T W O   Y E A R S   E A R L I E R

“We have a new student joining our class today,” the teacher informed his students from the front of the classroom, scratching his balding head as he did so.  He motioned for the girl outside the room to make her entrance.

She walked in and stood in front of the class, facing them all with an indifferent expression on her pale face.  She held her notebooks at her hip with one hand and flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder with the other.  “I’m Jessica Jung.”

The class stared.

“Is she foreign?” one of the boys sitting in the front asked his friend next to him.

“Well she’s blonde and her name’s Jessica,” the other guy stated as if he solved the mystery about this girl.

Even though they were both whispering, Jessica was still able to hear them.  She shot them both an icy glare, shutting them up.  ‘Good guess, Sherlock,’ she thought.

“You may sit next to Jinki,” the teacher showed the blonde to the back of the room where the desk she’d be sitting at for the rest of the year was located.

Jessica sat down next to a boy with longish black hair and was wearing thin wired glasses.  He smiled warming at Jessica to welcome her, but she ignored it.  She took out her notebook and pen, ready to take notes on the boring subject of history.

“Hi, I’m Lee Jinki,” he introduced himself kindly, pretending she hadn’t brushed off his nice and welcoming smile.

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye.  She chose to ignore him for a few minutes more, but he wouldn’t look away from her and he still had a smile on his slightly chubby face.  He seemed persistent to get the new girl to talk, so she finally said, “I’m Jessica.”

Jinki’s smile got wider.  He made progress.

“So are you really from overseas?” he asked, curious to know.

Jessica rolled her eyes.  “Obviously.”

“Where are you from?”

“San Francisco.  It’s in America.”

She had stated her answer coldly, but looking into her eyes, Jinki could detect a hint of sadness.  Homesickness?

“You know, I’ve always wanted to study in the States,” he told her, wanting to lighten the mood and to make her feel more comfortable as she was in a foreign country.  He glanced at her strange colored hair.  “I’ve also wanted to dye my hair blonde.”

Although she didn’t mean to, the corner of Jessica’s lips turned up to form a smile of a silent giggle.  It wasn’t much, but Jinki felt proud of himself.

“Did you just smile?”  He bumped her shoulder playfully with his own.

Her lips automatically turned down at the contact, and she froze once more.  “No.”

She ignored him after that, not even giving him a glare when he tried to talk to her again.

Jinki eventually gave up and turned his head towards the whiteboard, jotting down a few notes of what was written on it, but not really digesting the subject as he was too busy thinking about the girl next to him.

Jessica Jung, you are an ice princess waiting for the prince to warm up your heart.

--

Jessica dumped her books in her locker before slamming it closed, the creak of the metal door echoing throughout the empty hallway.  It was lunch time and everyone was at the cafeteria—everyone except for the blonde.  She didn’t want to go to the cafeteria and eat the strange Korean food with people she didn’t know.

Jessica sighed, feeling sorry for herself as she was stuck in a foreign country with no friends.

She couldn’t wait to go back to America.

Not knowing what else to do, the young blonde wandered around the school building unsure of where to go or where she was going.  She walked past dozens of doors and she tried to remember the pattern of the hallway so she could get back for her next class.

She stopped outside one door, the sign on the wall reading library.

Jessica walked inside knowing that no one goes to the library during lunch, so she’d be alone and it’d be quiet.

Of course, she had to be wrong.

In the back of the library, there were tables that could fit six people set in rows.  All of these tables were empty except for one.  His back was facing her, his face buried in a book.

Jessica took a breath, confident that she knew who he was.  It’s okay, he won’t bother me.

She made her way to a random self to look for an interesting enough book to read for the long lunch hour.  After browsing through a couple books, she internally hit herself: everything was written in Korean.

It wasn’t that she didn’t know Korean or was bad at it—she did grow up speaking the language with her parents—she just preferred English.  But figures, right?  The books in Korea would be written in Korean.

Great.                                            

“There’s an English literature section,” a voice said, shocking the poor blonde.

Jessica flinched as she turned around to face the boy from her history class.

“What are you doing here?” she blurted without thinking.

“I wanted to finish reading a book,” Jinki answered, lifting the paperback in his hand.  “It’s really good.  Would you like to read it?”

Jessica gave the book one quick glance, and upon seeing the Hangul on the cover, she scrunched her nose in distaste.  “I’ll stick with the English books.”

She turned away from him, her blonde locks flying over her shoulder to almost smack the boy in the face.  She walked off in search of the English literature section of the library.

Jinki stood rooted to his spot and cocked his head to the side.  Seriously, what’s her problem?  Is South Korea really that bad for her?

--

“Mom, I’m home!”  Jessica shouted once she was in the door.  She kicked off her shoes and threw her bag on the sofa as she made her way to the kitchen.

She came back to the living room with a cheese sandwich on a plate in one hand, a glass of iced tea in her other.  She collapsed on the couch, getting herself comfortable before she chowed down on her favorite meal.

“Mom’s still at work,” Krystal, Jessica’s younger sister, bounced down the stairs to take a seat on the armchair.  “How was school?” the younger girl asked to start a conversation.

Jessica rolled her eyes.  “It was fantastic,” she said sarcastically.  She took a bite of her sandwich.

“Jess, when are you going to stop acting like a drama queen?  Korea isn’t that bad,” Krystal said.  She thought of how her sister was acting when they found out they were moving.  First, Jessica had tried to convince their parents that San Francisco was better than Seoul, but when she was told that they were still moving and nothing Jessica could say would change the matter, she just shut down completely.

“Does it matter?  I just have to finish the school year and then I’ll graduate from high school and move back home.  I don’t need to make friends here when I have them back in California.  I don’t need to get attached.”

“But you’ll be lonely,” Krystal pointed out.  “Look, it’s not that hard to make friends; I’ve got some already.”  She didn’t like seeing her sister like this: hurting on the inside, cold on the outside.

“You’re in middle school, Krys.  You have, like, five more years here in Korea, so you wouldn’t understand how I feel.”  Jessica ended the conversation there, turning on the television and ignoring her sister who sighed at the older girl’s attitude. 

--

[posted: 09.12.11]

[edited: 06.22.13]