5. Regrets

She trudged along to the far corners of the parking lot where she’d parked her car early morning.

It had rained all evening while she was inside the clothing shop, working tirelessly. Black Fridays became days before Black Friday, and her hours got longer, more demanding as the holiday season neared.

‘When did it rain so much?’ she thought.

After warming up her frozen hands with her scarce yet heavy breaths, she found herself staring at her wrinkled hands. Today was her 51st birthday.

And she was alone in her old Camry, andthe sky that engulfed her whole in sudden loneliness and exhaustion.

This was not who she was. She was only 25 yesterday.

She remembered the nights she stayed up reading her favorite American novelists and drinking coffee thinking she was rebellious and different from her peers in her small town.

Ko thought she’d escape from her tiny island of a town. She did indeed get out of that town she scoffed at in her youth. But now this large city had swallowed her whole, and she wasn’t herself anymore- just 26 years older.