I think that I slept at the biggest part of our flight. And that's a good thing cause I hate heights, and planes fly... way too high. 

When we landed to Seoul's airport, I could feel the difference. Everything looked so much prettier now that I finally was here. I could smell it in the air; we were abroad. For an unknown reason, I was always obsessed with traveling abroad. It's not that I didn't love my country, of course I did! I adored my country, but traveling abroad was something that I always wanted to know. And Korea was my No.1 option, especially after the whole tae kwon do thing. And I finally was abroad.

When we got our luggage and got out of the airport, we saw two white cars which were probably waiting for us, in order to take us to the hotel that we'd stay for the three upcoming weeks. Jinhyung walked first and talked to the driver of one of the cars, in perfect Korean. Jinhyung was a Korean tae kwon do teacher who had moved in England a few years ago, so his knowledge over Korean language was perfect. I was thankful for that, because if it wasn't him.. We wouldn't survive here, not even for a single day. 

We got in the cars, still divided in those two groups. Under other circumstances, this would have probably annoyed me. The fact that even here, even now, we had to be like this. But at this very specific moment, I could not care any less bout this. I guess I had not enough space in my brain to care. It was all full of Korea.

Korea.

Throughout the whole car ride, I was looking outside the window, not speaking at all. I was so fascinatined by every single place in Seoul. I was trying to absorb every image, to engrave it to my mind.. So that I can always remember. Rian was also quite, but Angie was talking with Mark. Their voices were loud enough to be noticed, but silent enough to be ignored by my hypnotized by Seoul's beauty mind.

We arrived at our destination after about half an hour. Our hotel was big and magnificent. It had a lot of floors, and a glorious rooftop. It literally had everything, from a soccer playground to a pool. I looked at it and smiled. I can't wait to spend the upcoming three weeks here, I thought to myself. 

"I hope our room will be on the front side of the building, so that we will be able to see the pool!" I told Rian while we were in the hotel's main elevator in order to reach our room. It was located at the fifth and prelast floor, and fortunately, my wish came true. From our hotel's balcony, we could see the entire pool and its surroundings. But it was not just that. We could also see a big part of the city, and I could already imagine the beauty it'd have at night. At night, when sounds would be off and dreams would be on. 

"Guh, I don't know what we'd do if we had to share our room with one of them." Rian stated when she placed her purse on the room's table, in front of a big mirror. The walls had a light turquoise   colour on them, and there were also some paintings hanging on the walls. "Tell me about it!" I sighed in relief, as I layed on the bed I had claimed as mine, the one one next to the big, glass door which was leading to the balcony. "Why do you always take the best beds, best bus seats etc.?" Rian asked as she sat on her bed, which was next to mine. "Simply because I can't spend a single  minute without looking outside. And what would I do if I had to get passed you in order to look at the magical view we have from here?" I smiled at her with that weird smile of mine, the smile that I could only share with her. " Yeah, I know. But still... It's not fair!" she protested, as she grabbed her bed's pillow and threw it to me. " What are you doing, you little Korean mofo?!" I shouted, after the pillow had landed right to my head. "Im annoying you of course!" she smirked as I stood up and grabbed my pillow, ready to fight back.

'Put your hands up, put your hands up..'  Rian's cell phone rang. She looked at the screen and frowned. Then she answered it. I stood there, looking at her. It was not like I didn't know what it'd be about, but I was confused by her expression. As as soon as she hung up on it, she tossed it across her bed. "What was it?" I asked, still confused. "It was Garrett." she said, still frowning. "He called to say that Jinhyung said we should be at the hotel's dining room in half an hour, for dinner."

I layed back on bed, hugging my pillow. " Why would Garrett call you? Do they really think that things can change just because we are here?" It was not like we hated each other. But those conflicts between us had been an obstacle for a lot of things. The most recent one is this travel. Amanda, Jason and Jared had insisted that they were not willing to spend three of their weeks together. And if one of them didn't come, then none of us would. It would either be all of us, or none of us. That's what being a team means. I had got angry at them for not backing off a little bit, so that we could participate in the tournament. But Jinhyung had managed to change their minds, and in the end he made them wanting to come. I have to admit it, this man could be really persuasive. 

After this incident, me and Rian had kept a kind of bigger distance from them, cause we had realised that they were so much different from us. They would allow some silly things to hold them back from doing what they  wanted to do. But Rian and I wouldn't. Well, Rian wouldn't. I was kind of a failure at almost everything, so giving up on my dreams was something like 'my thing'. But this time, I wouldn't let go. I'd do my best, even if that ended up being not enough. I'd try, and I would be okay with myself. 

