THREE years. Mei Fen has been traveling for three years. She’s been everywhere: Japan, Italy, Spain, America, South America, Germany, Africa, the Middle East, Malaysia, and New Zealand. She’s yet to venture to Australia, Canada, or Russia. From now and then she’ll contact Lucca and Bella, but usually they call her first. But for every Christmas, and birthday she is there in their little cottage off the coast of the gulf of Naples.

She’s gotten a lot better at handling her homesickness, and weird thoughts about killing herself. Mainly, she doesn’t even think about it. Her family’s been long gone, and there’s no reason now for her to be sad. She’s doing what she wants to do and there are two people that genuinely care for her. Sure, she’s never revealed much about her family life or her life as a child—but they came to understand that in due time Mei will tell them everything.

“Ahjussi, wait for me!” Mei screams while waving her hands frantically in the air as she skids in front of the large blue bus. Thankfully, the bus comes to a halt just in time to not smash her. The minute the doors open, the girl’s bright smile finds its way to her face, and for some reason it’s been showing up more frequently. “Thank you, and here.” She slides the money into the bus bucket for tips which the man warmly smiles for.

Mei gained a lot of glares from discomforted bus goers as she took a seat in the far back, next to a boy that neared her age. Thankfully, the boy’s fast asleep and can’t take the chance to glare at her.

She nestled into her seat quite quickly, and got as comfortable as possible. Today is her first ‘adventure day’—as she likes to call it—in Seoul. And she is completely looking forward to all the different things she’ll be able to see today. Lucca sent some money over enabling her to buy a ticket to Lotte World, even though he told her the money is to be saved for emergencies.

“Do I know you?” The sudden loud voice that came from beside her, jolts Mei out of her seat to face the person that sat next to her. The man that was previously asleep, was now wide awake and starring at her with observing eyes. His face didn’t really look familiar to her. The man had auburn hair, olive skin, and dark brown eyes. He wore a bright orange jacket, light denim colored jeans, and black converses.

She shakes her head, “I don’t think so.”

“I swear I’ve seen you somewhere.” He says while squinting his eyes at her. “What’s your name?” He asks while holding his dark black bag close to his body.

She sighs slightly annoyed. “Zhao Mei Fen, and you?”

It was like a switch had gone off in the boy’s brain because the next thing Mei knows, she’s being thrown into the arms of the boy beside her; thus causing her to push him off almost immediately. He stares appalled at her, like he couldn’t figure out why she pushed him off of her. “You don’t remember me?” He asks, only causing her to shake her head slightly annoyed with the intrusive boy. “It’s me, Wen Junhui.”

She blinks, “I’m sorry, who?”

“Jun.” He says once again as he continues to stare at her with expecting eyes. His eyes only caused her to be more confused. “I’m Jun, from Taiyuan, your neighbor.” Her face drops. Now she remembers him. Jun. Jun from home. Out of all the places in the world to see someone from back there, it had to be here, South Korea where she has booked a three month stay.

From what she remembers Jun was nice. Though for some reason, she almost always got hurt when around him, and he always got hurt when around her. “You remember me right?”

She gulps and nods, “Yeah. Wow.”

“What the hell happened to you?” He asks while situating himself to where he was completely facing her. “I mean, half-way through senior year and you’re gone. People were speculating that you were kidnapped, or murdered. And your parents never said anything. Do you still talk to your parents? Do you know they moved?”

Mei takes a deep breath. Way too many questions for her to answer. But one thing did catch her attention. Her parents moved? “It’s…complicated.” Is all she mumbles back. Complicated? That doesn’t even explain the half of it. “Where,” She pauses to gather her breath and slow her beating heart. “Where did they move to?” The question was enough to answer Jun’s. She indeed doesn’t talk to her parents, nor does she know that they moved.

“Xi'an.” He responds and she nods as if she understands. “They moved a year after your disappearance.” If she could laugh bitterly, she would. Seriously, a year after she leaves they leave. She always knew that they wanted to leave for a bigger city. She just didn’t think they’d leave so quickly. “So where have you been?”

Mei shrugs, “Everywhere.”

