a little bit of black with a little bit of pink

The Perfect Sense, part 2

The smell of freshly grounded coffee beans had always been a favourite scent of Jennie's. It reminded her of Ulsan, the small town she grew up in after her parent's untimely passing. Due to its size, Ulsan was very secluded, only housing one high school, and one major shopping centre which became a novelty for most of the population, making it the busiest region in the entire town.

That never bothered Jennie when she was younger though, it meant she was able to save a fortune on transportation as she was able to walk or cycle to and from where she needed to be.

The beach was only a fifteen minute walk from Ulsan high, a popular recreational area for many students after a long day of school. The bay was a further ten minutes from the beach, home to the best fish and chip take away store Jennie had ever experienced.

If she walked in the opposite direction from Ulsan high, the shopping centre was only fifteen minutes away too, the second most popular area for students after school. Jennie ventured there more afternoon's than not in her sophomore through to senior years, consequence of becoming the town favourite barista.

It was something about Jennie's personality that people fell in love with within minutes, her ability to replicate the sun itself, her rays falling warmly upon everyone she encountered. It did help she was quite the clutz, and almost every shift she had a new story to tell her customers on how she almost broke the coffee machine or industrial dishwasher.

But it was never work that Jennie despised, in fact, it never really felt like work at all, apart from the cleaning duties, that was the worst part. Instead, working at Charlie's Corner, named after the owner of course, had been one of Jennie's favourite memories of Ulsan. She quickly became accustomed to the varying scents of coffee bean and tea leaves, and eventually it became a necessity more than anything to be around.

Jennie used to sneak home handfuls of coffee beans and tea leaves, then she'd leave them in small tupperware containers to retain their scent, with each container housing a different kind of scent or flavour. When her employer found out, he docked Jennie's pay of course, but that was least concerning to Jennie.

Her employment as a barista was her first ever experience in the working industry, and it wasn't surprising that the memories had become very sentimental for Jennie, specifically whenever she went to Seoul's more higher end cafe's with their exquisite coffee beans. The smell alone was enough to catapult Jennie back into some of the best memories of her life.

That was another thing that struck Jennie though, never again would she be able to see the town in which she grew up in. Never again would she be able to see her adoptive parent's home, the faces of the people she knew, the white expanse of the beach, the café she worked in, or the high school she attended. All that was left were the memories of those places.

Jennie had memorised Ulsan like the back of her hand, but even that would change over the years, becoming more pale, wrinkled and dry, and Jennie would never witness it, she would never witness anything anymore.

The doctors had told her as much, that the smell or sounds of certain things may become triggering to Jennie, stimulating nostalgic memories buried deep inside her mind. They had been right of course, almost every day Jennie's remaining senses encountered something which would trigger a time or memory before Jennie lost her sight.

It was a mindset she battled each day, with each day in the darkness becoming harder than the last. Just like she predicted, the doctors had the same news this time that they'd given her the past few years, "we're sorry, but there's been no improvement."

Jennie wanted to retort something like, "well no shit, doc!" or "obviously, I'm still blind," or even better, "yes, I can see that." She refrained from doing so, as the entire session was documented and sent to her adoptive parents back in Ulsan. Last time Jennie tried something like that, she received an earful from Seohyun over the phone.