned off the TV and brought her socked feet onto the couch. Junghee wiggled her toes in the fuzzy white socks.

At a glance around the room, she decided that she would have to add some color to the space. For some reason, her parents had chosen an apartment for her that was mainly white. The only non-white accents were the stainless steel appliances and countertop in the kitchen part, the single fake mini palm tree in the living room section, and the giant ocean painting on the wall beyond the sofa. All the white made her feel like she was in a mental hospital. Thankfully, her bedroom had lots of mahogany furniture to break up the hospital vibes. Closing her eyes, Junghee leaned back on the couch and soon found herself drifting into dreamland.

***

A loud bang on the door jerked Junghee from a dreamless sleep. Grumbling to no one in particular, Junghee drug herself to the mahogany door barring the interrupting piece of trash from entering her space. Whoa there, Junghee, not everyone is out to ruin your life, she reminded herself as she glanced over her shoulder at the clock on the stove. 6:42.