Somewhere above this sky, has the ambiguous colour of summer Iris, swirl galaxies of brilliant stars slowly began to fade. A fine day had come as the opening of a fully charged Sony alpha standing in front of the living room's couch, as well as the lid of its lense. Another story will be ahead one that promised joy and happiness.
And there was Jihyo, directing Chaeyoung how to operate the camera while Sana and Momo were having a quick scan of today's content outline. Chaeyoung, who's in her usual tracksuit, color purple today, seemed to grasp everything now. The confidence starts burning her hands that badly want to record now.
"I'm telling you it's gonna be better if Chaeyoung joins us." Momo tried once more. Sana almost crumpled the whole script paper just by hearing the sleep demon's name. That behavior was enough for Momo to stop trying even further.
"Alright, break the fight you two. Let's roll!" Jihyo told the two girls to sit on the couch. Each of them grabs their respective mics while Chaeyoung made sure no one will be out in the frame as she pans the camera at the three girls, wide shot.
"Hi! I'm Park Jihyo."
"Hey! It's me, Hirai Momo."
"I'm Minatozaki Sana."
"And welcome to our podcast!"
Chaeyoung does not know what podcast is but hearing the introduction somehow interests her. The voice of the team, Jihyo began consulting Sana and Momo's condition as of the moment. Of course, everyone looks great and energetic. Sana's bubbly side is all new to Chaeyoung's eyes. With that beaming smile on her face, rosy cheeks, pure eyes, Chaeyoung can tell how much Sana loves what she's doing. However, Sana just ignore her agitated feeling towards the camera person for this time because she doesn't want the negative feeling affect this passion of hers. What the viewers are seeing on their videos are the real them, especially Sana.
To continue, Jihyo, introduced a specific topic that they're going to tackle. So that's how podcasts work, Chaeyoung is currently learning about it.
"I'd like to ask everyone what's their most memorable college moment. Of course you can share more than one." And the host, Jihyo, leads the conversion by sharing her best memories like camping with co-film students, sharing a room with a random student from another department for her film activity and so much more. She kinda loves exploring new things as well as challenging ones such as filming in abandon places or do twenty four hours challenge on the streets and since she's already part of the creators house, she wanted to do those with her friends. The more, the merrier!
"How about Momo?" And Momo starts to share her stories. The most memorable for her was winning the second place at a local indie films awards in Japan. Sana even mentioned how she met Momo during the shoot. She was casted as one of the actors in that film and Momo also remembered that Sana just graduated highschool back then while she's in her sophomore year. They were young that time. The latter loves to travel and her goal was to treat her friends a nice vacation in Hawaii. There will be tons of exciting activities to vlog once they achieve it.
Lastly, it's Sana's turn. After tapping the mic and clearing her throat, she looked at the camera lense followed by an appealing greeting.
"Everyone knows I'm a college dropout so probably they expect that I don't have much to share." Sana uttered.
"But there is?" Asked by Jihyo to make the podcast more interactive.
"There is!" They chuckled together before Sana starts the story.
"It was from my freshman days. You know that qualification thingy at the end of the first semester so you can proceed to the next sem?" Sana tried to explain as well as remembering the exact details of that moment.
"Prerequisite?" Momo attempted to help her know the exact term.
"Yeah, I think something like that. Anyways, the prerequisite was making a documentary and I was assigned to document the dreams of Ulsan highschool students." The story is getting interesting.
"I admit I was very timid. Looking for students to interview makes me shake like hell! Then the most memorable moment for me was interviewing this girl student. She was recommended by the teachers there so I grabbed the chance. I remember it was exactly on the soccer field and I had to interview that student during their training so it was burning hot that time." Sana even described how that girl student came to her with a soccer ball around her arm, how tanned and dirty she was in her soccer dryfit shirt. Jihyo laughed when Sana told them that student was sweating hard during the interview.
"Then I asked that student what her dream is. I was expecting her to answer something related to soccer like a professional soccer or be a player of the national soccer team. I was intimidated by her look at first because she seemed quiet and cold but her answers redeemed the bad first impressions. That student said she wanted to try a remarkable thing even without a diploma. Then I asked her what is it and she said she wants to be a digital nomad who works anywhere but at the same time enjoying all the things in life. And knowing her dream, it changes my perspective. We have different opinions but for me, all these hard works dealing with professors, all these money on tuitions, are not fairly rewarding knowing that people nowadays are very intelligent. We can learn new things on our own. Basically, she was the reason I ignored the second semester requirements and dropped out of college." Sana's long story ended there.
"Oh so that's the real reason why you left college. What's her name? What do you think that Ulsan student is doing right now? Or where do you think she is right now?" Jihyo asked.
"Since I respected her for not telling her name, I didn't have the chance to know her. Then, she also had this quote left before we ended the interview. 'Strangers are just friends, they haven't met yet.' That line honestly makes sense and hit me so I believe that student is most likely a digital nomad now, walking on a foreign street with her new friends. That is also why I genuinely welcomed Jihyo when Momo introduced her to me even though I don't know about her back then. Look at us now." Jihyo and Momo could say, Sana's moment would be the highlight of this podcast.
