Chapter 3:
      The Journey Begins        

Indigo P.O.V

              The airport buzzed with liveliness as the sounds of planes taking off into the sky as well as gently landing down played in the background. Standing before me was a line of people, slowly shrinking as the flight attendant checked their boarding passes for the nine o'clock flight to Seoul, Korea. I glanced over my shoulder and saw my family waiting just a little bit away from the end of the line, holding encouraging smiles, but with a slight wet glint in their eyes. My lips stretched up into a smile of their own, knowing they were fighting just as hard as I to fight back tears. "Remember me smiling, and let me remember yours," I thought to them, using my eyes to convert the message. They understood, and their proud smiles grew. A few weeks ago, when I was hopelessly daydreaming of going to Korea, I didn't think of the down points or how hard it was going to be to say goodbye to the ones who loved and nurtured from the minute I was born. Dim flashbacks caught my vision: my mother and I cooking together, my father and I teasing and laughing with each other, and my younger sister and I fighting over the silliest thing, but then tightly hugging each other whenever there were rough days. What will I be without them? It was then I remembered my dream, my goal, my purpose. Something in my heart told me this is was it, this was the right thing to do. Just then, the attendant lady politely cleared , snapping me out of my daze. I gave her an apologetic smile and quickly handed her my ticket, which she carefully scanned through before giving me the okay. I passed her, then spared one final look back. My smile spread up to my ears and I raised my hand high to give them a wave. Then, sending a nod, I my heel with my head held high and marched through the double doors of the gate. Goodbye New York.
Once entering the plane, I  scanned the area for any familiar faces, then soon caught Haley flailing her hands in the air like a hyperactive penguin. As I made my way over to her, I noticed Asher and Aaron sitting on the two seats in front of her. Luckily, my seat number was right beside Haley, which erased any awkwardness of flying with a stranger. Putting my carry on away, I slid into the seat next to her and whispered, "Excited?"  
"Heck yeah! Finally I can see my beloved Oppas~" Haley sighed dreamily with intertwining her fingers dramatically. Her dramatic expression then dropped as her eyes widened in curiosity, "Oh yeah! And how come you came a late? 'Checked in any sooner, and we would've taken off without you!"She lightly scolded with a pout, me knowing she meant no harm.
Softly, I answered, "Sorry, traffic, but I thought you weren't coming!" Curiosity crept up my shoulder, and I tilted my head with a confused expression.
She lightly puffed out her cheeks and answered, her voice a bit mumbled though, "My mom thought it was good for college and stuff like that..." She didn't meet my eyes and looked away, and I decided not to push it. "Might as well get comfy, it's going to be a long ride," She told me before plugging in her headphones. I shook my head as the angelic voices of SNSD spilled out her ears. I shook my head with an easy sigh, then settled into my seat while pulling out my journal from my bag. The slightly worn, leather bound notebook sat in my hands, waiting for the next precious memory to be recorded. 
I flipped it open to a fresh new page, and I began to write:

 On my way to an amazing journey ahead! Thoughts- What will I find? How will I encounter them? And most of all: will Asher and I get closer? Or could this be my chance to forget him once and for all? Sadly, that's not happening anytime soon, my heart beats ten times faster when he's around . I still remember the first time I met him, a memory that refuses to dim into the past. My cheeks still redden like that very day whenever he looks at me with that warm, playful, but gentle smile. Will this ever be..?

                I  looked back up and closed my dairy. Asher was sitting right in front of me, and I could see his arms from both sides of the seat. He could see me if he looked back, which I hope he doesn't. If I wasn't used to my irregularly fast heartbeat, I wouldn't be able to breathe. As the plane took off, I sat back and stared absentmindly into space, wondering what will happen when we land. Soon, the lights slowly faded to darkness and little twinkles on the ceiling appeared. My eyelids soon felt heavy and everything around me turned into a haze. This was going to be a fourteen hour flight, so it wouldn't kill for a nice little nap.
