“I heard you give that couple directions and I heard you order your drinks.  You answered the barista and conversed.  You speak Korean quite well,” he said looking at me.

            Liah smiled widely.  “She’s been studying for over a year now.  Some even on her own.  She’s super smart.”

            I felt my face blush and I shot an embarrassed glare at my best friend.

            “What are you doing here in Korea?” he asked simply, still looking at me.

            “I’m an English teacher at a preschool,” I said.

            “You see,” he began again.  “One of the bands is looking to release an ‘all English’ album next year.  The members have been taking English classes, but from a Korean teacher.  I think it would help if they had a native English speaker teach them, too.  I think it would be easier on the teacher if she spoke some Korean because she might have a better understanding on the differences between Korean and English.”

            “I work until 5 Monday through Friday and I have Korean class three days a week.”

            He smiled.  “That is not a problem.  If it’s ok with you, you will tutor them from 7 to 8 during the week and then from 10 to 12 on Saturday mornings.”

            I hesitated.  I did want a way to bring in some extra money.

            “If we feel you are a good match as a teacher, you will be paid 50,000 an hour.”

            My eyes lit up.  “I’ll take the job.”

            I blinked the memory out of my head and stopped in front of one of the large mirrors in the subway station before I looked for exit four.  I adjusted my messenger bag.  I didn’t know what to bring since I assumed today would just be a meet and greet sort of thing.  I didn’t have enough time to prepare a proper lesson or anything.  I didn’t even really know what he wanted me to do.  Maybe this was a stupid idea.  I didn’t know these guys.  I couldn’t even remember the name of the band.  I knew they were huge and I’d probably be tarred and feathered by a mass of kpop fangirls for not knowing more about the band.

            I wondered if I looked the part of a teacher.  I wouldn’t in the States and here in Seoul, generally, the only thing it took for a foreigner to look like an English teacher was to be white.

            Suddenly, my jeans and green tee shirt didn’t seem to matter so much anymore.  I rushed up the stairs and out of the exit.  At the top of the stairs, I found myself in the middle of a sidewalk and in the bright sunlight.  Walk straight for a couple of blocks until I see the white building with the dark blue awning.  Big white building.

            I was grateful that I found the building relatively quickly because as I walked along, my mind began to wander.  Sure, I liked teaching or at least I didn’t dislike it, but this was more of a tutoring job.  Why did I take this?  What am I doing here?  You need the money, that nagging voice in my head reminded me.  And I did.  My brother needed me to get this money.

            50,000 won an hour.  Twelve hours a week.  That’s 600,000 won a week.  That’s 2,400,000 won a month.  In US dollars, that means somewhere around 2,200 bucks extra a month.  I could send home my whole paycheck plus 1,500 bucks and still have money left over to live for the month.

            This band must be pretty awesome for their manager to pay so much for them to have an English tutor.

            Lucky for me, I told myself.  Teaching English here for one more year will get me enough money for RJ.

            But what if it’s not enough?  I thought it’d be enough last year, but it wasn’t, now was it?  So I’m here again.  Teaching at that damn preschool for another year.  What if it’s still not enough?  What if I can’t do it?  My brother, my RJ, he’ll never be able to…

            Clutching at my head, I squeezed my eyes shut to quiet the noise inside my head.  To stop the negative voices.  I wasn’t crazy.  I was just worried.  Worried about my brother.  I counted to ten and breathed in deeply.  I remembered what Liah and I had talked about the day before.  Life is supposed to be an adventure.  I’m young and I have time to figure out my life.  Not every day needs to be planned out to the millisecond.  I lowered my arms and looked around at my surroundings.  Just across the next street was building with a blue awning on my left.  I hurried to the building and rushed inside before the noise built up in my head again.

            The glass front doors led to an uninterested security guard at his desk, reading a magazine and a set of elevators farther down the hall.  Tenth floor, I told myself as I jogged to the elevators.  Inside an elevator, I saw a list of the floors and the businesses on each floor.  Sure enough, the tenth said YG and what I assumed was the Korean word for ‘entertainment.’  The elevator groaned uncomfortably after I hit the ‘10’ button and it jolted before lifting up through the shaft.

            The building had fifteen floors, but the spots next to each of the five floors above the floor with YG on it were blank.  Curiously, I wondered what was there.

            The doors finally opened and I was face to face with a long, mahogany desk where two women in business suits were sitting.  One on the phone and one typing furiously on the computer in front of her.

            I shuffled over to the desk, twisting my messenger bag’s strap nervously in my hands.  I said, ‘excuse me’ in quiet, formal Korean and bowed when one of the women looked at me.  “I’m here to see Oh, Moon Rang.”

            The woman smiled and bowed her head.  “Yes, he said he was expecting you.  Please, take a seat for a moment,” she replied in formal Korean and gestured to the chairs by the window.  I smiled back and hurried over to one of the chairs.

            I looked out the window.  I had grown really fond of views of the city high up like this after I moved into the apartment my school provided for me.  I was on the twelfth floor and, at night, I liked to watch the city below.  Every time I would view the city from this high up, I wonder what the people out and about are doing.  What they are thinking.  What they are like.  Their families, their friends.  Their secrets.

            “Miss Parker, I’m so glad you came,” a voice sounded from behind me.  Startled, I whipped around from the window and fell back in my seat.

            I stood up and laughed awkwardly.  I reached out to take the hand Mr. Oh had extended to me.  “Zoë is fine,” I replied, shaking his hand.

            “Zoë then, please, follow me.”