“Hey, what’s your hurry?” he asked.  Great.  Now he thinks we’re soul mates because, after being rejected by a handful of Korean girls, I’m the first white girl he stumbled upon.

            “Tired.  Bye,” I answered, pulling my arm back and taking two steps away before he side stepped and miraculously appeared in front of me.

            “Come on, girl.  You’re going to get me all hot and bothered and then just peace out on me?” he asked.  Oh, lordy.  He’s one of those guys.

            “Yup, sure am.  You have a nice night now.”

            I by passed him, but he was much faster than he let on and I ended up backtracking to get away from him as he advanced.

            I coughed when my back slammed into the brick wall of the club.  He caged me between his arms and nuzzled against my neck.  Gross.

            “That’s not very nice,” he rumbled in my ear.

            “Yuck,” I replied swatting my hands in front of my face to get him away.  He just laughed and pushed his nose against my skin.  “Guys like you are one of the reasons I left the US in the first place.  You give good American guys a bad name now get your face out of my hair.”

            He chuckled.  Completely unfazed by my struggling.  He pressed his body against mine, forcing my spine to dig into the gravely brick.  I groaned and shook my head from side to side to avoid his wandering lips and beer breath.

            “Can’t you smell the rejection?” I whined.  “Get off me.”  He breathed another laugh into my ear and slipped one arm around my waist.  I adjusted my stance to knee him in the groin, but all the wiggling I was doing made him pin my legs against the wall with his knees.  “Get. Off. Me,” I hissed.

            “Hey, hey, hey!”

            I turned toward the new voice causing the guy’s wet lips to land on my jaw.  It was like something out of a 50s rival gangs musical.  Seven guys stood half way down the block, heading toward us.  One in the lead.  It was almost comical.  He appeared to be the shortest of all of them.

            Still pinned, I watched the approaching men.  So did the guy doing the pinning.

            “Get away from her,” the one in front shakily ordered with a slight accent.  His six posse members just stood back and watched.  “Um…”  One of his posse pushed him lightly in the back as if to give him courage.  “She’s with me.  Now back up!” he spat, still sounding a little afraid.

            My goofy attacker looked at me and then back to my savior.  He scoffed.

            And I kneed him in the groin.  Timing is everything.

            He groaned and cursed, stumbling away from me.  Bent at the waist, he began to whimper.  And curse at me some more.

            Then I did something I hadn’t done since I was a kid.  I pointed and laughed.

            He growled.

            “Grab her.  Let’s get out of here!” one of my savior’s friends cried out, some of them already taking off.  His hand was cool and a little shaky as he took mine and bolted after his friends.

            We ran for two blocks.  Stopping only once when I fell out of one of my shoes.  We turned a corner and leaned up against the wall of a 7-11.  Panting, his friends laughed.  A couple of them slid to the ground.  A few bent over, hands on their knees, unable to do anything other than laugh and try to catch their breath.

            “Are you ok?” my savior asked, still gasping for air.  I found something very amusing about the whole situation.  Partially because his eyes were wide with horror as though he couldn’t believe what had just happened.  I was also oddly happy.  I welcomed anything that dissolved that depressed feeling. 

            “I’m fine.  Thank you,” I giggled.

            “I got a cramp,” one of his sitting friends moaned in Korean, falling over onto his side.  It made me giggle more.  He pouted up at me for a split second before his face twisted in confusion.

            “I’m sorry about your cramp.  I’m Kelly,” I said in polite Korean.  They all kind of gaped at me for a minute before one broke out in a sly grin and jumped up from his spot on the ground.  He was wearing a beanie and baggy clothes.

            “Hello, pretty white girl who speaks Korean,” he said seductively.  “I’m Zico.”  I accepted his hand to shake it.

            “Down, Leader,” a taller one said, switching us back into English.  “Tae Il found her first.”  With a wink that contradicted his words, he stepped forward and took my hand.  “I’m Ahn Jae Hyo.”  Then he actually lifted my hand and kissed the back of it.

            “Cheesy, but cute,” I giggled.  Turning back to the first one, I asked, “But wait, your name is Zico?”  I clutched at my stomach as my body shook with laughter.  “And leader?  What is this some kind of gang?”

            “I…you don’t know us?” Zico questioned.  I in a deep breath and let it out in a big huff.

            “No, should I?”

            “I’m Woo Ji Ho, in that case,” Zico said flatly, his shoulders slumping.  I smiled, but that name also meant nothing to me.  Each guy said his name and smiled at me.  Park Kyung, Kim Yu Kwon was the one with the cramp, the one with a super deep voice was named Pyo Ji Hoon.

            “I’m B-bomb,” the one with dirty blondish hair said with a smile.  “Lee Min Hyuck since you don’t know us.”  He chuckled a little to himself at that. 

            I smiled and nodded at him.

            “I-I’m Lee Tae Il,” my savior said.  He was still next to me.  I smiled at him and shook the hand he offered.  His hand was still shaking a little and he could only look me in the eye for a second before he had to look away.  We were about the same height.  He had nice eyes.  The others looked at me like the names were supposed to mean something.  I just smiled obliviously.

            “We’re Block b!” Yu Kwon blurted out finally.

            He said that like I should know what that meant.  I arched an eyebrow from him to Zico or Ji Ho or whatever he wanted to go by and then over to Tae Il.

            “Is that the name of your gang?” I questioned with a shrug.

