Wed, 23 September 2015

Hey Mum

You wanted me to keep you updated on what I get up to while I'm in Korea studying, so here's my first message. I don't know how often I'll send them -- how often do you want me to?

So, today was my first day in Seoul. I'm so tired, I just want to sleep. But, I have to finish unpacking my clothes. You brought me up to be responsible, after all.

The Chois are nice. That kid you said was only a couple years younger than me? It's pretty much two years difference, and he seems alright. He's called Hansol. (He calls himself Vernon, though. And romanises his last name as Chwe.) He helped me set up my bed. They've also got a daughter, but she's really young.

Mr Choi wants me to thank you for sending him money to buy me furniture, by the way.

I don't have much else to tell you about. I should have saved up to buy a better plane ticket, like you said. My back hurts from the seat and my meal was cold. Hindsight's 20/20, I guess.

I have to finish unpacking, so goodnight!

- Your lovely son, Joshua

Message sent

Joshua powered down his laptop and slid it under his bed. It would have to do until he got a desk - if he ever bothered with one. He pondered what his mother's reply would be, probably something about how he should take the oppurtunity to see if either of his soulmates were in Seoul. Yawning, he stretched and caught sight of the thumbprint mark on his heel. He scratched the back of his left knee, where his other mark was located. Very few people had two marks, signifying two soulmates.

He'd come to Seoul to gain new experiences and a deeper understanding of the Korean culture -- if he ended up finding one of his soulmates that'd just be a bonus.

He considered just going to bed then and putting the rest of his stuff away in the morning -- his mother would never know he hadn't done it immediately.

Joshua scratched the back of his head and regretted dying his hair orange when he felt the dry strands. He'd done it a couple of days before leaving LA, and it looked good so he supposed it was worth it -- but the damage.

He realised he was still in the clothes he'd gotten dressed into after his flight, and decided to get changed into pyjamas. As he was rifling through one of his suitcases, looking for any loose shirt he could wear to bed, he noticed just how many clothes he had to unpack.

Definitely a job for tomorrow, he told himself. He hadn't been careful while he'd been going through his stuff, so his clothes were unfolded and scrunched up amongst each other. Like a snake mating ball. He chuckled at his own humour, and pushed the top of the suitcase down with his foot.

Vernon had some loud friends.

Joshua heard them from his room the next day, not too long after school would've let out. He got up to investigate after hearing Vernon ask if he was home. What would the kid want with him when his friends were there?

Then Joshua heard Mrs Choi say something about snacks, so he went to the kitchen hoping to find some. Just as he entered the kitchen, the Chois' little girl -- Sofia? (he wasn't sure, he hadn't said more than a handful of words to her) -- and Mrs Choi left the room.

Now he was left with Vernon and his friends -- what if the reason Vernon wanted to know where Josh was was so he and his friends could make fun if him? Joshua took a breath to calm himself down, knowing he was being ridiculous. Vernon seemed like a nice kid, he wouldn't do that.

Thankfully, Vernon introduced them before things could get too awkward. "Joshua, these are my friends Seungkwan and Mingyu. They're English isn't great, so just speak Korean." Vernon made no indication which of the boys was who, merely gestured in their direction, but the taller of the two had the sense to raise his hand at the name "Mingyu". Then, Vernon turned to his friends, who were sitting in the kitchen counter next to the cheese and crackers Mrs Choi had prepared. "Seungkwan, Mingyu, that's Joshua," Vernon stated simply.

Joshua, Mingyu, and Seungkwan exchanged hellos, before Joshua decided screw it and went over to grab a snack. What's the worst that would happen -- one of the boys told him the snacks weren't for him?

"Joshua, Vernon tells us you're here studying?" Mingyu asked, his open mouth revealing a mix of mushed up crackers, cheese, and ham.

Joshua nodded, unsure of how else to answer. The kid probably didn't really want to know and was just asking to be polite. After a moment, Mingyu pressed further. "What are you studying?"

Joshua felt his eyes widen -- he really wasn't sure of the pronunciation of the Korean word for nutrition. It wasn't something he'd really said before, and he'd only seen it written down a handful of times.

"Oh. Um, nutrition?" He glanced to Vernon to make sure he'd gotten it correct. Vernon nodded and Josh continued, "I want to be a nutritionist. I believe it's important to eat right and not enough people know how to do that, these days."

