PART ONE: TEENAGE DREAM

August 27th, 2011, Chicago, USA

1 am. Night had fallen long ago, brining silence, peace and dreams with it. Well, for most people. Even though the night was supposed to be in its darkest stage, it was as if the moon wasn’t allowing it. It was full and its brightness was stealing in through the windows. But it didn’t bother anyone. Everyone in the neighborhood was in their deep, sweet sleep. Light could be seen only through one window.

Emma Park knew that she should’ve gone to bed hours ago. Her mom made her clear that a tiring day and a long flight where awaiting them. She should be rested.

“Don’t you dare fall asleep with a book. That way I’ll know you stayed up late”, Lily Park told her daughter earlier that evening.

Emma had the habit to forget everything around her while reading: time, place, people. When she’d open a book, she would sink into the role of the protagonist and, from the first to the last page, live through every emotion he or she did: love, joy, sorrow, happiness, anger. She often fell asleep reading deep into the night, so the next day she would struggle with keeping her eyes open.

 However, despite the fact that she was in the process of reading a book named “Rage of Angels” by her favorite author Sidney Sheldon, the words written on the pages of that book weren’t what occupied the mind of the (almost) 17-year-old.

She sat down by the window and opened it. She closed her eyes and breathed in the fresh air. Every time a big change was happening in her life, she tended to think too much. Mom and dad had packed all of their stuff weeks ago. On the other side, Emma just couldn’t finish it. Every object she would take, would remind her of someone or something, and then she’d remember all the memories that came with it. The purple summer dress her beloved grandma Rose, her mom’s mom, bought her for her 15th birthday. The mug her best friend Rachel made for her, with their photo from Disneyland on it. The photo album and CD with her favorite songs Drew Montgomery made for her. Drew, who was her first and only boyfriend. Drew, who she was madly in love with. Drew, with whom she spent ten months. Drew, who left her for another girl.

She startled from her thoughts, after she felt the announcement of tears in her eyes. She didn’t want to think about that. Not anymore.

“You deserve something better, Em”, Rachel told her. “And you’ll find it.” But Emma’s plan was to stay as single as possible for as long as possible. Leaving her life completely behind, she will have to start over again. Improve the language, meet new friends, get to know the city. With all of that, a boy was the last thing she needed.

She remembered when her father, Sangjung Park, announced to her and her non-Asian mother that they would move to Seoul, six months ago. Neither she nor Lily were keen to the idea, but there was no discussion. “I’ve always been telling Lillian that he is going to take her away, sooner or later”, grandma Rose told Emma when she heard the news. “And you, my beautiful girl, take good care of yourself. In no time you will be surrounded by new friends and feel like home, I bet on that.”

Emma sighed. Despite being a half-Korean and knowing a bit of the language from her father, Emma had no more connections to that country, those people nor the culture. She would be a stranger in the land of her origins. She had always felt her father’s reservation for ‘this strange country’, how he called USA. She just didn’t understand how come that such a proud Korean married a white, blonde, green-eyed, all-American girl. Emma wasn’t lucky when it came to genetics. Her smile was the only thing she inherited from her mom. Everything else was her father’s. She was lucky h