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Year 2009: A Summer of Hellos.

       Krystal closed her eyes, as if by doing this she was transporting herself back in time. She felt like this every time she went to sleep. Unconsciously, her mind will take her back. She could feel as everything around her faded away, including her son. She inhaled the sweet smell of the lingering mint tea, and smiled. This time she wouldn’t be dreaming, she would be storytelling.

        It was one of those days, where the Jung’s house becomes hectic. Everyone was all over the house, trying to get ready for the day. Mr. Jung struggled to iron his suit, as he ate toast; Mrs. Jung couldn’t decide what dress to wear, she wanted her garments to complement her up do hair; Jessica was too busy curling her golden locks, while she talked to her new best friend. As for Krystal, she could hear the chaos from her room, yet she didn’t bother to get up. She wanted to sleep in; she didn’t want to face the day, or go to school.

        Their home was small four bedroom house, with two bathrooms, and a cozy kitchen. Luckily, Krystal had gotten the room with the bathroom. The bad thing about this was that her family would bust into her room without knocking, hence waking her up at an ungodly hours, and ruining her sleeping pattern.

         Fourteen year old Krystal, wrapped her blankets around herself, and curled into a ball. Her body, her mind, and her eyes hurt. It had been over a month, since her family moved from California to Korea. She didn’t hate where she lived, but she didn’t like it either. Krystal felt so out of place.

        “Wake up!” Seventeen year old Jessica screamed at the top of her lungs, as she barged into her little sister’s room. “You need to get ready for school!” Krystal groaned, and curled into a tighter ball. Jessica, failed to notice her sister’s enthusiasm, and walked straight to the bathroom.

         Krystal stayed there, and closed her eyes once again. She took long breaths, the type that hurt when you inhale. Everyone told her, that she wasn’t the one to blame, yet why did she feel so guilty. It wasn’t my fault, she thought to herself.

        Krystal shook her head rapidly, and held her breath, but the smell of her mother’s cooking filed her room, making her stomach rumble with hunger. Yet, she didn’t budge. “Hey get up, sleepy head.” Jessica calmly said, as she scooted her little sister, and joined her in bed. She grabbed a few strands of Krystal’s hair, and began to play with it. Krystal swatted her sister’s hand away playfully, and hid further more under her covers. Her sister’s perfume intoxicated her nostrils, strawberries mixed with citrus. Krystal didn’t know why, but she hated her sister’s perfume, yet she missed the scent, whenever she’s away from Jessica. “I know it’s hard for you, Kay, it’s difficult for me too.” Jessica took a deep breath, she was concern for her sister; Krystal was so happy and carefree, but after the incident, Krystal just wanted to be in bed. Jessica pulled the cover from her little sister. “It’s also my first day of school. I’m nervous too.” Krystal peeked out, and looked straight into her sister’s eyes. Krystal couldn’t hide what she felt; she could fool her parents, but not her sister. Jessica took another deep breath, and spoke. “Are you acting like this because of what happen at Steve’s rave? Because if you are, I swear I’m gonna’ tell mom…”

        “Jay,” Krystal quietly said, “I’m just nervous too.” She gave Jessica a reassuring smile. She used her sister’s exact words; she thought, maybe if she could mirror Jessica’s tone, her sister would drop the topic. “Alrighty, then.” Jessica got up, and headed for the door. “If you’re not out in thirty minutes, I’m telling mom, got it?” Jessica gave her sister a playful glare, and disappeared. Krystal contemplated her sister’s threat, but yet she didn’t’ really care, and with that she pulled the cover over herself again.

        Nonetheless, Krystal got up; she summoned all her strength to get ready. She looked at herself in the mirror, she practiced smiling, she practiced laughing, but the reflection didn’t show what she felt inside. For a fourteen year old, she was wounded really badly. Out of place, that’s how she felt. She didn’t care how stupid the uniform looked on her, as long as her smile looked genuine. Krystal sighed, gathered her things, and locked her room. Aimlessly, she walked down the hallway, into the kitchen, where she was greeted by her lovely mother and her busy father. Krystal gave her a huge grin, one they could believe. She didn’t want them to worry about her anymore.