“What do you mean?” He asks while tilting his head to the side.

Mei laughs, and despite wanting it to sound sarcastic, it sounds like she’s actually amused by her old neighbor which only brings a smile to his lips. “I left to travel. I’ve been to Japan, Italy, Spain, America, and more.” Jun’s eyes grow wider and wider. He honestly can’t believe it.

The little girl he use to apologize constantly to became a backpacker. She didn’t die. She wasn’t kidnapped. She left on her own accord to become something she wanted to be. “Why’d you leave, Mei?” His voice drops to a softer tone, the one she recognizes right away. It was the tone of voice he use to use on her when she was crying from him hurting her accidentally.

She honestly thought it was weird. It was weird how easily she came to distinguish his voice. Thankfully, she doesn’t have to answer his question. The bus pulls to the side of the road where her stop is. “It was good seeing you Jun.” The boy’s eyes widen as the girl grabs her bag and flees quickly.

In the back of her mind she was hoping to God that she’d never see someone from her past again. Not only is it awkward, but it’s good for everyone to think that she’s dead or long gone. “Yah, Mei Fen!” Mei falters in her step to look behind her and see Jun come running out of the bus and after her.

“You didn’t think that I’d really let you leave when I’ve just seen you again after three years, did you?” He asks when he reaches her. “Where are you staying?” She responds with a shrug. Things with Jun are definitely different then when she was with Lucca and Bella.

Jun is someone that could call up his parents and spill everything about her, then her parents would find her, and then she’d see them and her anxiety would hit her like a brick wall. And those dreaded thoughts would come back. And worst of all, her father would be there. With Lucca and Bella, there were no problems. They didn’t know her family. They don’t know her family. “A motel in Gangnam.”

“Why don’t you stay with me?” He offers with a bright smile. The smile that her old best friend use to swoon at. “I live in an apartment complex around the corner with my best mate.” She immediately shakes her head.

“No offense Jun but I haven’t known you for three years,” She pauses to run a hand through her hair. “Besides, I barely knew you before. We were just neighbors that occasionally clashed. It would just be awkward, and not right.”

Jun chuckles, “Then at least give me your number so we can meet up.”

She’s definitely not comprehending this situation. Why was Jun, her neighbor of all people, trying so hard to keep talking to her? It’s not like it’s a big deal anyways. Like she had said, they weren’t really friends or anything back in China. Only once did they ever have a weird interaction. One that, to this day, Mei doesn’t understand.

s o m e t i m e  l a t e

2 0 1 1

T a i  y u a n,  C h i n a

JING Jing sat close next to Mei Fen as she stared across the isle of the bus at Jun Hui who sat with his head leaning up against the window, his hair lightly brushing across his face. “He’s so beautiful.” The brunette whispers as she nudges Mei in the side.

“You’re being creepy, and someone’s going to catch you staring at him. So knock it off.” Mei states while crossing her arms and adjusting herself to sleep. The bus ride has, so far, been way to long, and the ride to Changbai Mountain a beautiful forest east of Taiyuan has been boring. The forty five students of junior year class B-1 have been shoved together in a bus with practically no room and no cell phone reception.

Jing Jing sighs as her longing gaze looks away from Jun and out the window beside her. “Shagua.” Mei mumbles to her best friend who merely slaps the girls arm and pushes her head away. The hit causes Mei to stumble into the center of the isle and have her head smack the seat Jun was currently occupying—alone. Mei cursed out in pain, catching glimpses from some of the students around her.

“You’re always getting hurt around me.” It didn’t take much for Mei to know it was Jun who said that. She glances up from behind her blonde bangs to see him starring down at her with amused eyes. “Here.” He helps her up, and sits her right next to him. “At least this time it wasn’t my fault.” He states with a laugh.

Mei nods slightly embarrassed, “Yeah.”

“Are you excited for today’s trip?” He asks suddenly as Mei looks over at Jing Jing for help. But Jing Jing is too busy glaring at her and drooling over Jun simultaneously to even notice. Mei looks back over at Jun, whose eyes are solely focused on her.

She nods, “Yeah, and you?”

