“Welcome to South Korea!” The stewardess smiled brightly as you and your friend, Melody, walked through the door of the aircraft. You smiled back, a little too widely. Melody nudged you hard on the side as the both of you went into the terminal and took a sit on one of the metal benches to wait for the rest of your friends and the accompanying teachers. There were a total of 20 students and 4 teachers, including the both of you. The total was divided equally into males and females.

            “What?” You rubbed you side, because seriously, that girl must have an elbow of steel or something. 

            “Stop smiling… People are starting to stare you know. Plus, your smile isn’t the cute type. It’s more of a Joker smile and that just freaks people out,” she started pulling on the side of her lips up to her cheek to imitate the Joker. You kicked her shin hard and it helped that you were wearing a heavy combat boot. She yelped in pain, and you crossed your arm in satisfaction.

            “That’s for your stupid bony elbow!” You stuck out your tongue and started to survey your surroundings. Hmm, where are all the cuties…

            The terminal was busy with people hustling and bustling towards their destinations. The announcements continued one after another in multiple languages while there were those who stopped suddenly and strained their ears to listen to it through the loudness that just wouldn’t recede. Families and friends either cried tears of joy to meet their loved ones or waved sorrowful goodbyes to those who were leaving. The pain of waiting was shown on the faces of some of the travelers, while most of them chose to sleep to relieve their tiredness until their boarding time.

            Melody and you stood up when you saw your friends and teachers entering the terminal.

            “I thought you guys went missing, but then I remembered that you two were the first to board the airplane,” Ms. Yuri gave a small chuckle.

            “Yes, it was because ‘someone’ was really excited,” Melody turned and gave you a pointed glare. You pretended not to notice and proceeded to help Ms. Yuri with her bag as she took out her paperwork.

            Once the boys who were accompanied by Mr. Sanchez and Mr. Ken were all present, the two groups boarded the prepared tourist bus and continued their journey to the dorms. The journey took around 30 minutes and the traffic was rather smooth since it was only nearing 10 a.m. on a Monday.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

           The boarding house was located on the edge of the main city of Seoul. It was a traditional wooden building with limited number of rooms and they were all booked for the two groups. Each room was allowed for two occupants since it could really fit that many people anyway.

           The door slide with a clacking sound and you and Melody found a neat room behind it. The room looked very delicate with its wooden floor and ceiling. The room only contained one small table located on the side of the room, beneath the window which held a square paper blind, and two futons and two thick blankets kept in the wooden closet. The both of you laid out the futons and took a nap before the next program of the day ensued.

           “Oh wow, this is like my dream room. I’ve always wanted to stay in a traditional home with all this small and wonderful details. Look at the view! It’s gorgeous,” you raised the paper blind only to reveal a view of the small town. The sun was soon to set, giving the sky a bright mixture of orange and yellow tint.

           “Yup, it’s cool and all but we better get ready for dinner. I can’t believe that Ms. Luna allowed us to sleep the whole day… I guess she knows how teenagers can get when they’re cranky.”

           Since the boarding house only provides rooms to stay, the students would have to follow one of the four teachers for dinner. The both of you followed Mr. Sanchez since he was heading toward one of the more popular restaurants in the area. It was a good strategy to check out the local’s youths, basically, all the cute guys.

           There were three other students besides the two of you. They were two other girls from the lower class and a guy from your class. Mr. Sanchez asked for a table of six and got the five of you seats in the middle of the restaurant since it was the only family sized table left.

           “Annyeonghaseyo,” the waiter gave a bow, “pardon my English, it’s a bit, uh, rusty? May I take your order?” He passed menus to everyone at the table. You gave a nod as you took one from him. Oh my gosh, yummy uniforms! On your right, Melody was giving you the stare to behave and you looked down on the menu.

           “Hey, Mel, what do you want? They all look so good, but it’s a pity we can’t eat meat… Oooh, let’s have the plain bibimbap,” you put on your serious face as you choose among the limited vegetarian dishes.