My ears popped like something fluffy, but sticky was just ripped out of them. My eyes shot open as the plane dipped lower and lower. Facts about the Incheon International Airport was printed on the screen of the television monitor in front of me, and I soon realized we were landing. Wow, that was fast. Everyone was still sleeping, including lazy Haley. I lightly nudged her shoulder and Haley squirmed a bit before mumbling, "Five more minutes, mommy~" She snuggled under her blanket, and her even breathing told me she was still very deep inside Dream Land.
I tried to nudge her again, this time whispering, "Haley, wake up~ Taemin's looking for you~"
Her eyes opened immediatley with an alert expression and she stood up and excalimed excitedly, "WHERE?!"
It woke everyone up with a groan, and some even turned to glare at the loud little girl.
Aaron stretched his arms over his head and looked back while asking in a slightly annoyed/tired voice, "Who?"
Haley's face blazed a crimson red and she sheepishly sat down. "Mianhae," She apologized with a softer tone.

             Soon enough, the plane landed, and all the passengers exited. After swimming through check-in and grabbing our lugguage at the baggage claim, we were on our way to the exit gate. Although this was very exciting and exhilirating, it was a long plane ride and everyone was just too tired. Maybe after a proper nap on a real bed would get us out and about. Before having to fish through the crowd of strangers picking someone up, Mr. Yong stepped out of the crowd and made his way towards us with a warm smile. "Welcome to Korea," He greeted as a few men in black suits and dark sunglasses took our luggages for us. "Come, let's bring you to your new home." Exiting the airport, we all followed Mr. Yong into a fancy looking black car and, without wasting any time, began driving to the house where we will be staying. The car ride was quiet with a tinge of awkwardness (or are we all just that drowsy?) until Mr. Yong interrupted it. "This is the school you'll be going to," He explained as the windown rolled down to reveal a large, prestigous school made of honey brown bricks, gates of cold stone metal, and buildings standing like a castle straight out of a fairlytale. "This is a campus school, where students come to show their talents and shine. Whether it's just studying to become a doctor or training long and hard to get into a label company, this school refines it's students to the absolute best of their abilites." Our eyes were glued to the school in awe, not being able to deny it's grand aura. As soon as it passed, the car window rolled up and the ride resumed its silence.
The car finally stopped, and the door clicked open with a suited man holding it open. Mr. Yong stepped out first, saying, "You all will be staying here." One by one, we all filed out, and our jaws dropped when taking in the view. It was similar to a doll house, with peachy walls and white windows, with flowered vines curling at the edges. There were two stories, and the center of the top floor had a romantic balcony hanging above the front door. The door was open with a feel of welcome, and we all willingly continued to follow Mr. Yong as he stepped inside. Walking in with my suitcase that one of the men handed back to me, I realized that if this house looked big on the outside, it was even larger inside. The four of us were in a filed line like elementry schoolers on a field trip to the zoo. Mr. Yong coughed to gain our attention and began speaking, "Here are your cellphones. These will be considered as company property so take very good care of them. I hope you will be responsible." A briefcase was handed to Mr. Yong, and he opened it to reveal four brand-new looking smart phones, in colors also. Haley took the bright red one, Aaron took the dark red one, Asher took the dark purple one, and I was left with the light purple one. Mr. Yong began walking again, and well all fell out of our admiration trance to follow. While passing different rooms, he gave explainations to know what each were for. "This house has a game room, study room, laundry room, kitchen, living room, indoor and outdoor pool, two bedrooms, and a music room. There is one bathroom in each room so you will have to share. Expect to have your school uniforms placed on your beds." With a nod, we followed him upstairs and he dismissed us to look at our new rooms. Just as Haley and I were going in one room, Mr. Yong held out his hand and said, "No. Haley and Aaron in one room and Indigo and Asher in the other." 
Confusion etched all our faces, and I replied with shock, "What?!"
