And when he was sad, I was there to dry his tears.

-Age 12-

Leah fidgeted again, finding it hard to be still, as she stood with the air hostess, waiting for all the unaccompanied minors to gather together. As they trudged in a two lines towards passport control, the air hostess leading them like a shepherd and her flock, Leah thought about how this had to be one of the reasons she hated actually travelling. The being shuttled back and forth from air hostess to air hostess, with a bunch of kids, or to be more accurate strangers. She hated how awkward she always felt within the large groups and, for possibly the millionth time in her short life, cursed the fact that she wasn’t older and could travel alone freely.
After passport control they were led to baggage claim and swiftly spirited away to a waiting area where parents and guardians would collect them. Leah yawned as she sat down, pulling her scarf tighter around her neck and stuffing her already gloved hands into her coat pocket. She was already freezing, having not thawed out from the compressed air of the flight, and she hadn’t even been outside. She looked through the windows at the unfamiliar sight of snow against the black sky of the night, and despite herself, felt a little thrill of excitement. It definitely wouldn’t be snowing back in Florida where her parents were. As soon as the though entered her mind however, she scolded herself for it, she wasn’t here to have fun after all. No she was here for Yong Guk.

“Song Leah”

She looked at the sound of her name towards she air hostess who had spoken and was now gesturing for her to come. Leah shot up immediately, grabbing her suitcase and backpack as she stood to follow the woman to her awaiting grandfather.
Leah ran into her grandfather’s arms, not in the usual way, where she simply had missed him. But this time it was because she wanted to feel safer, wanted reassurance. The look on her grandfather’s face had revealed nothing; he had simply hugged her back and grabbed her suitcase and her hand before leading them out into the winter night towards the car.

Leah and her Pop pop had been sitting in silence for the almost 20 minutes of their car journey and Leah decided this was as good a time as any to try and sleep a little. Her mind however, wandered back to Yong Guk and the reason she was in Korea as soon as she closed her eyes.

***Flashback***

Leah rolled over in her bed and stared at her alarm with a mix of anger and disbelief in her eye.

“I just fell asleep. How can you be ringing already?”

She mumbled groggily at the alarm clock as it continued to ring, each ring seeming to grow louder and more obnoxious. Leah stared at the clock, deciding that she hated it and huffed. She squeezed her eyes tightly and flayed her limbs in a mock tantrum; the stupid clock did not even have the mercy to pause its torture, but instead continued to ring and ring.

“Fine”

Leah bolted up in her bed; a frown embedded in her brows, and threw her covers off. She grabbed her towel from its usual spot at the end of her bed and slid out of her bed.

“You win again!”

She spoke again to the persistent alarm clock, which finally stopped ringing, as she manoeuvred her way through the boxes littering her bedroom. She still hadn’t unpacked, and she made a mental note to unpack as soon as she got home from school. She flopped down at her desk, slinging her towel over her shoulder, and switched on the computer. Logging in quickly, she clicked on her email shortcut and signed in.
Leah felt her stomach twist unexpectedly as she found what she was looking for, absentmindedly rubbing her stomach and dismissing the knotted feeling as hunger, as she clicked on her only unread message in her inbox.

Leah couldn’t deny the feeling of warmth which spread over her as she pressed play and Yong Guk’s face filled her screen, his voice spilling out from her speakers.

“Ria, it’s another new day at another new school. So you are nervous right? But here I am to tell you that it will be fine. You’ll make friends in no time being your awesome self”

Leah laughed at the face Yong Guk pulled and the girly voice he imitated when he spoke the English word. She assumed the awful impression was meant to be her and the smile on her face only widened at the realisation.

“So, just go and kick and Skype me when you get home, so you can tell me how it all went. Okay?”

Leah found herself nodding in confirmation at the recording as the video faded to black, leaving her with a smile on her face and the feeling that she could conquer the world.

When Leah got home from school that day she all but sprinted to her computer, barely saying hello to her mother in the kitchen, eager to call Yong Guk and tell him all about the day she had. When the call went unanswered she cursed softly with a smile on her face.

“Aish, this boy, always late”

Leah quickly typed a message. Gukkie, call me when you get this, okay. So much to fill you in on. Pressing send she sat back in her chair, looking at her room she decided to start unpacking while she waited for him to call back.

Leah wasn’t even aware of the fact that she had fallen asleep; she couldn’t even remember crawling under her covers. However soon she was being gently shaken and the voice of her father was piercing her dreams.
She sat up and shook her head, trying to shake away her post sleep fog.

“Appa! What are you doing home so early?”

She smiled at her dad as she spoke, her tiny arms attempting to wrap around his waist and her pulled her in for a warm embrace.

“Honey, we need to talk”

Her father’s voice was soft as he spoke, but Leah caught the way he glance nervously back her mother who seemed to have taken root by her bedroom door, her slender body slumped against its frame.

“We have some…news from Anyang”.

Her mother hesitated over the word news, as if not completely sure she was using the correct word to convey what she wanted to say. Leah looked from her Mom to her Dad and back, quickly registering the looks on both their faces, and immediately feared the worst.

“Are Gran gran and Pop pop okay?”

Her little voice shook as she queried, her parents demeanour only serving to heighten her fears.

“They’re fine…”

Her father hesitated again before he spoke, but Leah noticed the slight stress he had placed on the word they’re.

“There’s been an accident”

Leah watched her dad as he spoke slowly, choosing his words with great care, not wanting to cause his daughter too much alarm.

“What sort of accident?”

Leah couldn’t mask the look of genuine confusion on her face as she looked at her parents.

“Jaewook was driving home and…”

Leah’s mother’s voice faded away as she felt a lump forming in .

“Jaewook? As in Gukkie’s Appa?”

Leah felt, rather than saw, her mother nodding her head slowly. Her weight pressing further into the doorframe.

Leah stared at her parents, the sting of unshed tears already evident in her eyes, before she spoke again. Her voice shook, betraying the fact that she was afraid of the answer he question would get.

“What happened?”

Her father squeezed her hand gently before he spoke again.

“Jaewook was driving home, a drunk driver ran a red light and collided with his car…”

There was a pregnant pause as Leah waited for her dad to continue, sensing that there was more to the story, her little hands going pale from the grip she held on her father’s hands.

“Ji Eun and Yong Guk were in the car as well”

Her mother’s voice was all but a whisper, but it was still the last thing Leah heard before her world went black.

***End Flashback***

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Reupload of my eaten chapter from the AFF crash ^^