"Where are you?"

Jennie sighed and put her mobile phone back inside the pocket of her coat. Jennie could literally hear the obvious worried and persistent voice of her mother from that single three-worded message.

She looked around the "The Era" like how she always would every time she would step inside the premise of this old 70's diner and its somewhat depressing state and lacking ambiance. But even so, Jennie liked the place. Even if it wasn't her usual taste.

"Can I get you anything?" asked the waitress who was wearing a gray apron today, with grease all over the front,. The old woman was holding her pen and handy notebook, as soon as Jennie settled herself on her usual spot beside the glass window, at the farthest end of the rows of unmatched wooden tables and chairs inside the place.

"Someone who knows how to greet costumers properly, perhaps?" Jennie replied with a sass.

"Oh, it's you again, huh?" the waitress muttered carelessly in her usual grumpy and sour voice as soon as she looked up from her handy pocket notebook and recognized Jennie immediately.

Jennie had already formed a conclusion in her head that the old waitress was an old maid, who was suffering with personal issues against young women and perhaps everyone eversince the first day that Jennie had wandered into the senescent confines of the old diner.

"I'd like to have the usual," Jennie said casually and deliberately chose to ignore the fact that the waitress, yet again, raised a suspicious and rude brow to her, while the corners of the waitress' withered lips were twitching comically. As if she was mimicking Jennie's.

"Don't you get tired of getting the same coffee everyday, miss?" the waitress asked, curiosity and irritation was all over her wheezy voice. It was the first time that she asked Jennie a direct question, other than her usual costumary, infamous and definitely boring "can I get you anything" tagline.

Jennie shook her head slowly and said, "No?"

The waitress shrugged and said, "Well, just in case you haven't read the flyers yet, we also offer burgers and fries, steak and salad, and a discount if you're going to order the secret menu of the day."

Jennie shot a curious eye towards the waitress. She wasn't really in the mood for a conversation but curiosity got the better of her. Plus, it was something new—having a real conversation with the grumpy woman.

"And what would be your secret menu for today?" she curiously asked.

"Liver steak, smothered with onions, jalapeños and sour cream, with toasted bread and a hot cup of especially brewed coffee," the waitress answered with pride on her voice. "But don't go off telling everyone around about it. Else it's not a secret anymore, you see."

Jennie cringed her nose. The thought of a greasy liver was already upsetting enough.

"I'll have the usual, then. Besides, I don't need a discount," she said with a shrug, dismissing the offended waitress as she said so.

The old waitress looked like she was hit with a hammer on the head, the way she looked at Jennie like she was suffering from internal pain and internal battle about whether she woukd act on her offended feelings or just let it go. The former won.

"What's the point of coming everyday if you will just order a damn cup of coffee which you never even drink?" the waitress said, obviously struggling to keep her temper in checked before leaving Jennie alone. Immediately, as though she was intentionally denying Jennie the opportune to retaliate.

Jennie just rolled her eyes dramatically and took out her copy of Wuthering Heights from her bag, which she pre-ordered all the way from an old library in Europe. She wanted badly to acquire a used and hand-me-down, worn-out copy of the classic Emily Brontë masterpiece, after it was recommended to her. Even though she wasn't really up for reading. It's a good thing that her family name could pull out a few strings that she could use for her advantage.

She had always been a proud Kim. It was her birthright. Her identity. Her being a Kim would mean she could literally do everything and could have anything, whatever her heart would desire. Except that the most desired clamour of her heart right now was impossible to acquire, even if she was the heiress Kim.

It had been almost a year since she had lost her father. Her dad fought a long battle against cancer. And when the older Kim took his last breath, Jennie was holding on to his withered hands, wishing and praying to win against an already long lost battle. To stall the time. To spend a little more time before the goodbyes.

The thought of her late father still brought a ripple of pain on Jennie's heart. Whoever said that death was just the beginning was a liar. Because the demise of her father ended Jennie's delusion that being a Kim meant that she can have everything she wanted. And it wasn't even like she wanted a lot of things.

But before she would allow herself to tear apart and beat herself up all over again, she felt her mobile phone vibrated against the wool of her expensive coat. Jennie tried to ignore it bt the caller, it seemed, was persistent. Jennie reluctantly fished the piece of modern device from her pocket and started fiddling the screen with her fingers to make it come to life.

"When are you coming over, darling? They are looking for you."

It was her mother again. Patronizing her again. Dismissing the fact again that she wanted nothing to do with the people her mother meant. And by "they" her mom meant the board directors who were all too eager to vie for the highest position in the company—the position handed down to her by her late father, which she haven't considered accepting yet.