            “Block b!” Kyung with the black thick rimmed glasses yelped in almost a whine.  “You know…”  Then he did a little dance that ended with him crossing his arms in front of his face in an X.  He patted his chest and sang, “Neol wonhae mami, mami, mami…”  My heart wants you?  “Geudaero meomchwo geogi, stop!”  Stop right there?  What the…

            I cracked up all over again.  He pouted and crossed his arms over his chest.  I almost felt bad.

            “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.  What was that?” I asked, pressing my lips together into a thin line to keep from laughing.

            “It’s our first single,” he mumbled.  “Freeze.”

            “You’re a band?” I exclaimed.  His face lit up with hope.  “Ooh, Block b, of course!  Yeah, freeze!  Yeah, good…song.”

            “You still have no idea,” Jae Hyo stated in monotone.

            My smile melted off my face.  “Yeah, not a clue.”  I shrugged slightly remorseful.  “Sorry.”  Kyung deflated to the ground.  “But I’ll look you up when I get home,” I offered.  “Since you guys did save me and all.”

            “Tae Il hyung saw you first.  He’s the one who saved you,” Ji Hoon piped up, shooting Tae Il an ‘I got your back, bro’ look.  “We just had to give him a little shove of confidence,” he added in a mutter.

            I giggled and elbowed Tae Il lightly.  “You’re my hero.”

            He blushed furiously making me laugh again.

            “Well, guys, this was fun and it was nice meeting you and all that, but I should get home now.  Thank you for coming to my rescue.  I’ll look out for you guys on TV from now on,” I promised, already heading back toward the main sidewalk to cross the street for the subway.  The clock on the wall inside the 7-11 caught my eye through the window.  Crap.  I missed the subway.  I’d have to walk, damn it.

            “Wait!”  I turned back.  It was Ji Hoon.  He practically bounced over behind Tae Il and, guiding him by the shoulders, he shoved the older, blushing boy right in front of me.  “You…oh, wait, how old are you?”

            “Twenty one.”

            A Cheshire cat grin appeared on his face.  “Kelly noona, it’s dangerous for a pretty girl to walk home alone.”  He then flicked Tae Il in the ear and ducked behind Zico when Tae Il whirled around to glare at his younger friend.

            “I can take care of myself,” I replied with an indifferent smile.

            “Could have fooled me,” Jae Hyo grumbled.  Normally, I would get mad at something like that, but these guys were kind of comical.  I nodded my chin at him and scoffed.  He winked back at me.

            “Um, I’ll…walk you…home,” Tae Il offered sheepishly.

            He was so painfully shy, I wanted to squeeze his face.

            His adorableness was endearing and it just added to my new good mood.  I was grateful that mood was gone.  It made me feel playful.

            “Really?” I pressed.  He nodded.  “Alright, thanks.  Come on, handsome.”  I linked arms with him.  Waving to his friends, I pulled him along with me down the sidewalk.

            About a block later, he looked like he might pass out so I let go of his arm.  “You really don’t have to walk me home,” I told him, sticking my hands into my back pockets.

            His eyes widened.  “No!”  Then he cringed at the sound of his voice.  “N-no, I mean, I want to.  You shouldn’t walk alone at night like this.”

            “That’s sweet then.” 

            His cheeks turned pink.  Somehow, not sure how actually, we fell into a comfortable conversation.  I didn’t talk much.  Just the basics.  Nothing too personal.  I’m from the US.  I do what almost every other American foreigner in Seoul does, I teach English at a private school.  And I’ve been here a little over two years which is why I speak decent Korean.

            I got him to do most of the talking and I liked it.  He was funny and really cute.  I got him talking about his band.  He was the lead vocals for this Block b group.  I envied the pride he had in the band.  His eyes filled with childlike excitement when he talked about music and practice and performing and everything that came with being a singer in a rookie band. 

            “Oh, my God!” I gasped.

            “Why?  What happened?” he asked, stopping dead in his tracks next to me.

            I burst out laughing.  “We’ve been walking for nearly a half hour in the complete wrong direction.”

            He looked around the street at where we were.  “Oh?”

            “Yeah.  This is nowhere near where I live!”

            He began to laugh, lightly at first and then whole heartedly, making me laugh much harder.

            “I’m sorry,” I exhaled, barely catching my breath.

            He shrugged, averting his eyes, he replied timidly, “It was fun.”

            I pursed my lips and nodded.  “Yeah, it was.”

            “Uh…” he began, scratching the back of his head lightly.  “I know it’s late, but it’s Saturday night.  We don’t have much of a schedule tomorrow.  You don’t have work tomorrow, right?”  I shook my head.  “Well, maybe, then, we could uh, hang out for a bit longer?”  His cheeks flamed up. 

            “What do you have in mind?” I asked curiously.  Oddly enough, I didn’t mean anything ual.  Sure, he was quite the hottie, but I don’t know.  There was something else about him.  Something sweet about him.  Perhaps it was his complete and utter nervousness.  I could almost see him shaking.

            He pointed across the street at a generic Korean convenience store.  “I’ll buy you ice cream and we could walk some more.  Maybe in the other direction?”  He laughed nervously. 

            Smiling, I grabbed his arm again.  “I like those red bean popsicles.  We don’t have those in the States, you know.”

            “Oh?  I-I didn’t know that,” he replied as he let me drag him across the street.

            My happy mood gave me new energy.  I was excited.  This was going to be fun.

            I could always use a little fun.  Anything to keep my mind occupied.