Vernon's other friend Seungkwan nodded emphatically and dramatically exclaimed, "Finally, someone understands!" Joshua found himself amused by the guy's... enthusiasm.

Vernon's phone buzzed, and he pulled it out of his pocket. Joshua listened as the three friends discussed some sort of event. As they were talking, Seungkwan pulled Vernon close to him and settled him between his legs, hugging him to read over Vernon's shoulder.

Joshua assumed they were a couple --they were pretty cute together -- and was impressed Vernon hadn't mentioned his boyfriend last night while they were setting up Joshua's room. Most teenagers couldn't help but bring up their boyfriend or girlfriend in every conversation.

"Joshua, do you wanna come watch a dance showcase Saturday if I can get enough tickets?" Vernon asked.

Joshua thought it was weird Vernon had asked him -- they'd only known each other for a day and hadn't really talked all that much. It was likely Vernon just wanted to get to know him a little since Joshua would be living with his family.

"Sure? I guess, I don't mind watching people dance."

Vernon's phone buzzed again, and Seungkwan read off that their friend's dance instructor would let six people in. Food sprayed everywhere as Mingyu hollered, "We all get to go!"

Joshua found a glaring hole in the plan -- permission. He cleared his throat. "I'd hate to play the boring older person role here, but don't you all have to ask your parents?"

Both Seungkwan and Mingyu whipped out their phones, while Vernon shouted through the house. Mrs Choi called back that Vernon could go, and the other two put their phones away, looking satisfied.

"It's settled, we've got a group outing Saturday," Mingyu remarked coolly as he started cleaning up the chunks that had flown out of his mouth.

"That reminds me Josh, usually on weekday mornings our whole group meets up at a nearby cafe one of our friends works at. He's in uni, too, and he's pretty cool. You wanna join us tomorrow and meet the whole gang?" Vernon asked.

It sounded like a pretty good idea, meeting someone his own age he could possibly strike up a friendship with. He shrugged. "It couldn't hurt."

The next morning Joshua and Vernon left for the cafe at seven thirty. Conversation was awkward and jumped from topic to topic before they settled on talking about chocolate. It took them around fifteen minutes to reach the cafe, and once they entered Vernon led him to a fairly large table, where Mingyu and Seungkwan were already seated.

Vernon called a greeting to the other two people in the cafe (Junghan and Dokyeom, apparently), who were cleaning the area around the cash register. Vernon and Joshua sat down, and exchanged hellos with Mingyu and Seungkwan.

Fairly quickly, one of the guys at the register rushed over with a pen and pad.

"What can I get for all of you this morning?" he asked lazily, already writing something down. Vernon, Mingyu, and Seungkwan recited different types of coffees, with strange alterations that were clearly just to make whoever's job it was to make the coffees more difficult.

"I'd actually like some cake," Joshua said when all the faces at the table turned to him. He stood up to have a look at the display cases, and stepped on the waiter's foot.

"I'm so sorry," Joshua apologised, he'd stepped back with all his weight.

The waiter clutched his foot in his hand, hopping up and down slightly, and cursed up a storm.

Joshua grabbed his chair, having to right it after knocking it over from jumping off the man's foot, and offered it to him. The younger guys sitting at the table burst into laughter.

The waiter sat down, still clutching his foot. He was ethereal, now that he didn't look to be in immense pain. He had long hair ehich was tied back, and a part of his long fringe had escaped to frame one side of face, making him look delicate and a little androgynous.

"My goodness, I'm so sorry," Joshua apologised again, the words falling out of his mouth. He hoped they were enough for the angel to forgive him.

A light dusting of pink graced the waiter's cheeks. "It's fine, I shouldn't have been so close."

The other guy that had been at the register quickly appeared, an icepack in hand. "Junghan, what happened?" he asked. He passed the icepack to Junghan and crouched down to be closer to Junghan's level.

"Joshua stepped on my foot, it isn't a big deal," Junghan explained, tone dismissive. He pulled off his shoe and held the icepack to his foot.

Dokyeom glanced at Joshua's feet. "Are you sure you're fine? His soles look three centimetres thick!"