        Krystal walked behind Jessica and Tiffany Hwang, her sister’s newly found best friend. Tiffany was their neighbor, and their families clicked right away. Sadly, Tiffany was the youngest of her family, which meant that Krystal didn’t have anyone to bond with. Either way, Krystal was thankful of having Tiffany, since their arrival to Korea; Tiffany was the one who helped them get used to living the Korean life style.

        They were all walking to school. Jessica was enrolled, in an all-girls high school, the same school Tiffany went to. As for Krystal, she was enrolled in a Korean- Western high school, because her Korean wasn’t the best. Sure Krystal could understand it, and read it, yet she had trouble speaking it, and she felt ashamed of speaking it.

         Jessica and Tiffany happily conversed in Korean, while Krystal made sure to remember everything she saw on her way,  she remember the smells, the looks of the people, who owned food stands, because she would be walking home alone, when she came back from school.

        “Well here we are!” Tiffany said, cheerfully. They had arrived at Krystal’s new school. Krystal felt her stomach twist and turn. She wanted to run back to her room, close the door, and disappear underneath her covers. “Have a great day!” Tiffany merrily called out, while Jessica balled her hand into a fist, and mouthed Hwaighting. The pair scurried away leaving Krystal alone, their support wasn’t making her feel any better. Maybe she could find somewhere to hide.  With that in mind, she hurried to find her homeroom.

        It was already midafternoon, and Krystal was having a great day. Krystal had made some friends, who were also from California, although she didn’t have the same class with most of them, she felt comfortable with them, since they only spoke English to each other. Krystal hanged out with them in her break and ate lunch with them, but maybe it was just a first day thing, and Krystal didn’t want to get her hopes up.

       Krystal looked at her class schedule, she was completely lost. She mentally scolded herself for not asking for help, when a senior came to her aid.  It was typical for her to refuse assistance, she couldn’t help it.
“Where the hell is room 96A?”Krystal muttered, annoyed.

       “Do you need help?” A girl asked in Korean. Krystal eyed the girl, she was dressed in boys clothing. Why can she wear boy shorts? Krystal wondered.

          She was about to refuse the girl’s help, when she had a change of heart. “Uh, yes please.” Krystal said in English. “Oh my god, you speak English!” The girl said enthusiastically in English, “My Korean , so much!” She continued. Krystal gave her a small smile, and nodded. “I’m Amber, by the way. What’s your name?” Krystal cleared , “Krystal.” She simply replied. “You know where 96A is located?” Amber laughed, and took the class schedule from Krystal’s hand. “No way, we have Life Skills together! See.” Amber showed Krystal her schedule, and pointed. “Cool.” Krystal agreed, she felt oddly comfortable with Amber, but she liked it.

            They both had a hard time finding the class, turns out that their class didn’t have a numeration. Apparently, the previous seniors thought it would be funny to remove most of the numeration from the 90’s area.

            For the first day of class, the room buzzed with chit chatter. Krystal sat next to Amber, and they spoke to each other endlessly, while they waited for their teacher. Krystal enjoyed talking to Amber. She didn’t know why, but she felt that Amber would be a longtime friend; Amber just gave off that genuine feeling, that Krystal found comforting.

“So what school did you come from?” Amber asked, as she drew on a sheet of paper. “Me?” Krystal responded quickly. “I just moved from California. Well a month ago, actually.” Amber nodded her head, and then she smiled widely, “Shut up!” Amber suddenly said, Krystal gave her new friend a strange look. “I’m from California, too! LA baby!” Amber raised her hand up in the air, Krystal, high fived Amber. “San Fran!” She said gleefully.

The door was swung open, and the class became oddly quiet, as if there was no one in the room, the only thing that made noise was the clock’s loud ticking. To everyone’s surprise, a tall boy with yellowish-brown curly hair, entered the room. Krystal, Amber, and everyone else sighed in relief. But behind the tall boy, the teacher came in, with a not so pleasant face. The whole class stud up from their seats, and greeted their instructor. Krystal became very happy, seeing that she had another foreign teacher. Since most of her teachers weren’t Korean, they didn’t force her to speak the language; instead, they allowed her to use her native tongue.

