Go Yeongeun hadn’t celebrated her birthday in recent years. She got calls from former classmates and colleagues: generic messages of well wishes and happiness, usually a copy-paste slogan written by AI. A pre-scheduled text, programmed to deliver on the day of her birth. Even Daydream, the supposedly magnanimous company that it was, had nothing more than a computer delivered message for the employees who survived to their next birthday.
She supposed that was the magnanimity already. Most places wouldn’t have bothered to acknowledge such dates at all, especially professional workspaces. There were enough people who didn’t want to acknowledge growing older, which felt like a strange thought to her.
Shouldn’t someone be proud of having survived another year?
Perhaps it was her cynicism showing, or the fact that her work revolved around people dying almost on the daily, but Go Yeongeun felt people should take pride in being a year older.
She wanted to take pride in being a year older.
Huddled in her government-assigned room in her goverment-assigned housing, Go Yeongeun carefully lit a candle for herself atop the tiny convenience store cupcake.
The Disaster Management Bureau were much kinder than Daydream was, but they too tried to ignore the topic of birthdays. For many of them, it was another year without having found missing friends and family, and it was rude to bring that up.
Go Yeongeun didn’t mind. She didn’t expect anything different.
It was just…
Another year of regrets, but another year closer to reconciling with her family.
“Happy birthday to me,” she whispered in sing-song as the candle flame danced to her breath, “happy birthday, Go Yeongeun. You made it. You’re alive.”
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Goral Event - Another Year Older
She supposed that was the magnanimity already. Most places wouldn’t have bothered to acknowledge such dates at all, especially professional workspaces. There were enough people who didn’t want to acknowledge growing older, which felt like a strange thought to her.
Shouldn’t someone be proud of having survived another year?
Perhaps it was her cynicism showing, or the fact that her work revolved around people dying almost on the daily, but Go Yeongeun felt people should take pride in being a year older.
She wanted to take pride in being a year older.
Huddled in her government-assigned room in her goverment-assigned housing, Go Yeongeun carefully lit a candle for herself atop the tiny convenience store cupcake.
The Disaster Management Bureau were much kinder than Daydream was, but they too tried to ignore the topic of birthdays. For many of them, it was another year without having found missing friends and family, and it was rude to bring that up.
Go Yeongeun didn’t mind. She didn’t expect anything different.
It was just…
Another year of regrets, but another year closer to reconciling with her family.
“Happy birthday to me,” she whispered in sing-song as the candle flame danced to her breath, “happy birthday, Go Yeongeun. You made it. You’re alive.”