After I had that nightmare, I couldn’t go back to sleep fearing that the horror might come back again. Besides it was already four in the morning, I had to leave for school by six. So I decided to talk to my only friend in the world, who actually understood me; my diary.

Soon, time passed by and it was already 5:30 before I knew it. By then I was sitting with my aunt at our small breakfast table. We both lived in a small, rented apartment; our real house was back in USA. Why were we in Korea? The reason being my aunt was the sweet one if compared to my uncle who had passed away years ago.

Her husband was the total opposite of her, he was always so ill-tempered and abusive. He never allowed us freedom. Sometimes I had felt sorry for my aunt. But after his death my aunt offered me if I would like to go back to Korea to know my roots, my origin, the answers I seek, the people I seek, basically to know who my mom was.

Since, my mom was Korean I never got to know her or her country’s culture properly, being stuck in USA. To be honest I had completely forgotten her; where she worked, how was her cooking, what was her favorite food, what she disliked and liked, how did she sound like and even…….. how she looked.

That was the saddest part because even in my nightmare I couldn’t see her properly, a certain light always blurring her face. The only thing of her that I had was the locket that had a certain message on it but which I could never interpret because it was in Korean. 

“Hannah dear, is there something wrong?” My aunt looked at me with concerned eyes.

It was obvious for her to get concerned because I was just blankly staring at my locket while my breakfast, still untouched, was running cold.

“No Aunt Linda,” I sighed.

“Cheer up, it’s your first day at your new high school! Besides, sweetie you can ask one of your new Korean friends what does that mean.” She gestured towards the locket around my neck.

“Don’t you think it would be difficult interacting with the language barrier?”

“It would be at first, but you do have a Korean background. You have it in your blood Hannah.” She assured.

I gave her a small weak smile and she quickly brought up a new topic,

“Do you want me to drop you at school?” She asked like an excited parent who was about to drop their little kid to school on his first day in kindergarten. To be honest it was natural for her to act that way, since she had no children of her own and I would quite independently walk to school in America.

“No thank you, it’s just at a walking distance from here.”

“Awww, but I want to.” She moped.

I was finally here, I drew a breath and let it go. It was late September and it was fall in Korea. It was definitely beautiful. But I still felt really nervous standing in front of a huge building, which from now on was going to be my school. Surprisingly, very few of the high school students were in sight, I guess it was still too early in the morning. Probably, many of them would be still getting up right now.

I walked inside first heading to the office to receive my schedule. That was when I realized that school starts at exactly 7 am. Since it was just 6:00 I had plenty of time to look around. So I decided to explore.

By 6:30 many students had arrived and the corridor became lively as people were walking and chatting in groups some were already going to their respective classes wanting to get the best seat, I suppose. And I walked alone. Thankfully, I didn’t get strange looks or anything because I looked completely Korean having all my mom’s traits, so I blended in quite well. But I knew that once I opened my mouth to talk I’ll catch everyone’s attention with my American accented English.

I continued walking as I had my eyes on my schedule. There was quite a hustle in the busy corridor, but I fully concentrated on my schedule. Somebody ran past me, but I still didn’t look in their direction, I was too engrossed.

As I was just about to take a turn to the left, I crashed into somebody. Actually that person had crashed into me as they had been running. Whatever, the case was we had collided really hard, the force pushing me the floor while all my books and papers in my hand went flying in different directions.

The person whom I had bumped into quickly started to say something to me in Korean, as he himself quickly got up and offered me a hand. By the way he sounded, I at least knew he was apologizing. I stayed silent, not wanting people to discover my way of speech.

 I quickly gathered my books and sheets while he helped, still babbling apologies. When we got up he handed me my stuff. That’s when I got to see him clearly.

He had soft beautiful features on smooth, pale skin. I could see his hair was black, his straight bangs covering his forehead, but otherwise he was wearing a cap. And his brilliant black eyes held a feeling of softness and gentleness in them. He was flawless but he also had this look of innocence on his face that he certainly could be described as cute and adorable. On top of all that, one physical quality of his could not be missed; his height. He was just so tall, approximately 183 or 184 cm. But what I knew that in comparison I was quite short, only being 155 cm.

When he handed me my last set of sheets, having a polite nature, it was my habit so I couldn’t stop myself from saying it and regretted as soon as the two words left my mouth.

“Thank you.”

I was now already seated in my first class that was to be English. Here at this school there were quite many subjects but most of them were taught in Korean. The main and important subjects like math had two different classes; one in English and then again one in their own language. Obviously, I didn’t even have the slightest idea about Korean so I had taken all my classes in English. The disadvantage being that there were not many people who had opted for their studies to be in English. The probability of making friends seemed very hopeless.

Then again I had no plans of making friends. I didn’t even have many friends back in America too because I wasn’t social at all. My only best friend was my diary and till this day it still is.

I was the only person in the room at the moment. Since I had taken my seat near a window, I soon found out I was lost in the world outside.

Sometime later, I felt that someone was standing at my desk. I looked up to see that adorable familiar face; the same boy who had bumped into me in the corridor. I was curious why he was here and I was soon to get an explanation,

“Ummmm,” he started, I gave him a little smile to make him feel comfortable. “I’m so sorry for what happened, you know the incident in the corridor?” He was fidgeting being all nervous.

But what I was surprised about was,

“You can speak English?”

“Yes, I think that’s what I am doing right now.” He flashed me a smile.

“Oh sorry, just that in the past two weeks in Korea I didn’t even meet a single person who could talk in English.”

“So you came from outside right? I’m guessing USA?”

I nodded on his answer, indicating he was correct.

“But you look-“before he could finish the sentence I completed it for him

“Completely Korean. Yes, because I have a Korean background………… long story.” I answered shyly. Still couldn’t believe I was talking to somebody other than my aunt.

My curiosity took over me so I asked, “You take English class too?”

“Yes, I chose many of my classes this year in English rather than Korean,” Then he realized something, “Oh this means we are going to be classmates in quite many subjects.” He smiled sweetly.

“But why-“ Before I could finish my sentence, the bell rang, indicating that our first class was about to begin.

“I’ll tell you later.” He said as he occupied the seat on my right.

The English teacher walked in, to find his students already seated. Before the class officially began, the boy leaned towards me to whisper politely,

“Oh, by the way my name is Choi Junhong.”

I smiled back at him to assure him that I had welcomed the information. I guess I had made a friend. But that wasn’t what I was thinking during the rest of the class. What I was thinking was, that his name sounded somewhat………. familiar.