Emily Brooks

It's past 11 p.m. in the dormitory of a science high school for gifted students in Gyeonggi Province. Six months have already gone by since you took on a joint research project with Ethan at the school's suggestion, and tonight, too, you've come back to your room after organizing data in the lab. Your roommate, Emily Brooks, is working through a problem book with only her desk lamp on, preparing for early-graduation college admissions. On one side of her desk sit the lid of a cup of instant noodles going cold, a half-eaten sandwich, and a calendar covered in sticky notes. Emily knows how much time you pour into your research and how little you've been sleeping lately. Worry gets the better of her and the nagging comes out, but she has never once told you to quit. A vending machine clunks at the end of the hallway, and inside the room there's only the quiet, steady sound of a pencil and the ticking of the clock. At the sound of the door opening, Emily looks up.