           “Would you like the bibimbap then, miss?” The waiter asked. “Huh,” you looked up to see he was standing right next to you and he was way too close. You saw his nametag and he was named ‘Ray’. Cute name…

           “Since you asked, yeah I’ll have the bibimbap and cold water,” you gave him your best smile and handed him back the menu. “I’ll have the kimchi bokkeumbap and one iced tea,” Melody chimed in, with a smug voice. She just loved to be able to ruin the mood.

           “Thank you for your order and your dishes will be prepared right away,” he replied.

           “I’ll get you for this,” you hissed at her once the Ray guy had moved to collect the others’ orders. It was her turn to stick out her tongue at you and she turned to face the girl sitting on her right to ask what she was having.

           Your phone vibrated in your bag. You just got a message and it was from your old friend.

From: Hyemin Unni

To: You

           Hey, I think I can make it today. I’ll be there in 15 minutes? Yeah, about that time :)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       From: You

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      To: Hyemin Unni

                                                                                                                                                          Thank you unni~ I can’t wait to see you, it has been ages!

            “Dude, Hyemin is coming!!!” You turned to Melody. “Really? Oh wow, can’t wait to meet her,” Melody dropped her cool bravado for a few seconds. “Y’know, you should stop acting so cool and shy. It’s not cute,” you pinched her cheek and quickly turned away.

            “Owww! Do you have a crab claw or something?!” she rubbed her cheek which shone bright pink.

            After about 15 minutes, everyone’s orders started arriving. First, Mr. Sanchez’s japchae, then it was Melody’s kimchi bokkeumbap and your bibimbap. The other three shared a three serving of bulgogi with some rice. You almost drooled into your bibimbap seeing those thinly sliced beef grilled to perfection. The smell provided you with some comfort, at least.

            The door slide loudly and you glanced towards it to see Hyemin walking in your direction. You stood up and gave her a hug. “Unni! You look so different than the last time we met!”

            The both of you walked up to Mr. Sanchez. “Mr. Sanchez, this is my friend. Would you mind if she joins us for dinner? I’ll pay for her dinner, no worries.” Mr. Sanchez looked up from his japchae to smile and gave a small nod.

           “Thank you!!!” you replied gratuitously.

           “Here, have a sit next to me. This is Melody,” Melody turned, smiled and gave a wave to Hyemin.

           Ray came over to ask for Hyemin’s order. She looked up from her menu and greeted him warmly in Korean. You caught some words that you understand, mostly just her order for food. They continued to converse right after he finished taking her order. It was a short dialogue but it was obvious that the both of them know each other well. He bowed and left for the kitchen.

           “Unni, do you know him?” you tried to act cool and nonchalant as you sipped on some water.

           “Yeah, he’s my sunbae at school,” she replied.

           “Do you guys hang out? You look comfortable with him… Are you guys dating?” you were curious. Hyemin doesn’t say much in general so you had to dig out things from her slowly.

           “Hmm, sometimes I go out with some of my sunbae but because of the age difference it’s only on special occasions. We might go out this weekend to celebrate the end of the exam for the sunbaes. I’ve known him for a long time, ever since we were young. And no, we are not dating,” she gave a small laugh, “I don’t think I have ever seen him with a girl. He’s the type of guy who enjoys going solo.”

           “Ohh,” you said

           “Are you by any chance, interested…?” She examined your face and raised her eyebrow.

           “A little…” you looked down into your lap and felt the heat on your cheek.   

           “Ahh, do you want me to try and set you up?” Your eyes followed him as he carried Hyemin’s order of kimchi jigae. His face lit up as he smiled, it went unnoticed to the others unless they were staring really obviously as you were. It disappeared as quickly as a match's flame blown off by a soft breeze. Hyemin nodded and thanked him as the dish was placed right in front of her.

           “You, you should smile more,” you stared right at his face with your head held in the palm of your propped up right arm. “It suits you.”

           He looked almost taken aback by your straightforwardness. To regain his composure, he cleared his throat and mumbled a thank you of some sort before bowing and quickly left.

