Line 2

You were already a ghost before the message came through Line 2 southbound, Gangnam Station platform C, six forty-seven The woman beside me checks Naver the man behind checks his Samsung nobody checks for you the escalator keeps its tempo down down down to the concourse and I am standing in the middle of it moving because the city requires moving not because I know what I'm doing not because you're The notification dropped like a stone through every floor of everything I knew KakaoTalk, a name I hadn't screenshotted thinking there was still time to thinking we had until at least You were already a ghost before the message came through the arpeggios keep climbing the train doors keep deciding open shut open shut you never told me you never told me where you were going at six forty-seven you were already a ghost and the train kept running the train kept running south I count the stops on the orange line I count the things you still had pending a library book at Sinchon branch a dentist you kept rescheduling a chat thread with a triple dot that held its breath and held it I stare at the door's reflection my face does the thing faces do when they're deciding whether to collapse or take the escalator like a person would like someone moving through a city with a reason The notification dropped like a stone through every floor of everything I knew KakaoTalk, a name I hadn't screenshotted thinking there was still time thinking we had— You were already a ghost before the message came through the arpeggios keep climbing the train doors keep deciding open shut open shut you never told me you never told me where you were going at six forty-seven you were already a ghost and the train kept running the train kept running south Six forty-seven PM Gangnam Station, Line 2, carriage four the woman beside you checked Naver the man behind you checked his Samsung the city administered its usual indifference and the train made no announcement about the body at Teheran-ro about the intersection that opened like a question about the name that was already a ghost before the message before I even— You were already a ghost before the message came through the arpeggios keep climbing the train doors keep deciding open shut open shut you never told me you never told me where you were going at six forty-seven South, south, south the city requires motion I am complying south