We pulled up to a school after driving for some time.  I had kind of lost track of time.  Lisa and I hadn’t spoken the whole bus ride.  The school we drove up to was a high school, I thought.  In the night, it looked like a mental institution from the 50s that I’d seen in old movies.  Everyone got off the bus and was herded by American soldiers quickly into the school.  I vaguely heard one of the soldiers telling us that the school was split up by floors .  Cots were set up on the second and third floors.  The first floor would be where the soldiers would stay.  The bathrooms had showers in them on that floor.  The fourth floor would be used for more cots once more Americans arrived.  The basement would be where the food and supplies would be sorted and kept.

                We were each given a name card to hang on our cots so there would be no confusion.  A few American soldiers scribbled our names down on pieces of paper as we entered the school.                Lisa and I found two cots next to each other on the second floor.  There was food on the first floor, but neither of us were very hungry at the moment.  A lot of people seemed to be in shock.  It was the middle of the night by then.  I couldn’t help but notice there were a lot of Korean soldiers around the school as well.

               Lisa and I were lying on our cots, still not having spoken, when a Korean soldier stopped in front of my cot.  I sat up and looked at him.  He had a baby face.  If I had to guess, I would have said he was only a teenager.  Fifteen or sixteen, but I learned in the short time I’d been in Korea that most Koreans age much better than most white people.  He was probably my age then, nineteen or twenty.

                He smiled lightly and handed me a plastic bag.  “For the bathroom,” he said with little accent in his words.  I accepted the bag, remembering to take it with both hands.  I’d read somewhere that it was disrespectful to take or give something with only one hand.  I wasn’t sure how true that was, but just to be safe, I used both hands.  He moved onto Lisa and then continued on throughout the room.  I peeked in the bag.  Personal sized shampoo, soap, a toothbrush.  That kind of stuff.  I slipped it into my suitcase under my cot.

                There were so many cots crammed into this one particular area of the school, I was beginning to feel claustrophobic.  I clutched the stuffed panda I hadn’t let go of yet.

                “This is crazy, isn’t it?” Lisa finally asked.  The only light that filled the room now was moonlight.  No one mentioned why they hadn’t the lights.  No one wanted to talk about hiding from the ones causing the explosions that could still be heard somewhere in the distance.  I wondered how long before they got here.

                I’d never seen anything like this before.

                “Yeah, crazy,” I agreed, folding my arms under my head and laying back down.

                “I don’t get it.  What’s going on?  Are they planning an attack on Seoul?”

                I shook my head.  “I have no idea.  The soldiers downstairs said this was all just a precaution as of right now.”

                “A precaution from what?” she asked quietly.  “Are they bombing?  Shooting?  Where are they?”

                The soldiers on the bus talked about this.  Wasn’t she listening?  I turned my head to look at my friend.  She was staring at the ceiling.  She’d had the same vacant look on her face on the bus, too.  She was listening.  She heard.  She just didn’t believe it.

                “They’re moving in from the border,” I answered calmly, repeating what I’d heard on the bus.  “It’s like a ground attack, I guess.  And air.”

                “What is this the Korean War from the 50s all over again?”

                “Lisa, are you alright?”

                She shook her head quickly from side to side.  “This is insane.  How is this even happening?  The way the American news was always talking, you’d think they were just going to drop a bomb on the country.  Blow it away in one shot.  I mean it is the 21^st century for God’s sake.  There’s chemical warfare and nuclear weapons, but now they’re sneaking in and just shooting people?  Dropping little bombs on villages?  What the hell is going on?”  Her voice was low and quiet, but it shook.  She sounded on the verge of hysterics.

                How am I supposed to know the answers to any of your questions?! I thought frantically.  I cleared my throat.  “I don’t know.  I don’t think anyone really understands what’s going on.”  Maybe that was the point.  They were trying to throw us off?  Don’t the South Koreans and the Americans have military specialists who are supposed to understand this sort of thing?

                “They’re setting up phones on the first floor for us to call home,” she said after a moment.  “I want to go home.”