He smiles brightly, “I’ve been waiting for this trip since freshman year.” By the time the bus had reached Changbai half of the students are passed out. Mei and Jun were no exception. Mei had her head slightly pressed against Jun’s chest, and Jun’s head was settled on the window, but his hand was nestled on the side of her arm.

“Alright everybody, up, up, up—time for the hike. And remember, there is no cell reception so stay close together.” Slowly everybody began to get up. Mei, out of both her and Jun, is the first to wake up. Only she bashed her head on the underside of Jun’s jaw causing him to jump up and rub it in pain as he stares down at her in shock.

It’s like a curse between the two. No matter what, the two of them will always hurt each other. Mainly physically, since they don’t know each other well enough to hurt each other mentally. “I’m so sorry, Jun.” She panics while cupping with her hands. He merely shakes his head and smiles.

“It’s okay. I deserve it. I have hurt you a few more times then you’ve hurt me.” Mei simply bows her head at him, before being dragged off by Jing Jing.

The beginning of the hike went smoothly: learning new information, and no one getting hurt. It wasn’t until it began to get dark that something went wrong. “We should slow down so Jun can catch up.” Jing Jing says while clasping her hand on Mei’s arm, pulling her back. “I feel bad that he’s walking by himself.” Mei simply nods her head as the both of them slow down for Jun.

“Jing Jing, look at this!” A girl a few feet ahead of them shoved her phone into the air catching Jing Jing’s attention. “Look at this!” The girl cries again causing Jing Jing to catch up to the girl leaving Mei with Jun who was now walking a few feet behind her.

“You doing okay?” Jun asks and immediately Mei nods.

As Jing Jing stared at the girl’s phone, and the rest of the class was preoccupied with keeping their breath steady for the walk—Jun took this time to twist his ankle on a rock and trip. “Holy—” Jun reaches out for something—anything— and encircles Mei by the waist, before the both of them go rolling down the side of the mountain. They hit everything on the way down: crumbled leaves, bits of rocks, branches and twigs. Anything in their path, they hit but not once did they separate from each other. How could they? Jun was holding onto her so tightly.

They didn’t stop until they got to the bottom where Jun’s back hit a dark green pine tree. Both of them were greeted with immediate pain. The pain for Jun was located in his ankle, and back; while Mei felt pain around her stomach where Jun's arms are securely wrapped around. "Are you okay?" Jun breathes as he slowly lets her go.

She nods, “And you?”

“Yeah.” He nods back.

Mei comes to her feet and brushes off the leaves and pine needles located on her body. Jun tries to bring himself to his feet but fails miserably when his ankle gives out. “Did you hurt your ankle?” She asks and he nods.

“I think I sprained it.”

Mei blinks rapidly as she gulps down her nervousness to look up the side of the mountain they had just fallen from. “I can’t see them.” She says while scanning the forest above her. “Can you?”

Jun shakes his head, “No.” He begins to try and lift himself up again but he once again fails to do so. Mei can only watch with a mortified expression, “I can’t get up. My ankle won’t support me.” She bites her lip while leaning down to take a closer look at the boy’s ankle. Already there's contusions beginning, and the swelling is major.

“Hold on, let me see if I can find something for you to hold on to.” She tries to justify so she doesn’t have to have him keep a hold of her. She stumbles around the area they are located in before stopping in front of a slender, yet long, fallen branch. “I found something.” She shouts back to him as she grabs it and runs back over. “Here.”

The minute she gets to him she passes the branch, and he uses it to pull himself to his feet. “Thanks.” He mumbles and she nods while once again looking around the surrounding area. “Sorry for getting you into this mess.”

“No, it’s a good thing. There’s no way you could’ve got up with a sprained ankle. Let’s just focus on finding the camp site. I’m sure the others are doing the same and haven’t noticed we're gone.” Mei states as Jun nods his head, “We should follow along the bank of the water. Hopefully it’s a less dense path than climbing back up.”

And so the two began their trek, following along the bank—every so often Jun will reach out to hold her shoulder to balance himself the best he can. And every two seconds the boy will breathe the words sorry, or glance in the girls direction only to see that she's focusing on getting the two to the camp sight. “It’s getting really dark out.” Jun states gaining her attention. He wasn’t wrong. Slowly the sun is disappearing behind the mountain and the clouds are covering up the small amount of sunset they have. Soon enough things will get even creepier than it already is for them.

