The Rumoured Sunrise

Final

The obsession is clear as Minsoo looks at the shops along the street. Rise & Shine Bakery with its signature bun oozing golden custard. The Rising Sun Motel with its warm orange lighting. And another one. The Sunrise Café. The East District is even more fascinated with that myth, Minsoo thinks. But what's a sunrise? Nobody really knows. It wouldn't have existed, not even in their imaginations, if not for that one lady from about a year ago. She told virtually everyone she met about the sunrise. The sun is a glowing ball of fire, she'd said, it lights up the whole place. It's golden orange, bright, warm, beautiful, and it's outside there. Where? Nobody knows. The lady passed away soon after she went around spreading the rumour. Some said her nonsense was just a sign of insanity. Sickness. She had skipped her regular health sessions for far too long, the authorities said. Minsoo doesn't really care. The myth is fun, but that's all it is. He's fine without a 'sunrise'.

---

Sungjoon is seated at his regular rest spot under a tree. It's chilly but he's only wearing his lab coat over dress shirt and trousers. Puffs of mist emerge from his mouth as he breathes. He can almost see the city of Taebaek. After taking one last deep breath, he gets up and turns back to face a large white dome just a short distance away. Recently, he thinks a lot about halting the project altogether. What dream? He mentally scoffs. We should have accepted it back then when it failed. As he heads back to the dome, Jinyi, also donned in a lab coat, exits its gates and walks towards him.

"Oh god, it's always such a nice temperature in there that I forgot it could be this cold out," she says, shivering.

"Nice, you say, but we always escape out here."

She snickers. "At least we get to leave as we wish."

Sungjoon pauses. "Jinyi," he says, "You think this is screwed up too, right? Let's just stop. It's not too late, right?"

Jinyi walks forward, now backfacing Sungjoon. "We've already come so far," she says, "Dr. Park says we just need a year more at most."

Sungjoon finds his face creased into a frown as he sighs. He heads back into the dome.

---

Inside the dome, the high ceiling is clean and white as always. Minsoo looks at the row of shops on either side of the road. They're mostly grey or white rectangular boxes, identical in size, forming a row that stretches to a crossroad with other uniform rows of shops. Behind them are the tall white apartments where everyone in this district stays. The dark grey ones are the offices. He glances through the shop windows to see smiling people – dancing, reading the papers, chatting.

Despite being tucked between a gaming shop with a metallic box exterior and a dental clinic with a pure white tiled exterior, The Sunrise Café tries to be warm. The ceramic exterior is repainted a pastel shade of yellow. And on the inside, it is furnished with brown chairs and cream porcelain crockery, complemented by diffused orange lighting. Minsoo just wants a coffee.

"One iced Americano please."

"Sure," the cashier says but then does a second take. "Hey, wait."

She pauses and stares at him. He frowns at his reflection in her widened, round eyes.

"I know you," she finally says, her voice soft and drawn-out.

Minsoo chuckles incredulously. "You've gotten the wrong person, Miss."

"No, really! I've seen you in my dreams!" she blurts out.

Minsoo begins scanning the café for some help. He silently curses that there are only two customers who are already seated down enjoying their food and no other employees in sight.