“Why island?” Jessica closed my bedroom door behind and joined me in the bed, eyes concentrated on the bright laptop screen of mine. “And why Greece? You seriously want to go that far just for a photo?”

“You don’t understand the feeling, Jess. You’ll do anything to win the competition if this was your career…” I scrolled down and had my eyes stopped at a single island. Well, Greece has plenty of amazing islands but this one got my attention the most.

Kythnos. The paradise in Western Cyclades. Like the internet had stated, Kythnos is a Greek island and municipality in the Western Cyclades between Kea and Serifos. It is 56 nautical miles from the harbor of Piraeus.

“But it’s 5313.5 miles away! Just to get that one photo? Why not just here? Korea has thousands of interesting places.” She protested. I faced her, “That one single photo is everything. And if I were to stay here, wouldn’t it be a cliché? Everyone will be bored if the participants’ photos are all from this country. I want to do something extraordinary.” I convinced her and seemed like it worked when she sighed, pouted afterwards.

“Fine, but promise me when you get there you will update your Instagram everyday so that I’ll know you’re okay.” We hooked our pinky fingers together and slightly moved them.

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“Good afternoon passengers. This is the pre-boarding announcement for flight 801A to Greece. We are now inviting those passengers with small children, and any passengers requiring special assistance, to begin boarding at this time. Please have your boarding pass and identification ready. Regular boarding will begin in approximately ten minutes time. Thank you.”  

After the announcement, I hugged everyone who came to send me off. By everyone I meant my parents, brother and sister, Jessica and her sister, Krystal. As I made my way to the entrance, I heard Jessica yelled like a mad woman coming out from an asylum. “Keep the promise, okay?” I showed her the ‘ok’ sign. “You better get good pictures and win this thing or else I’ll throw your precious Nikon from a 100-story building!”

This time I showed her my middle finger and was playfully scolded by my father.

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Arriving there I immediately plopped myself on the comfortable bed in one of the Porto Klaras Aparthotel’s room that I booked, the 11-hour flight was extremely tiring.  I took a nap afterwards, not forgetting to text Jessica and my family that I had safely landed.

After a while, I decided to travel around the hotel. I made myself look presentable so people wouldn’t ward off when they see me, of course not forgetting my favorite Nikon. It turned out that there was a party outside the hotel. It was an incredible view, teenagers everywhere, beers, swimming pools, bars, bakery stalls. I snapped a picture out of it.

 I zoomed it to get a closer look, it made me smile sincerely to see these happy teenagers having some fun. Then my eyes fidgeted on a girl in one of the bakery stalls in the screen, I focused on her, she was beautiful. But then reality hits me, the girl was here, just a few steps away from me.

As courage overpowered me, I strolled to her stall. She was baking something, a baker. As the oven rang, she took out the cupcakes from it. The aroma was indescribable; it was like describing the baker. Warm, beautiful, calm and… lonely. She jumped a bit when she noticed me.

“Hi…” She greeted, her voice was so soft that cat got my tongue, but I managed to greet her back to be polite. “Pos boro na sas voithiso?” She asked, which I didn’t understand a bit. “Errr…I’m…I, I just…” I lost control when panic struck. I saw how her expression changed from soft to hard, “Oh..a tourist?” She questioned in English. I nodded, but she seemed a little bit uncomfortable when she found