3,284 words

Yeji woke up in the morning, feeling dizzy and sleepy. She sees something resembling a lollipop and eagerly begins to suck on it, only to come fully awake and realise what she is doing.

5,329 words

Everything they built comes to bloom in a single day. A newspaper feature. A shop full of strangers turned witnesses. A husband weeping behind a register that has never held so much. A rising moon over a small garden where two people sit and count what they've made together. And beneath it all, a whisper meant only for the child about to arrive: "Ready, kid? Mama's ready."