Hence, her mother was appointed the interim CEO, also according to her late father's last will. But the board directors and the stockholders, greedy and salacious as they all were, had been demanding nonstop for a private meeting with Jennie through her mom. To discuss the probabilities of taking away the chairmanship from her, in guise of wanting to talk about the welfare if the company.

Jennie sighed and started typing away on her screen.

"Please tell them to go back to their offices and do their job right, Mom, or I'll have them fired immediately. I won't be home until later," and reluctantly added "Love you," before she sent her message and tucked the device back to her pocket.

The ill-tempered waitress appeared and placed her cup of hot coffee in front of her just when Jennie decided to open the Wuthering Heights.

"Thanks," Jennie muttered and opened the page where a bookmark was placed.

And as per usual, the grumpy and gloomy waitress never said a word that would compliment a thank you. Like, a simple and timid "OK" or a forced "You're welcome" or maybe even a warm "Enjoy your coffee", if you're lucky.

Jennie rolled her eyes for the second time today and shook her head, smiling despite herself and opened the book on the page from where she left it yesterday. Where she was here on this same old and dingy diner, sitting on the same table beside the same glass window, inhaling the same stale smell of fries and burgers and the undeniably aromatic scent of brewed coffee.

A quite lengthy amount of minutes had passed by and Jennie was still pouring her head on Heathcliff and Catherine when the monotony of The Era was singlehandedly rippled by the entrance of an unusually tall woman. Who was clad in dark tight jeans, black leather jacket and a dark beanie was perched at the top of her blond head, which was obviously fake. Or maybe not? The blond was carrying a big, black-colored knapsack on her shoulder and holding her mobile phone on her one hand, while the other hand was tucked inside the side pocket of the leather jacket, walking casually and looking for a table. Jennie thought the woman looked cool and casual, as if she was strutting her stuff in a Parisian runway.

Except that she wasn't and her arrival had created an unnecessary commotion from the handful of people inside the diner, including the kitchen crew, whose heads were appearing on the kitchen windows, craning their necks to get a better view of the new arrival. Which was why Jennie immediately tore her eyes away from the book to fully observe the woman to fed her curiosity and the slight annoyance she was feeling all of a sudden, as to why every eyes of the people inside the old diner were looking at the new arrival with curiosity and open admiration.

Jennie didn't want to join their wonderment. Not that she was wondering. But her wondering took the best of her. Besides, who wouldn't be scandalized by the sight of a woman with a hair like that?, she reasoned out. Especially someone with a bright blond hair that was clearly contradicting the dimly and moody atmosphere of The Era. Her bright hair was like a tiny ray of sunshine peeking through the dark clouds, Jennie thought and surprised herself before she shook her head in one swift move to erase that metaphorical thought away.

The woman in blond hair chose to sit three tables away directly across Jennie, much to Jennie's dislike and displeasure. Which made Jennie decided to look away because it was not her business and interest to pry and observe the woman. Her business was on her book and why couldn't she fully comorehend what Nelly was talking about. And so she went back to the recluse of the worn-out and yellowish pages of her book in front of her. Although, Jennie had to admit to herself that it was harder than she thought to tear her eyes away from the stranger.

But the distraction namely the woman with blond hair was too much for Jennie's concentration to bear. She was too distracted that even the faint noise that the woman across her was making, such as the shuffling of her boots against the cold tiled floor or the tapping of her long fingers against the wooden table, was too noticeable and audible for Jennie that she decided to just gave up her reading. But was still pretending to still be reading, telling herself that she was being stupid a few times, so that she could have a perfect excuse to partially cover her face with her book while shooting furtive looks at the blond. Jennie had not been able to even stopped herself from raising an eyebrow when she heard the woman asking for a glass of chocolate milk from the grumpy waitress just so the blond wouldn't upset the old waitress.

"What a baby!" Jennie whispered to herself, tutting and fighting off a smirk that was about to crack from the corner of her mouth, because who in their right mind would order a chocolate milk in The Era?

After quite a few attempts of Jennie lowkey observing the blond stranger, Jennie finally gave up from her charade and resolved to observe the street life outside on the glass window beside her. Her mind was swarming with thoughts about the bleak moors of Yorkshire, the blond across her, her mom and the company and her dad, only to be distracted, yet again, by the annoying sound of a camera shutter.

The blond was apparently taking pictures all over the interior of the diner, including Jennie's cup of coffee. Which irated Jennie even further because what was so special about a cup of untouched coffee? And because she felt that her privacy was treaded upon by the shuttering shutterbug in front of her. So she hastily grabbed the book and hid her face behind it again.

And she was right to do so. Because she just caught the blond directly aiming the lens of the camera towards her direction. Good thing she decided to peep a little.

