It was Saturday morning, 5:56 and surprisingly JiAe was awake. Usually on Saturdays she would sleep in from staying up all night, but she had just graduated high school and felt that she should celebrate since she didn’t go out partying with her friends.

   JiAe sat up in bed stretching her arms above her head as she yawned. Looking around and adjusting to the brightness of the room, JiAe patted her hair down before hopping out of bed happily.

   No more homework to worry about! No more waking up early to go to school, no more walking to school in the cold! She did a little celebration dance as she walked out of her room before realizing, Wait a minute, now I have to worry about getting into my college. She groaned loudly before hitting her head against the wall waking her parents up.

   “What are you doing JiAe?” Her mother asked tiredly as she squinted her eyes at the bright sunlight coming from the hallway window. “It’s 6 in the morning, shouldn’t you be sleeping in?”

   JiAe thought for a minute before looking up to her mom’s direction saying, “I thought I would go out and some fun today. Is that okay? I mean it’s not like I have any work to worry about.” She smiled sheepishly before running into the bathroom quickly closing the door.

   “Ah, my daughter is growing up to soon,” her mother sighed before shutting the door and going back to bed.

◘ ◘ ◘

   “What to wear today? What do I wear today? Where should I go?” JiAe sang to herself as she put the spearmint toothpaste onto her purple toothbrush. Should I go to Lotte World and spend the day doing nothing progressive? Or should I go street shopping? Or maybe I can just hang out at the park with ice cream and bubble tea.

…

   “Ah, that was refreshing,” JiAe sighed to herself happily as she walked into her room. Hopping to her bed, she quickly made it patting out wrinkles here and there. Then she turned around to look at her giant closet full of clothes designer and not. “What should I wear?” She frowned as she went through her closet in less than a minute. “Something pretty and cute, but comfy,” she mumbled before a smile lit up her face as she took out an outfit. “Perfecto.”

   “A colorful outfit with feeling and a pair of cute sandals just to go with it,” JiAe smiled in approval before ripping off her pajamas, a blue tank top and a pair of shorts. After fixing her outfit nicely, she looked into her mirror and frowned at her hair. “What am I supposed to do to you? You never do anything I want you to do,” she pouted before exhaling and walking to the bathroom. “Maybe I’ll curl you! Or just go natural. Aish, but you’re never natural; you’re always sticking out crazily making me look like a clown. Well, let’s just see where it goes. Hwaiting JiAe, you can do this,” she did a mini fist pump before grabbing the curling iron and brush.

…

   “Assa!” JiAe cheered happily carefully jumping up and down. After 20 minutes of fighting with her hair, she finally got it to stay curled nicely without hairspray. After making sure that the curling iron cooled down, she put it away and tip toed to her parent’s room slowly opening it. “Omma, Appa, I’m going out,” she whispered loudly holding onto the door as she stuck her head through the crack between the door and the doorframe.

   “Where are you going?” Her appa asked sitting up in bed squinting his eyes at her.

   “Um,” she thought for a moment before answering, “everywhere. I won’t be home late though, I promise.”

   “JiAe, are you going to be out all day then?” Her mom asked also sitting up in bed to look at her.

   “Uh, sure?” She said unsure. “Waeyo?”

   “Did you want to buy dinner for us?” Her mom said reaching for her purse. “I think I’m going to be out late today, I have some stuff to do for a co-worker so I’m not going to be home to cook and since you’re not going to be home at all today maybe you guys can just buy dinner,” she held out a couple of bills to JiAe.

   “Okay, it doesn’t hurt to eat junk food every now and then,” JiAe laughed mischievously as she took the money.

   “JiAe,” her mother said sternly, “you know what I mean when I say buying dinner.”

   “Of course I know omma,” JiAe sighed as she put the money into her pocket.

   “And I put a few extra bills in there for you alright, don’t come home too late. And make sure you bring a purse, I don’t want you dropping the money on the street, arasso?” She said before she went back to sleep.

   Before she left, JiAe grabbed her small purse and headed out the door making sure that it was locked before she really left.