“Are you scared?” He asks her.

She shakes her head, “Not really.” Once more Mei looks around her surroundings before stopping to look back at Jun. “We should take a break, we’ve been walking for a pretty long time.” Jun agrees and relaxes himself against a pine tree where Mei sits down next to. “I think I have water in my bag.” She trails off while opening up her blue colored backpack to pull out a small bottle of water.

Once grabbing it, she passes it to Jun.

“You should drink some first. You’re injured not me.” She states and he nods while downing some of it before passing it back to her for her to drink. The two sit quietly for a long time, and in this time Jun doesn't even notice Mei slowly falling asleep on his shoulder. The blonde headed girl is completely exhausted from hiking up the mountain earlier, not to mention she barely got any sleep last night, and the small nap on the bus didn’t help either.

“Should we go no—” Jun trails off when he looks over to see her sound asleep. He instantly feels bad. The girl is obviously exhausted because of the misfortunes he brought to her. If it wasn’t for him, she would probably already be in bed. Not to mention that she wouldn’t be starving because they would’ve had dinner. He would feel even worse if he had to wake her up, so maybe it would be okay to just let her sleep for a little while, and in the mean time he’ll keep an eye out for anything or anyone.

It was clearly a long time before Mei woke up. It's now pitch black out, and if she were to put her hand out in front of her, she’d bet a million bucks she wouldn’t be able to see it. “Jun?” She calls while pulling herself into a sitting position. Jun was now nowhere to be seen. And all she could think was that he had left her alone. “Where are you?” Her voice cracks. She's scared now. She can deal with being alone. She can’t deal with being lost in a strange environment.

It’s not like he could’ve gone far, he’s injured.

She digs into her backpack; finds her phone, and turns on the flash light. She moves it around the area, showing off the creepy vibe, yet no Jun is to be found. “Jun, this isn’t funny! Where are you?” She calls out again and it's then that she starts to tremble.

“Jun.”

A mangled scream comes out of when she feels something touch her shoulder. She twists around pushing whatever off of her, only to look and find Jun sprawled out on the ground with pieces of wood scattered around him. She gapes at him as he groans in pain. “You scared me.”

He pulls himself into a sitting position, taking the branch he has been using, and glances up at her. “I’m sorry, I thought you would still be sleeping. It was getting cold, so I went to grab some wood to build a fire.” He says as Mei falls to her knees. “Hey, are you okay?” He asks as he makes his way over to her.

“Yeah, I just…” She trails off and Jun knows that she got scared when she was alone. This only made him feel worse, and it didn’t help that she looks like she might burst into tears at any given second. He isn't quite sure what to do, or what to say. Girls crying are not his forte. Instead he reaches over and clasps his hands on hers. Mei doesn't move from the position she's in and avoids Jun’s eyes like the plague. Because: one, he’s touching her, and two she feels bad for pushing him to the ground.

“I think we should just camp here for the night and in the morning take the trip to the camp site.” He suddenly looks over towards the other side of the mountain and points toward the peninsula. "They're all the way over there. I saw the lights in the distance. Its got to be at least sixteen kilometers, which means it'll take us three hours to get there; but, with me being injured it may take up to five." 

Mei nods, “Okay.” The two move to where they're sitting up against the pine tree where, in front of them, he built a small fire. One that will keep them warm, but won't catch the surrounding area on fire. Mei digs into her backpack; pulls out one of her four granola bars, and takes one for herself and gives the other to Jun.

Soon enough the both were getting quite tired. As Mei began to nod off, the boy began to once again keep watch of the surrounding area, when unexpectedly a light tug on his sleeve catches his attention. He looks down and notices that Mei is practically begging him with her eyes to go to sleep. The both of them are going to need sleep if they're going to make the long hike tomorrow. Especially him with his ankle. So, with his one arm resting around the other side of Mei, and his head lying on the top of hers, he slowly drifts off to sleep.