Jennie frowned and not hiding her displeasure. She had enough of people with cameras taking unwarranted pictures of her, disturbing her solitude and invading her privacy. Maybe the blond was just one of those annoying people who carry a camera with them all the time and fashioned themselves as anoying d harassing paparazzis, who would never mind invading someone else's privacy in exchange for a fair amount of money and a lifetime's worth of scandal and trauma. And The Era was her escape, her safe haven, her solitude no matter the absence of congeniality. Now, with the blond indiscreetly pointing the lens of the camera at her, Jennie didn't feel safe anymore.

So Jennie decided to glare at the blond who was still aiming the camera at her, obviously ignoring the fact that she was being glared at. Jennie put her bitch face on, something that would definitely scare the living daylights of their household staff and the people around her, to try to intimidate the blond. But the woman, unaffected and unperturbed, just smiled at Jennie apologetically and shrugged, as if telling Jennie that she did not mean any harm and that it was merely done for whatever sake other than invading Jennie's recluse.

Jennie thought she would respond with a shrug but decided against it. She wasn't feeling friendly today. Or any other day. So, instead, she glowered at the blond and then hid her face, once again, behind the book. Only to be distracted, for the third time, with an exuberant voice of yet another new arrival of a woman with flaming red pinkish hair and an air of a rockstar. What's up with these women with vivid-colored hairs invading The Era today? Had the world gone madder than it already was?

"Lisa! Oh my god! I'm so sorry I made you wait!" Jennie heard the redhead exclaimed.

The blond then turned around and pulled the redhead beside her, Jennie observed by peeping from behind the book. There was a bright smile on the blond's face that exuded an amount of megawatt energy that could brighten the whole county, if she wanted to.

"Lisa, huh?" Jennie muttered to herself as she was listening, but not a little too intently, trying to catch every word being exchange.

Eavesdropping was never her thing, and it was so uncharacteristic of her. But the excited exchange of conversation between the blond and the redhead from across the room and their exchanged of tight hugs, I miss you's and unabashed laughters had made Jennie, for the first time in a long while, felt lonely. That it made her silently wishing to be anywhere else other than in front of the two women who were playfully calling each other Chipmunk and Shutterbug, providing an amount of life to the gloomy state of The Era. It was excruciatingly beautiful.

Her phone, meanwhile, was vibrating, yet again, against the garment of her coat. Jennie took it out and smiled after she saw the name of the caller being registered on the screen of her device. The universe must have heard her prayers.

"JENNIE RUBY JANE KIM. YOU BETTER TELL ME YOU'RE ALIVE AND SAFE AND READING A BOOK OVER A CUP IF COFFEE SOMEWHERE RIGHT NOW OR ELSE I SWEARTO GOD I WILL PERSONALLY MURDER YOU IN YOUR SLEEP!"

Jennie cringed and pulled the device away from her ear before her eardrum would split open.

The woman from the other line was obviously livid and seething that Jennie could imagine the furious gkares and the flaring nostrils working.

"You're worst than my mother, Chu. At least she had never threatened to kill me when she's worried sick about my whereabouts!" Jennie said calmly.

"She asked me to call you, by the way," Jisoo answered back in her usual jolly voice, as though she wasn't yelling just a moment ago. "I'm just trying to relay her message."

"Did she ask you to yell at me like that, too?" Jennie asked.

"No. But she was yelling at me. I had to give back the pleasure," Jisoo answered with a chuckle. "So, what's up?"

"She's just worried about the chairmanship, Chu. Which I seriously don't give a damn about right now," said Jennie. "Anyway, hey! Can you pick me up? I definitely need an upper right now."

She heared Jisoo snorted on the other line.

"So, what troubles you this time, princess Jendeukie?" Jisoo asked, obviously mocking her.

Jennie couldn't help but stifle a smile. Jisoo knew her too well. And only Jisoo was allowed to call her a "Jendeukie" and the only person in the world that could mock her.

"Nothing new," Jennie lied to deny Jisoo from asking more questions. "So, will you come and pick me up?"

"Sure thing. Where are you?"

"You know where to find me, Chu," Jennie said and allowed herself to steal a glance towards the two women sitting from across, only to discover that the tall blond was already staring at her with curiosity on her big round eyes.

And for the first time in Jennie Kim's life, she literally heard the loud and frantic beating of her heart against her chest, after what it felt like it took a plunge downwards.

What the hell, J!, She screamed internally after she tore her gaze away from the big, round eyes that was curiously staring at her. Her blood was pulsating loudly on her both ears.

Jennie was pervently hoping that she wasn't blushing hard because that would be un-Jennie-like. And because she could still feel the gaze of the blond burning on her skin. It was itching and prickling, like miniscule needles stabbing her skin, waking her up from a long sleep, reminding her what it felt like to be alive.

It was unnerving.