I’ll admit it, I giggled a bit. Ee-toogh? Uki’s name was a bit strange, but Ee-toogh is downright weird, in a funny way. I bit back a smile and waved at Ee-toogh, who was still staring at me. Creeper. “Hi Ee-toogh. I’m Taryn,” I said slowly, stifling my giggles.

His eyes suddenly lit up with recognition. “Hello!” he said in a bright voice that sharply contrasted his earlier tone. “My name is… Ee-toogh,” he pronounced with a terrible accent, bowing a bit.

Sheez, what is it with Koreans and bowing? Already two people have bowed to me, and I haven’t even been conscious for a full ten minutes yet!

Then what he said hit me, and I burst out laughing, covering my mouth with my hands and leaning against the wall for support. Yes, I’m mean. But I don’t really care right now, it was just too funny! And I don’t even know what was funny about it! “Henry,” I gasped breathlessly, “tell him I already got his name from you.” I sank down into a sitting position, trying to stifle my laughter, ignoring Henry scolding me on how rude I was.

Seeing how I wasn’t responding to his lecture, Henry shut up and simply relayed my message to Ee-toogh. I glanced up at him long enough to see his face turn bright red. He mumbled something that sounded like “Sorry” or “Shorty” or something along those lines and quickly scooted around me to disappear behind one of the other doors that lined the hallway.

My giggles successfully conquered after another minute, I pulled myself upright just as Henry said from the shoes-level by the door, “Ryn, I have to go out for a few. Stay here and make yourself useful, okay? Oh, and put on a real shirt. Tank tops are considered scandalous here with how much shoulder skin they reveal.” With that final remark, he finished pulling on his shoes and said something to Uki and Alex in Korean while placing a black mask over his mouth and nose. I could only stare slightly openmouthed as the door swung closed behind him, leaving me here alone, in a strange apartment in a strange country with a bunch of strange people whom I didn’t know. Wow, way to kill my mood, you idiot.

My mood officially soured by the famous Korean idiot known as my brother, I turned my back on Uki and Alex and grudgingly went back down the hall, thinking, Well, at least I know the reason Leeteuk was staring at me for so long now. Apparently, I was ‘scandalous.’ Weird Koreans. I grabbed an oversized T-shirt from my backpack and pulled it on over my black tank top from yesterday. At least, I think it was yesterday. I looked at the clock sitting on the table between panda-person’s and clothes-person’s beds and saw a bright green 6:17 blinking back at me. Appalled, I stared at the number. Why the heck did my phone not wake me up an hour ago?! I still need to get my run in! It's a very, very bad thing if I don't run in the morning!

One hand was already unconsciously on my duffel bag before I remembered that Henry told me to ‘stay here’ and ‘be useful.’ Going for my daily run would neither be staying here nor making myself useful. Plus, I didn’t know my way around the city yet and I could get seriously lost. Not to mention, I breathe pretty hard during my runs and all of this yellow dust and mask crap could seriously wreck any chances of getting in a good run. Chancing a peek through the curtains of the window, I groaned when I realized I could barely see the street through the yellow haze. Guess I’m not going outside today.

Suddenly, I heard two voices holler my name simultaneously. “TARYN! Get your out here and help us!” “I hope you know how to set a Korean table!” Uki added as Alex went silent.

I cursed Henry with all of my silent strength as I went back to the kitchen area and was immediately assaulted by the smell of cooking rice. Rice? For breakfast? Weird Koreans, rice doesn’t belong with breakfast? It belongs with the occasional dinner!

Uki turned at my entrance, uber-long chopsticks in one hand and the lid of the pot in the other. Is she cooking with chopsticks? I wondered. What happened to spatulas and spoons? “Good, you’re here,” she said curtly. “There are bowls in the cabinet right by the fridge, and chopsticks and spoons are in the drawer right below that. Everyone gets a stainless steel spoon, a big black bowl and a smaller white bowl, and a pair of the stainless steel chopsticks, but get out more of the big white bowls for kimchi and rice and dokbokki and such. Make it so fifteen people can squeeze around one table. Actually, fourteen. I don’t know whether or not my brother is coming over. Actually, thirteen. Who knows when your brother will be home? Wait, right? Thirteen? Nope, Heechul won’t be here so just twelve.” She paused and took a huge breath, then continued, “Leave plenty of room in the middle of the table because that’s where all of the food is going to go. I think about ten bowls will do for the middle of the table, but stack them over here and not actually on the table. Make sure the big black bowl is in the middle, with the smaller white bowl to the left and the spoon and chopsticks on the right, with the spoon closer to the bowl. You got all that?” She slammed the lid on that pot down and opened up another to peer at the contents.

I just stared and nodded slightly. How can such a little girl talk for so long? I walked into the kitchen, feeling like a total intruder. “How old are you guys anyway?” I asked, opening up the cabinet and grabbing a stack of black bowls.

Alex answered, “Well, in North American terms I’d be…wow, 23 I think? Gosh, I’m so old!” she laughed, sliding some onions into a pot with her knife.

“How are you old? In North America, you’d be so young!” I exclaimed, setting the bowls down on the oversized coffee table turned meal table and making sure they were spaced evenly before heading back to the cabinet.

“It’s just the way Koreans consider age. Remember, you’re in a totally different culture right now,” she replied, stabbing at the contents of the pot with her chopsticks for emphasis.

“Oh. Then Uki, how old are you?” I asked, catching a runaway bowl before it rolled off of the counter.

“Um, twenty I think.”

“Wow! You’re younger than both Henry and that Leeteuk guy, and they practically bowed in submission to you!” I marveled, starting to place the white bowls around the table.

I heard her chuckle. “Well, I'm not working on my PhD in law for nothing I guess.”

I nearly dropped my stack of bowls. “P-PhD?” I spluttered, regaining my hold on the pile. “But, you’re like ten years away from a master’s! How can you already be working on your PhD?!”

“Well, I’m smart, so I went to the States and England to study and get my degree. Actually, we both went abroad to study, that’s the only reason why we know English,” she replied. “Why? How old are you?”

“Sixteen,” I said, placing the last bowl down and going back for the silverware.

I felt them both stare at me as I opened the drawer and started pulling out random chopsticks. “You’re kidding,” Alex said. “You’re so skinny, I thought you were twelve!”

“I get that a lot. Henry says it’s because I have a baby face.” Then I mentally smacked myself as I started pairing them up according to the patterns on the tops of the chopsticks. That’s what I forgot to do! Put on makeup! Ugh, you idiot. Oh well, it’s not like any guys would willingly wake up at 6:30, so I’m safe for now.

Suddenly I heard a loud male voice say, in terrible English, “Hoo ahl yu?”

~~~~~~

Well, now you know why the Korean fans always scream when K-pop idols show their shoulders during concerts :) Anyway, I hope you guys like this, it’s a lot more dialogue heavy than the last chapter. Sorry it's a bit late, I was debating whether or not I should even update today. And I really hope I represented Uki and Alex okay, if not just contact me and I'll work on it. FYI: ‘Hoo ahl yu’ is my representation of ‘Who are you.’ And honestly, I’m not sure if I should even bother to say ‘please comment’ because even though I have almost twenty subscribers already, I’m lucky if I get two comments per chapter, and that makes me sad :(