                I turned my face to stare up at the ceiling.  “Me too,” I answered.  Although the truth was, Seoul was my home now.  I could go back to my home country.  Go back to the US and start over there.  I just wanted to get out of this insanity, but Lisa meant she wanted to go home to her family. 

                I bet my family didn’t even remember that I’d left the country in the first place.

                The next thing I knew, the sun was shining in through the windows.  Lisa and I had moved our cots away from the windows after she became fearful that if an explosion happened, we’d get cut up by the glass shattering.  I didn’t argue, I just pushed my cot next to hers against the wall farthest from the wall of windows, squished next to other peoples’ cots that were already placed there.

                We went downstairs to the bathrooms to wash up and change our clothes.  Then we followed some others to where the food was being served.  I don’t know what it was, but I ate it and guzzled a bottle of water in one shot.

                I saw the baby faced soldier again.  He was standing with four other Korean soldiers, talking animatedly with two American soldiers.  They kept pointing and nodding.  I met his eyes once before I looked away from the group and refused to look back.

                Soon after we finished eating, a few of the soldiers rounded us all up as another bus load of confused Americans and their luggage entered the school.

                We were all herded into the basement of the school.  “Excuse me, everyone!  Listen up!  We know you’re uncomfortable, but this is only temporary!” the one soldier who stood on a box and cupped his mouth with his hands.

                The murmuring quieted down.

                “We’re going to clear up as much as we are allowed to right now, ok?”  The murmuring stopped completely.  He let his hands fall to his sides, but his voice stayed louder.  “The noises you have been hearing, mostly at night, are indeed a mixture of gunfire at the border between the two Koreas and the explosions are the bombs that our friendly neighbors to the north have been dropping on villages around Seoul.”  A few people laughed sarcastically.  “All airports have been closed down indefinitely.  We are working on getting you guys on a flight out of here from the Air Force base, but it will take some time.  You know how orders from Washington work.”  More laughter from listeners.  Lisa and I remained silent. 

                “We have set up phones that can call internationally through a military line,” he continued.  “Please keep your conversations to a minimum as there are many of you with worried loved ones back home.  Also, you could tell them to keep checking with the Korean embassy back home in the States.  They’ll probably get information faster than us anyway,” he laughed.  “Besides, it’s easier to call them than for them to wait for you to call back from here.”

                “I have something else to add,” another soldier called.  He exchanged some quiet words with the first soldier before they switched places.  “You may have noticed quite a few of these handsome Korean guys wandering around…”  He paused so some of the other American soldiers could cheer for the Korean soldiers.  I was surprised at how they could laugh and joke around, but I assumed they were trained to remain calm to keep civilians from losing their minds.  “They are called ROK soldiers.  Republic of Korea – you know, the good one – soldiers.  The one that have been placed with us here have been selected by an elite group in the Korean Army.  They are trained in specialized martial arts, some have medical training, and they all can do some crazy stuff with a gun.  An automatic, an assault rifle, a machine gun, you name these guys can use it.  Plus a couple of them could kill a man with their thumbs.”  More laughter.  “I’m only telling you this to help you feel safer, more relaxed.  We are here to protect you and that’s what we intend on doing.  We understand that most of you are university students or English teachers.  Please trust us when we say, we’re going to keep you safe until we can get you guys home.”

                Lisa joined the majority of the others to line up for the phones. 

                I headed back upstairs to go back to my cot.  I must have had a terrified look on my face because when I passed that baby faced soldier from before, he smiled at me.  I just stared back, unable to adjust my expression.  How long were we going to be stuck here?

                Someone tapped me on the shoulder.  I turned.

                “I know you’re scared, but you should call home.  I’m sure the people who love you are very worried about you.”  It was that baby faced soldier.  Inexplicably, he had worry in his eyes.  His smile was warm, concerned.

                I tried to smile back, but it came out strained, I was sure.

                “I have no one to call,” I said in a hushed tone and hurried up the stairs out of the basement.