Abigale got out of the airport and took a deep breath. She was finally in South Korea. When she was younger her grandmother used to tell her all sorts of stories about her home country though she knew since then it had changed a lot, she was glad to finally be here even if it was only for a week. She walked her suitcases over to the curb and stuck her hand out to hail down a taxi. When one pulled up next to her, Abigale put her purse on the luggage cart as she helped the driver put her bags in the trunk of the car.

            After the luggage was in the back, she turned to find her purse missing. She wondered if the driver had put it in the back with the rest of her luggage, but the trunk was already closed so she decided she would get it back when she got to the hotel. “Where to miss?” The driver asked and Abigale gave him to the address to the hotel her parents had set up the reservation at. She looked out the window of the taxi as they drove to her destination. The whole time she was enraptured by the city around her as they steered past markets and office buildings. She wondered if when her grandmother was younger if she had also visited Seoul and if it were a lot smaller than it is now. Being the big city that is so well known around the world it was probably bigger than her grandmother’s village but still significantly different from how it is now.

            About a 35-minute ride later she finally arrived in front of the hotel she climbed out of the back of the taxi and went to the back to unload her bags. Unfortunately for Abigale her purse was no where to be found. When she asked the taxi driver if he had seen it when they were loading her bags into the car, he just kept repeating no. This wasn’t good it had almost all her money, cards, passport, identification, and phone in it. Abigale paid the taxi with the little money she had in her back pocket and figured she would just check into her room and call her parents to ask for help and see if they could send her some money somehow until she was able to find her purse. She walked into the hotel wheeling her luggage beside her, only having 1 big suitcase and a small one made it easy to do so. At the front desk, the receptionist asked for her name, “Abigale Smith” she responded.

            “Ah, yes we have a reservation for you for a single room with a queen-sized bed. Can I see your identification please?” The young lady responded.

            “Oh, um well my bag got stolen at the airport, so I don’t have my identification on me.” Abigale bit into her bottom lip with her teeth.

            “I am sorry ma’am without identification I can’t check you into the room.” The receptionist replied.

            “Please if I could just use your phone, I can call my father and he can sort this all out.” She pleaded with the woman.

            “I am unable to do that ma’am it is against our policy.” The girl gave her an apologetic look. “I suggest going to the police station and reporting your stolen bag. They should be able to help you and once you get your identification back, we can check you in. I will make a note here for them to keep your reservation until further notice due to your stolen purse.” She started typing something into her computer and Abigale just deflated into herself. “That is all I can do to help you I am truly sorry ma’am.”

            “Thank you it is better than nothing I guess.” She responded to the younger girl and began to walk out of the hotel. What was she going to do now? She had no clue where the nearest police station was to the hotel, her phone was in her purse so she can’t just look it up, and she doesn’t have enough money left in her pocket to do anything except maybe buy herself something to eat. Abigale started walking aimlessly hoping to just happen across a police station. She somehow ended up in a park. It was not terribly busy today which didn’t surprise her in the slightest since the time meant most kids were probably in school and the adults were probably at work. She looked around for a bathroom because she hadn’t been to the bathroom since about halfway through her flight here and she thought she was about to explode.

            Coming across a building that had bathrooms in it she went inside the door and the first thing she saw was a young man at a urinal. I walked into the men’s room she thought to herself right as the man noticed her and yelled. She ran out of the bathroom covering her eyes and repeatedly yelling sorry in her best Korean. She knelt down about 15 feet from the door and just took a deep breath. That was when she realized she was in a foreign country with no money, no way to contact her parents to let them know about her stolen purse or ask for help, she had no place to stay, she was completely lost, and top that off she just walked into the men’s bathroom by accident. Abigale started to get scared that she would be stuck here and began to cry. She isn’t used to doing so much alone. She usually always had her parents or friends to rely on and now here she was lost and alone.

            Unknown to Abigale the man she walked in on had come out of the bathroom and was slowly approaching her. He noticed that she was crying and didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t leave her there when she was crying so he crouched down next to her and tapped her on the shoulder. “Um excuse me miss.” She pulled her face out of her hands and looked at him.

            “I am sorry for walking in on you. I thought it was the girl’s restroom.” She tried to explain having trouble finding the correct Korean words. Abigale had been struggling to completely understand everyone today. Her grandmother had taught her some Korean when she was younger, but she died when Abigale was only 9 so she only knew the little bit her grandmother taught her and the 1 semester she had had so far in college of it.

            “It’s okay really.” The man said in perfect English. “Honestly, it is nothing to cry over.” Abigale looked at him wide eyed her tears still sliding down her cheeks.

            “You know English?” She said surprised. He smiled and nodded at her.

            “Please stop crying. No harm no foul. It is not like you are a stalker who walked in on purpose and got caught.” He joked.

