[1] No Limit

Giya's walk home was bathed in a light orange from the encroaching dusk. People whizzed past on the wide sidewalk, in a hurry to their destinations, and as an unseeming individual occupied with her phone, she was no different.

"Giya!"

Her wrist is grabbed by someone behind her.

Her Taekwondo training screamed at her to yank hard and kick her assailant in the side, or maybe somewhere more painful, but the familiar voice that called her name made her hesitate.

"Ya Giya, is that you?"

She turns around, and meets Sho Han's eyes, bright in the light shadow from looking down at her. She tilts her head.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?"

His eyebrows raise. He lets out an incredulous huff, a confused smile tugging at his lips.

"Someone like you can forget your boyfriend of 2 years?"

Yeah, he was right. She couldn't.

Giya let her head loll back, closing her eyes and sighing with frustration.

'Yeah, that's not how to answer that.'

Time stops.

'I'll try again later.'

She starts to rise, and the world falls away into the snow white of the clouds, the silhouettes of distant skyscrapers stretching into the lines of the bathroom tiles. She opens her eyes slowly, drowsiness weighing them down.

Giya didn't want to get pruney, so the crash of shower water against ceramic filled the silence.

The pristine white bathroom was clinically lit by the single LED at the center of the ceiling.

'I'll never regret renting out this place with a bathtub,' she mused, feeling deeply refreshed from the lengthy bubble bath. She could float amidst the soapy sky and drift away from the stresses of the day...

... and into those of yesteryear.

What would Giya do if she met Sho again?

This problem remained without an answer.

There were too many variables with him. Just enough for her to be unable to keep track of.

Situation processing brought her comfort: it helped her break down actions, pick her words, and obtain the outcome she desired. However, this anomalous frustration was like an insurmountable wall.

With him, her answers just never seemed right.

Her thoughts followed her to bed, time passing as the ceiling kept her company.

She didn't want to check her phone; she wanted at least a few hours of sleep tonight.

She closed her eyes, deciding that issue could continue with the Giya of tomorrow.

As her breathing evened, she didn't even realise what day she was going to wake to.