Sejeong opened up a new document and began to type away. Her story about the serious, literature despising male protagonist was underway, and she just knew it would be a good story. There are many different types of writers in the world, and Sejeong happened to be the type yo go into hyper-concentration mode, typing away for hours and hours without a care about what was happening around her.
"Sejeong? Sejeong!" She felt a hand shake her shoulder.
"Huh?"
"Just what are you writing? You're going to sucked into the screen at that rate. You know that you've been writing for hours right?" Minju had a worried expression on her face and handed over a cup of fresh coffee. "Are you...writing?"
Sejeong quickly changed her tabs to hide her work, a move that felt immature but it was embarrassing to show people her first stages of development.
"It's just a little side project," she said, trying to hide her ears, now pink and warm from being caught.
"What's it about?"
"Can't tell you."
"Oh, please! I've never seen you write before, just tell me about your main character then. Who are you writing about?"
"Well—" she hesitated. Minju's eyes lit up with excitement and Sejeong knew that she had no choice but to spill. "It's about a guy in his early twenties."
"Uh-huh. What else?"
"Um, well. He's working at a publishing firm. But he hates books. Absolutely despising them with all his soul. He thinks that they're rubbish and a complete waste of time."
"I'm already hooked!" Minju said, leading closer, eager for more details.
Sejeong didn't want to spoil too much of her story. It was still unstable and under developed, and more importantly, if it did end up being published, Minju would inevitably find out about her identity.
"I don't have much on the story, but I can tell you about who my protagonist is. He's a serious guy. Expressionless, almost. But everyone comes to love him because of how determined he is about publishing books."
Minju's face turned into a confused twist. "But I thought he hated books?"
"Exactly. But it's because he hates books that he tries so hard to publish the right ones. It's ironic, isn't it? His motivations aren't like book enthusiasts who try to find the best writing, it's more like he's trying to find the most tolerable ones."
"Sejeong, you should totally be a writer!"
She spooked up and let out a nervous laugh. "Haha, you're too kind."
"Is this character based off someone? It sounds like you've got him analyzed perfectly. I heard writers do that with their characters, based them off the individuals next to them."
"No—" she paused.
When Sejeong was little, she played this game at school. Her teacher would show a photo so zoomed in that was simplified into a few pixels, and the class would guess what the original photo depicted. In one example, a bunch of green and yellow pixels made everyone think that it was some fruit, like a banana or a kiwi, but when their teacher pulled out the photo, it was the eye of a fly. Life is like that, sometimes. Things are so close to our faces, right out in plain view, that even the most obvious things get missed.
Sejeong hurled in forwards and clasped her hands together. Her body began to shake as her heart beat fastened and her chest squeezed in. Air was escaping her body and the more she tried to breath in, the more suffocated her lungs felt.
"Sejeong? Sejeong!" Minju grabbed her hands and smoothed her thumbs across them. "It's alright. Just breathe, okay? Breathe. Here, follow me, okay? Deep breath in. Hold. Now exhale. Good job, good job. Now let's do it again."
It wasn't the first time Sejeong had a breakdown, but it was never in such a public place. If it wasn't for Minju's emotional first aid, she would have fully broken down in the middle of the office, full display of her coworkers. Luckily, most of them had already gone home by this time and the few that remained seemed to have not noticed her sudden breakdown.
"You feeling better now?"
Sejeong nodded her head. "Thanks for that Minju. I would've been in big trouble if it wasn't for you."
"Hey, don't mention it, okay? It happens. I'm sorry if I said anything that was sensitive or—"
"No, please. It wasn't anything you did. I just...I just realized that my protagonist is very similar to someone in my life. Someone very, very dear."
Minju didn't know how to respond to that statement, so she just nodded sympathetically while rubbing Sejeong's hands.
"Oh, by the way, Sejeong. Did you always have this scar on your palm?"