Joshua groaned internally. Trust today of all days to be when he chose to wear a pair of his dress shoes an attempt to look smart and tidy.

"I'll be fine. If my foot starts feeling really bad I'll call Jihoon in and go home for the day," Junghan waved Dokyeom off. Dokyeom nodded, seeming to approve of Junghan's decision. Junghan sighed, "You really are my idiot, aren't you?"

"So, Joshua, where's your thumbprint?" Seungkwan asked, abruptly changing topics.

Joshua forced a coughed and revealed he had two. He wasn't sure how having two soulmates was accepted in South Korea. They all gasped, and Mingyu excitedly asked where.

Joshua shifted his weight, and scratched the back of his neck. "One on the back of my knee... The other is um, actually on my heel, where I stepped on Junghan's foot."

Seungkwan looked horrified. "And you weren't going to ask where his was?"

Joshua had stepped on plenty off feet, many of which he'd never be able to tell who they were connected to. "I've accidentally stepped on plenty of feet?" he answered.

Vernon looked like he understood. Seungkwan, not so much.

"Some people wait their whole lives for their soulmate, and you're going to not ask? You could've already accidentally stepped on your soulmate's foot and have no idea!" Vernon's boyfriend exclaimed passionately.

"Are we all forgetting Junghan has a thumbprint on his foot?" Mingyu asked, redirecting everyone's attention.

"Really? Do you want to check if my actual thumbprint matches the one on your foot?" Joshua asked Junghan. It was too good to be true, his third day in Seoul and Joshua might've already met one of his soulmates.

Junghan gave a disheartened smile and shook his head. "Like you said, you step on plenty of feet - it probably doesn't."

"It'd be stupid not to check, knowing we both have a thumprint in the places we first made contact," Joshua reasoned.

Seungkwan said something about apples and initials, then Vernon suggested they look at the marks and compared them to each others thumbprints.

At Vernon's suggestion, Mingyu and Dokyeom got up and raced over to the cafe counter where Joshua supposed a case containing a tray of ink and a clear plastic card were kept. Most buildings of any sort, as well as trains, buses, and other forms of public transport, had at least one.

They were used to check if someone's thumbprint matched the mark on another person's skin. Some people even carried them around in case they met their soulmate while they were out and about.

Well, that was how things were in America -- he couldn't imagine Korea would be much different.

The two boys brought the case over while Junghan removed his sock. Joshua brushed his right hand off on his jeans, and took the case from Dokyeom.

Josh remembered back in middle school, when they'd learned about soulmates they'd been taught the thumbprint your soulmate got a mark of was the one on your dominant hand. So, he opened the case, pressed his right thumb onto the inkpad, and pressed his thumb onto the clear plastic card. Junghan picked up the card and put it against his foot, inkside up, so he could look at the lines of the ink on the card and the mark on his foot.

"Mingyu, come over here and tell me if they match up. I can't bring myself to check." Junghan sounded as nervous as Joshua felt.

Mingyu stepped forward and crouched down to examine the lines. "They match up fairly well, I'd say. I can't see a single bit of the marks underneath. You should probably switch and check if Junghan's thumbprint matches the mark on Joshua's heel." Mingyu got up out of the way so the two could do so.

The two switched and Mingyu stepped back towards them again and checked. "Looks like a match."

"Guys, if we don't hurry and leave now we'll be late," Vernon announced. He, Dokyeom, Mingyu, and Seungkwan got out of their chairs and hurried to the door.

Vernon hung back after the others walked out. "Joshua, will you be alright with Junghan walking you home after his shift ends? I'm sure you'll want to get to know each other."

Joshua nodded. Chances were good that Junghan was one of his soulmates, but they should get it confirmed by a specialist. Even if they turned out to not be soulmates, it would be good to have a friend.

"Actually," Junghan grimaced, "now that Dokyeom's gone I'm going to call in Jihoon. My foot feels like something's broken."

Joshua placed a hand on Junghan's arm, feeling guilty that he'd possibly majorly injured the man's foot. "I'll go with you, we can get our prints looked at by a professional while we're there," he suggested.

Junghan nodded. "That'd be nice."

"You two are already sickening," Vernon remarked before exiting the cafe.

Junghan laughed at Vernon's back, and Joshua couldn't help but join in because Junghan's laugh was literally ahahaha.