“Hello!” A male voice shattered the silence that was previously hanging over the warm Monday morning. I turned to face the good Samaritan which was a fairly young boy, maybe close to his early twenties. He wore an engaging smile and his white pearls for teeth glistened in the brilliant light radiating from the vibrant sun. The white tee shirt and black sweat shorts popped against his white porcelain-like skin, the minute brown freckles were stark against his skin tone and his short midnight straight hair accentuated his small face.

“Hi-“ I choked on my response due to the mount of surprises I had been receiving since our-my family’s and I, first day of being residents in  Seoul Leigh Heights. I never, even thought him, I presumed, a neighbour, would oblige me the honour of saying hello because where I was coming from, the people back then hated my guts, for no apparent reason. I mean I was not exceptionally intelligent, undeniably beautiful or even filthy rich. My family were mere commoners, striving for the utmost best and they all tried to hinder our ambitions. Their hold on us became overbearing and our last resort of ridding them from our lives was to move anyway. So it was relieving to see  him greet me. It gave me the hope for a new beginning.

His smile widened, making his way over the front steps of my new home.

“Welcome to the neighbourhood. I’m Yang Yoseob and I hope you enjoy it here.”

“Thanks!” I said, almost crying it out, just astonished by his profound courtesy. “I’m Min ChanHi, nice to meet you.” I extended my hand to shake his. My small hand against his soft, supple palm all in one word; sweet. I smiled awkwardly as he gazed down at the numerous filled boxes on the front lawn. My parents were across the street becoming acquainted with the neighbours and busily texting away was my sister, Suji. I bent down to lift up a box and I sensed Yoseob shift uneasily behind.

“Do you mind if I help?” He offered, squinting his black pearls, almost to the extent of disappearing off his  youthful face.

“Huh?”

“Let me help you.” He said as if it was his duty to help and there was no refusing it. I nodded and he chuckled lightly somehow to my delight and proceeded to lift up a box. I looked on at him and began to descend the steps and kissed the ground with a loud thud. Which caused a sharp pain to ripple in my left knee. How could I have not noticed that my laces were untied? He rushed over and cradled me in his arms, his skin against mine. I flinched a bit when my skin made contact with his. I never liked being touch from as long as I could remember and I would always jerk away from others but his touch was different, more subtle and welcoming.

“Oh My gosh!” He exclaimed, probing my face.

“What? What is it?” I asked, embarrassed. I didn’t want to be bruised and smothered in red streaks before my male neighbour, not even one as handsome as him on the first day. That was not at all impressive. Just imagine how traumatizing that would be. “What?” I asked him again, my voice an octave lower as I looked in his piercing black eyes as he hovered above me.

“You’re beautiful.”

***

The darkness engulfed me in my bedroom at 1:21am to be exact. The only sounds audible were the faint snoring of my parents travelling from their bedroom adjacent to mine and the droning of my ceiling fan as it oscillated. My fingers twitched uneasily for about the millionth time since day. My whole body shook with nervousness. I couldn’t adapt to moving into a new neighbourhood so quickly like my parents and my sister. And for one, I wasn’t as smart as them, and the way the other neighbours looked at us, with scorn and contempt conveyed the feeling that we were not welcomed here. Well, we didn’t move here by illegal means; we were offered a place. The bed groaned as I tossed feverishly to achieve a comfortable position in order to get a good night’s rest for my first day of College tomorrow. Then I imagined how I would be received. Would they glare at me like the other neighbours because my family didn’t own a car or even, rightfully owned a house or that we didn’t match up to their social standards? As my exhausted mind drifted off to the many possibilities of being rejected on the first day of collage, the image of Yoseob leaning before my face, telling me that I was beautiful, made it even harder to sleep. No one of the opposite ever told me that before and his telling me made it even harder to believe. I, for one never considered looks, I didn’t dwell on the matter like other girls who berated themselves for being ugly, the living filthy scum on earth and pooling all their allowances in makeup. But those girls were beautiful and I wasn’t even an inch close to being in their league. Not that I thought I was ugly but I was preoccupied with issues like turning in my assignments on time and preparing for weekly assessments. And that was how I was branded as a ‘Nerd!’. Yes, exclamation mark, because they - the means kid from by previous school, would never fail to holler it each time we came in contact. A tear trickled down my face due to the haunting memories from the past, swarmed my mine, as I lay alone in solitude. “It won’t be the same I promise.”,muffling the sniffles in my tear stained pillow.

