School was finally out for the weekend. Thank God.  I hated waking up so early every morning. I have never been an early bird, ever. And I never will be. I climbed on the bus, eyes glued to the road searching for the fiery red Mustang. There it goes. I wonder who's it is. "Sorry sorry sorry sorry naega naega naega naega meonjeo~" MY PHONE. Unnie always does this. She has this way of calling at JUST the right time always ruining my train of thought. I answered. 

"YAH! Ri An! You never called me back yesterday." 

"Mianhae Unnie! Umma and Appa kept asking me to do chores, and I had homework already. Plus, I wanted to Skype with Jiwon Unnie in Seoul before I went to sleep!" I said. Jiwon Unnie is our close friend whom we grew up with since Grade 1. She's also Siwon oppa's sister. We've both known them growing up. 

"Jiwon Unnie? You skyped with her and didn't tell me!? I wanted to tell her about my new lab partner. He's an exchange student from China. His name's Han Geng. Which reminds me? What was the guy's name? In your math class?" Yoo Ra always complains when I talk to Jiwon and not her. 

"Kyuhyun. Cho Kyuhyun."

"Cho.. Kyuhyun?" 

“Ne Unnie, Yes. You heard right. Why?”

“Well! You didn’t even bother to tell me. So, I had to ask.” Yoo Ra answered me annoyed. Yoo Ra has this way of making me feel badly.  She’s right. I didn’t tell her, and we have a lot to tell each other.

“Unnie! Can we meet today? I want to see you. Tell me more about Han Geng, and I’ll tell you about Kyuhyun.”

Yoo Ra perked up immediately. “Yes! My house, an hour?” An hour gives me enough time to get my homework done.

“Ne Unnie! I’ll be there. Here’s my stop, I have to get off and go do my homework. See you in an hour!”

“Annyeong! Ri An.”

Bursting into my house, Appa was already home.

“Hi dad!” I called out, threw my things down, ran to my room, changed from my uniform, throwing on shorts and a t-shirt.  Hungry. Hmm. Hot pockets! Pizza kind. YES.  I threw a frozen hot pocket into the microwave. My parents complain that I’m becoming too American.  I don’t take Korean lunches to school, mostly because I feel like they put a burden on my mom to prepare, and she’s always up late.  I don’t speak as much Korean to my parents anymore, because they wanted me to speak English, so I’d get better at it.  But now that I’m quite fluent, even to the point of losing my Korean accent when I speak English, they complain that I don’t speak Korean to them anymore. Jiwon Unnie, Yoo Ra Unnie, and I though always speak Korean whenever we get together. Though I may do little things like eat hot pockets for snacks instead of stirrin’ up some egg fried rice, I’m still Korean at heart.  *beep beep beep* The microwave. My hot pockets are done!

Carrying it back to my room, I juggled it between my hands, trying not to burn myself.  “Appa! I’m going to Yoo Ra Unnie’s in an hour. Doing my homework now!” I called to him as I passed the family study/his office. “Alright. Work hard and be safe! Be home no later than 9!” He called without looking up from his paperwork.

“Yes Appa!” I climbed the stairs towards my room. Pink-filled, it was almost a princess room, but I was thinking of giving it a slight makeover. Maybe add some purple and blue in there since I WAS getting older.  Let’s get this math done.

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An hour later, I was on my bike toward Yoo Ra Unnie’s house. It was over the hill, about 1.5 miles away. So, it was like a 10-minute ride for me.  I rode up to the driveway, quickly got off and rang the doorbell.

“Ri An! Come in, come in. Yoo Ra is just finishing her homework. It’ll be just a minute. Would like some tea?” Mrs. Yang, Yoo Ra’s mother greeted me.”

I quickly bowed and slipped off my shoes. See, I told you I’m not THAT Americanized.  “Yes please, Auntie!” I loo