Four hours later the alarm went off. It was finally time to start our journey. I put on sweat pants and an oversized t-shirt, completing the look with an old baseball cap. Jenny came out of the bathroom and gasped when she saw me “What are you wearing?!?!?”, she looked absolutely horrified. “It’s seven in the morning, I could care less what I look like right now” I grumbled back. Jenny shook her head in disapproval “No-“, her words were interrupted by her mother yelling “Girls come on it’s time to go!” Jenny squinted her eyes giving me a dirty look “Fine I’ll let you go this time, but don’t even think about EVER dressing like that in Seoul!” she mumbled before grabbing my hand and pulling me down the stairs.

In no time at all we were at the airport. Jenny’s parents said their goodbyes and embraced both of us warmly before returning home. After a few minutes Jenny and I boarded the plane; in about fifteen hours we would be in South Korea. It was the longest flight I had ever been on. We were offered food and drinks, but I refused all of it. I hated plane food, and every time I got on a plane I would get sick. I knew that if I tried to put anything in my stomach, even if it was water, it would come out. I decided to watch some movies, but after watching three movies I started feeling sick. My head hurt and my eyes stung. I finally put in my earphones and closed my eyes. I must have dozed off for a little bit because I was dreaming. In my dream I could see my parents, they were calling out to me but I couldn’t reach them….I looked down and saw that my feet were glued to the ground. When I looked back up, they had started to fade away “please don’t go” I cried; but it was too late, they were already gone. My eyes shot open, I was still in the plane. It was dark, and most of the people were sleeping. I turned over to look at Jenny, she too had on her sleeping mask and was fast asleep. I closed my eyes and leaned back into my seat, I thought about my parents….who were no longer alive.

My parents had met each other in college. My mom was Korean (Song Yi) and my father was Italian. My mom had come from a very rich family in Korea; she was an only child and had everything she wanted in life. She loved to travel and often spent her time traveling abroad, especially during her college years. During her last year of college, her parents informed her that she was to be married the next summer…..it was an arranged marriage. Song Yi was shocked, she tried to talk her parents out of it but it was impossible. My mom had always dreamed of marrying someone that she fell in love with deeply. However, she would not be able to accomplish this dream; instead she was to be married off to one of the richest families in Korea. She only met the guy she was to marry once….he was shorter than her, and almost ten years older. However, because of the respect she had for her parents, my mother finally decided to accept her fate of a loveless marriage under one condition: her parents would allow her to travel abroad one last time.

With a heavy heart, Song Yi packed her bags to travel to Italy for a semester. She had decided to focus on her studies and nothing else. One day she had just finished classes when it started to rain outside. She stood there wondering whether she would wait out the rain, or make a run for it. She had just decided to make a run for it when suddenly she felt someone come next to her. She turned to see a tall, handsome, Italian man smiling down at her. “A pretty girl should never have to walk by herself in the rain” He said as he opened up his umbrella and held it over my mom’s head. My dad escorted my mom to her room, then he told her that he hoped to see her again soon. As he turned around to leave, my mom could see that the right side of his body was completely soaked. For the first time since the announcement of her marriage, Song Yi laughed. My parents did end up meeting again, and soon they had formed a strong friendship. My mother once told me that they would meet up to talk about everything, yet nothing at the same time. She said that one day I would understand what she meant by that. Soon, they both fell deeply in love with each other. My mom had found the love she had always dreamed of, and now that she had it she refused to lose it.

At the end of the semester, Song Yi went back home and told her parents that she had found someone she loved and that she refused to go through with the arranged marriage. When her parents refused to listen to her, my mom decided to break off the engagement herself. Her parents were so enraged that they disowned her. Song Yi left Korea, vowing that she would never return. In less than a month my parents were married. Eventually they had to move to the U.S. because of my father’s job. By that time it had been a year since my mom had left Korea, she was starting to feel depressed. Thankfully she was reunited with Jenny’s mom. They had grown up together and lived in the same neighborhood until their senior year of high school. Then Jenny’s grandparents decided to move to the U.S. and our moms had lost contact with each other. Everything was perfect, until that one night my junior year of high school. That day was my parent’s wedding anniversary, so they went out that night. On their way back home it started to rain very badly. A driver lost control of his car and crashed into my parent’s car…it was a head-on collision…..nobody made it out alive.

I was at home alone working on a school paper when I got the phone call that my parents were in the hospital. I drove as fast as I could; I didn’t know the details, I just knew that they were both in critical condition. I parked just as the ambulance was coming in. I ran across the parking lot praying that they would be fine. However, when the paramedics brought out the stretchers, their bodies were already covered with a white sheet. Never in my life did I cry as much as I did in that moment. The rain was pouring down my face, mixing in with my salty tears. After that night, I haven’t been able to cry anymore. I couldn’t even cry at their funeral, not even when the caskets were being lowered into the ground….I just couldn’t, I felt like I didn’t have any more tears left to shed.

My mom loved the rain, she said that she felt like smiling every time it rained. However I hate it, I feel like crying when I see it. The rain had brought my parents together, but it had also taken them away from me……………… My thoughts were interrupted by the captain’s voice “Ladies and gentlemen, we will be arriving in Seoul, Korea in an hour”……..