"Your training will begin soon, and we can't have you staying past bedtime. If two best friends share a room and talk the whole night through, then there would be no time for sleep. Besides, you're sixteen/seventeen, be more mature about it." 
"That's why we're sixteen, we're supposed to be immature!" I retorted.
"They are arranged like this for a reason." 
"Mr. Yong-" 
"Don't worry," He interrupted with a final tone. "This will only be temporary. Now hurry along and unpack. Don't you want to explore Korea?"  
                 With no other choice, I dejectedly entered the room assigned to me, thinking this was going to be a pain. A cute and stylish girl uniform caught my eye, and it was luckily on the first bed I headed towards. From the corner of my eye, I saw a slightly ajar door, and curiosity pulled me towards it. Pulling the door open, I realized it was a closet, but that wouldn't be my first guess. No wonder there was only two rooms in this house, this closet was like a whole other room itself! I walked in, gawking at the spacious room and the numerous shelves for clothes. Quickly running out to get my suitcase, I ran back in and unpacked my clothes while neatly putting it away. It barely took up half the space- and to think I thought I packed too much. Wiping my hands clean, I gave a satisfied sigh and went outside to see if there was anything more I needed to put away. Asher had already entered the room, but was minding his own business as he did his own share of unpacking. I decided to keep to myself, since we barely had any exchange of words since we left the plane. However, it was until I came to meet a few set of bills laying neatly ontop of my bed. Furrowing my eyebrows in confusion, I pointed at it while looking up at Asher, and raised my voice a bit as I asked,him, "Is this yours?"
He turned around with a blank expression after putting a shirt away and answered, "No, it's yours. Mr. Yong gave it to us to spend." 
"Oh," I said with a silent nod. "I didn't hear him say so." 
"Of course you didn't. You walked in here before he told us," He replied in a 'obviously' manner, then turned his back to me and resumed his unpacking.
"Oh um... then I'm going to go spend this," I mumbled, then hastily made my way out the door. Halfway down the stairs I realized that I forgot my coat, and that it was way too chilly outside to go anywhere without one. Puffing my cheeks, I went back up the stairs and inside the bedroom. "I forgot my coat." He spared me an unconcerned glance and then continued unpacking. Such a big meanie, I stuck my tongue out at his back before grabbing my coat, then made sure I had everything I needed before making my way down the steps. At the bottom of the steps, I saw Haley leaning against the wall, playing with her new phone in order to get used to it. When she heard me coming, she placed her phone into her pocket and gave a smile. "Yo~" She greeted with a peace sign. "Heading out?"  
"Yeah, want to do some exploring? We could go check out the mall," I suggested while slipping myself into my coat.
"Of course! But which one?" Haley lightly bit her bottom lip, a habit a she had when she was indecisive.
"Um..." I scanned my brain for my previous research of Seoul, and a light bulb lit up when I came up with something. "Aha! Times Square Mall! But we'll have to take the train there."
Haley tilted her head, asking curiously, "Do you even know where it is?"
"I think Yeongduegpo. Come on, we have to find a station!" I lightly tugged on her arm, urging her to come before it's too late to go.
"How do you know all this?" She asked, her expression suspicous, but genienely curious.
 I chuckled and stated proudly, "I did a little research before just in case~" Her lips curved up into a smile, and we both eagerly left the house.
              Right when hope was ready to slip out of our fingers, we finally found a train station. I swear, we must've been going in circles for a gazillion years, but thank goodness we finally found one! And what do you know, it's only been half an hour. With the wad of cash Mr. Yong gave us, he managed to also provide a 'T-card' for using things like trains and buses. Right when we stepped into the train and settled in a few emtpy seats, an unfamiliar ring sounded. Haley lightly nudged me and pointed to my pocket. Whoops, that was me. Pulling my new phone out, I hesitantly answered the unknown caller and answered, "Hello?"
"Indigo," A deep voice that I somehow managed to recognize said. "It's me, Aaron." A quiet sigh of relief escaped me, glad that I didn't get a wrong number call on my first answer.