Afterwards, the host did a nice outro before giving Chaeyoung the cue to press the save button. But there was a bit of a problem.
"Thank you for listening!" All of them bid their goodbyes.
"Chaeyoung?" A soft call from Jihyo who's asking her to stop recording. "Chaeyoung!" Jihyo doesn't have the choice but to use her mic. The camera operator seemed to fall asleep during the podcast and that call from Jihyo makes her jolt up on her place.
"Oh it's done." Chaeyoung escaped a long yawn and stretches her arms after.
"Yeah it's done and you didn't do your job properly." Another scolding session from Sana.
"It's because you didn't give her a chance to join us. If I were in her position, I'd feel bored as well." Momo just jokingly uttered.
"Yah! Stop defending her, she doesn't deserve it." From a bubbly cute girl, Sana altered to being grumpy again.
"Stop fighting you three! We had a great start, please don't ruin our good day." Luckily, this creators house has Jihyo who will mediate them.
•••
The night has fallen when Jihyo decided to look for Chaeyoung. She knew where to look for the other members; Sana editing in her room and if not, exercising on the roof top. Momo is definitely updating her journal in her room and if not, pulling Chaeyoung for a short talk. The second one is Momo's new routine because she has the liking for the newcomer. And Jihyo was right. Once she opened Momo's room door, the scene of Momo hugging Chaeyoung again was expected. The latter was struggling from pulling her face away from Momo's chests.
"Oh Ji! Look! My baby gave me this." Momo stood up to show the pink tracksuit that Chaeyoung gave her; already fitting it. The latter almost fell from the bed and complains about Momo's new endearment for her.
"You really love anything with color pink, Hirai Momo." Jihyo smiled before asking for something. "Can I borrow Chaeyoung for a while?"
"Aight! You don't have to tell your reasons. Just don't make a move on her, okay? She's already mine teehee!" Jihyo knows her friend was just joking so she immediately pull Chaeyoung out of the room.
They were not aware that someone's looking from afar. Sana saw that, the hug, the three of them. It annoys her so bad but when she saw Jihyo and Chaeyoung going out, she quickly gets inside of her room and pretended she's typing something on her keyboard to keep her busy. It's not too long when she heard few knocks on the door.
Sana was praying it's Jihyo or Momo but it wasn't. The presence of Chaeyoung in front of her room is not what she's expecting.
"Hey, Jihyo told me you'll be having a long night so she made you a coffee and asked me to bring it in your room." And Sana looked at the sleep demon's hands gripping on a tray with a hot cup of coffee on it. Sana had no choice but to accept it. If it was made by Chaeyoung, Sana would not hesitate to spill the coffee on her face.
"Please thank Jihyo for me." Sana said it with a straight face before shutting the door close with a full force but Chaeyoung stopped it by inserting her foot, causing it to crush. The latter has something more to say but she was too late. She screeched in pain and Sana didn't care as she successfully shuts the door once again.
"Eek... Rude." Chaeyoung leaves with a swollen ankle.
"What happened?" Jihyo noticed the way Chaeyoung walks.
"Ah nothing really, I just tripped." The other girl wasn't convinced at all.
"I told you it doesn't hurt." Chaeyoung couldn't believe she ended up sitting on Jihyo's office chair as the latter insisted on treating her ankle up.
"Yeah sure." Jihyo uttered before chuckling at Chaeyoung's distressed face. "Sana did this, no?" Jihyo knew which silence the girl in pain. "Well about her, sorry she-"
"She's not in her usual self today. Yeah, don't worry." Chaeyoung has this mental note that Sana is not in her usual self not just today, not just tomorrow, but also the day after tomorrow and so on and so forth. "And I have something to ask."
"Sure what is it?" Jihyo asked while massaging the younger's ankle.
"Do you feel like something's bothering you after hurting someone?" As a sleep demon, Chaeyoung seemed curious about human's feelings.
"That? Hmmm... Well, I do of course. It only means one thing, you feel guilty. That's why you overthink the wrong thing you did."
"Guilty? Is it a good thing though?"
"I think it is. Because now you know you have done something wrong and soon will take responsibility for it." Jihyo received a rough nod from Chaeyoung who later became quiet.
"By the way..." Chaeyoung instantly hummed when Jihyo spoke. A hint of pale pink starts appearing on the latter's cheeks.
"I like your purple tracksuit." Why did she suddenly said this? "Ah don't take it the other way. I'm just envious of Momo, you gave her your pink ones." She defended.
Chaeyoung on the other hand, had no idea what she was talking about at first. "Oh this? Yeah sure, I don't mind giving this." Chaeyoung points out the purple tracksuit she's wearing today.
That simple blush was the opening if spring blossoms, for it told of the opening of her heart.