It had already been 6 weeks since Alice had moved to Korea with her family due to her father’s reassignment to a new branch office. She knew there were a lot of rules in the Korean society, after all her mother was Korean, but now that she lived there, there was a lot more she had to learn as she constantly got into trouble. Alice had always stood out, even back home, it just was her nature. At home her outgoing personality helped her to make friends, but here it didn't seem to be so. Whenever she was in a crowd she felt alone and seemed to stick out, she couldn't really find a way to connect with the people in her class. So she spent more and more time at home and begged her mom to be homeschooled. Alice had hoped that her mom might give in to her pleas, but it wasn't an option after all. Her mom wanted show her off now that she was back in Korea and had to meet her old friends again out of curtesy. Alice had heard the stories before and she knew how important all this was to her mom and since all the trouble her mom had to face was kind of due to Alice she felt like she owed her mom.

Back when her mom was still in her twenties she was young and very beautiful. Her family had high hopes for her, but she fell in love with a young American boy, who was an exchange student. Her mother's family opposed their relationship, but her mom didn't care. Even her friends made fun of the couple and kept telling her: "You'll see someday he will leave without a word and you will never know what happened." Alice was so proud of her mom because she believed in her love and felt they could overcome anything as long as they stayed together and relied on each other. Her parents always believed in love even when he had to leave because his father got sick and he had to take over the family business until his little half-brother would be old enough to do so. Her father’s family had some complications as well, but back then he had no other choice than leaving. Before he did leave he still promised Alice’s mom that he would be back to Korea as soon as he could and that he would definitely marry her once that time came.

Yet before that time arrived Alice’s mother found out that she was pregnant. It was a scandal, her family hated her and her friends her. She became an outcast and there was nothing she could do about it. She had no way of contacting Alice's father until a letter from her loved one arrived and let her believe in their love once again.

The letter explained that Alice’s father had to travel all around the states for the past few months to catch up on business, but he had finally settled in LA and just had dreamed of the two them living there and celebrating Halloween with a little baby girl. He invited her to come live with him. He hoped to marry her no matter where and he believed the dream could become reality. It was easy for Alice's mother to pack her bags back then and just leave for LA to meet Alice's father. She couldn't bring herself to tell him she was pregnant before, so he was surprised when he picked her up at the airport. "Your dream might come true even faster than you ever believed", she told him. Alice's father was overjoyed and so was his family. Especially his father because he gave up his hope on ever meeting any of his grandchildren. Alice's mom was welcomed and her father's stepmother took great care of her, she even arranged a nice wedding, after all she was great at planning events and parties.

It was a nice and small ceremony and Alice's mother loved the intimacy of it although she was quite frustrated when she found the original big plans her mother in law had made but put on hold due to the fact that none of Alice's Korean part of the family responded. It was a magical autumn wedding. Finally Halloween arrived and as a magical extra it became Alice's birthday. Her family was overly excited and Halloween became their favorite holiday. There were really big parties and everyone enjoyed it.

Now that it was nearing her first Halloween in Korea Alice started to miss her home even more. She wished for her friends and her grandma and uncle, but she knew it was important this new branch office was for the family’s company she had spent more than enough time with her father and uncle while helping them out at the head office and her father, the person with the best business sense she knew, was given his own branch office. It was the first of their company and strategically best placed in Korea and with her father as the head of the office it just couldn't fail. But although she knew all that she just hated it here. She was way older than everyone in her class she was almost twenty after all. She was homeschooled when she was little until she wanted to go to high school, like all the kids did  and she decided to repeat a year then, because she wanted to start with class in which everyone was new. Later on she took a one year leave together with a friend, so the two of them could travel Europe with their parents and learn even more about the family businesses. It was no joke back then, they were treated like everyone else on the business trip and it was hard to keep up sometimes, but it showed Alice the real world as her father always said. And he was right, she had learned more than she could have imagined. It also helped her in school because she was more determined than ever. But now here in Korea all the kids stared at her. She was too colorful whenever she said something and she was ranked as the best in her school. Whenever she tried to get close to someone they shut her out and she couldn’t think of anything to do about that. Her mom had also changed since coming here, she had just been on edge and tried to fix broken ties even though Alice’s dad didn’t want her to try so hard. He had told Alice not to worry too much about her mom, he believed she would realize her mistakes soon enough and turn back into the mom she had always been.

