3:20pm December 19th

Mary's POV

Hana has sure been acting goofy since the party. She's suddenly been taking it upon herself to put on more makeup in the morning, playing with her hair, and taking a lot longer to pick her clothes -I'm not complaining, but she's been hogging my mirrors! I am glad that she's putting more of an effort into herself because half the time she doesn't seem to care what she's wearing or how she looks. For instance she used to go out in sweat pants and a ratty old hoodie all the time before she started dating Matt and becoming more of a girl.

I felt and heard my phone Brrrrzzzzz in my bag telling me I got a text message as I sat listening to the lecture on art history. I guess it can wait until later.....a heck this lecture is boring as a watching a cactus in a dessert. Reaching into my bag I pulled out my phone to read the text. It was from Kris and said 'Mary we need to talk!' I frowned at my phone 'I wonder what he means by this?' I texted him back 'In class I'll call you later.'  As I pressed send I heard my professor's voice calling my name  "Miss Davis, please refrain from using your phone during class!"

"Sorry sir, I was expecting an important message and thought it had come when my phone buzzed." sure I lied, but he'd never know.

"That's fine Miss Davis, but in the future please hold your cell phone usage until after class." he said and the lectured on. "Now can anyone name the the style of painting......"

.Hana's POV

Meanwhile....

I yawned as my written communications professor talked on about the proper usage of punctuation for the umpteenth time this semester. 'Is everyone that much of a blockhead or are they just doing such a shoddy jobs on their papers that he deems this necessary? Whatever, at least i know I'm doing things right -my final paper on Karl Von Frisch's Nobel Prize was completed early and already got graded with an A. I think everyone's just restless for this semester to be done, because so many people are fidgeting.' I glanced over at the clock, 'Only 10 more minutes of this. Thank goodness or I might fall asleep -late nights of studying and hanging out with friends combined with early mornings to get to class- yeah you can get the picture. Maybe, I'll take a nap after class since this is my last class for today, but I do need to study for finals......I guess I'll decide later.'

10 minutes later.....Walking back from class I decided to stop at the mail boxes and see if there was a letter from Kevin yet. It's been almost two weeks from when he should have gotten my letter. 'I hope I didn't weird him out by the things I wrote. Maybe he was and won't write to me anymore. I sure hope not!' My temporary panic, not that I was outwardly panicking (or was I?), quickly subsided to relief as I pulled out a small padded envelope with a return address from Korea. 'I guess no nap it is, it's letter reading time! Although maybe I'll take one afterwards.' 

Back at my dorm room I eagerly opened my letter to read in the temporary peace and quiet -Mary's last class went until 4:30, so she wouldn't be back for another hour and a half and things always get noisier when she's around. As I pulled out the letter a royal blue flower hair clip fell out onto my lap 'How pretty! This is totally my style.' I thought as I picked it up and examined it. Small gold and black seed beads adorned the center of the flower making it look almost like a real flower. I clipped it in my hair next to the haphazardly thrown into a bun I had put it into this morning and opened the letter.

December 9, 2009

Annyeonghasaeyo Hana,

Sorry it took me longer to get back to you. The photo album is the best birthday present I've gotten in a long time! There are so many good memories in there and it made me want to go back to relive them all again. You look really beautiful in the senior picture you sent along too. Someday we'll have to have our families get together and make some new memories, but unfortunately it probably won't happen in the near future. 

It sounds like you had a great birthday and I'm really happy that you've been enjoying your present. I'm a bit surprised you didn't knock anyone out someone when they surprised you though -just kidding! You hated being surprised when we were kids. Remember the time we were playing hide and go seek, I snuck up on you, scared you, and you slugged me in the nose? That sure taught me not to surprise you! 

I guess I'll be honest I've been a little worried about you since you started dating Matt, but I'm relieved that you have standards and boundaries in place. If he ever does anything to hurt or upset you, tell me and I'll let him have it -even if it means crossing the ocean (of course I wouldn't have much choice, since I'd have to cross one anyway to get back to the states for you). You're like family to my family and I, so remember we've always got your back.

My nuna and aboeji are going to be coming over her college break to Korea to see my eomeoni and I. I hate to admit, but I've really missed her since coming to Korea -please don't tell her though, or she'll tease me to no end! Sure she's visited a couple of times for a few days or a week, but this time she's staying for almost a month. (She told me last time we talked on the phone that she had seen you when she visited Jae in New York.) 

We've started decorating our dorm for Christmas this week by putting up a little artificial tree and stringing some Christmas lights around -we all fought over what to put on the tree, but ended up compromising on each person picked one thing to go onto it. Driving around Seoul at night there are a lot of stores with lights or Christmas displays in the windows. The other night I went syoping with Eli and Kibum and I wore the scarf you made me. It was so warm and fuzzy, plus no-one seemed to recognize me when I covered up my face with it. I bought my nuna some really cute hair clips like the one I sent along for you as an early Christmas present -I hope you like it! I bought my eomeoni some fancy hand cream and my abeoji a new briefcase.

Well I guess I should go now, they guys are calling me. By the time you get this I'm sure you'll be working on your finals, so I hope they're all going well! Hwaiting!

Your Chingu,

-Kevin

P.S. What's your email address? That way we can stay in touch a little more often that our letters. Mine's: bluekwoo91@daum.net

I grabbed my laptop and added his email to my contacts. 'I'll have to send him a thank you e-card for the hair clip later.' I thought as I smiled to myself. Then I settled in to study for the rest of my finals.

Chapter Glossary:

Syoping- 쇼핑- shopping

Nuna- 누나 -older sister

Aboeji- 아버지- Father

eomeoni- 어머니 Mother

hwaiting- 화이팅 fighting, encouragement, you can do it.

*Thank you for your patience everyone! I've been so busy between college, my jobs, and piano commitments that I haven't had much time to work on new chapters. I have finals this week, so I may not post an update until the middle of the month. Also the email address above is fake, and do not try to use it -I will feel terrible if it actually is someone's even though I Googled it to make sure it wasn't.

Update 4.21.2013- Sorry I've been MIA, but I'm done for this semester, realized I forgot to "date" the chapter, and am currently working on chapter 11 :)