Diana-Huang

Depressed, Hyun-Ki packed her bags, loaded the mini-van and drove away from her parent’s home.  The long scenic coastline drive south was to help out at her uncle’s super busy(her fault) tofu soup shop for the summer. She sighed while piling dozens of dirty dishes into a plastic bin on a cleaning cart and wiped down tables. Xenon, STModL’s peppy new summer song, played over the shop’s speakers. It reminded Hyun-Ki of her failure to secure an internship with them or the dozens of other Seoul based companies she applied to.  Two weeks into summer break and no one e-mailed, texted, or snail-mailed her back about internships or even part-time job openings. Panic was creeping into her as an internship is considered an important foot-in-the-door step to enter an industry.  Hyun-Ki feared her career was jinxed, doomed to fail from the start.  It was a slow Monday morning. Laying on a bamboo mat on the floor above uncle’s tofu soup shop she stared at the ceiling fan spinning above and thought

Monday morning Hyun-Ki got a text message while in bed reminding her of the career fair happening on campus that week. The roommate was still sleeping in the bed across from her after coming back from the restroom in the hallway. At her desk, a blue backpack rested on her chair. She filled it with a folder of resumes, a portfolio of print copies of her work, and a tablet loaded with her animation reel before heading out of her dorm room.  After picking up a bowl of hot dak-juk(rice porridge) and coffee from the cafeteria, she sat down at an empty table. Other girls from her dormitory sleepily joined her as she mixed in a small dish of kimchi reddening the scallion  topped white rice soaked in chicken broth and yellowed with a leaking egg. Quietly, they ate while some scrolled their phones.  “PosiTron has a new album coming out…” yawned out one of the young ladies.  “Take a look at this Hyun-Ki,” said another showing an online article about a relationship scandal involving Photon while

It was a blue sky sunny day when a scratched and dented dusty-white mini-van drove onto the 110 expressway’s cable-stayed Yeongjongdo bridge. A succession of two white towering elegant wishbones came into view as it drove across a long stretch of Gyeonggi Bay. Cargo vessels stacked high with colorful bricks with Korean, Japanese, and Chinese writing on them passed underneath as they came to and from the Yellow Sea. Road signage pointed directions to all pickup and drop-off points of 인천국제공항(Incheon International Airport). The mini-van pulled up to the curb for departing flights.  Hyun-Ki got out of the driver's seat as jumbo jets roared ten feet above her, giving the ground earthquake tremors as she walked around the van to assist her dad, mom, and little brother as they got out. She helped them haul luggage out onto the sidewalk. "Have fun in Ilbon(Japan)!” "You can still come you know? We can buy you a ticket right now,“ said her mom. "I really don't want to run off with so much to