When Alice came home from school that day her mother was already waiting for her, for the first time since moving to Korea her mom seemed more like her easy going, relaxed and loving self. "So, your birthday is right around the corner and I was wondering what kind of party we are having this year.” Alice’s mother started the conversation over lunch, but she continued before Alice even had a chance to respond: “I know I have been a little irritated lately and I haven't been paying much attention to you. I'm sorry about all that, but I never thought I would find myself back here in my hometown. I had to meet my family all by myself, since they kicked your dad out of the house before we even entered it after we just arrived here. That is why we had to stay in a hotel before finding this apartment. It is just so difficult for me to be here and I automatically try to fit in and make good with my family and all my old friends. That is also why I put so much pressure on you, I realize that was wrong and I’m really sorry. I know you have been in a lot of trouble lately, I guess the lifestyle here doesn't suit your personality, so you're not adjusting really well. I wasn’t considerate enough of your situation as I tried to fix all the things that broke before I left, but I finally came to a conclusion, which was long overdue: I’m me, I always cared about the ones I love and I will always do so. I found a job that is suited for me by designing clothes and taking care of you. Now your father even got his own branch office. I think that had been overdue as well, but you know he didn’t want to leave your uncle alone too soon. Those two are just little idiots, when it comes to those things. You know the business better than I do, no wait, better than they do. I bet you could lead your branch office by now and it would overtake their branches really fast. After all you are the best of me and your father combined and I haven’t shown you that lately."

Alice had to smile that was her mom, the one she knew and loved. "Don't worry mom, I know you love me and I get why I have to go school, but you're right I'm not really great at adapting to living here and since all my friends are still so far away I just want to spend Halloween with you and dad and I wanted ask grandma and Uncle Joe to come as well. I think we could have a great family party with a lot of decorations although this place is so small compared to home.", Alice told her mom her feelings honestly and continued: "Oh, don't worry, I know that it is a lot to ask grandma and Uncle Joe to come all the way here, but they at least deserve an invitation, so they know I miss them."

Her mother smiled, she knew how much Alice wanted to go back and hoped that the surprise she was planning would be finished in time, but as a mother she couldn't believe that her usually so wild and creative girl was confining herself at home and didn't find friends at school. "That sounds great! A whole family day should be fun, but I'm still curious, isn't there at least one friend you could or would like to invite?”, Alice's mother had concern written all over her face, but Alice just shook her head to all the questions. So her mom continued: "Well, I know you like a lot of K-pop artists, so isn't that something you could connect with your classmates about?" Alice grinned her mom was right she loved K-pop and she especially loved a group called Got7. "Oh yes I do have some I love. Oh, I bet you know my favorite group! Mom, you know the one called Got7? Maybe you remember Mark, he used to live next door to us back in LA. It was a long time ago, but we used to play a lot."

Her mom thought about it and smiled: "Yes, of course I do remember him. Mark was such a nice kid. He took care of you and acted like an older brother, he was so protective. And I remember how much trouble you caused him. He was always so quiet and you were like a tornado dragging him along with you. It was amazing how you two got along even though you have a five year ." Her mom giggled at some memories and had a feeling it would be nice to get the kids back together again. "How about this? The two of us will go shopping for Halloween decorations tomorrow and then we will see whether we can find a concert or something we could attend. So when Mark sees us in the crowd he will have flashbacks and you two can get closer again.”, Alice's mom proposed with a wink. This plan sounded so great Alice got all excited and started laughing at her mom's ridiculous idea that Mark could recognize them.

After the two of them finished eating. Alice went to her room again and planed on how to decorate it. She hadn't even unboxed anything other than the clothes and books she needed, but she knew that there was no way back to LA, so she might as well begin to make this her new home. Then she proceeded in sending her grandmother and uncle an invitation. She even thought about adding her Korean part of the family in the invitation, but decided against it since only her mother met them out of courtesy and they didn't seem too eager to meet Alice anyway, so why should she invite them? While waiting for a response to her invitation Alice had a funny idea, well her kind of put it in her head, so she searched for an old picture of Mark and herself and she looked for a recent one of herself, then she got into one of the Gor7 fan sides and started to write a fan email to Mark to which she attached the two pictures.

Mark was playing with his hand phone, when a notification popped up, informing him of new fan mail. He wasn't sure when he last looked at them, so he opened it up and saw a lot of unread emails. After scrolling through them he almost closed the program again without reading any of the mails once again, but then there was one topic that caught his attention. "Happy Halloween!", was the subject of the mail. It made him remember the time when he still lived in LA. Back there the neighbors were good friends with his parents. There lived a Korean woman there and she had helped Mark quite a lot in the beginning of his career and the little girl that became another little sister of his.