When morning comes, the two drink some water, before heading off towards the campsite once more. For the most part they keep quiet, the only time they talk is to ask if either are okay. They stop a few times, to drink or eat, or if Jun isn't feeling like he's able to walk more.

“I feel really bad about this.” Jun says as he takes a seat on a rather large rock. The two have once again stopped to take a breathier, and for both of them to finish off the second granola bar they had started earlier in the morning.

“Please stop apologizing Jun. It’s okay.” She says back while passing him the water. He takes a sip and sighs before standing up and stretching his arms. Mei's still not understanding Jun. Jun and her never really talked. They’d just get hurt together and maybe once in a while awkwardly say hi. Neither of them knew each other personally. If someone were to ask if she thought Jun was funny, she can’t say ‘oh yeah hilarious’ because she doesn’t know. All she can do is shrug and offer a smile before leaving. But now the two are stuck together until they get to camp, and then what? They go their separate ways like usual; because, one their families hate each other, and two Mei doesn’t want to be on the bad side of her family once again.

Mei keeps a standard pace, to where Jun and her can walk side by side. And he thanks her tremendously for that, because the last thing he wants to see, is him being a slacker for not walking as fast as her. “Do you know why our families don’t like each other?” She asks while biting the inside of her cheek.

Jun slowly looks over at her and tilts his head, “You don’t know?”

“Every time I ask, my parents get mad and tell me to shut up.” She responds.

Jun stops walking, and she stops only a few feet ahead of him. “The story’s pretty simple. Your dad cheated on your mom with my mom. And your mom got back at your dad, and my dad got back at my mom by having an affair with each other. Then when we started going to school together, and they saw each other constantly at ASB meetings they came to an agreement to cut everything off and go back to their normal lives. Like nothing ever happened.”

It was the first time she had heard the story. Sure she knew something up with the huge tension between their parents every time they meet, not to mention that her dad punched his dad straight in the jaw once and it was the scariest thing she'd ever seen, and Jun was practically shocked to the brim as he stood like a rail next to her. “How did you find out?”

“I read my mom’s diary. She hates your mom, but she outlined the fact that she hates your father more.” He states while starring at her with thin eyes. He’s doing that thing, watching her, the thing that makes Jing Jing swoon.

“My mom always said I should steer clear of you.” She says absentmindedly.

Jun nods while taking a step forward, “As did mine about you,” He takes another step closer to her as she stares at him confused. “Oddly enough, I’ve come to enjoy your company Mei. And I think…” He pauses as a small smile finds its way to his lips as he nods his head over and over again. “Yeah.” He nods once more in confirmation before leaning down towards her and pressing his lips against her cheek.

Right after, she flushes a deep shade of red, the two walk in silence for about two more hours before they finally reach the campsite where they're met with frantic teachers and ecstatic best friends. And after that the two find each other less and less. Barely ever seeing each other in fact, and Mei knew that if she were to ever bring up the boy next door to her parents they’d probably do the things they usually do and she didn’t feel like going through that mess.

A u g u s t  8

2 0 1 5

S e o u l,  S o u t h  K o r e a

JUN continues to stare at her with practically pleading eyes and all she can do is sigh and pass her cell phone to him. He takes it out of her hand quickly and types his number in before passing it back to her and sending a quick text. “I’ll call you later, make sure to answer. I want to catch up.”

As he tries to leave by going around her, she latches a hand on his arm. He looks back at her and she stares up at him with pleading eyes. “Don’t-don’t tell people where I am. Please.” Slowly Jun nods his head once hearing her voice cracking. And he practically knows why. Her parents.

“I won’t. You can trust me.”

a u t h o r s  n o t e :

Well, he’s arrived for the first time. That’s right Jun has finally come into the story. And for the first time, a glimpse at their past. I hope you enjoyed. Comment what you think! :)

d i c t i o n a r y :

• Lotte World: a major recreation complex in Seoul, South Korea. It consists of the world's largest indoor theme park which is open all year around.
• Shagua: Idiot, used either as a term of abuse or jokingly between friends. Literally means, “dumb melon.” 傻瓜.
• 16 km: is about ten miles.

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