It was the best day ever. The first day of college was finally here! Except it wasn’t the first day of Marissa’s normal University back home, because right now she was standing in front of Kyunghee University in Seoul, South Korea. This was better than when she first stepped off the plane, better than even her acceptance, better than anything. She was finally here, after all her failures and hard work, something was going right. Very right. Her Korean wasn’t perfect and this was also her first time on the campus but she had high hopes. She took a deep breath and rushed off to her first class!

           

This was the worst day ever. If something could even go slightly wrong it did. First she had gotten lost on the new campus, also making her late. Then her teacher had publicly berated her in front of the whole class and she wasn’t even sure of everything had had said about her, he had talked so fast. She couldn’t focus at all after that, she was so humiliated and disillusioned. And that was just one class out of three she had that day. All day she hadn’t made a single friend and when someone did pay attention to her she could literally feel the judgment in the air. She wanted to run home and cry but, with long time experience, she kept a fake smile as best as she could and told herself over and over that tomorrow would better. When her last class finally ended she rushed to get away from the disappointment. The icing on the cake; she had to walk home in the rain.

           When she stepped into her dinky, over-priced apartment she felt like a drowned kitten, sad and soaked. She stood in front of her door and stared forlornly at the boxes everywhere. She had been so excited to finish unpacking them yesterday, but now she didn’t have the will to even go near them. She left her phone off, not wanting to talk to anyone about her first day, and threw herself onto her bed. Hiding under her covers she finally let the tears come out. She cried herself to sleep.

           The next morning Marissa tried to be more cheerful. She had come all the way from the United States to study here and one bad day was not nearly enough to completely discourage her! She put on her favorite outfit, did her hair and makeup until it was perfect, and drank a huge cup of steaming tea. This would be a good day, she would make it be! And it all worked. By the time she arrived, she was smiling and humming tunelessly to herself. She also had three classes today so she braced herself and took a deep breath…round two.

               Suddenly she heard giggling behind her. Marissa slowly turned around, shyly and expecting to have to pretend to be nice to someone else making fun of the awkward new girl. She saw the complete opposite. There was a tallish girl, and she was laughing at her, but not maliciously. She had a huge smile on her face and winked at Marissa cutely. She was in an oversized hoodie, black leggings, and boots; so different than all the skirts as far as the eye could see. She also wasn’t Asian, like at all. Marissa at least fit in as far as her looks went, but this girl was western through and through. Her hair was even red! She bounced up to Marissa, “Annyeonghasayo! Chonun Lee Jisu-imnida! You seem a little lost, maybe I can help you?”

           “Annyeonghasayo, chonun Marissa-imnida.” She bowed shyly, this girl was so intimidating!

           “Marissa huh,” she said suddenly switching to English, “That’s American isn’t it? You’re a long way from home.” Marissa was shocked at her good guess, “Yeah! How did you know, are you from the United States also?” Jisu laughed and shook her head, “No I’ve been here since I was seven, but I was born in California and I spent a year in America as a foreign exchange student. I’m adopted.”

           “Your English is very good,” Marissa offered the compliment but Jisujust laughed again, “English was my first language silly! Plus, my parents thought I should know both languages perfectly so I could fit in anywhere I went. But I must be holding you up, what’s your next class?”

           “Calculus.”

           “Whew, good luck then! Do you need any help finding it?” Suddenly the two were interrupted by a group of girls from across the hallway, “Jisu-ssi! Unni, it’s time for class, what are you doing! Let’s go!”

           “Alright, well nice to meet you, Marissa! Maybe we can go to lunch sometime, yeah? Annyeong!” Jisu hurried off to her friends waving and then was gone. Marissa didn’t know what to think. Jisu was so different than anyone she had met here so far but she seemed to be totally accepted, even popular. And she had stopped to talk to a little American girl out of nowhere. She stood there confused for a moment before she remembered she was going to be late again if she didn’t hurry! Not today! she thought, and hurried away.

           At the end of her second day she was feeling much better. She still had to really work to keep up with the professors and she still sat by herself but the fact that at least one girl had treated her like anyone else had made her whole day. As she left building she smiled a little to herself. And it wasn’t raining today. As she was walking, wrapped in her own world, she heard her name.

           “Marissa! Marissa!!” Marissa looked around and saw Jisu again, this time parked across the street with the window of her little Audi rolled down, and she beckoned for Marissa to cross towards her. When Marissa came up to the car Jisu had gotten out and had that big smile again.

           “Hey! What a coincidence that I saw you again today! Where are you headed? I can totally give you a ride if you want.” Her face was lit up like Marissa was her favorite person in the whole world and she couldn’t refuse even though her apartment wasn’t far at all.

           “Sure, “ she said, “I live a couple blocks away.”

           “Perfect!” Jisu went around to the other side, “Hop in!” They started driving and Jisu immediately began asking all sorts of questions like where exactly she was from in the US and how old she was. Jisu was older by two years so she was in her last year at the university; she was studying an English major with a minor in dance.

           “You’re a dancer?” Marissa asked, in awe, “That’s really cool!”

“Yeah,” Jisu shrugged, “Maybe I could work for SM Entertainment or something eventually right?” Jisu gave her a funny look, “You know SM?” Marissa shook her head, “No, is it a dance company?” Jisu shook her head, “Something like that.” Marissa blushed at her ignorance. But Jisu saw and laughed, “Hey don’t feel embarrassed, you just got here, I’m not expecting a whole lot from you. Hey is this it?” At Marissa’s nod they pulled to a stop in front of her apartment building.