            “I am not crying because of that. I mean yea that probably has a small part in my crying, but it is more than that.” She buried her face back in her hands and letting the tears fall freely.

            “What’s wrong? Are you not feeling well?” The man asked her.

            “No, I feel horrible. My purse was stolen, I can’t check into my hotel because all my forms of identification were in my purse, I am lost in a foreign country, and I just walked into the wrong restroom. This is the worst day of my life.” Abigale cried out letting out all her stress while confiding in this stranger. He looked up and saw the bright pink luggage sitting next to her not having noticed it before. “Please just ignore me. I am just going to stay here for a while. Sorry again for walking in on you. I promise I didn’t see anything, so you have nothing to worry about.” She hated crying in front of people, but she just couldn’t stop herself.

            “I can’t just leave you here crying. Especially knowing all that.” The man said and placed his hand on her back gently rubbing up and down trying to calm her down. He tried to think of a way to get her to stop crying. “You know I heard it’s good luck to walk in on a young man in a public bathroom in a foreign country.” He joked trying to get her to smile. Abigale turned her head and looked at him like he grew 3 heads. “Yeah, sorry that wasn’t as funny as I thought it was once, I said it out loud. Hey, listen let me help you. I can take you to the police station to file a report on your missing purse. How does that sound?” he gave her a big smile and it was at that moment Abigale realized she had just been ugly crying in front of a really handsome guy. She wiped the remaining tears away from her face and sniffed a bit trying to calm herself. The young man handed her a handkerchief, which she used to clean her face up.

            “You would really do that for me?” She asked him and he nodded his head. “Why?”

            “Not every day I get to help a pretty girl out I guess.” He joked which made her smile a little, as her cheek started to heat up a little bit. “There is a smile. My name is Vernon by the way.” He said as he stood and reached his hand out to her to help her stand up.

            “Abigale” She reached up and took his outstretched hand allowing him to help her stand properly. After her was sure she was stable on her feet he took his hand back and grabbed her suite cases.

            “My car is this way.” He smiled at her and started walking in the direction he had gestured to with his head. Abigale followed him and when they got to his car, he opened the door for her then went to put her luggage in the back of his car. She slid into the seat and closed the car door. She may not know this man but all she can do right now is trust him because otherwise she would most likely be sleeping on the streets tonight and she was pretty certain that was illegal in Korea. Vernon got into the drivers’ seat and started the car. “Buckle your seat belt” he reminded her, and they were off.

            About an hour later they had filed a report with the cops about her purse using Vernon’s phone number as a contact number for if they found it and they were walking out of the station together. “You still don’t have a place to stay tonight, do you?” he turned to her looking worried. She shook her head. “Well, I talked it over with my parents while you were filling out the paperwork about your purse and they are more than willing to allow you to stay in my little sisters room.” Abigale looked at him surprised by the offer. “That’s if you want to of course.” He added scratching the back of his head. He didn’t know what had come over him he wasn’t usually this awkward around girls. “I mean you will have to stay somewhere I can find you anyway encase they find your stuff since they have me as the contact, right?”

            “That would be really nice. Thank you.” She smiled at him and he gestured towards his car again.

By the time they got to his parents house it was already dark and only a couple of lights were on. “They are probably asleep already because they have to get up extra early.” Vernon said as he was getting her luggage out of the back. “Don’t worry I will be staying tonight, too.” He walked towards the front door and Abigale followed him.

“Do you not normally stay at your parents place?” She looked at him quizzically as he opened the door.

“No normally I stay in a dorm, but I don’t want to leave you alone with my parents until I have at least gotten the chance to introduce you to them.” Vernon lead her down the hall and put her bags in a room. “This is where you will be sleeping if you want to freshen up the bathroom is the door right next to you on the right. I am going to go downstairs and make us some food. I am sure you haven’t eaten all day and must be starving.”

“Thank you so much for all of this Vernon. I really do appreciate it.” She gave him her sweetest smile and he stopped and stared at her for a long time. Abigale couldn’t help herself as she reached forward and brushed some of his hair out of his face. The movement knocked him out of his stupor.

“Um it’s not that big of a deal.” Vernon moved his head to whip his hair out of his face. “It’s the least I can do for making you cry after all.” He joked before scurrying out of the room leaving her there shaking her head and rolling her eyes. They were quiet while they ate trying to keep from waking up his parents and they both went to bed right afterward.

The next morning Vernon quickly introduced Abigale to his parents before rushing out the door for a schedule he had to go to. She spent the first part of the day contacting her parents and letting them know what was going on. His parents offered to let her stay until she was able to get her stuff back and her parents told them how much they appreciated their help taking care of their daughter. The rest of the day was spent talking to Vernon’s parents and learning Korean recipes from his mother while helping her make the meals throughout the day.

