The moment she heard the first note of the music, Haneul reached her hand out. She had forgotten to turn off the alarm.

It was 9 in the morning. She blocked the speaker part of the phone and looked at her husband lying down next to her. His eyes were twitching as he rolled around in bed.

She turned off the alarm and left the bed. She had turned on the heater for about two hours throughout the night, but there was a chill in the room. Winter sure was winter.

She took out some slippers from under the bed and put her feet inside. They were something that she only wore during the winter. Her feet were freezing like they were dipped in ice water.

She twitched her toes in a daze while sitting on the bed before turning on the heater. Then, she put on the old sweater that she put on the chair of her makeup desk and went out to the living room.

She yawned softly as she opened both the refrigerator and the freezer. She took out the portioned brown rice from the freezer, and eggs, broccoli, and bell peppers from the refrigerator. She microwaved the brown rice and placed a fried egg on top of it before sprinkling some sesame oil and soy sauce. This was the best combination when there was no soup to eat with the rice.

She placed some vegetables on a small plate and headed to the sofa. She took out her feet from the slippers to place them on the sofa...