"Oh, hey," I said, hiding any hint of emotion while trying to play it cool.
"Hey, where are you right now?" He asked.
"On the train with Haley. We're going to the Times Square Mall."
"Huh?" He replied, his confusion being expected. Aigoo, these kids need to do their research.
"It's a mall here in Seoul. If you want to come, the next train arrives at 12:57."
"Sure thing, thanks. And what station?"
"Jemulpo, I think."
"Oh, okay. Thanks, bye."
"Bye." 
                  After hanging up and putting my phone away, Haley turned to me and asked, "Who was it?"
"Aaron. He might meet us at the mall." At the mention of him, a splash of blush appeared on her cheeks. Teasingly, I added, "That won't be a problem, will it?"
She answer almost immediatley, "No, why would it be a problem? I'm over him, so I don't care." She cleared and looked away, suddenly finding the floor to be very interesting.
"Uh huh," I replied in disbelief with a raised eyebrow. Chuckling to myself, I looked out the window and waited for our destination.
Upon arrival, we got off at Gyeongin-road and travelled the rest of the trip by foot to Yeongsin-road, then soon found the mall. My phone began to rang again, and now recognizing the caller I.D., I answered, "Aaron?"
"Hey Indigo, what stop do we get off?"
"Yeongdeugpo."
"Um..." There was a pause, then he quietly added, "We passed that."
"Then get off, but hurry! The more stops you make, the higher the fare will be for the T-card."
"Okay, I'll see if we can get there."
"Arraso. Also, when getting off, go towards the street named Yeongsin-road and then you'll see the mall. It's pretty big, so you can't miss it." 

I hung up, and shook my head in hopelessness. Haley noticed this and asked, "What happen?"
"They got lost."
"Of course they did." She said as if she expected nothing else. With a shrug, we entered the mall only to have our breath get caught in our throats. No kidding, it was huge! It had five floors, whilst the standard New York mall was at least two floors. Giving each other an excited grin, we indugled in each any every store that caught our eye. paying no heed to how silly we looked. It was like our mind had an internal 'cute' tracking device, because whatever was adorable enough to spazz over soon ended up in a growing shopping bag with a lighter wallet. Somehow in the midst of our mental breakdown, we managed not to waste all the money we had, and went to each cashier with a temporary collected mind before jumping to the next store and into another craze.

Haley P.O.V

About two hours and a half later, Indigo and I had shopping bags hanging from the end of our wrists to the top of our shoulders. Goodness, this day was more of a workout than all my P.E. classes combined! Exhaustion began to set in as soon as we left the accessory store on the fifth floor. Could we believe managed to swim through every girly store in this entire mall? Never underestimate the power of girls, hehe.
"Oh yeah! I think I found a bubble tea shop on the third floor. Want to get some?" Indigo suggested.
"Sure, but my arms are hurting dragging all these bags everywhere. How about we find a place to sit, and one of us goes to get bubble tea while the other stays and watches our bags?" I spotted a bench not to far away, and I swear that thing was calling my name. 
"Oh, okay! Hm... How about you stay, and I go get them? Besides, I want to buy some more lipstick from Etude House, which is right next door to the shop. Mind waiting?" Indigo asked.
I shook my head and teased, "Don't try to steal that Minho stand though~" She chuckled and pretended to punch my arm, feeling bashful after mentioning her SHINee bias who just happened to have a poster stand in front of Etude House. We made our way over to the bench and placed our bags down, the weight on our arms were finally being lifted. 
"Alright, I'll be right back!" Indigo said, and I noded as she made her to the elevator. When she was out of sight, I finally sat down on the bench and released a satisfied sigh. All the soreness around my body took that moment to reveal itself, and the jet lag sped up. My eyelids felt droopy, and with each passing second, it felt harder and harder to keep them open. I made sure to hold an iron fist with all our bags, just in case I did fall asleep and some pitiful soul decided they wanted to steal my new ice cream nail polish, but were unaware that I was an orange belt in karate and I'll wake up and flip them over faster than they can say 'wanna be sweet?'
