Soundtrack: Starlight by Muse

It was an incredibly long flight. It had taken an entire day to get from Europe to Incheon airport. All she had with her was a suitcase and , and a backpack.

She was in her final year of her art degree and had come to study abroad for a year in Seoul, South Korea before returning to do her Masters. At twenty two she was young and eager to see the world. She had always been interested in travel and wanted to explore oriental countries, and had focused on Chinese and Korean Art during her degree. Her good gradeshad led to the offer of sponsorship during her stay in Korea. She would have a fully furnished apartment and work with local art museums while she studied in the art school.

This was the plan that had led her adventurous spirit halfway across the world but now she had landed, and was surrounded by voices she wasn’t familiar with and signs she had to stop and translate slowly in order to read.

She also felt conspicuous. She had already understood from friends who were Korean themselves or from Hong Kong or Taiwan that their home countries were not the ethnic melting pots that London or Edinburgh were. However with long sandy hair bleached at the tips and obviously Caucasian facial features she felt awkward and out of place.

She felt as if she had been chasing starlight, the abstract idea that one had to keep moving as they lived. Of course people also lived in isolation, or stagnation but she couldn’t consider that truly living. The heightened sense she had of her own insignificance drove her to create, to move,  to travel and try to make as much of a mark as she could.

Landing in Korea she felt as if she had been taken far away from everything she or her ancestors had ever known. Despite its modernism there was a fierce independence in Korean design that was totally different to the streets of home.

in a breath she mentally coached herself not to fall victim to a sense of displacement, and that it was something to be twisted around the character of a person rather than fall victim to its isolation. The first thing to do was to fish her rain coat out of her bag as it appeared that Seoul was experiencing late summer rains, and after that set out to drop off her bags at her new apartment and find something to eat. Unfortunately for her the area in front of the airport seemed somewhat hectic, a noisy crowd of teenage girls slowly gathering around the departures gate. Avoiding these she eventually realised she had no idea how to get to this apartment she had been assigned.

Her Korean was limited to the scant vocabulary learnt immediately after she had learnt the exact location of her placement. She was much better at Japanese as it had learnt it for a while at University, and trying to find someone who also spoke it was an option she was now seriously considering.

Noticing that there were several planes to Japan departing soon she looked around and spotted two young men who looked around the same age her in discussion, looking over at the outside departure board. She approached them with the hope that they might be able to help her. As she came to stand in front of then she said “Excuse me, but by any chance do you speak Japanese? Or English?”

She didn’t really get why but they both looked quite surprised that she had spoken to them, the taller of the two was the first to speak, in Japanese. “Yes, actually.”

“Thank goodness! My Korean is not that great yet.” At this point the slightly shorter one with curly hair spoke up, in a kiwi accent.

“Can we help you with something?” He looked at the piece of paper she was holding. “Did you need to get somewhere?”

“Yes, I’m really so sorry to bother you but would you mind pointing me in the direction of here?” She pointed to the name on the print out. They took a moment to read and then exchanged a look. “That’s on the other side of the city. Do you need us to call you a taxi?”

“Um, if you wouldn’t mind.”

“That’s alright.” They were happy, she was really very pretty and they had about a half an hour before they had to check in.

They waved down a taxi and gave him strict instructions about where to drop her off, before helping her put the case into the car. “Thank you so much. I’m sorry for taking up so much of your time.”

“You’re alright, we had time to spare” The shorter one gave an attentive smile which sort of made the taller one want to kick him, but he refrained.

“Thank you.” Saying it in Korean this time she waved goodbye a little and then got into the taxi and it drove away.

Looking after it the boys watched for a bit, and then went back to discussing how late the other members of their group were.

~~~~~~~~~~

Hope you liked the first chapter! It's a bit short I know but I was aiming for about the length of the song? I hate it when a soundtrack finishes before you do! -_-;;

here's a link to the outfit for this chapter <3

http://www.polyvore.com/starlight/set?id=107922327