As she hurried out of the restaurant, she bumped into someone near the exit. She mumbled an apology without looking up and rushed into the night.
She felt a strange sense of relief as she walked home. She could almost hear her parents' disappointed sighs, but she knew she had made the right decision. She preferred her ordinary, messy life to a perfectly planned, soul-crushing existence.
She reached her small, cluttered room and collapsed on her bed. She scrolled through her phone, ignoring the messages from her mother and her best friend, Soo-jin, who was obsessed with all things K-pop. Soo-jin was a huge fan of Kim Seon Joo. Yomi shuddered. She couldn't understand the obsession.
As she drifted off to sleep, she vaguely registered that Kim Seon Joo was holding a concert series that coming week. Soo-jin had been begging her to go, but Yomi had steadfastly refused. She had no interest in screaming fans and manufactured pop songs. She had her own world to worry about.