As expected, sleep crept up my shoulder and claimed my drowsy soul. My body slumped down to the bench, and my legs naturally swept up so that I was completley laying on the bench. Everything around me felt colder, so while still holding onto the bags, I hugged myself and soon ended up in a fetal position. The noises around me tuned itself out, and I was soon riding unicorns with L.joe into a land made of cotton candy.
      An incessant poke kept coming from my side, interrupting the sweet, sweet dream I was having with my precious prince-sama. I groaned, but the poking didn't stop. With no other choice, I grudgingly opened my eyes and had to blink a few times for them to be adjusted. My mind was still in a haze, and I sleepily looked to my side to see a figure. The feautures on that figure slowly began to show. A pale, flawless round face. A long nose, with red, full, tempting lips. Large, doe like hazel-brown eyes that held a lot more than they told. Darkish crimson straight hair that fell over his eyes. His face was only a few inches away from mine. "You're not L.joe... But you do look like a prince-sama," I mumbled drowsily, and the confused, all-too familiar, expression that person gave me snapped me awake. My eyes widened in shock, and I reflexively jerked, which caused me to roll off the bench and meet face first with the floor. The bags, still in my hands, flew down with me as well and blanketed me harhsly. Luckily, or more like surprisingly, nothing spilled out. "Ow..."
"Are you okay?!" Aaron asked with concern, running around the bench to see where I had fallen. He picked some bags off me, and with the weight lifted, I was able to sit up. Thank god Indigo and I decided not to buy heels. 
"Yeah, I'm fine." I stood up and dusted my clothes. I kept looking at the floor, because I just knew my cheeks were red after being so close to him. God, I need to kill this petty crush. "Where's Asher?" I asked, immediatley changing the topic before he brings up my recent embarrassment of sleeping in public.
"He left a few minutes ago. Where's Indigo?"
Right on cue, a giddy voice called, "Sorry it took so long! The line was horrendous and- Aaron, you made it!" Indigo, holding two cups of bubble tea, caught up to us while trying to catch her breath.
"Yeah~ I've been here for a while, actually, but I couldn't find you anywhere! You weren't kidding when you said this place was huge."
"Well duuh~ How long are you planning to be here? We finished all our shopping, I think. Ready to go home, Haley?" I looked up when my name was mentioned, and the expression on Indigo's face was enough to tell me I still looked like a tomato. 
"Oh, um, yeah," I answered and resumed to looking down before Aaron could see my face. Though I wasn't looking at her, I knew Indigo held a knowing smirk.
"Oh, well I'm done here also. Let's go home together," Aaron said, and Indigo nodded while I gave a noise of agreement. Hopefully, Aaron didn't notice my strange behaviour. He didn't see like he did, and after collecting our bags, we were off. Like a gentleman, Aaron held some of our bags to ease the load. Oh god, men with manners- my ultimate weak spot. The whole way home, I did my best not to associate with him. Which wasn't that hard, since he mostly talked to Indigo the entire way. However, I couldn't stop myself from sneaking glances at him on the train. My mind kept flashing to the image I saw of him when I first woke up, how he seemed perfect in every which way and there was nothing else in the world but him. 
No, Haley, don't! You're no longer the same, love struck, one sided crush, hopeless little damsel from freshman year. I gave myself a few mental slaps to remind myself the promises, vows I made after feeling my first heartbreak. He doesn't want you, Haley. 
As much as I tried to talk myself out of thinking about Aaron in 'that' way again, I just couldn't. I did my best at evasiveness for the rest of the evening, giving one or two words in reply when he said something to me, and hardly sparing any glances when he looked. That night, I didn't sleep as easily as I hoped, knowing he was only a few feet away, and I could hear his soft, even breathing over my racing heartbeat.
Boy, was I in a ditch.