◘ ◘ ◘

   “Where should I go today?” JiAe asked out loud as she walked around the street. “Maybe I should just go everywhere like I told appa,” she quietly laughed to herself before she bumped into someone. She looked up and saw that it wasn’t just one person but four adults. “Oh, jwehsonghamnida,” JiAe bowed lowly to them as they slightly bowed before walking off.

   “Yeobo, did you call her and tell them that we’re going earlier?” One of the ladies asked her husband.

   “I don’t know where it is, why don’t you give her a call while I search for their house,” he replied handing her his phone.

   “Excuse me,” one of them said running after JiAe as she continued on her celebration.

   “Deh?” She politely said turning around bowing once more before looking up to the man who stopped her.

   “We were wondering if you could tell us to where this address is?” He asked holding out a piece of paper with and address messily scribbled onto it.

   “This? Oh yeah, it’s just down the street, the house with the white fence that is waist high,” JiAe smiled politely before bowing and walking away.

…

   Twenty minutes had passed by since JiAe bumped into the people, now she was happily sipping on strawberry flavored bubble tea while strolling through the park.

And, Can you smile?
Niga wonhajanha
Niga barajanha
Nae mam maneuroneun
Neol jabeul suga eomneungabwa

   “Yoboseyo? Omma?” JiAe said confused, “I thought you were going to be out. Bwuh? Come home? But I was supposed to…. But… fine, I’m on my way.” JiAe groaned in frustration as she stomped back home. It wasn’t until she pushed open the white fence gate did she realize that the people she had bumped into earlier were looking for her house. Panicking, JiAe quickly rushed inside shouting but trying to sound casual, “Omma! I’m home.”

   “JiAe-ah, come here,” her voice echoed along the hallway bouncing off the walls. “We have guest over.”

   Guest? Those people were ‘our’ guest? JiAe cautiously walked to the living room poking her head through the giant open doorframe.

   “This is our daughter JiAe, JiAe come greet our guest,” her appa said standing up to introduce her.

   “This is your daughter?” One of the ladies asked surprised making her omma nervous.

   “D..deh,” she stuttered as she anxiously played with the hem of her skirt as JiAe walked in.

   “Annyeonghaseyo, JiAe-imnida,” JiAe bowed before taking a spot next to her mom.

   “We bumped into her on our way here,” the other lady kindly said with a slight accent noticing her mom’s aura change.

   “JiAe-ah,” the second man gently said also with an accent, “We would like to hire you as a translator.”

   “Deh? A translator?” JiAe asked confused and in disbelief. I just graduated high school and people already want to hire me? I haven’t even sent in any resumes or gone to any job interviews.

   “Yes, a translator,” the first lady said.

   “Let us introduce ourselves to her first,” one of the men who looked like her husband interrupted her.

   “Yes, yes of course,” she smiled kindly before introducing herself. “I’m AhYoung, please call me Mrs. Kim though.”

   “I am her husband, DongMin,” Mr. Kim smiled before nodding to the other man.

   “I am Lee JungHee and this is my wife, Xie FangHua,” Mr. Lee politely introduced himself and his wife.

   “As I was saying before, we would like you to become a full-time translator for our son Myungsoo,” AhYoung began.

   “And our daughter MeiXing,” FangHua finished smiling to JungHee. “You see, MeiXing can’t understand and can’t speak Korean.”

   Mr. Kim looked up and said, “On the other hand, our MyungSoo can easily understand Chinese, but he just can’t speak it.”

   “So with the permission of your parents and you of course,” Mr. Lee said, “we would like to hire you to become the translator for our kids.”

   “But why me?” JiAe immediately asked looking back and forth between her parents and the other four adults.

   Mrs. Xie looked at all of them before explaining, “We decided that it would be best to find a translator around their age. That way it won’t be as uncomfortable for them and seeing that you’ve been speaking both languages since a very young age, we figured we’d like you to do the job.”

   “How long am I going to be hired for? What about time for myself and college?” JiAe asked beginning to think about rejecting the request. “Also how old are your kids?”

