YOUR POV

I opened my eyes slowly, I am really scared. I’m scared that I’m in Manila again and yesterday was just a dream. I slowly opened my eyes and the sunlight struck my eyes. I look everywhere and sigh. “Everything is real!!! Yesterday is not a dream!” and I was jumping all over the room.  I looked through my phone and got a missed call and a message from Sojin-unnie. “Don’t forget, I’m going to take you on a tour. I’ll be there by 11 am.” Then I look at the clock and it’s already 10:30 am. Gosh!! I immediately stood up and I even tripped down from my bed while rushing. “Aissh! I slept too much!” I immediately ate my breakfast and took a shower. I chose my best clothes to wear since it’ll be my first time walking in the streets of Seoul. Then after 30 minutes, Sojin-unnie came and luckily, I’m almost finished.

“Am I too early? You might want to sleep more.” She asked as she enter and removed her shoes.

“No, it’s okay. I don’t have to waste my time sleeping here. I’ll be going to school the next day and I’ll be busy then. I might lose the opportunity of something like this. And you might get busy too. May I know what’s really your job? So I would know where to find you in the campus, just in case.”

“I’m one of the secretary of the Headmaster. I take charge with the relations with the foreign students. So you’re right, I’ll be busy the next days, since there were other foreign students too. If all of you will be free, I’m going to introduce you to them.” Then she smiles. I immediately took my bag.

“Oh, sure! I want to meet them too. I’m done, let’s go!” then we headed outside my room and headed down and outside.

“Since it’s a practice tour, I didn’t take my car with me for you to learn how to go to places via public transportations. Would that be okay?”

“Of course, I really want to learn. I must not always depend on you right? I’m so excited. Where are we going first?”  

“First, we’re going to the district center where all the markets are. There were also malls. Let’s go to the bus stop.” We walked our way towards the bus stop. She explains that bus has different colors, depends on where you will go. And for this case, we’ll be riding the green one since it’ll be traveling around to the important places for me. The blue one will be the one for me to ride to go to school. She also told me the time of the first and last trip of these buses. I made sure bring a notebook to take notes of those things.

As the bus came, we took off and she teaches me how to pay.

“We gave you the smart card right? Just swipe it there. You can also use that on subways. If it gets emptied, just tell me okay? But you can also pay with money. So be sure you’ll always have money on you.” We find ourselves a seat near the far end. I guess it isn’t easy as what I expect it to be. Every places we pass by, she patiently explains it one by one. After a half an hour, we reached the district center and again, and WOW. There were a lot of stores, a big mall, and unlimited number of restaurants, everything! Then we went around and she explains everything to me. I’m not just studying, she’s been teaching how to be a tour guide! Then we went inside a restaurant and she said it was the most visited restaurant here.

“What do you want to eat? I’ll pay.” She said.

“No, unnie. I’ll be the one to pay, you’ve been helping me a lot, I have to pay back. Just recommend me something delicious. But not too spicy, okay?” and she just smiled. She recommended me to have a samgyeopsal and bbulgeoki. I’ve been hearing those food and even tasted it back there in Manila, but it tasted different here.

“Unnie, jinjja mashida!” then we both laugh.

“You know a little Korean, that’s good.” and we continued eating. We walked around again and went inside the mall. It’s really big and there were a lot of stores. I even went to buy some clothes which really suits my style. Then after touring around, we got no place to go anymore.

“Unnie, you know, I really like idols. Do you have some place in mind for me to experience what it likes to be here as a fan?” I asked with shy smile.

“Don’t you know that there were a lot of idols studying in our university? I guess there’s also someone on your department, I just don’t remember who she or he is.”

“Oh, really? Who could it be? That makes me want to attend school immediately!” with much of excitement, I hugged unnie and jumps out of happiness.

“Let’s go, I’ll tour you where could be those music shows where being held. We have to take the subway.”

“Subway? I want to take the subway!” we immediately headed to the station. It’s my first time to ride a subway, I’m so excited. As we reached the station, I was amazed how it really looks like. We got in the train and it was really packed with a lot of people. Good thing we found a place to sit. While we're sitting, there is an old woman standing near us waiting for the man in front of her to let her sit. But the guy doesn’t even care and same as the others. Well since it’s a manner in our culture to give way to elders, I gave up my sit for her.

“Halmeoni, yeogiyo!” as I sweetly called her attention, the old woman looked at me and walked towards me. I even heard myself that I really sounded not so Korean and I really looked like I’m not, so everyone in the train looked at me and Sojin-unnie too. “It will take us about an hour, is that really okay to you?” Sojin-unnie asked.

“It’s okay. I’ll be more comfortable to see the old woman comfortably sit on my seat.” When the old woman is almost near, I held her arm so she will not trip since the subway is quite shaky. The old woman realized that I’m not a Korean and she smiled, “Komapsumnida! Thank you!” while trying to speak English for me to understand her appreciation. I just smiled back as she sits comfortably. It really took us an hour to reach the station and I felt cramps on my leg for standing an hour. I tried not to show it for the old woman not to feel bad for me. And as the people going out of the train, I went on the side so I can lean on it. I noticed the guy beside me staring at me as I massage my thighs for having cramps from standing that long. He’s quite weird, with a black-rimmed glasses, a hoodie and a beanie and earphones on, he keeps on looking down and pulling his hoodies, trying to avoid people’s eyes. And by one look he looks familiar and I don’t know where I saw him. I just don’t pay too much attention on him. I concentrated on listening to my iPod when I heard ‘Oasis’ is playing and humming along since I can’t do singing here. Oh God, I sooo love this song!!! I smiled again at the old lady and went off the train.

