meet bae joohyun

introduction

***

“Welcome, Thailand!”

Lisa immediately assumes she has been duped. This is not the woman, her expected landlady, who she was in contact with via Skype. The short stranger in front of her has a cropped mousy brown hair as opposed to the medium jet-black waves that Lisa had seen on her laptop screen.

Is this some kind of scam where she will be lured into the promise of accommodation?

She shakes off the scenario. She blames the too many nights she has spent on binging true crime series and documentaries.

It’s only been an hour and a half since she has landed in Seoul, and her mind is already making plans to book a return flight to Bangkok.

“Am I at the right address?”

“You sure are.” The stranger plants her hands on her hips, gleaming at Lisa with an infectious smile. Her cheeks puff up like a hamster’s would upon storing nuts in its pouches for winter. In this stranger’s case, she could be storing up happiness in her cheeks with how bright she’s smiling.

Lisa picks at the strap of her body bag. She’s reasonably apprehensive in trusting someone other than her landlady in a foreign country, but she still brushes past the glass double doors of Taejiri Apartment & Guesthouse, hauling her two suitcases, to follow this stranger who could be mistaken as a seventh grader. The woman is so small that her hoodie appears to be swallowing her whole.

It doesn’t take long for the stranger to register the uncertainty in Lisa’s hesitant strides to the lobby when they have gone through a second set of doors with a dedicated electronic lock. Probably because this entryway is strictly for residents only to have privacy from the people checking in at the guesthouse.

“Ah, you must be looking for Miss Landlady. She had to attend a last-minute family thing, so she gave me instructions to have you settled.”

A handwritten letter is passed onto Lisa, a brief explanation of her proprietor’s unforeseen absence scribbled in purple ink. Her signature is drawn at the bottom to prove its authenticity, which she remembers during their electronic contract signing because of its uniqueness (it looks a lot like a rabbit). Attached at the back is a photograph of her landlady and Miss Hamster Cheeks holding out a peace sign like it was captured just hours ago.

For Lisa, the letter is legitimate proof. Her alarm bells did ring at being blindsided by the unexpected situation. But she has had last-minute family occasions herself so she doesn’t worry about her potential feature in a true crime podcast. She can finally relax her shoulders.

“How rude of me!” Miss Hamster Cheeks suddenly spins on her heels, taking one of Lisa’s suitcase with a carry-on bag’s strap looped around the legs of its handle. She untangles it while tutting at herself. “I should’ve helped you with your luggage from the beginning.

“Thanks um…” The stranger has never mentioned her name, and Lis