“Sit down!” The teacher barked in Korean. The class immediately sat down, “My name is Monsieur Dubois, and you will direct me only in Korean do you understand.” He said with authority. Monsieur Dubois started to read off his syllabus, and explain his regulations. Krystal’s small smiled disappeared into a very noticeable frown, she wrote something on a piece of paper, and quickly passed it to Amber.

Amber skillfully opened the paper, and read.

Omg, this ! I’m going to fail!!T^T
My Korean so much! Your Korean is better than mine! D:  
-Kay

Amber chuckled, wrote back, and passed it back to a worried Krystal.

Don’t worry^^~!- Amb        

       “Now you must all introduce yourselves, and remember it has to be in Korean. You will be graded on this.” Mr. Dubois strictly said. He took a seat, and let the first person go. Soon it was Amber’s turn. Krystal felt her heart race; she would have to speak in Korean. She would make a fool out of herself on the first day. Krystal wanted to stand up, and walk out, but she knew she couldn’t.

“Hi, I’m Amber Liu,” Amber bravely said in English, the class gasped, but the teacher didn’t look fazed. “And I can’t speak Korean.” Amber smiled and showed confidence, yet she started to tap her foot rapidly.

        Mr. Dubois took off his glasses, and rubbed his unshaven chin. He spoke , but this time in English. “A show of hands, who here does not speak Korean?” Half of the whole class, including Krystal, raised their hand, while the others looked attentively at the teacher. “I can’t believe I have to do this again.” Mr. Dubois sighed. “Very well then, will the half that do not speak Korean, please stand up and line up against that windows. Those who remain, please stand up against the wall.” Krystal stood up and mouthed ‘thank you’ to her friend. Amber mouthed ‘don’t worry about it’, and gave her thumbs up. The girls lined up next to each other. They stood quite, but they exchanged funny glances. Krystal tried hard to stifle her chuckles.

Mr. Dubois started to seat the students; the seating arrangement went from fluent Korean speakers to non-Korean speakers, and so on. Between them, Amber was the first to be seated, she was seated all the way in the front, next some girl with glasses. As for Krystal, she looked around to see, who was going to be her potential partner.

       Unconsciously, her eyes landed on the curly hair individual. She observed him, tentatively. He stood out among those standing up amongst the wall. He looked so pale, lost, and he had dark circles under his eyes. He struggled to keep his eyes open, his mouth was slightly ajar, and he looked drained. Krystal couldn’t take her eyes off  of him, the more she gazed, the more he looked like a lost little kid, and his curly yellowish-brown hair made him look like a goofball, which made Krystal chuckle a bit. What a weirdo, she thought, but he’s kinda’ cute, she admitted to herself. The boy looked up, and Krystal quickly looked away towards Amber, who was too busy talking to girl next to her.

            Soon enough, Krystal was one of the few left standing, mostly everyone was seated. She liked the fact that she was going to be in the back of the class, although she prefers the front, because there’s less distractions for her, and she can concentrate better. “What’s your full name, young lady?” Mr. Dubois demanded. Krystal cleared , “Krystal Jung” She enunciated, and waited for further instruction. “You there!” Dubois hollered in Korean, “What’s your name?” The boy quickly looked up at the teacher. “Park Chan-Chanyeol.” He stammered. Everyone turned to see Chanyeol, his voice had taken everyone off guard. His deep voice did not match his middle school kid face whatsoever. Krystal wanted to laugh, but she kept it to herself. “You two, sit there!” Their teacher ordered, as he pointed to their seats.  Krystal didn’t have to move much, since the desks were right in front her, as for Chanyeol he had to go around the others, just to get there. Krystal decided to take the seat at the end, which was against the wall. She liked it, when she got seats like that, because she enjoyed leaning against the wall, and do her work at the same time, it was more comfortable for her. As Chanyeol sat down, Krystal thought it would be nice to introduce herself, “Hi, I’m Krystal.” She greeted in Korean, she gave him a small smile, enough to generate a friendly atmosphere. But Chanyeol looked at her with a bleak expression, he didn’t say anything, and faced the front. Rude, Krystal rolled her eyes at Chanyeol.