Mark had to snicker he had loved Halloween as a kid. Dressing up as a monster, scaring his siblings and friends while getting scared in revenge and going out for trick or treat with his younger siblings and of course the little girl from next door. Afterwards there was always a big party at his neighbor’s house, as the little girl was born on Halloween. This little girl loved Halloween even more than he did. He smiled at the memories that came up in his mind as he remembered how that little girl could never wait for the holiday and dressed up monster costumes every day a week before. Mark finally decided to read the email, after all there were still a few days left until Halloween, so he was curious who else couldn’t wait for Halloween anymore. Maybe his sister was playing tricks on him again. He opened the email and started reading:

Hey Mark,

How are you? I mean how are you for real? I’ve been seeing you a lot on TV or more exactly on youtube. I know we lost contact quite some time ago and I believe you get so many emails that you just try to avoid reading any of them. Well I hope you will notice this one, after all you love Halloween almost as much as I do (or at least I hope you still do), so I guess you will be wondering who can’t wait until the actual day itself before wishing you a “Happy Halloween”. :D

Well I hope you do remember me. My name is Alice and I used to live next door to you in LA. You were my big brother back then and I think you still are. Well the reason I am writing you now is actually kind of silly. If you do remember it is great, because I know you will laugh at what I am about to write. :D

So my family (well only my mom, dad and I) just moved to Korea and it has been so stressful! I don’t actually fit in here and so I wondered how you coped with adapting to this Korean lifestyle. I just constantly get into trouble (well not that that was different in LA, but here it is just me on my own that is getting into trouble) and all that doesn’t even help with making friends here. Well mom was also irritated this last few weeks, so she couldn’t really help me, but I think it is getting better now. Today we talked about how irritated she was and she told me she was fed up with trying to get her parents approval. She promised me we would go shopping for Halloween decorations and I still need at least one new monster outfit for the party. It’ll just be me and my parents and if I’m lucky my grandma and uncle may come as well (oh and if Halloween is just as magical here in Korea as it is at home [I still mean LA by that] maybe even you will come). :D *No now that I actually think about that I realize you wouldn’t come alone, you would come with all your bandmates of Got7 and you all would sing me at least one song before we have a really fascinating party like they have in movies.*

I’m getting of topic here! So what I actually wanted to tell you is that mom and are planning to go shopping and she wants us to come to one of your Got7 activities, like a fan meet or a concert or something like that. I bet she is already planning the flashiest outfits she can come up with so you will definitely notice us in the crowd and then you will have crazy flashbacks on stage and won’t be able to concentrate anymore. :D And then after your event she said you would come find us and we would be reunited as the most troublesome pair of the neighborhood.

Alright a lot that is just my imagination, but believe me, my mom is set on getting back in touch with you. She is just worried because of me and she will try anything to make all this being in Korea and being way too old for school better. So please don’t mind her when she gets in touch with you after all I’m giving you a big heads up here, so use it wisely. :D

Now I’m finished with my warning and I’m curious whether you remember me or believe me or just think: “Wow that’s a crazy fan!” (Be warned about one more thing: I am a really crazy fan! After all who apart from your siblings can say: “Hey that one up there is my big brother, he is the coolest one!” and who else but me could say: “He loves Halloween as much as I do and I am the only one who can get him to scream.”) And just in case you don’t remember me or you don’t believe me I have attached two pictures to this email, one is from our childhood together (and just be nostalgic it is of course from our last Halloween together before you left for Korea) and the other picture is me as my “I’m almost twenty and in desperate need of new monster outfits” self.

So I wish you a magical “Happy Halloween” and I can’t wait for what might happen next.

Alice.

Mark couldn’t believe his eyes. It was her! The little girl from next door. The tornado in a human disguise. He laughed out loud when he saw himself as a mummy standing next to a zombie bride. “Whoa, don’t scare us like that!”, Jaebum yelled at him everyone in the living room of the dorm turned to look at Mark. Mark needed a little to realize he just started laughing out loud, so everyone could hear him and since he had been quiet for so long they all may have already forgotten about him. “I’m sorry Jaebum. I didn’t mean to do that, I just got to see something I had almost forgotten and now I finally have a reason to really celebrate Halloween again!”, Mark explained his behavior before he stood up and left. The others in the room were still stunned by Mark’s action, but there was nothing too weird about it, so they just left it at that and continued doing what they had done before.

Mark on the other hand had a new mission, although Alice had written him to warn him of her mother, he was now determined to reunite with the little troublemaker and really curious to see where the tornado would drag him to now.