Alyssa stepped into the arrival terminal and zipped up her jacket all the way up to her neck, only to smack her forehead with her palm when she realized that she had to take it off for the security check.

Her mother had somehow ended up in another queue, and Alyssa glanced around the airport, looking for differences.

There weren’t many, she realised, and the only two things that caught her eye were how the signs were printed in both English and Korean, and how the majority of the airport employees were of her race.

She wasn’t used to seeing this many Korean people in one place, and it gave her a slight feeling of patriotism.

So, this is my country. She thought with a small smile, her chain of thoughts broken as the airport official asked her to place her hand luggage, jacket and hand phone into the basket provided. 

Alyssa did so hastily, surprising herself with her smoothness when her phone didn’t drop after she squeezed it out of her jeans pocket.

Maybe she was getting less clumsy, she thought, until she turned and bumped straight into a plump, middle-aged lady.

“S-sorry!” Alyssa stammered, smoothing down her shirt and trying to smile apologetically when the lady glared at her. 

She walked away quickly, through the metal detector doors as well as the lady-official who checked her thoroughly with a hand-detector.

Like she would need to carry a weapon, she herself was enough to destroy the world.

Grabbing her stuff and slipping on her jacket in between shivers, Alyssa caught up with her mother and walked briskly towards the luggage collection belts.

They pushed past the lumbering crowds, why was almost everyone walking so slowly?

Alyssa yawned, nearly forgetting to cover he mouth with her hand.

Exhaustion was quickly overcoming her, and she couldn’t wait to reach their house and flop down into a bed.

“Tired, honey?” Her mother asked, and Alyssa shook her head energetically, because she knew her mother was probably even more tired than her.

“We’ll have to get a cab, right?” She asked, and her mother nodded, telling her to zip up her jacket before left the airport.

They stepped out, into the city, and Alyssa froze for a second as the full force of everything hit her.

The cold, the ambience, the hustle and bustle of activity, the random conversations in rapid Korean, and the street-side stalls selling authentic, mouth-watering food.

Her mother took a deep breath and smiled, and Alyssa could see the happiness dancing in her eyes.

“This is perfect, isn’t it?” Her mother exclaimed more than asked, and Alyssa nodded with open, still trying to take in her surroundings.

Before she knew it, her mother had flagged down a taxi and the driver got out immediately to help them load their luggage onto his vehicle.

They boarded the taxi which wasn’t too different from the ones from New York, but what went on inside the taxi, was.

Alyssa’s mother and the taxi driver both started talking in fast Korean, and the only part Alyssa could catch was when she told him where he had to go.

The rest of it was drowned in “Wah! America?” and “It’s not a big deal, home is always better.”, and Alyssa stayed silent in the back seat, watching, smelling, breathing Seoul.

-

It was supposedly an hour-long trip to their house, but to Alyssa it seemed much shorter and the surroundings zoomed past, her music blasting in her ears.

It seemed a lot more peaceful now that the background songs were all drowned out, and all she could see was the physical structures.

It was different from New York, very different, but Alyssa liked it.

Maybe change was what her life really needed, because she found herself taking a liking to everything that was different.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and jumped, but realized her mother was beckoning her to get out of the taxi now that they had reached and she had paid.

Alyssa got off, and summoning all her confidence, thanked the taxi driver in Korean for helping them with their luggage.

He gave her a big smile, realizing immediately that she hardly ever conversed in the language.

Once he had driven off, Alyssa and her mother dragged their luggage up to front steps of their house, and Alyssa took a good look at it.

It was really big, about twice the size of the one they had lived in at New York.

The colour scheme was completely different, and the thing that really struck her was the garden that practically surrounded the whole house.

Alyssa had never had a garden before, and as her mother unlocked the door and she ventured deeper into the house, she was stunned to see a small swimming pool at the back of the house.

“M-mum, this house is amazing…” Her words drained off as each new feature of the house blew her mind.

“I know dear,” her mother grinned, letting their luggage’s lean against the wall for the time being.

The older woman walked up beside Alyssa and admired the house.

It hadn’t lost any of it’s charms after all.

“We have a house like this, and we don’t live here? That doesn’t make any sense,” Alyssa murmured questioningly, and there was a thoughtful pause before her mother answered.

“You know the story, don’t you? Your father didn’t want to come back to Korea after studying because your grandfather wanted him to take over the family business instead of finding his own footing,” her mother smiled, “like he always says, what’s the point of such an elaborate education if he’s going to waste it ordering people around?”

Alyssa stared at her mother as she explained, but asked another question as soon as she finished talking.

“So, this house was just lying empty all these years? What a waste!”

“No, of course not! Your grandfather’s friend’s son’s family had been living here for almost a decade before they moved out to another place. Of course, they paid rent for it, I remember your grandfather always complaining about how awkward it was to collect rent from his best friend’s son!”

Alyssa laughed, just from hearing her mother speak about her grandfather.

She loved the man dearly, he was kind, stern, funny, and solemn all at the same time.

Her grandfather had been a primary influence in her upbringing, more than her father.

When he realised that his son wasn’t coming back to Korea until something really serious (like the recession that forced them back) happened, he packed his bags and dragged his wife along to New York for two whole years, as soon as he found out Alyssa’s mother was pregnant with her.

He knew his workaholic son well, he couldn’t leave his beloved daughter-in-law in his hands while she was in such a critical stage in her life.

Thus he and Alyssa’s grandmother, another person very dear to her heart, took care of her mother and her until she reached on year of age.

Even though they returned to Korea after that, they’d visit her in the states yearly, sometimes-even bi-annually, and other times, Alyssa would video-chat with her cool, technologically enabled grandparents.

She remembered how excited her grandfather had looked and sounded when she and her mother had broken the news to them that they’d be moving back to Korea, for good.

Her father would join them after about 6 months, right after he tidied up his work back in New York and was ready to start afresh in Seoul.

Her grandfather had made all the necessary preparations in the blink of an eye, and to everyone’s surprise, they even managed to convince them to sell their apartment and move into the big house with them.

This time, her grandfather had had no objections, and he and Alyssa’s grandmother would be with them in a week.

Alyssa smiled and twirled around, almost losing her footing in the process and steadying herself on the stairway railing.

“So, sweetheart, how do you like the place?” her mother asked, sitting down on the third step, letting her legs rest on the first.

Alyssa took a seat beside her. “I love it, mum. I feel like I’m home.”

Aww, thanks so much to everyone who commented and subscribed~! 

Hope you like this boring update which has no mention of B.A.P whatsoever. ):

I decided to use this chapter to just reveal a little more about Alyssa's background~ ^^