            Krystal got bored of hearing everyone else have some sort of fun, while they were supposed to be doing work. Krystal paid attention to her workbook; it was pretty easy to find the answers for the question, it was all basically in the read. She sighed profoundly, and started to doodle. She glanced at Chanyeol who was also doing his work, although it looked like he was going to fall asleep any second. Krystal decided to use one of her old tactics to make friends. She looked through her questions, which were all complete. She chose the one that seemed the most difficult, and erased her answer.

       Krystal took a deep breath, and lightly tapped Chanyeol’s arm. “Hey, do you know what the answer is for number five?” Krystal tried to sound very confused, that’s what made other people want to help her. Chanyeol bit his lower lip, unsure of himself, and mumbled “Uh, yeah. It’s on page 24, last paragraph.” With that he returned to his work.  Krystal curled her lip, and scoffed, but tried to keep her cool. She waited for three minutes before speaking again, usually by now the other person would have asked her if she had found the answer. “Um, can I see what you wrote? I don’t really understand it, since it’s in Korean.” She said innocently. Chanyeol handed his workbook to her. Krystal leafed through it till she got to the page that had the questions. Unintentionally, she skimmed through the answers of the page. Most of the answers were half- assed. Especially, the answer he gave her, which was the wrong one, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell him. Krystal pretended to copy the answer, she gave Chanyeol back his book, and thanked him with a kind smile, although it seemed like he could care less.

       Krystal waited till she saw that Chanyeol was engrossed in his work again. She erased his answer, and wrote the correct one.  Krystal stood up, but sat back down again. She felt bad for not telling him that his answers were wrong. Krystal again tapped his arm. “The answer you gave me is wrong; the correct answer is on page 30, first paragraph.” She stood up, walked to the teacher’s desk, and handed in her work. Mr. Dubois, raised his left eyebrow, and twisted his mouth to the side. “Are you sure you completed everything Miss Lee?” Krystal furrowed her eyebrows, and gave the teacher a slight glare. “Jung.” She corrected. Mr. Dubois cocked his head to the right, as if he didn’t hear correctly. “What?” He enquired.

       “It’s Jung, not Lee, Mr. Dubois.” Krystal made sure to emphasis her last name. The teacher nodded, as he looked at her workbook. “Job well done Miss Jung, you may go to your seat, and wait till I dismiss you.” Krystal walked to her seat, she saw Amber, and waved at her. Amber returned the gesture with a wide smile.

         Krystal became bored out of her mind; she had filled her forearm with doodles. She looked up at the ceiling and counted all the tiles in her view. She also wanted to count the dots inside the tiles, but decided not to. Suddenly, she felt a tap on her arm. Krystal, winced at the contact, she took her eyes from the ceiling, and looked at Chanyeol, who was holding a piece of paper. “It’s for you.” He said. Krystal slowly took the paper; she eyed Chanyeol, and raised her eyebrow skeptically, and open the note.

 Yo! Wait for me after class! Okay! ^^~.

       Krystal looked at Chanyeol, who wasn’t paying attention. Krystal wasn’t sure what to make of the situation. She read the note again, but she then realized her thumb had covered the ending sentence of the note. Amb, it read. Krystal chuckled, and looked up at her friend. Amber crossed her eyes, and stuck her tongue out at Krystal. She couldn’t help but laugh. She gave Amber thumbs up, and also stuck her tongue out.

       In the end of class, Krystal walked with Amber, her last class of the day was History, and sadly she didn’t share that class with Amber. Her friend’s last class was Physical Education. As they walked together, she couldn’t help but notice Chanyeol, who was walking not too far from them. She felt kind of mad because her plan of making new friends had failed, that boy didn’t fall into it like others did. Maybe it just worked for people in California.

       Krystal waved bye to Amber, but as she did, her eyes focused on the tall kid with yellowish-brown hair, even though there was a multitude of people, he stood out amongst them.

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