CHAPTER 1:  The Airport

It has been a year since her parents died in a car accident. She has been left living with a good relative in America, during the grieving phase of her life. Her name was Samantha Lee Henderson. She liked to be called Sam. Her father was American, and her mother was American-Korean. Therefore, Sam has mixed race, more known as Amerasian (American-Asian). However, her looks leaves little trace of being Asian, since she mostly got her looks from her father. Sam has long and curly light-brown hair and fair white complexion. She has a small face (which she got from her mom) but her eyes were big and blue. Sam had a sister named Ana who is married to a Korean doctor named Choi Jae Sun, both of them living in Seoul, South Korea. And this is where she will be heading to start a new life.

Sam´s sister, Ana, wanted her to live with them ever since that car accident which took their parents from them. But it took a year for her to decide and agree with her sister. This was partly because she still couldn´t leave her old life behind and all the memories of her mother and father. But things are now changing, time had passed and she is slowly coping to the fact that she needed to live again.

And so she boarded a plane more than 5 thousand miles from the US to Seoul, on a 12-hour flight. It was the longest journey she ever had in her life. Finally, the flight attendant informed the passengers (both in Korean and English Language) that they are now landing in Seoul (Incheon International Airport). They were told to adjust their watches 16 hours ahead, since Seoul is 16 hours ahead of California. Sam can understand Hangul (Korean Language) since her mother was part Korean and taught her how to read and write it (although she is not so fluent since she grew up speaking English).

Sam finally got hold of her suitcase and her black backpack inside the huge Incheon Airport. She got held up a bit at the Immigration for their routine process, and then she was able to get out. Sam swung her backpack on her shoulder and dragged her suitcase towards the exit door of the arrival area, where Ana and brother-in-law Jae Sun were supposed to meet her.

As she was walking, she noticed a huddle of people fumbling with their cameras and microphones, usually middle-aged men and women. It looked as if they were waiting for someone to arrive. It looked like they were from some news network; judging from their Korean Press ID´s. “It could be their local celebrity”, Sam had thought.

Sam craned her neck over the crowd of people going about their businesses, towards the exit where she saw her sister Ana and her husband Jae Sun, waving and smiling at her. Sam waved and smiled back to them. She was almost at the exit when the group of people she just saw earlier with the cameras, energetically ambled up towards the arrival gate, clicking their cameras nonstop, buzzing in their own language and calling out “Beast!”

“Who would call anybody Beast? That would be plain rude”, Sam thought again. Then she saw cameras flicking towards a group of 6 young men who just got out from another gate. They were tall boys wearing simple, yet fashion-styled outfits; some of them ignoring the cameras, some waving, including the last boy who got out. Few bouncers and security men were walking around and trying to fend off the press. Sam quickly grabbed her stuff altogether before she gets trampled or something by the flood of people coming her way, and before she knew it, the press people were jostling and bumping, making her drop her backpack; blabbing their interview questions and tailing the boy group. Sam picked up her bag and hung it around her shoulder.

In the middle of the commotion, Sam felt somebody clashed hard on her shoulder, knocking her bag off her arm again. She looked briefly and saw, as though in slow motion, that somebody; it was one of the tall young men. He had brownish-red hair hidden under a hooded jacket; he had long nose, small lips and fair complexion with a little hint of tan. He looked a bit Western.

His face was shortly turned to Sam as he picked up something on the floor. She could not see his eyes because he was wearing dark sunglasses.

“Mianhe”, he said in a slightly deep voice, and in a matter of two seconds Sam saw the corner of his lips give a tiny smirk, before a couple of security men shoved her out of the way leading the tall boy back to his group, and still trying to fend off the media people who continued to follow the throng of the 6 boys.

The mobs were already away from Sam before she realized that her backpack was still on the ground. She immediately picked it up and went out of the arrival area towards her sister.

“Sam,” Ana smiled and immediately hugged her. Sam hugged her back and gave a bow to her brother-in-law.

“Hyeongbu,” she greeted him, which is an acknowledgement for an elder sister´s husband, “annyeonghaseyo” she added.

“Cheoje annyeong,” Jae Sun greeted back in a bow, also hugging her. “I hope you had a good flight.” Jae Sun speaks English well, since he went to college in the U.S.

“It was fine”, Sam answered, running a hand through her curls.

“So you met BEAST?” Ana asked her, putting an arm around Sam´s shoulder.

“Say who”? Sam said, puzzled.

“They´re one of Korea´s popular boy group,” said Jae Sun, grabbing her suitcase and leading them out towards where the car was parked. “And you just bumped into their maknae, the youngest, Son Dongwoon”.

“Oh, so that´s who the people with camera´s were referring to...” replied Sam, nodding.

“I know you don´t get much K-Pop back in the States,” said Ana, “but they´re really popular here and in Asia. Any girl would love to take close up encounters with them, that´s if you´re a fan”.

“Well, glad I wasn´t a fan,” muttered Sam, rubbing her slightly aching shoulder where the tall teen bumped into.

They were finally in Jae Sun´s car, driving downtown through tolled expressways. They were heading to Gangnam district where Ana and Jae Sun lived. Seoul is the largest city in South Korea, modernized like Los Angeles and New York, and is beautiful at night time. Buildings and infrastructures around; parks, coffee shops, shopping centres and all that. Easy to go around and easy to get lost to –that type of state.

Ana and Jae Sun lived in the 2nd floor unit of a big and modern condominium. They showed Sam around their place for a bit before Jae Sun got a call from the hospital he was working as a doctor, for an emergency. So he said goodbye to them and left. Ana cooked bulgogi and ginseng soup for Sam´s dinner, while Sam sat watching her sister at the kitchen counter top.

“Unnie,” Sam started, quite abashed, “thank you for taking me in. You and Hyeongbu have been so good to me.”

Ana looked at Sam almost tearfully and said;

“Oh...Sam, you know we´ll always be here for you. You´re my sister and I can never leave you. And besides –“, she said, picking some lettuce “—this is good practice for when Jae Sun and I will have a kid soon.” Anna added, smiling.

Sam´s eyes widened: “Are you pregnant?”

“Yes!” Ana confirmed happily, “Jae Sun and I found out that I´m one month pregnant”.

Sam rushed to her sister´s arm to give her a tight hug.

“Wow! I´m so happy for you guys. I wish mom and dad were here to celebrate with us.” Sam cried.

They both were in tears for a few minutes, remebering their lost parents.

Sam is six years younger than Ana, but they were very close to each other ever since they were young. Ana met Jae Sun in the States, they got married right after Jae Sun graduated from medical school, and they decided to live in South Korea. They´ve been in Seoul for four years and bought the condo unit near where Jae Sun works as a Neurologist at a nearby hospital.

And this was one of the deeper reasons why Sam decided to live with them. Sam needed good medical attention and her own family, to help her get through a premature condition she recently was diagnosed of. But it needed further test to prove it.