(Gonna be using a floating timeline, guys. Events, ages, etc are probably not going to be totally accurate to the actual present time. Keep this in mind, XOXO.)

Present day
Phoenix, Arizona

"You should really throw this away, Rach." Her room mate chided, holding up a small white, taped shut box. She jostled it back and forth, and held it up to her ear, asking what was in there anyway. 

Rachel shrugged, and motioned with her hand for the box. She and her room mate, Christina, had been slowly but surely going through the contents of their attic storage since graduation last year, in hopes to turn the upper area into a game room type setup, complete with pool table. 
It had been 3 weeks of cleaning the storage boxes so far, and it was not even half finished. But then again, what could be expected from 5 plus years worth of hoarding? It wouldn't have surprised either of them if they found an actual mummy buried in the midst. 
She ripped open the box with a kitchen knife, and sneezed. The place was full of dust. Christina crouched down and pulled out an ancient looking laptop, only to feign it breaking her arms with its weight.

"What the hell is this? Oh my God. How old is this dinosaur?" 
Rachel laughed out loud. It was her very first laptop that her dad got her in Korea. She told that to Christina, who hefted it back and forth in her hands, examining the thing and wondering out loud if it still worked. Rachel said she doubted it.
"It hasn't been used in forever, since when I first moved to Arizona. Its probably long dead."
Christina opened its lid, and pressed the power button. Nothing. 
"Told you."

Again, the pressed the button but this time held it down, and the screen blinked to life, causing her to almost drop the beast on the floor. Critical low battery.
Christina clapped her hands and pointed at the screen, then dove for the wall charger, not wanting the last bits of the battery to leave the computer fully and completely dead. Charger in hand, she found no outlet and swore outloud. Rachel eyed her as she scooped up the laptop and darted down the stairs, collapsing in the floor in front of the first outlet she noticed. 

Rachel laughed a little bit before calling down, "Are you OK? You know, the thing is probably so old it won't actually function."
Christina was an IT major, and Rachel knew it was a moot point. She saw her room mate staring at the old ThinkPad laptop like she had found a real life unicorn. While any technology beyond everyday things annoyed Rachel, Christina loved all things of that nature and it looked like this would be no exception. She didn't even bother to ask if she could try and get the thing running, she dove into it like a hungry kid diving into a free buffet. 
"I heard these old ones were supposed to run forever," Christina said, resting the laptop on her crossed legs as her fingers flew across the keyboard, "it looks like it probably still works, if the dust didn't get inside somehow and corrode things."

A beeping sound came next, and the old Widows start up sounds chimed throughout the room. Rachel grinned. "Well damn, who would have thought. I actually had forgotten all about the thing til just now. Can you see if any of my old pics are in there still?"

Christina knodded and Rachel sat down beside her, resting her chin on her knees as her room mate clicked around the file folders. Within a few seconds, both girls were laughing as they scrolled through the many photos. Rachel's hair, which had darkened to more of an auburn with age, shown almost orange in the old photos, and usually in an uncontrollable mass of spirals and curls. Rachel made it a point to straighten her hair almost daily as an adult now, and only a few people knew that her hair was naturally curly. Christina was one of them, but it didn't stop her comments.

"Wowwwwww, that is some serious hair. Like really, its so......big. Bigggggg."
"I know. I was there, with it on my head, every single day. Why do you think I love the flat iron so much?" Rachel quipped with a smile and then caught her breath at the sight of one photo. It was her and Seunghyun, her once uopn a time best friend during her time in Seoul. She hadn't thought of him in so long, years even. She stared at the image with fixed eyes, as a flood of memories poured over her. They had exchanged emails as a way to keep in touch after her family moved back to the states, but like so many things in life, they had drifted further and further apart as time went on. Emails became less and less frequent, and Rachel's Korean also spiraled downward without daily use. By the time she finished high school, they were no longer in touch with each other. She remembered making a new email account when she got her next laptop and that was the end of things. 

The other girl elbowed her, "Hello, anyone home? I asked who's the guy?"
She blinked as she came back to reality. "Someone I went to school with there. He kind of got me through the first part of that year, til I learned the basics of everything."
"That's sweet," Christina said in an absentminded voice, "I wonder if this thing can still connect to the internet. I don't even think they had wifi capabilities on everything but let's see."

Rachel wondered what her old friend was up to these days. The very last email he sent her, he said he was working on some big stuff in his life and that it was basically some win all, lose all type stuff. He had joked that he was going to end up famous if that 1% worked in his favor, and he would finally be able to pay for her trip back to Korea. It made her feel a tugging sadness at the way their friendship had fizzled out due to life and distance, at the way that the feelings she had felt for him went from a burning flame of realization forced into ashes in the span of a few days due to fate. 