   “MyungSoo is twenty one.”

   “MeiXing is twenty and about the time span, MeiXing is moving to Korea with her brother HyunWoo. She’ll have her personal teacher to teach her Korean and during this time until she can understand without your help you will be with them.”

   JiAe sat there taking everything in slowly, as she sat there all the parents watched her intently as if she was a newborn baby, waiting for her reply.

   “What if it takes years until she doesn’t need me? No offense, but I personally don’t want to be a translator for your kids my whole life,” JiAe replied trying not to sound sarcastic and offend them. As she and her parents waited for their reply, her mother squirmed in her seat a bit too nervous.

  “We’ve thought about that too, MeiXing is a quick learner, she’ll be able to understand quickly,” Mrs. Xie quickly said.

  “Depending on her teacher,” Mr. Lee quickly added in patting his wife’s shoulder as for her to not rush and get too excited.

   “So then what is it?” JiAe asked confused. She and her parents waited as the parents talked amongst themselves for a few minutes, whispering furiously every now and then.

   “Alright, we have a conclusion, but this all depends on if your parents are willing to or not and also you,” Mr. Kim finally said after their conversation. “For your pay, we’ll pay you ahead of time for now, but we’ll pay you 795,000 won each month (about $700). As for college, you can have a private teacher with all of our kids and you won’t have to worry about the funds, we’ll pay for it. But for the private teacher, you’ll have to arrive on your own time, unless,” he said this with a heavy sigh, “you move into an apartment near our daughter’s place.”

   “Bwuh?! Move? And live alone?” JiAe asked in disbelief. Exactly how rich are these people?

   “She’s going to be living alone?” Her mother suddenly got very tensed, grabbing onto her husband’s hand tightly.

   “JiAe-sshi, can you drive?” Mrs. Kim asked looking back between her mom and dad.

   “Uh, deh,” JiAe replied in deep thought staring out into space.

   “We will provide you with a car too,” Mrs. Kim added in trying to get them to agree, in other words, bribe them.

   “Omma,” JiAe said noticing her mother’s facial expression.

   “If you don’t mind, I want to speak to my husband in private for a moment,” she said standing up. They both left leaving JiAe behind with the guest sitting awkwardly having arguments with their eyes.

…

   “Yeobo, let’s do this for JiAe, she’s worked hard during her school years. Getting an opportunity like this for free schooling is only once in a life time,” Mrs. Song pleaded staring into Mr. Song’s eyes.

   “It’ll be easier for JiAe and us, but what will happen to us? It’ll be as if she’s already gone off and married,” Mr. Song sadly replied looking at the floor.

   “Honey, it’s already time for her to leave. Remember, she’s going to be leaving for college soon enough,” Mrs. Song sighed.

   “It’s for the best?” Mr. Song said sadly looking into his wife’s eyes as she nodded.

…

  The couple walked in slowly their aura a bit brighter than before. Slowly, they sat down giving JiAe reassuring smiles before saying, “We’re fine with it, on one condition.”

   “What?” JiAe managed to whisper surprised.

   “Your condition?” Mrs. Xie asked.

   “We just ask that you give her the weekends off, like any regular job,” Mr. Song sighed.

   “Give her the weekends off?” Mrs. Xie said before thinking a bit. “Alright, it works. JiAe-sshi, from now on you will become part of our family as our translator. We will get everything set up and contact you when everything is prepared.” They all smiled and said their goodbyes before walking out the door.

   “Omma! Appa! You’re just going to let me go like that?” JiAe asked horrified, looking back at her mother and father. “I mean yeah, sure, maybe at first I did think that it’d be awesome and cool since I’d be paid and have my college funds paid, but now that I’m thinking about it. No, I don’t want to move away from here until I have to,” JiAe said frowning making her eyebrows crease.

   “JiAe, listen to me,” her father said placing a firm hand onto her shoulder. “You know that your mother and I only do the very best for you.”

XD how's it for the prologue? a bunch of nothing? XD it's just the beginning to everythin :D