"I have no freaking clue." Rian replied. " Let's just not pay any attention to them, shall we?" I said indifferently. "We are not here for them anyway." I stood up, and opened my suitcase, which I had placed inside the wardrobe. I took out a towel and some hair products. "I am gonna take a shower now. Try not to look outside a lot, cause  you know that getting an overdose from your favorite things, can be harmful for the two of us.'' I said and she laughed. ''Okay mum, I won't.'' she replied. I grinned slightly as I entered the bathroom. I got in the bathtub and got a quick shower. After that, I wore my towel and got out.

While Rian was showering, I wore a black dress and I got my sorrel hair up on a ponytail. I aso placed the two books that I had brought with me on my night table. After that, I layed on my bed doing nothing more than looking at the ceiling. Okay, I did some thinking too. It was then that I realised that the tournament was too close now, and that made me feel anxious. But it also gave me some excitement, which was a feeling that I hadn't felt for a while.

''Are you ready?'' Rian asked while she got out of the bathroom. She was wearing a pair of jeans, along with a thick, black shirt. ''Yes, I am. If you're ready too, we can go." I replied and stood up. ''Yeah. By the way, will I be too bad if I say that I am so not looking forward to this?'' she asked as she hung her wet towel on a chair, next to mine. ''Definitely not! Besides, I feel like that too.'' I sighed. I really hoped this travel could have contained just me, Rian and Jinhyung. Oh and Angie, perhaps. Well, it was not like I didn't like Angie enough. I liked her, I really did. But sometimes she was too optimistic for me. Her bright personality and shining character were really tiring sometimes. Mark loved her for that, but I couldn't share that feeling. For my weird personality, all this brightness was too much to bare with sometimes. Rian was feeling like that too, but she was kind of less tolerant with it. 

She opened the door and got out, and I followed her. She locked the door with the card that we had been given at the hotel's reception, and she put it in her pocket. We walked till the elevator, and I was already feeling dizzy. The dining room of a glorious hotel like this, would be big. And big places can host a lot of people. And I don't like being in places with lots of people. I don't know why, but being among big crowds had been something that I hated, since like forever. I honestly don't know why, but it could make my heart beat faster. It could also make me miserable, and it could even make me sad. So I simply hated it. 

''Can we use the staircase?'' I said as we reached the elevator. ''I wanna delay the dinner a little bit.''  "Sure!" she agreed. We started walking down the stairs, as we finally reached the ground floor. It was really big, with beige walls and high ceilings. There was the main entrance, the reception, and the waiting lounge. It had a lot of beautiful ornaments, most of them made of glass. The hotel's staff was everywhere, and they all looked willing to help every client if needed. There was a small sign on the wall, that indicated where the dining room was. We followed it, and in about two minutes we reached the dining room. There were a lot of tables there, and most of them were not empty. Rian's gaze scanned the tables, and she showed me where our team was sitting on. We passed through the tables, and as we reached our table, I saw that everyone was already there.  

"You're late." Jinhyung stated. Goddammit, why am I always late? "We kind of lost our way while coming here, and for that we are sorry." I said, trying to look convincing. I don't know if he believed it, all I know is that he didn't say anything after I served him my excuse. As I crawled up to one of the two chairs that were left empty, I realised that Jinhyung was sitting at the head of the table, Amanda, Jason  and Garrett were sitting at it's right side, and Angela along with Mark and Jared were sitting on the left side of it. That was so lame. Did they really have to be like this all the time? Even at our first dinner in Seoul? The chair that I headed towards to was at the left side of the table, and the other one was on the right side.

As soon as I sat on the one I had chosen, I noticed that Rian would have to sit on their side. "Have a seat next to me Rian." Garrett exclaimed, like he had just read my mind. Rian gave him a kind of angry look, but she didn't say anything. Instead, she took the chair and placed it on the other head of the table, opposite of Jinhyung. "As you wish." Garrett said indifferently.

"The food we are gonna eat everytime we eat at the hotel, is prearranged. So, I hope you are all okay with eating some Korean meals, that you won't be able to choose. But don't worry, most of the meals will be from the European cuisine since this hotel hosts mostly people from Europe." Jinhyung said while looking at all of us. "I will not eat anything that's not fat-free!" Amanda protested and looked at Jinhyung. "Oh my..." Rian murmured and looked at me. I sighed and watched, as Garrett patted Amanda's back, trying to look friendly. What a big hypocrite this guy was!  "I am sorry Amanda, but there's nothing I can do to help you with that." Jinhyung's voice was steady, even if I knew he was not as calm as he looked. He never understood Amanda's obsession with her body, and one day they had a fight for that. Amanda seemed to care more about her looks than the 'level of her spirit', as Jinhyung used to say. And tae kwon do, is an art. An art for the spirit, along with the body of course.  "I think you'll be okay with some raw squid Amanda." Jared said as he looked up at her. "Shut up freak!" Amanda shouted. She used to call him a freak, because his younger sister had killed herself when he was younger, and, for an unknown reason, Amanda always thought that Jared would do the same some day. That he was lunatic enough to do it too, or perhaps something worse than that. "Yeah Jared, Amanda's right. It'd be better if you didn't talk." Garrett said in a loud, bossy tone.