As they were finishing up making dinner Vernon came back through the front door. “I’m home.” He yelled from the door as he took off his shoes and slipped his feet into a pair of slippers. “What smells so good?” Abigale was setting the table when he walked into the room and she smiled at him before continuing her job.

“It’s your favorite dear. I have been teaching Abigale some traditional Korean recipes and I figured why not make you favorites for dinner and teach them to her.” His mother said making him roll his eyes.

“Eomma, please don’t make it sound like you are teaching my future bride things.” Vernon whined and his mother just chuckled. They all sat down for dinner and as they started to eat, he spoke up again. “So, I never got around to asking you this yesterday but why are visiting our beautiful city of Seoul anyway?” He looked at her with a curious look.

“Oh, so my parents bought a strip mall, and they are renting it out to Korean shops so our city can have a little Asian market in it. I came here to talk to some businesses about getting them their supplies more easily and as often as they need them.” Abigale put a bit of kimchi in .

“Why a Korean market though instead of Chinese or Japanese?” Vernon’s father asked.

“Because my grandmother was Korean, and we wanted it to be Korean in memory of her.” She played with the food on her plated for a little while Vernon and his parents exchanged a look.

“That is so nice of you guys to do. I am sure your grandmother would have loved it.” He broke her out of her thoughts of how she wished her grandmother were still alive so she could show her the plans.

“I don’t understand why your parents sent you over instead of coming themselves though.” His mother looked at Abigale with a tilt of her head.

“Oh, that is because I am going to college for business and they figured this would-be a good experience for me. Plus, they bought the strip mall for me and I feel like I should do everything in my power to make sure my little business project goes well without having to rely on them anymore than I already have to. Abigale confessed shocking all of them. Vernon smiled at her realizing it was probably her idea to make it a Korean market.

“Wow you are like the perfect child.” His father joked.

“Right” Vernon’s mother looked at him. “She would make the perfect daughter in law for any mother.” Abigale watched as he rolled his eyes and giggled a little.

“Shouldn’t you say something more along the lines of she would make the perfect wife mother not daughter in law.” He said and his mother shook her head.

“I don’t care how she treats you just how she treats me.” His mother responded and Abigale smiled watching them argue. They were a nice family and she really enjoyed spending today with them. Later that night Vernon got the call about Abigale’s purse and the police delivered it to the house for her. With her purse back she would be able to check into the hotel, but his parents told her to stay one more night since it was already dark, saying that Vernon would give her a ride back into town the next day, and since she didn’t want to argue with them, she agreed.

After Vernon’s parents went to bed, she walked into the kitchen and started to towel dry the dishes from the drying rack above their sink. “What are you doing?” he startled her out of her thoughts.

“Finishing up the dishes and putting them away.” She replied and looked at him when he leaned against the counter next to her.

“You don’t have to do that you know. You are a guest here.” Vernon tilted his head as he watched her continue.

“I want to do it. I feel bad for intruding into your parents’ home, but they refuse to let me pay them for letting me stay and feeding me.” Abigale pouted. He smiled at her pouty face and started to put the dishes away that she had already finished drying.

“You don’t owe us anything. We were glad to help a damsel in distress.” He joked and she nudged his shoulder with her own as they started laughing. After the finished with the dishes, they spent to the early morning hours just sitting at the table talking about their lives and family.

The next day she thanked Vernon’s parents again for being so nice and allowing her to stay at their lovely home. He drove her to the hotel her parents had booked for her. Abigale helped get her luggage out of the truck even though he tried to smack her hands away from helping him. “Thanks again for all you have done for me, Vernon. You are an amazing person.” She smiled sweetly at him. He stared at her smile a little longer than necessary then shook his head bringing him out of his thoughts.

“It was nothing that anyone else wouldn’t have done.” He said back returning her smile with one of his own. She couldn’t help but want to swoon at that smile. “See you round Smithy” He joked with her before getting into his car. As Abigale turned to enter the building, she heard him call out to her. She turned back around and walked over to his open window. “Actually, I was wondering what your number was so maybe we could have lunch or maybe dinner together sometime while you are still here.” She watched as he bit his bottom lip.

“Are you sure your fans would be okay with you having lunch with a nobody like me.” She joked back having learned yesterday that Vernon was in fact a rapper in a kpop group named Seventeen.

“Honestly, I don’t give a damn if they care. I want to see you again.” He admits with a cocky grin on his face. Her eyes widen in surprise at his statement, but then she reaches into her purse for her notepad and pen and writes down her number before ripping out the page to hand to him. When his hand was on the paper, she didn’t let go at first and he looked up at her.

“Careful if they heard you say stuff like that, they would blame me.” She joked letting go of the paper and stepping back from the car.

“Don’t worry I would protect you.” He winked at her before driving away. With a smile on her face and a skip in her step Abigale walked into the hotel knowing that wasn’t the last time she would be seeing of Vernon.