Chapter One: Welcome to Korea, ladies!

The moment the plane touched down, I felt a hand settle on my shoulder, shaking me awake.

“Chantal, wake up. We’re here .”

Slowly, I opened my eyes, blinking a couple of times to let them adjust to the lights inside the cabin. I lifted my head to look at my friend, Shai. Her head was turned towards the window and I loomed over her shoulder to look out as well.

Out there, Incheon International Airport was slowly approached. Its lights seemed much brighter, as if there were a thousand unblinking eyes watching as the plane drove down the runway.

All traces of sleep left me, quickly being replaced with unconcealable excitement.

I felt a hand touch the top of my head, so I leaned back to see my three other friends, Liz, Eriza, and Rowan grinning down at me. Surely they shared the same feelings of thrill that I had.

My hand clenched around the passport I held, its edges digging into my palm as if telling me that, yes it wasn’t a dream. This was real.

We were finally in Korea.
 

---

As the five of us trudged towards the luggage belt, I pulled the hood of my sweater up, catching a few people’s attention. I heard someone giggling beside me and I turned my head and saw Liz eyeing the top of my head.

“What’s so funny Lizzy?” I asked, smiling at her lightly.

“Your hoodie Chantal.” She swallowed a giggle, but her wide eyes betrayed the mirth she was feeling.

I blinked my eyes at her playfully. “What about my hoodie?”

We came to a stop by the luggage belt, standing side by side as we waited for our things.

Rowan leaned over to look at us, squinting her eyes since she hadn’t put on her glasses yet. “What Liz means to say,” She said “Is that you look like an overgrown cat with the hood up.”

“I think I saw her pack more of those.” Eriza piped in as she reached over to grab her red suitcase.

“How many did you bring?” Shai asked as she playfully tugged at one of the cat ears. I swatted her hand away gently before grabbing my suitcase set, quickly followed by hers.

“Enough for everyone.” I answered as I pulled up the handle of my suitcase, making sure the other mini case was safely strapped on top.

“Did you bring the white rabbit one?” Liz asked before lunging for her stuff. Sighing when she got it out of the belt successfully. “That’s my favorite.”

“I still have the wolf hoodie you let me borrow in school.” Rowan said as she reached over for her suitcase, looking at the tag to make sure it was hers. “I packed it just in case. We all know how cold you get.”

“Right.” I grinned, seeing all our things were safe and intact. “Ready?”
A chorus of excited yesses answered and I nodded back at them, the excitement building up once again.

“Let’s go!”
 

---

Eriza and Liz lead the way towards the receiving area, while the rest of us walked behind them. I took in my surroundings, looking at all the people rushing by. Another smile crept up my lips at the thought of what was to come.

“A whole month in Korea!” I heard Eriza burst out suddenly. “ I still can’t believe it!”

“I can’t believe our parents actually let us.” I laughed, a tinge of wonder colouring my tone. “All because of making it to the Dean’s list. All those all nighters and caffeine overdoses seem worth it now.”

Liz turned around slightly, giving me a furious nod in agreement. “But to let us travel on our own?”

“Well most of us are of legal age anyway." Eriza slowed her pace so she was now walking beside me. “Shai’s the only baby left.”

“But her mom was the easiest to convince. I’m jealous.” Liz pouted, punching Shai’s arm playfully.

“That’s only cause she doesn’t really care if I’m gone or not.” Shai said in a joking tone, but after knowing each other for long, we could see right through her.

“Aw, don’t be like that Shai Shai.” I cooed, bumping my shoulder with hers. “You still have me! Mama bear!”

A laugh escaped her, her mood noticeably lightening.

"Besides," I hummed as we continued on. "Most of our allowances were earned through saving and taking part time jobs."

"It was a good plan." Eriza nodded in agreement.

“Hey look at that.” Liz said suddenly, catching our attention. We looked up to her pointing towards the receiving area, at what looked to be a large crowd. “What’s with all those people?”

“Those” people were mostly composed of young girls, some with signs held up and most with their phones out, pointed towards the gates.

"Rowan, Chantal, can you read what the signs say?” Shai asked as we paused a bit further away from the crowd.

“Wait, let me go get my glasses.” Rowan murmured before reaching inside her backpack for it.

I stared at the signs, but since the girls who held it were moving too much couldn’t make out the words properly. “Ugh it’s too late for this.” I grumbled. “My Korean lessons haven’t kicked in yet.”

“It’s only 5 PM here.” Liz told me incredulously before turning back to watch the growing crowd.

“But I wanted to go see Hongdae tonight.” I whined, stamping my feet impatiently. “Can’t we just go look for a shuttle to the hotel?”

“Give us a second.” Eriza shushed me, much to my disbelief. “It looks like someone important is arriving.”

I looked at my friends and to my annoyance, found all their attention fixed on the ongoing commotion.

I huffed, pushing my hood back and blowing a few strands of hair away from my face. “Fine.” I sulked, knowing I wouldn’t be able to force them. “You guys stay here and I’ll go look for the shuttles. You can thank me later.” I shook my head, before leaving them and heading further into the receiving area.

“Wait! Chantal-“ I didn’t hear the rest of Rowans’s sentence as I walked closer to the rambunctious crowd. I craned my head in all directions, looking for any signs that would lead to transport.

“Oppa! Oppa!” I heard one of the girls screech beside me. “It’s them!”

'I wonder who them is.' I thought as I glanced behind me quickly to see a large group of people approaching.

I shook my head, deciding to concentrate on my task. “Shuttles. Shuttles. Shuttles.” I muttered repeatedly, my eyes still wandering.

As the seconds ticked by, it seemed that the crowd got even louder. But one of my weird skills (as the girls like to point out) was to block things off when I was concentrating on a task. I hadn’t even noticed when the crowd turned deafening, because I finally saw what I had been looking for. A sign for shuttles.

“Finally!” I almost squealed in my relief, though I did jump up and down slightly in my excitement. 'Hongdae here I come!' I turned around, fully intent on finding my friends.

But what I didn’t intend was to bump into an extremely familiar face.

The person and I blinked at each other, both bewildered but for extremely different reasons. I barely managed to catch the gasps of outrage from most everyone around us.

It took me a while to get out of my state of shock and find my voice. And the first word that slipped past my trembling lips was the start of our adventures in South Korea and the end of normality as I knew it.

“Sehun?!”