Go StrongIndependentWoman Hayi is what she likes to call herself. From thesis to commission works, she's got it under control. But, there's one thing she can't control-Song Yuvin. How can someone so annoying exist in this world?
(For better reading...
Tuesday. 7:21 PM. The second day of the week but Hayi feels exhausted already. She removes her hair tie and fixes her hair. Looking around the still crowded library, an unusual sight for this hour, she lets out a sigh. Just like her, there are still many students working so hard to do their school workloads. "When did time go by so fast?" she murmurs to herself.
Hayi has been in the library since four o'clock this afternoon after her professor gave the whole period to go to the library. As a disciplined person, she took the opportunity to do her thesis paperwork. She was looking forward to being as productive until before her night shift later. However, here she is, stuck in the same sentence for the past hour.
"In the past, my works were mainly centered and inspired by the recollection of my youth, the unsteady flow of my emotions, and lastly, my raw and imperfect imagination." She reads the last complete sentence she has written down. "Currently, my work leans... towards..." She tries to continue, but there is nothing.
"Do you mind if I sit here?" someone asks out of nowhere. Hayi looks up and sees Seungwoo smiling at her. "Nope," she shortly responded and then went back to her work. She hears Seungwoo pulling the seat in front of her, but all her attention is on her laptop screen.
Currently, my work leans towards the current trends and... highlights my growth as an artist? Hayi writes unsurely. This should be a very simple topic. But here she is, having a hard time to come up with anything. She feels a wave of worry that she won't be able to find the right words. At this point, Hayi is already pulling her hair in agony.
"You're in your last semester, right?" Hayi hears Seungwoo's question. She looks up and remembers that she's sharing a table with someone. "Yes, I am." Hayi cooly answers as she fixes her and sits up straight.
Seungwoo seems like he doesn't mind her odd behavior earlier. "How is it going so far?" He asks. Hayi considers to give a composed answer to protect her image, but goes against it, knowing that she obviously looks extremely stressed right now. "Not quite well," she admits while closing her laptop. "I'm drowning with all the things I have to do," she then continues as she crosses her arms in front of her. "It's like I dug my own hole and fell right into it."
Sejin was probably right. She brought all of this stress upon herself when she chose to go with this kind of theme for her thesis. Seungwoo sees the look on her face. It shows how she's really worried about the result of her work.
"Take a break. Try to breathe in and breathe out." Seungwoo tries to support her. "I know," Hayi responds since she hears that all the time from her professors. Here is another professor, or a teacher's aide to be exact, saying the same thing.
"No! What I meant was for you to do it." Seungwoo says with a far too cheerful smile on his face. Hayi finds it weird that this is coming out from a teacher's aide. "Like this!" He continues as he shows her how to properly breathe like she doesn't know.
"You should probably stop hanging out with your friends. You're becoming annoying as well." Hayi tries to work her way out from doing the breathing exercises. "It's not annoying when I'm trying to help someone out." Seungwoo reasons and continues to persuade Hayi, "C'mon, breath in." Hayi has no choice but to go along with it.
They both did the breathing exercise for a few times. Hayi admits that it is calming but did not show it. "It wasn't that difficult, right?" Seungwoo asks her. "Yup." Hayi shortly answers while opening her laptop again.
"Seriously, it's just like how you can't continue painting without letting the first layer of paint to dry." Seungwoo states. He leans on the table and continues, "You should take it one step at a time. Resting is part of the progress too." He ends meaningfully.
Hayi allows Seungwoo's words to sink in, and realizes that he's correct. The reason why she isn't making any progress is that she's been pushing herself too much. That could be why her mind has been so messy. One layer of paint at a time, Hayi reminds herself.
"That metaphor surprisingly works. Thank you for that, and maybe for the breathing exercise as well." Hayi says, half-jokingly, in which Seungwoo responds with a friendly smile and says, "Yuvin's quite stressed today too... No, he's actually sad." Well, that surprises Hayi because Yuvin can be anything but sad. "That's new." She responded.
"I know... it's totally bizarre, but it's understandable why he is upset." He confirms the truth then took a deep breath before he continues, "He said that he might fail his Algebra class... again."
Hayi thinks that failing a subject is terrible, but she isn't surprised anymore knowing that it's Yuvin. She holds in her laugh as she imagines Yuvin struggling to solve a problem, just like how he always clumsily makes mistakes in their store inventory.
Seungwoo sees that she is holding in her smile. "You should learn to go with the flow and enjoy life too," he interrupts her thoughts. "Try to appreciate the things around you. But if you need help, I'm here and so is Yuvin." Seungwoo teasingly ends. Hayi glares at him, "Thank you but I'm doing fine by myself," she says.
Hayi checks the time sees that it's time to head to the convenience store for her midnight shift. "I have to go now." She says to Seungwoo as she packs her things. "Remember, what I said." he reminds her. Hayi isn't sure which part he was pertaining to, but she just nods her head and waves goodbye to Seungwoo.
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