    “It’s cool that you have your own place, and so close to the university!” Jisu exclaimed, changing the subject, “I’m sure you have homework, because I know I do, but can I come up and see it?” Marissa was about to agree but then she remembered the unpacked, cluttered state of things she had left her place in this morning.

    “Um...maybe not today. I’m not finished unpacking yet,” she blushed. As seemed a common trait with Jisu, she laughed for the hundredth time in that car ride alone. The infectious nature of it, though, always made Marissa smile in return; she knew she wasn't being laughed at.

    “Alright,” Jisu agreed, “Hey, you know if you want, I can help you finish getting settled this weekend.” And by the time Marissa got out of the car numbers had been traded, a time been set for Saturday morning, and Jisu was ready to drive off calling out “Annyeong!” behind her. Marissa was speechless as she stumbled up the stairs to her door. It was only day two and she already seemed to have become best friends with the most unlikely of girls.

That was when she realized she’d left her purse in Jisu’s car. With her keys. Are you freaking kidding me. Of course there was no way she could go a whole day without something going completely wrong.  She tried calling Jisu at least ten times but she didn't get any response. She just gave up right there. Some higher being did not want her in Seoul and she had never had to fight for something so much in her life. Leaning her head against her door she considered her options. A) Have a mental breakdown right there in the hallway. B) Keep calling Jisu until she got a answer. C) Go find a cafe to maybe start her homework or something and calm down and then go back to plan B. She was pretty close to plan A as it it stood but she didn’t really want to resort to that outside of her apartment. Plan C it is. She sighed against the metal door, chanting motivational words at herself before she had to go out into the real world again.

“Everything’s okay, Jisu will come back before tonight, it can’t get worse than this, at least you know where your keys are, this isn’t really as bad as yesterday, at least you’re finally in Seoul, this is what you’ve been working for, something this insignificant is worth finally being here...” Suddenly someone coughed politely behind her. Marissa whirled around, totally embarrassed and saw an extremely handsome young man who was looking at her with concern.

“Excuse me for bothering you, but I was wondering if you needed any help. You seem very upset,” he bowed slightly at her. She instantly turned bright red but managed to return the greeting and answer him.

“Oh, thank you, but it’s nothing much. I just left my key somewhere and was trying to decide what I need to do about that.” She avoided eye contact, she was so mortified that this attractive stranger had caught her locked out of her own apartment, on the verge of tears, and talking to herself. She bowed again and attempted to shuffle away but he called out to her, “Wait! You said you lost your key? You do know that all the doors in the building have the same locks on them right? You can just use mine for right now, I have it with me.” Sure enough, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a key identical to her own. He held it out to her and she slowly took it and tried it on her door. It swung right open.

“All the locks really are the same?” She shook her head and the man chuckled at her surprise.

“Weird right? Well, you get what you pay for. Apartments this affordable are going to be far from ideal, not to mention half the size they should,” he smiled at her and she was instantly dazzled, but he hesitated for a second before answering “My name is Park Jung Su by the way, I...uh live next door.”

“I’m Marissa,” she replied, slightly flustered, “Thank you so much for helping me out!”

“No problem, Marissa” he tried out the foreign name, then smiled and shrugged, leaning nonchalantly against the wall, “So you just moved in, huh?” He nodded towards the boxes stacked inside of the open door, “Where are you from? I ‘m guessing it isn’t anywhere near here.” Deep, calm breaths, he’s not that hot.

“I transferred to Kyunghee University from an American university, I’m majoring in math.”

He nodded, impressed and crossed his strong arms across his strong chest, “No kidding. What year are you?” And by not that hot, I only meant more than hot enough to bake cookies on. That’s fine just answer like everything is normal, don’t freak him out.

“Second year,” her voice almost cracked, “I’m basically studying the language and culture here really, then after a year here they’ll ship me back to where I came from to finish school. Then I’ll have to go through all this again to come back, officially move here, and start teaching.” Wow, way to rant. Recover! “Uh, so, uh...what year are you?”  

“You’re a woman with a plan,” he flashed her a smile that instantly made her feel better about, well everything. She was so insecure about what she’d finally chosen to do with her life, specifically because it was such a challenging prospect. But the way he was looking at her like she was totally justified in her dreaming and he fully believed she was going to achieve it all, no question, not only put her in a better mood but made her first impression of this Jung Su a really good one.

“Only I’m not a student, I’m 28.” She wanted to smack herself in the face.

“Uhm...” she replied intelligently, totally blindsided. But instead of laughing at her he just gave her another gorgeous, pure smile, “Well I should get going, it was nice to meet you. I hope you find your key.” He turned and went into his own apartment and she thought she heard him chuckling to himself. Well, she had acted like a complete idiot, she just hoped he hadn’t really noticed how much. She shook her head at her own stupidity and finally went inside.

 

 

Chapter one is pretty slow, but you know how these things go, have to get the introductions all squared away! This fanfic is a request from one of my friends and her birthday was a few days ago so I decided to finally start on it. I have some great ideas for this one so I hope you like it, enjoy! Comments and subscriptions always appreciated 110% <3