Part 2: 어디에서 왔는지

There was no avoiding it. Unless I wanted to be late for class or wake up early, I couldn’t avoid him. I wasn’t completely sure I’d avoid him even if I did those things. Not forever, anyway. I figured I might as well get straight to it. I’d just pretend that I wasn’t completely humiliated. He’d never know. It could kind of be like our rite of passage, anyway. Right?

I got out of bed, got dressed, brushed my teeth, did my hair, and left. I exited those glass doors and, without fail, there he was, coming out of his dorm at the very same time. And he just stood there for a second looking at me like I just did a magic trick, and since I’d expected him to act like nothing happened, I stood there like a damn fool, too. Then he left without saying a word, leaving me more embarrassed than before. How ugly must I have looked yesterday? I don’t look ugly today, I mean what’s his problem?

Before I knew it, I was robotically following behind him, lagging behind by ten feet. I really hoped he wasn’t going to be like this every morning, giving me chills. He must think I’m pitiful. I couldn’t bare it, following behind, trying to avoid looking at him, only to look down and see his dragging feet. It was driving me insane!

That day after classes, when everyone was going to eat dinner with friends, I was out in the busy street, busking for the school music club. It didn’t matter to me that I performed with all my other club mates. If we were performing together, it only mattered that we all did well. We all rotate with the solo performances, anyway.  As long as I killed it on my own turn, there's no problem. When my turn came around I sang a relatively old Korean song. I got a lot of attention since I’m a foreigner. Maybe my pronunciation was off. No one even expected foreigners to be out busking in the first place, so it’s not like it mattered that much. What I didn’t expect was to see that guy, Jinwhan, watching solemnly from the back of the crowd. Why did he have to look so concerned? The song I chose might have been sort of melancholy, but nothing was wrong with me! I was even doing well that day, yet there he was, avoinding eye contact like I was begging for change. And then he left. He and three of his friends left in the middle of my first song. That was the final straw. I couldn’t take this anymore.

The next morning, I woke up, hastily got dressed, brushed my teeth, did my hair, and I left my building. There he was again, but this time he’d come out before me. He’d stopped to look for something in his bag. When he found it, he looked up, saw me and froze just like yesterday. For a moment he looked like he wanted to say something, but instead he turned, and started walking to class. I couldn’t stand him. I trailed after him still, steaming.

“Hey! Um…” I’d yelled in Korean before I knew what I was doing. He stopped and turned around slowly as I closed the space between us, trying to figure out what I even wanted to say.

“Yeah?” He’d said as I got closer. Why’d he have to look so scared? He looked like he was in trouble, like he got caught and I had a yard stick in my hand.

“Um… What’s your name?”

“J-Jung Jinhwan,” he blinked as he tried to speak coherently. His voice was way deeper than I expected, and now that I was closer to him, I had to look up to meet his eyes. “Why? Oh, um, what’s yours?”

I told him my name. “I just, um…” I think I had initially called him intending to him out, but now I just couldn’t. Not while he was cowering like a scared dog. We just stood there, staring at each other speechlessly.

“Should we… walk to class together?” he asked painfully. I could see him begging God I’d say no.

“Sure.”

+

It was a slow and awkward shuffle to class.

“We might as well be friends,” I suggested. That would be the only way. We had to get rid of this stiff tension between us.

“Huh?” he looked at me incredulously.

“We see each other every day. We should be best friends by now. Don’t you think so? You’ve even see me cry now.”

There he was, mentally kicking himself.

“What? If you don’t want to, then forget it.”

“No, I just,” he sighed, “I didn’t even know you can speak Korean. You usually seem so bright. And all I could do was give you tissues. Sorry”

“You feel bad? Geez…” I’d forgotten that he might still be embarrassed himself.

“Well… how old are you?”

“I’m twenty-one.”

“Oh. Me too. I guess that really makes us friends.”

“Whoo!” I let out a sigh of relief. “What are you doing after class today? Let’s go get a drink to make it official! It’s Friday, after all.”

“I don’t know,” he looked off into the distance. “I told my friends I’d meet them today.”

“You met them yesterday though. I won’t let go what happened unless you drink with me today.” I wasn’t about to fall into the trap of putting things off indefinitely. It may be my first time in Korea, but I caught on to that trend pretty quickly. "Come on, it's on me."

“Yeah, okay,” he sighed. “Where should we go?”

I was honestly excited. I didn’t expect him to say yes since he’d looked so hesitant. I wasn't very good at making friends, and this just seemed like a given.

I may have been a little too excited. “Aren’t you from around here? You should know some good places, right? What do you drink usually? Beer? Soju, right? Hey, let’s go to a dance club!”

“I'll pick, okay? Just let me think about it."

As we approached our separating point, he stopped and turned to me. "Is seven alright?” I could suddenly see a sparkle in his eye. I could only hope that meant he was as anxious as I was.

“Deal!” I must’ve expressed my victory pretty obviously, because I swear he snickered just a little bit. It was the first time I heard him laugh. It may have been at me, but I wasn't complaining.  

~ + ~

A/N: I totally forgot I was posting this story!

To those who were waiting, I'm so freakin sorry.

My actual life in Korea is actually a lot more dramatic than this one.

So please understand. Lol

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