The more I think about this the more I'm convinced she was at least having suicidal thoughts.
Coworker skipped work to travel to the sea, seemingly on impulse but very much an intentional and strange choice that specifically takes her far away from anyone whom she expects might recognize her.
She talks about how she feels misunderstood and like nothing she does helps or changes anything and how it's lead to her recently losing her girlfriend in what's implied to have been a rough breakup; basically her life sucks and she has no one who can understand her or help her cope with her negative feelings building up and no outlets for how she's feeling.
More abstractly, the large panel on page 16 as she talks about it is portraying the ocean not as something beautiful to admire but rather, a pitch black void that the character is walking towards alone, seemingly to be swallowed up by and disappear into as she talks about her life in the past tense.
Then she says it feels funny to be there "with someone" and how she wishes she'd met them sooner as if their relationship is only temporary and they don't both work in the same office on Monday morning.
Then she looks taken aback by Protag Lady confiding that she's glad to have skipped work and that meeting and spending time with coworker girl was worth it.
It's all "just" a bunch of vague implications that may just be imaginary adding up, but to me it reads very much like Coworker was depressed and seriously considering walking into the sea until she just so happened to run into Protag Lady who listens to her problems and unwittingly fills in the negative space in her life where she was spiraling from by caring about her and relating to her troubles.
last edited at Sep 18, 2025 5:44PM