Song of chapter: Take On Me - A-Ha

Iris POV

This week went a lot quicker than I thought it would be. Mia and I spent practically every moment together right after I told her I was leaving. Yup, right after she hung up, she ran down four flights of stairs into our apartment and helped me go through some of my stuff.

It was amazing what we found; like our friendship bracelets that we made in the 3^rd grade and our Chris Brown concert T-shirts that we hand-made in from the 8^th grade. After that, our apartment quickly turned from a fully furnished apartment to an empty one full of boxes.

On the last night before I had to leave, Mia and I decided to have a sleep over at her house as my little “going away party”. We went up to her room and collapsed on the bed. Her radio was on and began to play, “Take On Me” by A-Ha.

“Ughh, I guess this is the last day I’ll be in here. Good memories, good memories…” I trailed off as I looked around. Mia didn’t say anything and began to cry. Mia isn’t the one to easily cry. So I turned to her.

“Mia…”

Take on me, take me on, I'll be gone, In a day or twooooooo…

Mia got up and angrily threw her pillow at the radio. The radio crashed into the ground and broke. “I know, you’ll be gone.. It’s TOMORROW!” and she began to cry even harder. I started to console her.

“Mia, I know. I feel as bad as you do. I don’t want to leave New York or you. But, we can Skype, Oovoo, Facebook, Tiny Chat, whatever every day, so it won’t seem like I’m even gone.” I turned her towards me and gave her a hug. “Instead of sitting here and crying, let’s make this the best night, so I’ll never forget it.”

She looked up at me, with her tear-filled, hazel eyes and nodded. That night was really the best night ever. Recounting of hilarious stories of adventures that we had made us realize how much we’ve grown up together. I’m surprised at how her parents barely yelled at us at how loud we were dancing around, but I guess that just for tonight they would let it slide.

-Next Day at the airport-

“Here’s your passport and your ticket and you can say goodbye to Mia while I go check-in,” Daddy instructed.

“Okay.” I nodded and turned towards Mia. It looked as though she was about to start crying. “NO crying! Or else you’re gonna make me start.”

Mia sniffled. “No, I’m not crying. Come here.” We began to hug and it seemed that it lasted forever.

“Iris, it’s time to go board the plane,” Daddy said and he turned to Mia. “Iris and I are going to miss you dearly. I hope you’ll stay safe and keep contact with us.”

“Yes, I’m going to miss you guys too and I’ll definitely keep in contact,” Mia replied.

“Okay, I’ll call you later.” I began to wave and walk away. Mia frantically waved back.

We walked through the terminal and boarded the plane.

Once in our seats, we heard the intercom come on. “Everyone, this is your captain speaking. We are about to take off on Air Korea. The flight will be about 18 hours long. I hope you will be able to enjoy your flight,” the captain said.

What? 18 hours long?! What am I going to do in the mean time? Might as well learn some Korean phrases or something, so I won’t look stupid getting off of this plane.

On the plane ride, I managed to learn greeting and some helpful words and phrases, like “Do you speak English?” and “Where is the bathroom?” I was getting some looks around me as I was pronouncing some of the words.

I knew I wasn’t pronouncing them right. Hopefully I won’t look like a fool saying these things, getting the pronunciation all wrong.

The lady next to me, one of the people who were giving me looks, turned towards me and began to speak. “I see you’re learning Korean.”

“Yeah, I’m trying to learn some helpful words or phrases. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t pronouncing them right.” She laughed.

“Haha, I noticed. You did pronounce some of them right but you pronounced this one wrong,” pointing to hello.

“Annyeeonhiseyo?” I questioned.

“No, it’s AnyeongHaSeyo.”

“An-yeong-Ha-Se-yo?”

“Yes, you got it.” And on the rest of the flight she helped with me with the other words I had trouble with. I found out that her name is Ms. Heebeom Choi and she has two children. She is also a Korean teacher at a high school called Shinhwa High.

I swore heard that high school name somewhere before.She seemed like a really good teacher with the way she was helping me. Her kids must loooove her.

Once the flight was over, I thanked her and Daddy and I got our stuff and got off the plane. As we walked out of the terminal, I noticed people began to stare at Daddy and me.”Daddy, why are they staring at us? It’s not like we’re doing anything.”

“Maybe it’s their first time seeing Black people.”

I start to laugh. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Yeah, that may be true. South Korea is very much of a homogenous country. All they see pretty much are lots of Koreans, or Asians in general. There aren’t that many foreigners that come here.”

“Wow…. Hmmm this will be interesting. So you’re telling me, that the chances that I will be stared at while I’m walking down the street will be very high.”

“Yup.”  

Huh, dang, okay.

“Oh, Iris, I have to call my boss to tell him that we arrived, so can you go to the baggage claim over there and get our suitcases?”

“Okay, I guess.”

As I walk over to the baggage claim, I feel eyes burning in the back of my head. I turn around and see a group of teens staring at me. I give them a small smile and continue walking and arrive at the baggage claim.

-45 Minutes Later-

 WTF?!?! Where is my suitcase? I found Daddy’s but where is mine?

“Iris, what’s taking so long? We were supposed to leave 15 minutes ago.”

“My suitcase is not coming out. I’ve seen the same ten suitcases, like a billion times.”

“Maybe they misplaced your suitcase……” Daddy trailed off.

WHATTT? I’m here for almost an hour in Korea and my suitcase is lost. UGHHHHHHHH KLDSJFKLADJSFKLJADSKLFJASKLDFJ… This is going to be “fun”.

A/N

I made this chapter much longer. Please comment and give me suggestions :3 School's gonna start soon, so I'll try to update as much I can before then. Ohhhhh and if anyone is good with making story posters and willing to make me one, msg me. Thanks :)