She tucked a loose strand of her hair behind her ear – this strand, this particular strand always gets in the way of her work. She scrunched her forehead into a wrinkle of lines, it was just so damn hard to think in the early hours of the morning when all she wanted to do was to crawl back into the warm, soft bed. Her hair in a sleep-in bun (which explains all the flyaways), her oversized grey shirt hanging just about right over her pale shoulders which she wears for three days in a row just because she feels it’s clean enough, and her white lace socks – the only real favourite thing she loved putting on because it always reminded her of her grandma’s nimble fingers and the gifts that will come in time when the weather gets too cold to sleep with feet. Tap, tap, tap, her wooden pencil goes on her head and half groggily she scribbles away the remaining of her essay.

‘Shin Hye ah,’ the knock comes at 8am in the morning – ‘Always, always so on time’ she mumbled under her breath as she struggled to slip into her Converse without bothering to untie / retie the shoelaces.

‘Why do shoes come with laces? Aren’t sneakers supposed to be handily convenient? And how is that supposed to be when I have to take an extra half a minute to tie those white strings that never seem to want to be tied?’ She half shouted as she closed the door behind, grappling with the keys in her too-big purse.

‘Well good morning to you too,’ Jong Suk replied cheerily – which always seemed easy to be compared to the grump he was always with. He passed her a bottle of guava juice – freshly pressed with a just a quarter of strawberry, and of course that white teeth smile.

Shin Hye couldn’t help but smile back, it was definitely infectious? ‘How are you always so cheerful in the morning? And so on time?’

‘Ah you know just excited for life in general’ Jong Suk said without a bat, ‘and yes that includes school.’

He didn’t have to look at Shin Hye to know that she was already rolling her eyes to the back of her head as they reached the elevator. Their companionship has always been odd. Though always resposible for that same smile (that tries to be hidden) in the morning.