The week had been relentlessly exercise in endurance blurred of deadlines, and the sort of mental static that accumulates when it perpetually in motion. By this Saturday, before the afternoon hits, the fatigue was less a feeling and more a physical weight. That precisely why this lunch between I, Yihyun and my sister, Chaewon felt less likely an indulgence and more like an essentially cathartic reclamation of our time. ​Stepping into the restaurant, the contrast was immediate. The frantically highest frequencies hum of our respective workdays was replaced by the serendipitous melodic clatter of a mid-afternoon dining room. As we took our seats, the oppressive sense of "having to be somewhere" dissolved, leaving behind blank slate where we were free to simplest exist. ​When me and my sister finally stood to leave, the heavier static atmosphere that had been clinging to us since Monday had completely dissipated. We walked back out into the afternoon air feeling recalibrated, the sharply edges of the week smoothed over by the simple restorative act of being together. It was necessary intermission graceful pivot back to ourselves, and a reminder that no matter how demanding the landscape of the week becomes, this sanctuaries is always waiting.

Sorry, I’m too cute ᐢ..ᐢ