***

“Morning Oppa! Morning Omma!” I greeted as I took a big slurp of my hot chocolate milk. They all looked at me with wide eyes and then exchanged surprised glances at each other as if they were trying to communicate without words. Suji, as usual was pummelling the buttons on her poor phone as she tried to text, I guessed about four people simultaneously. Like the last time we were cleaning the bird cages and her fingers tips burned bright red when she tried to text over five people at the same time. Omma retrieved a brown paper bag from the refrigerator and a bottle of milk and placed them before me on the counter.

“Hi, dear! That’s your lunch today.” She said then motioned to Suji to take her legs off the serving counter. “Did you sleep well last night?” she asked, her voice sounding excited, taking a seat across from the table. She positioned her chin in the palm of her hand and her eyes beamed as if she were about to hear a knock-your-shocks-off story from my response. I’ve never really seen her that ecstatic before.

“I slept well, thanks.” I didn’t know why I lied to her but it just seemed like it was the right thing to do since, she was the one to apply for the scholarship that I was awarded and I didn’t want to appear glum and as a burden as opposed to how she looked. And I was one of the main reasons we were dwelling in Seoul Leigh Heights.

“That’s great, dear.” Oppa said when he lowered the newspaper from his face. “Very great.” Agreed Omma, with a blinding grin on her face. Her face was as bright as when the moon’s silver light fell on the deepest pits on a mountain on a dark night. The slight wrinkles etched around her eyes curved in smiles almost as wide as the smile on her thin lips.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah can we please get on with this?” Suji mumbled angrily under her breath, her eyes still fixed on the device compressed within the tight hold of her fingers.

“Remember Chanhi  that there’s no school bus within this area so you have to walk briskly if you want to reach on time and also Suji will be on the far right hand side of campus and you’re to walk home together,  never alone.” Omma recited for the tenth time.

“Chanji, let’s go!” Suji slung her bag over her shoulder and waved absentmindedly to Omma and Oppa and slipped through the door, slamming it with a loud bang that shook the silverware that hung on the kitchen walls. I kissed them goodbye and ran after Suji, who was power walking, roughly 20 yards ahead of me.

“Hey wait up!”

‘What?!” she hissed when I caught up with her, few droplets of saliva sprayed into my face as I jumped in fright. Her face burned fuscia, her lips twitched and her forehead wrinkled the same look she wore the last time I accidentally got paint all over her favourite lucky t-shirt.

“Why are you walking so fast? Omma said we’re to walk together.” My voice timid as I hid behind a bravado by daring to look in her seething eyes that I thought were about to singe mine.

“Omma this, Omma that, will you ever grow up?!” she whirled around and continue to trek ahead. What did she mean by that?

She stomped a few steps, whipped around and sneered “Stay away! If it wasn’t for you and your talented , I wouldn’t have to be here. So just stay out of my way and maybe we can get along.”

 I was still stunned by what she said first. Didn’t she love Omma too? Why all of a sudden was she being so mean to me, like the other kids? I thought I had enough warding off those kids during school but I still had to put up with it at home. Those words “If it wasn’t for you” stung like I’ve been buried in a hole with scurrying black scorpions. It was obvious that she was still sore about moving away from her boyfriend. It was no use apologizing to her now, that she was about a mile ahead, not that I even did anything wrong. I couldn’t fathom why I was the one to blame. She deserved to be here just as I much as I did. She’d gotten a scholarship too. I flicked away a tear that was about to fall and exhaled deeply.

“It won’t be the same I promise.” It was a lot harder believing it that saying it.

***

Seoul Leigh School of the Arts was exactly as I expected: large buildings that towered up to the vast blue sky, lush carpets of grass that paralleled walk pavements, colourful flowers that blossomed from the abundant trees that were situated on the various lawns. Not to mention the captivating murals painted on the walls, most likely by students. As I stepped through the entrance I was immediately greeted by the magnificent creations done by students, including the melodic and angelic voices that floated in serene air and the harmonious music that sounded from many rooms. Everything that was happening coalesced to produce a warm environment in which I thought I could feel safe starting anew. My lungs expanded as I took a very deep breath, revelling the beginning of a new stage in my life.

“It won’t be the same I promise.”

***

“The younger of the commoner sisters has arrived President.”

She withdrew the spectacles from her mildly wrinkled face with minute reluctance and casted her attention on her newly hired messenger, who was sweating profusely like he had just completed a cross country marathon. A smile twitched at the ends of her lips as she digested the news. She lifted the hot cocoa to her cherry coated thick lips and took a sip; the warm beverage heated her dry tongue. As she took the cup from her lips, her face broke into a half smile half smirk as she envisioned her plan unfolding before her very eyes.

“Good.” she said but not in a delighted tone. “Very good indeed.”

**********************

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