I couldn't help but wonder what was wrong with those people. We were in a place full of people, but they were shouting like it was completely normal to shout while they were having their dinner. I turned my head and looked around, and I panicked when I saw that a bunch of people had turned to look at  us. I felt my head heavy, and my breath accelerated. Why are they looking at us? 

Why, why, why? 

I looked at Rian, and I noticed that she was getting angry. But I knew that she wouldn't do or say anything cause she always preferred to keep a low profile and not cause scenes like the rest of the guys here, no matter how angry she would get. I took a deep breath in order to calm down, and I looked at Mark who had just said something to Angela. "Speak louder so we can all hear you." Jason said ironically and looked at Mark. Mark was ready to reply, when two waiters came to our table holding two big trays, filled with plates full of food, and bottles of water. They greeted us in Korean, and they served us our food. I smiled at them, but I don't think that they noticed me. Garrett gave a look full of hatred to Mark, and then he started eating. No one of us spoke, and we all started eating. I was really thankful for that. Before I start eating, I looked at Amanda who had crossed her arms in front of her chest and was looking at her plate with disgust. I didn't care enough to say anything about that, so I just concentrated on my plate. Our dinner consisted of spaghetti with tomato sauce, and some other appetizers that I didn't recognise. They looked delicious, so I would eat them and I wouldn't complain like little-miss-perfect over there.                                                                                   

                                                                                       *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    * 

Rian opened our room's door, and I almost ran inside and layed heavily on my bed. I could easily spend a whole life curled up on my bed, doing nothing at all. "I hate them!" I exclaimed as soon as she closed the door behing her, and locked it with the card. "No wonder why..." she murmured and sat on her bed. "Why do they try to spoil everything?" I asked filled with despair. We wanted this so much, but it seemed like we were the only ones who cared enough. And this was so annoying. "Maybe this whole thing is a tactic, so that they can make us weak and beat us in the end. Guh, I really don't know." she said and removed her boots. "What time did Jinhyung say that we have to wake up tomorrow?" I asked as I stood up from my bed and headed to my suitcase to get my pyjamas. A wide, blue pair of pants, and a yellow sweater. I changed my clothes in the bathroom, so that Rian could change in the main room.  "Are you sleepy?" Rian asked me when I closed the bathroom's door and got out. "Kind of." I said and layed on my bed, covering myself with the bed's linen sheets. "We'll stay up until late tomorrow, okay? The flight was pretty tiring." I said as I yawned. "Yeah, no problem!" she winked at me. "So, goodnight Rosalinda." she grinned. "Do not call me Rosalinda! I am not Mexican! My name is Rosie!" I acted like I was annoyed.  

This Rosalinda thing was kind of an inside joke me and Rian had. She had come up with it around two summers ago, when we had gone to Mexico City on vacation with our families. That summer, I had gotten very tanned and I was not attractive at all, according to my opinion at least. Anyway, that summer some guy had assumed that I was a native Mexican, probably because of my skin's color. He had approached me and Rian while we were at the beach, and he had talked to me in Spanish. I didn't understand what he was saying because I didn't know Spanish, but Rian had burst into laughing, even if she didn't know what he was saying either. I spoke to him in English and I explained him that I was British, and I told him to repeat what he had told me earlier, in English so that I could understand. But he didn't say anything in response, he just left. That made Rian laugh even more, and from that day, she started calling me Rosalinda whenever she felt like it.  
"Goodnight, mofo." I replied and switched off the light. I placed my hands under my pillow, and I looked outside the window. Seoul was so beautiful at night. Every building was full of lights. I couldn't wait to explore this city to the fullest. 

As I shut my eyes, I felt like something was changing. Like something beautiful was on it's way. It was like I could sense, a light in the end of a long, dark tunel. I had never felt like that before, but I slept before I could even think about it.

~~~~~ 

This is a veeeery long chapter, but oh well. I hadf lots of ideas and in any way, I doubt that anyone reads this anyway ;___;