DOOJOON’S POV

Trying to feel normal again, I tried taking the subway on my way to a radio show. And of course, I went with my not-too-obvious-I’m-disguising look. And it’s a luck for me to ride at this time since mostly elders and workers are riding the train. I lean on one of the side and tried balancing myself since it’s too crowded and no more handles are available. Trying not to be too obvious, I busied myself on listening on my iPhone and glancing around every now and then. There were middle-aged women talking loudly, a couple with their child who’s looking at me. Oh my, maybe I’m also famous with kids, does he recognizes me? Please, don’t say a word. Please… I stared at him then suddenly, “Meh-rong!” then he laughed and I smiled. Whoah! That was close! Glancing around again, I saw an old lady standing. I guess she’s having a hard time standing. Could someone let her sit? Aish, people nowadays are really..!! I watched and waited for someone to give way to her. Then suddenly…

“Halmeoni, Yeogiyo!” I looked immediately who it is, then a girl was smiling and waving at the old lady. She doesn’t sound Korean and I stared at her, examining her. She’s speaking in English with a Korean (I’m sure she is). She has a light brownish complexion and has double eyelids. She looks, Thai? No, Malaysian? Filipino? I don’t know, but I’m sure she isn’t Korean. When the old lady almost reaches them, she held out her hand assisting the old lady. This girl got some manners. I was about to smile but I stopped myself. Why would I smile for that simple gesture? But at the back of my mind, I was impressed that this foreigner has more concern compared to everyone here. The Korean talked to her asking if it’s okay for her to do that. Yeah, I understood that.

“It’s okay. I’ll be more comfortable to see the old woman comfortably sit on my seat.” She said while smiling. I smiled to myself. As I’m still staring at her, I noticed she’s quite pretty. No, I’m not interested with her, I’m just giving compliments in the back of my head for what she did. I prefer girls with pale, yellowish complexion and I’m not interested with non-Koreans. But wait… why am I defending myself from myself? Oh, I’m just too carried away by that small deed. I noticed her walking towards where I am, maybe she’ll just lean on the side. As she was carefully walking her way to the side, she’s smiling to herself. Too proud of yourself? She made her way to stand beside me.

Minutes have passed, we haven’t still reached our stop. I glanced at her again and I saw her massaging her thighs. I guess she’s getting cramps. What surprises me is, she stops massaging her thighs when the old lady is looking at her. She just awkwardly smiles at her. You don’t want the old lady to feel bad for you? Well, you’re really nice. I guess I’m staring at her too much that she noticed me. She was looking at me with a confused look. Oh wait, are you recognizing me? No, that’s impossible. There’s a small chance she would knew about me. We stared at each other for a while (I don’t know why I’m enjoying looking at her with that confused look)then I decided to look away, pulled down my hoodie. She might recognize me. But I noticed she looked away too and stopped paying attention to me anymore and focused on listening to her iPod. The song playing in my iPhone stops for a while waiting for the next song to play when I heard a humming near me. I searched for who it was humming and I saw the ‘well-mannered’ girl beside me humming, eyes closed and smiling. She’s enjoying the song too much. I know I knew that song but then I realized what song it was. I stared at her for a while, she‘s still humming. I sudden had the urge to approach her. What? Why? What would I say then if I approach her? “Hey, that’s our song!” then she’ll scream and make a scene here? Hell no. But I just can’t help it, I was about to lift my hand when she opened her eyes, stood up and walked outside the train. It was her stop. I just froze a bit and scratched my head. I knew that song too well. That’s our song. That’s “OASIS”. She’s a fan? But that was released long ago. So she’s a fan since our debut? ….. BUT WHY DOESN’T SHE RECOGNIZED ME??????

YOUR POV

As we reached the outside..

“Are you okay? Your thigh must’ve been hurt.” Sojin-unnie asked.

“I’m okay, don’t worry. Where are we going now?” she pointed on our left side exit and we headed there. I saw a lot of buildings, electronic billboards and stores. We rode again a bus but we never went off, we just had a tour within the bus. We passed by the buildings were M Countdown, Music Bank, Music Core and Inkigayo were being held. I can’t even hide how happy I am as I was smiling for the whole time. As it was getting dark, we decided to head back to my dorm. Tomorrow will be the start of being serious. Tomorrow will be the start of classes.

“So I will not going up anymore, I really need to go. I hope you enjoyed our tour and I hope you’ll be enjoying your stay here in Korea.”

“Unnie, thank you so much for the help. I don’t know how will I am going to pay you back. Thank you so much. Take care, and please head back safely.” She went away and I went up to my room. I went inside, quite tired, took a shower and went to sleep immediately so I won’t trouble myself with waking up early. 

FINALLY, A DOOJOON POV ;P