He barely managed to open his eyes at the sound of the alarm. He looked at his phone with sleepy eyes before standing up. It was 5 a.m. The sun wasn’t even up. He walked to the bathroom with faltering steps. He could see terrible dark patches under his eyes.

How much time did he have to invest in order to change this living pattern? Maru lamented at the thought of his own body adapting to sleeping late at night and waking up at noon as he washed his face. He put on the suit he took out yesterday and put a set of casual clothes in a bag before leaving his house. He was planning to have breakfast at the train station.

He walked under the air of early dawn and got on the bus. Everyone was looking outside in a daze. It didn’t seem to be just him who felt that the shaking of the coach was like the shaking of a cradle, as many of them had their eyes closed.

The coach arrived at Suwon station. He bought some toast in front of the station and caught a train. From his estimations, he judged that he would have 20 minutes left by the time he arrived at Yeoido station.

The purple skies became faint. He could see the sun rising in the distance above the Han river.

He pushed himself out of the crowd and left the...