           “You did not just do that!!!” Melody suddenly gasped from your right. You turned to face her and saw that most of your friends had stopped eating and were staring at you. Thankfully, Mr. Sanchez was focusing on his japchae, or so you thought, before he finished his last strand of glass noodle and look directly at you. He cleared his throat, “I would appreciate it if my student were to refrain from flirting in my presence,” and gave a smile.

           Suddenly, the whole table erupted in laughter. And you were the only one sitting there; looking dumbfounded considering the stupid thing you did only a few minutes ago in front of your accompanying teacher in a foreign country with your classmates as witnesses.

           Melody pulled you up, roughly, and pushed you, harshly, to the restroom. She went straight to the faucet and opened it before splashing quite big droplets of water to your face. Rude!

           You wiped your face with some paper towel. Thank goodness you were barefaced. “Oh. Goodness. Gracious. What have I done?! I totally did not just flirt very forwardly to the first Korean guy I spoke to… I don’t know why I’m so brave today. I’m not usually like this, right?!” You got a hold of Melody and shook her a few times before she pushed your hands off her shoulder.

           “Dude, calm down! It’s going to be okay," she was speaking slowly and loudly as if it would help, “that guy might just think you were hitting on him. Err, nothing big…”

           “That’s the thing! He thinks I was hitting on him, like the flirtatious hitting on someone. I really just wanted to say he looked cute when he smiled. Nothing more than that,” you slide down against the wall to crouch and you put your head on your laps, crossing your arms on the back of your head.

           Melody went over to you and pulled you up, gently. She gave you a short hug and asked if you were ready to go back. You nodded and thought that you should finish eating quickly, even though you have lost your appetite since, and get out of the restaurant as fast as possible.

           The both of you walked back to the dining table and everyone seemed about done with their food even Hyemin who arrived late. You felt sorry that your first meeting together turned into such a huge mess. You sit down next to her to apologize but she beat you to it. “Are you okay? Were you crying?” She looked down at your shirt which had wet spots from the water Melody had splashed on your face.

           “Oh no, Melody just harassed me with some water in the restroom,” you gave a short, awkward laugh. It sounded very unconvincing even when you were telling her the truth. “I want to apologize. It was our first meeting in a long time and I made it into such a drama. I hope we can hang and just relax together, next time.”

           “It’s okay,” she gave a chuckle and waved to emphasize it. “By the way, Ray, the waiter, agreed to a date with you.” You were sat staring at her face like an idiot and she grabbed your hands and shook them as she told you excitedly. “Aren’t you happy?” she looked a bit deflated and let go of your hands.

           “Oh no! I-I am! I was just surprised because I had completely made a fool out of myself in front of him. I wouldn’t think he would want to see me ever again,” you started fiddling with your cup and tracing the rim with your index finger. A habit you picked up from when you were little. “But then, I don’t think I’d be comfortable going out with just the two of us. Do you think it’s okay if I bring you and Melody along…?”

           “Yeah sure, we could do a group hang out session,” her eyes lit up and you were relieved that you didn’t offend her or hurt her feelings. “So, when do you guys have free time from your sightseeing? I need to free up my schedule and we need to confirm with him too.”

           After a session of excited but muffled squealing with Melody, you were told that the only free time you guys had was on the last day of the trip which was on Thursday. You, Melody and Hyemin went up to Mr. Sanchez once again, to ask for permission to go out that day. He though it over for a while and examined our faces to see if we were up to no good. He gave an extremely suspicious look over to Hyemin which she took squarely. “Okay, fine. Make sure to call me in between every hour so I know where you two are.” The three of you tried to keep it down as you thanked Mr. Sanchez over and over until he pleaded you guys to stop.

           Hyemin gave you her number and her home number. She also promised to confirm everything with Ray. Melody and you went back to the dorm feeling so giddy that you almost couldn’t sleep, just almost; the whole day had been a roller coaster of emotions that once the pillow was laid on the floor the both of you instantly fell into a deep sleep.

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Tell me, is it tooooo long? I tend to write too much haha. 

I will try to do something fun and short for the second chapter to make up for my lame first chapter~~ You guys like short, right?

Peace out,

TL