"Oh , I've got connection!"
Christina's eyes grew large, and she turned the screen to face Rachel just as the oldschool AOL 'You've got mail' theme sound played across the speakers. 
"You've got mail, that's for sure. 5,753 to be exact."
Rachel reached for it and took the computer from her lap, glancing at the emails. It was spam city by the looks of things. Christina's phone rang and her room mate sighed, looking at the device and seeing her sister's caller ID, already started to stand. "I'll be back, I gotta answer of she will just keep calling me til I pick up."

The laptop was now sitting in the corner of her bedroom, charging via wall plug as Rachel mindlessly watched TV while scrolling through FaceBook. She couldn't get Seunghyun off of her mind since seeing that photo of the two of them together. Where was he? What was he doing right now? Did he even remember her? She scoffed at herself. This was stupid, if she barely thougth of him in the past half decade then odds are his thinking was minimal, too. She twisted a lock of hair around her free hand, staring into space for who knows how long until it dawned on her. Check the old email. 

No. If anything about this entire thought process was stupid, this was the top of the stupid pyramid. And even if his old email address was still in her original one, what were the odds that he still used the same one and even moreso what were the odds that if she found it and sent a reply, he would respond. But what if.......what if. 

"Agh, why not, then I can just trash the whole thing and be done." Rachel said to herself as she quickly flipped the lid and pulled up the AOL mail home screen, accessing the inbox and going to the 'search inbox' feature. She typed his first name, pressed enter and watched as the screen populated with 6 messages. New, unread messages, one of which was dated just 3 months ago. Her hands shook as she click-opened the oldest of the 4, dated a little less than a year after what she had assumed was the last email he had sent her, 6 years ago. Seeing her old, Korean nickname brought a faint smile to her lips as she read it outloud to herself.

Bora,
Last time we talked, you told me you were expecting some big news about university acceptance. I hope you got into the one you wanted, and that life is being good to you. I also hope you forgive me for loosing touch for a while. Remember that 1% thing I told you about? I think its actually happening ^^. Crazy right, but I promise I'll send some more stuff about it in the next email when things are confirmed. Tell me how things are there? Did you burn to death in the desert yet? Or did you finally move away maybe?

Another one, dated almost 6 months after the first.

Bora,
You never replied to my last message. I'm not sure if you're mad at me for not talking to you for so long, but please don't be. I wish I could really talk to you and explain everything, you would understand then. I hope you will reply to this one, or at least find a way to call me. My number is still the same.

Rachel's brow furrowed, as if she could remember a phone number from almost 10 years ago when she could barely recall what color shirt she wore last weekend. But no words could express how bad she wanted to split open her skull right now and pick through her own brain to at least try to find the long forgotten number. She felt tighten at the thought of it actually being her who had given up on their friendship, given up on anything that could have come from it, even by assumption and mistake. 

The third was dated from about two years ago, and Rachel was shocked to find that the email itself actually fell on her birthday.

Bora,
I feel like I should call you Rachel now. Because after all these years, I'm sure that is all you go by and its just me alone hanging onto old memories. I don't know why I keep emailing you, knowing you won't ever respond. I've wanted more than anything to hear your voice sometimes, just to have someone around me who knew me before things changed so much, to have a little piece of reality to ground me. I'm aware I don't even know you anymore thanks to time, but I miss the memory of you a lot. I don't think you ever searched for me, but I've searched for you....I think you're the same ghost that you were in Seoul, low tech, am I right? I know you haven't searched for me, I just have a feeling, but give it a try. You can find almost anyone on the internet these days ;)

She chewed on her fingernail out of habit. Search for him? She was almost afraid to see any results, becaue as the email said, she only had the idea of Seunghyun anymore. The present day stuff could and would easily ruin that notion. She didn't know if it was really worth it, but then again was it really worth it NOT to?

That last email. She would check the last, and newest message before she bothered with any internet creeping. Rachel glanced at the window and noticed it was already dark outside. She had been sitting here, shut in her room like a total weirdo going through an ancient email account because she had absolutely zero life. That was exactly it. 

The last email prefaced no name or any pleasantries as the others before had. It only listed a phone number, and that there would be no more emails after this one. Rachel instantly knew it was a South Korean phone number. Her heart raced, should she call it? What the actual hell, though, what type of creepy , stalker female would call someone like this after so many years and say what? Oh hi, remember me? Come on. She gnawed on her fingernail and remembered the thing the other email said, search for him. 

"No, if I search, I won't be able to call. Might as well call. The number might not even be his anymore, let me do this and put the thing in the dumpster in the morning."

She dialed the number, knowing she had the ability to call internationally, but hung up after one ring. She also felt like she might puke, her hands were shaking, and she had to give herself a little pep talk about getting it together and to think that he sent her this number, just do it. Just. Do. It. She dialed again, and waitied.

(***let me know what you guys think so far ^^***)